Scripture Reading: Col. 1:15-19; 2:6; Rom. 8:32; John 6:35; 8:12; 11:25; 14:6; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:10
Christ is the fullness of God. All the fullness dwells in Him. The word fullness is simple yet very puzzling. What does the phrase the fullness of God mean? We must turn to the Old Testament for an explanation. There God uses this word in a peculiar way. The Psalms say, "The earth...and the fullness thereof" (24:1), and "The sea and its fullness" (96:11). The earth and the fullness mean the earth and the things of the earth; the sea and the fullness mean the sea and all the things in the sea. Christ as the fullness of God means Christ is the things of God. The things of God as His fullness dwell in Christ.
What does Christ being the things of God mean? We understand that Christ is a person, and we think that there are things of God apart from Him. There are a thousand things, and there is Christ. But no! All things are in Christ. All the things of God are Christ. He said, "I am the bread." He did not say He was the giver of the bread; He is the thing called bread. He said, "I am the light." He did not say He is the giver of light. Again He said, "I am the resurrection and the life." He is the very thing itself.
We think of Christ as being a living person, but we also want to have some truth in addition to that. But He is the truth. He presented Himself not only as a person, as the Son of God, but also as the fullness of God. All the things of God are simply bits of Christ. Christ as a person is the very things of God. For us to know more of God and to receive grace from Him in practical issues, Paul not only tried to lead us to see that Christ is a person, but he also said that Christ was "made sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). He did not say that Christ had borne our sins, or that He was our deliverer, but that Christ had become sin, that is, He became a thing. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Christ became wisdom to us. Wisdom is itself a thing and it comprises three things: righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. This verse does not say that He was our Justifier; it says that He is our righteousness. This verse does not say that He is the Sanctifier; it says that He is made unto us sanctification. It also does not say that Christ is our Redeemer; it says that He is made redemption unto us. He is the thing itself. Instead of saying that He is a person, this verse says that He is these things. What does all this mean?
According to our concept, God is a great Giver, a fountain, and His chief gift is His Son — the greatest gift that heaven could have ever made. But we also see that we need grace, peace, righteousness, goodness, etc. We need many things. Therefore, we come as those who are needy and ask for these things. Our needs are all different, so we think that the supplies must also be different. But this is not the way God works. We make the mistake of seeking these things as things. We seek righteousness, as if we receive Christ and then later receive righteousness. We seek sanctification, as if we receive Christ and then later receive sanctification. But if we have a vital relationship with the Lord, we get these things! This is a most important principle. We cannot have anything apart from Christ. This is the reason we find so many occurrences of the phrase in Christ in the New Testament. It is always in Him. Everything is in Him. We cannot receive anything apart from Him. We have to first get in touch with Christ and then we will receive the things.
First Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ has been made righteousness to us. The person becomes the thing. We all know that when we come before God, the question of righteousness arises. If we do not go out to visit someone, we do not think of our clothes! We think of them only when we have to meet someone. Only when we approach God does the question of what we appear in arise. The presence of God always produces a sense of the need of righteousness. Our first thought is, "What have I done?" or "What have I not done?" Our whole thought is on the thing. We wonder what we have to bring before God. Praise the Lord, our righteousness is not based on whether we have prayed, witnessed, or read our Bible. Christ is our righteousness! It is a great thing to see this. None of us could ever have true rest if this were not settled. We could easily be put out of the battle, and we would have ups and downs all the time. If we could only come to see that our righteousness is a person! My righteousness is not my patience, but Christ. My patience may fail, but not my righteousness. My love may wane, but not my righteousness, for my righteousness is not in me but in Christ. If He does not change, then my righteousness will never change. We try to look for some thing within. But we should not seek righteousness as a thing; we should seek Christ. Oh, to be delivered from things and to know Christ! He is the things of God! This is the foundation. Unless this question is fundamentally settled, there will be no rest. No matter how much I have failed, my righteousness has not changed. No matter how lofty a position I may have attained or how successful I may seem, my righteousness is still Christ. There is always a danger of looking at our attainments instead of Christ, or feeling that we have arrived at something. Someone may think that since he has not lost his temper, he can pray louder! No, it is not what we have or have not done; we do not stand on that ground but on the ground of the righteousness of Christ.
Praise the Lord! This is not all. Christ is made unto us sanctification. All righteousness has to do with God; that is, it is on the objective side. But because we are walking on the earth, we also need something subjective. How can we be meek, loving, and patient? We try to look into ourselves to find what we need and then go to God with these needs. We think of our needs in terms of things, perhaps meekness or humility, and we pray for them. We may pray a great deal and never get them. We think that we need a new part as if it were a question of parts and accessories! No, we need a new "car"! We need the Lord Himself, not a thing. If we seek patience we will never get it, but if we seek Christ we will get patience. The person leads to the thing. If we merely have patience, what we have belongs to the natural life and is not divine. God does not dispense things. God has only one answer to all of our difficulties — His Son. God has only one remedy and that is His Son. God does not give us power to be holy, but He lets His Son live His life of holiness in us and through us. Our life on earth has nothing to do with things, even divine things; our life has to do with Him. It is not that we fight and try to resist, but that He does it all. Whatever lack we have, we can trust Him to be the answer to that lack. I cannot emphasize the word be too much. When He is obeyed, trusted, and believed, we will find that Christ has been made unto us that very thing. So, what need have we? We may think that all our needs are different, but the fullness of Christ answers them all.
Christ is made unto us redemption. This is looked upon as being something in the past, but the full effect of it will be manifested in the future. It will be manifested at our translation, or resurrection, at the redemption of our body. How can we be raised? Christ is our redemption. What does that mean? It is Christ who is going to be taken up. Something of Christ in us is going to be raised. I was once at the funeral of a brother, and there were two funerals going on at the same time. I asked a bystander a question. Pointing to our brother who had gone to be with the Lord, I said, "Do you know what we are doing to his body?" "Burying him," the bystander answered. "Oh, no," I replied, "The man who is not a Christian is being buried." "Then what are you doing with him?" he asked. I said, "We are planting him." There is a difference between burying and planting. With the latter there is something that will come up. Nothing in us will survive death; only Christ will survive death. What makes it possible for us to come up? The Lord of life who cannot be held makes it possible. Anything that does not come from heaven can never go into heaven. Nothing of ourselves will ever be raised; only the Lord will be raised. Now we can see why Paul said, "To know Him" (Phil. 3:10). Hence, it is "Who will deliver me?" (Rom. 7:24), not "What will deliver me?" It is a question of who. Our experience is not one of adding one experience of grace to another experience of grace. We grow, but we grow in the knowledge of the Lord. This knowledge is the knowledge of Him as all the things.
Romans 8:32 says, "With Him freely give us all things." All things are with Him because all things are in Him. Blessed be the name of the Son of God! (Recorded by P.D.)
