Sermon Tone Analysis

Col. 2:9-10

Nothing Else Needed

 

We would all like to be able to find everything we need in one place.

Walmart has fabric, medicines, furniture, electronics, clothes, the eye doctor, McDonalds, oil changes, pets, books, toys, plants – and now they even have groceries.

You can do your banking, get your prescription, and sip some Starbucks without ever leaving the grocery store.

Even the drug store has toys, clothes, eggs, and electronics.

Electronics manufacturers give you discounts if you will buy your computer, monitor, printer, scanner, digital camera, handheld, and big screen TV from them.

You can get your bank account, life insurance, health insurance, auto insurance, homeowners insurance, mortgage, investments, 401k, IRA, and college savings account from the same place.

You can get your home phone, cell phone, high speed internet access, and cable television from the same provider.

It must be inherent in our very nature to try to find everything we want in one place.

Everything we could ever need is available in one place, it’s just not Walmart, Citibank, or Verizon.

It’s all in Christ.

Colossians 2:10 makes a very bold claim.

It claims that you are complete in Christ.

You personally have everything in Christ.

VERSE 8

In verses 8-15 Paul shows the magnificent position that we have in Christ.

He does this for a reason, which v.8 tells us: “that no one will take them captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

This is another theological section, but it has a very practical goal.

We will not spend the time to talk about what he means by “philosophy and empty deception,” and these concerns that he has.

Because these will be much more easily understood in connection with verses 16 and following, where he will explain it much more fully.

So let’s go on to verse 9.

 

VERSE 9

In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

We already talked about this when we looked at Colossians 1:19 “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Christ is full deity in a body.

He is fully God and fully man at the same time.

VERSE 10

Then He makes this bold claim.

“In Him you have been made complete.”

This word complete is the same word as the word “fullness” in verse 9.

If you have a pen you might want to circle those words and draw a line connecting them:

In Christ full deity dwells in bodily form

In Christ you have been made full; you are complete in Christ; you are filled to the top with everything you will ever need.

To develop this, I want us to consider two questions: how is it possible, and how is it practical?

First of all, how could it be possible that you and I, weak and rebellious sinners, could be complete?

How can it be possible that people who are bound by earthly bodies and plagued by our sinful flesh could ever be complete?

If we look at our lives with all of our failures and frustrations and confusions and doubts and conflicts, words like “messed up” or “ill” would be better descriptions of our condition than full, whole, or complete.

How is it possible?

Note carefully the phrase in v.10 “IN HIM you have been made complete.”

Verse 11 “IN HIM your body of flesh was circumcised” away.

Verse 12 “You were buried WITH HIM in baptism” and “raised up WITH HIM.” Verse 13 “He made you alive together WITH HIM.” Look back at chapter 1:27, where this great mystery is “Christ in you.”

Look ahead at 3:3 “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Listen to I John 4:13 “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”

Think about the illustrations Jesus used: I am the vine, you are the branches; I am the head, you are the body; I am the bread of life and you must partake of Me; I am the bridegroom and you are the bride.

Listen to I Cor.

1:30 “But by God’s doing YOU ARE IN CHRIST JESUS, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”

Romans 6:5, 8 “If we have become UNITED WITH HIM in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection….

Now if we have DIED WITH CHRIST, we believe that we shall also LIVE WITH HIM.” Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are IN CHRIST JESUS.”

Romans 8:10 “If CHRIST IS IN YOU, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”

This is the answer to the question “How is it possible that I could be complete?”

This answer is both very simple and impossibly complex.

At salvation, you are brought into union with Jesus Christ.

You are in Christ, and Christ is in you.

Because you are brought into union with Christ you have everything that is Christ’s.

Every spiritual blessing you have is because of this union.

As one writer puts it “all the merit and infinite worth of Jesus Christ becomes the shared experience and possession of every believer.”

His righteousness is on your account; His inheritance is yours as well; His acceptance before the Father is yours.

“All the merit and infinite worth of Jesus Christ becomes the shared experience and possession of every believer.”

It is that simple.

But if you think about it for very long, you get brain freeze.

It is too much to handle.

We use the word “mystical.”

You are in a mystical union with Jesus Christ.

The word “mystical” doesn’t mean that it is weird; or that it is not real.

It means that it is a spiritual truth that is beyond our comprehension.

With our human limitations, we cannot fully grasp it.

So it is both very simple to explain and impossibly complex to completely understand.

You are in Christ; Christ is in you; so all that is Christ’s is yours.

That is union with Christ.

Now look back at Colossians 2:10 “In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form, and IN HIM you have been made complete.”

Now that makes sense.

How is it */possible/* that a weak and rebellious sinner like myself be complete?

Because I am in Christ, and Christ is in me, and all that is Christ’s is mine.

That means I’m full.

I have everything I could ever need.

Because of my union with Christ.

Your union with Christ makes your life complete.

Now, how is it */practical/* that you are complete in Christ?

All we can do is just sample a few of the ways that union with Christ is practical.

If we all got together and spent a day trying to think of every way that union with Christ is practical, we could not think of them all.

Our blessings in Christ are too great to list.

But let’s sample some:

 

YOU HAVE COMPLETE ACCEPTANCE IN CHRIST

This means that there is no need for works to gain acceptance.

There is no need for you to wonder if you have done enough to make God happy.

That is the burden that so much of the world lives under.

They are in religions that teach that you have to do certain works to gain God’s acceptance.

And there is this one question you can never get away from: how do I know if I’ve done enough?

But your acceptance with God is not based on what you have done.

You are accepted with God because Christ took all of your sins, died on the cross, and is perfectly righteous and perfectly accepted before God.

You are in Christ, so you are accepted too.

YOU HAVE COMPLETE SECURITY IN CHRIST

John 10:27-28 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”

If you are one of Christ’s sheep; if you have eternal life; you have complete security.

Why do you have a perfect guarantee of eternal life?

Because you are in union with Christ, and He will exist in glory forever.

So you will be with Him there forever.

Guaranteed, nothing can change it.

YOU HAVE COMPLETE PEACE IN CHRIST

Do you ever fear the next month’s bills?

Where the provision will come from?