{"id":119,"date":"2010-01-13T09:05:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-13T14:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=119"},"modified":"2013-06-26T11:30:56","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T15:30:56","slug":"hallelujah-what-a-savior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=119","title":{"rendered":"Hallelujah, what a Savior!"},"content":{"rendered":"

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form …”<\/strong><\/em> (Colossians 2:9)<\/p>\n

We encounter now two of the most powerful statements in all of Scripture.\u00a0 We will consider the first here in verse 9.<\/p>\n

First the facts and details: Paul is gives the reason (“For”)\u00a0for the warning just sounded (v.8).\u00a0 The familiar and meaning-packed expression \u201cin Him\u201d follows next, being emphatic by being thrust forward in the clause (i.e., \u201cin Him and in Him alone\u201d).\u00a0 The personal pronoun (\u201cHim\u201d) refers to Christ (v.8), the last word of the previous verse.\u00a0 Paul now builds upon the Christological focus already so thoroughly laid down in the letter (1:15-20).\u00a0\u00a0What is \u201cin Him\u201d?\u00a0 It is nothing less than \u201call the fullness of Deity\u201d!\u00a0 The noun \u201cDeity\u201d is used only here in the NT and is employed as an abstract noun for (\u201cGod\u201d).\u00a0 There is thus a distinction to be made between our word here and the one used in Romans 1:20 (rendered \u201cdivine nature\u201d).\u00a0 Our word speaks of the Divine essence as opposed to simply the attributes of Deity.\u00a0 \u201cThey were no mere ways of divine glory which gilded Him lighting up His person for a season and w[ith] a splendor not His own; but He was and is absolute and perfect God.\u201d (Rienecker, 573)\u00a0 The article makes definite just what Paul is speaking of with regard to Deity:\u00a0\u201cthe fullness.”\u00a0 This same noun has just been used in Colossians 1:19 where Paul says it was the Father\u2019s \u201cgood pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.\u201d\u00a0 Paul more specifically designates just what this fullness is in our present passage.\u00a0 Once again the article makes definite that of which he speaks.\u00a0 It describes the sum total, fullness, or even the super abundance of something (BAGD, 672).\u00a0 In this case it is the completeness of Deity which resides in its fullness in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 But Paul\u2019s description of Christ is not yet sufficient, for he makes clear that it is \u201call\u201d the fullness of Deity which resides in Jesus Christ.\u00a0 When used with a singular noun that is accompanied by the definite article (as here) it conveys the meaning of \u201cthe whole\u201d or \u201call\u201d of that which it qualifies (BAGD, 630).\u00a0 Thus it \u201cmeans \u2018all the fullness\u2019 or \u2018the entire fullness,\u2019 no element of the fullness being excepted.\u201d (Harris, 98)\u00a0 Yet even here, Paul\u2019s statement regarding Christ is not done, for he adds that this fullness is found in Christ \u201cin bodily form.”\u00a0 This adverb too is used only here in the NT.\u00a0 It designates that which is corporeal, tangible, touchable, and physical.\u00a0\u00a0 In this way, with a great economy of words, Paul emphasizes both the complete Deity and humanity of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 God Himself took to Himself a human body and lived a fully human life on this earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Thus notice the ever-expanding and all-encompassing scope of the Apostle\u2019s assertion: Jesus Christ possesses \u201cDeity<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 Yet He possesses not just \u201cDeity,\u201d but \u201cthe fullness<\/em> of Deity.\u201d\u00a0 And it is not just \u201cthe fullness of Deity,\u201d but \u201call<\/em> the fullness of Deity.\u201d\u00a0 Even this, however,\u00a0is not the end, for He possesses not just \u201call the fullness of Deity,\u201d but \u201call the fullness of Deity in bodily form<\/em>\u201d!\u00a0<\/p>\n

This fullness of Deity \u201cdwells\u201d in Christ. While this verb is forty-four times in the NT, only three of those uses are by Paul.\u00a0 Twice here in Colossians he employs it to speak of Deity dwelling in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9).\u00a0 The other is a reference to Christ dwelling in us (Eph. 3:17).\u00a0 Here the present tense indicates that this is an ongoing state that continues in real time.\u00a0 From the moment of conception onward and forever the fullness of Deity has dwelt continuously in the body of Jesus.\u00a0 Even after His death, resurrection and glorification, Jesus Christ remains\u2014continuously\u2014the God-man, both fully God and fully man.<\/p>\n

In thus stating the facts Paul,\u00a0with an amazing brevity of words and succinctness of expression, wards off many of the great errors regarding Christ that have arisen over the centuries.<\/p>\n

Hallelujah, what a Savior!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form …” (Colossians 2:9) We encounter now two of the most powerful statements in all of Scripture.\u00a0 We will consider the first here in verse 9. First the facts and details: Paul is gives the reason (“For”)\u00a0for the warning just sounded (v.8).\u00a0 The familiar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colossians","post-preview"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-1V","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1638,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}