Advent: All God

Colossians 1:17-20 

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

I have been captivated again by Colossians 1:19, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him . . . “  Wow!  All God’s fullness?  Really? 

Really.  When exploring the reality of the Incarnation, which is what we do each Christmas, we are confronted with the stark truth that God funneled himself into a little bag of flesh—all God.  How can this be?

When someone outside of the Christian faith grapples with this, faith is impossible.  Jesus was a good man, a great philosopher, a sage, a man of great influence.  He couldn’t be more than that because we are not more than that, right?

For centuries the ideas surrounding and making up the philosophy of Gnosticism have pushed their way into popular thought.  One stream of Gnosticism has taught that Jesus could not be the divine Christ (the Messiah) because he was not all God. It was impossible to have a god in a human body because human bodies had nothing to do with spirituality.  Another stream of Gnosticism has taught that Jesus only appeared to be human because God would never be inside sinful human flesh.

This is precisely the confusion that was facing 1st century Christians. And the Apostle Paul had a very direct answer for them.  This Jesus, who people were questioning, was not just full of God but he was all God.  Not only was he the One who set the stars in place, but also every cell in his body was all God.

This is one aspect of the Christmas story that we need to embrace by faith.  For if Jesus was not all God, nor was he all human his birth, death, resurrection and life today are just an entertaining story and not a profound theological truth.  Jesus came as all God.  Hallelujah!  What a Savior!

Thought for the Week:  The fullness of God is clearly seen in the person of Jesus.

Copyright M.R. Hyde 2012