Fullness in Christ

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

2 Peter 1:3

Advertising thrusts at us all sorts of products and solutions that we MUST have to be fulfilled. “You lack. You need this. You can’t be happy without this. There’s more. Just one more thing.”

I get a buzz in my head just thinking of the clamoring voices of culture telling me what’s missing from my life. Beauty. Success. Prestige. Hipness. Fitness. Fashion.

You want to know the truth, though? Nothing’s missing.

True, I often feel like something’s missing–talent, discipline, joy–and I suffer condemnation over this deficit I perceive in myself.

We’ve lost our grasp on the doctrine of the fullness of Christ. How easy it is to forget that the fullness of the deity dwells in Christ:

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 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. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Colossians 1:13-22

Wow. I don’t perceive any deficit in Christ. And this is the kingdom to which I’ve been brought into. So it follows that Christ’s fullness dwells in me. Christians, we are so rich. Blessing upon blessing is ours. We have access to the very throne of God.

My prayer today is that Christ would devour the lie that we are lacking.

“The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”

Psalm 34:10