(Col. 2:9,10.)

(Continued from p.486 of Vol.44.)

These verses call for our careful consideration. First, we have truth regarding the person of Christ; secondly, our identification with Him; thirdly, His place of supreme authority. Thus His fulness, our fulness, and His headship are brought to our attention.

These things relate to our Lord in incarnation, when here in servant-form, and now in His exaltation to God's right hand in the heavenlies.

As now seated on high, Christ is proclaimed Head over all-the One rejected by men, hated and assailed by Satan, who also marshals against Him those principalities, authorities, universal lords of this darkness, and spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12). But over all of these, whether it be the realm of fleshly being or spirit being, Christ is set as Head to exercise as the exalted Man all the fulness of the Godhead throughout the whole of the created universe in which He fills the position of "Firstborn of all creation." He is the Lord of glory.

To Him all judgment has been committed because He is the Son of Man (John 5:22,27). He has authority over all flesh (John 17:2).

Of Him it is said, "Who is at the right hand of God, gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being subjected to Him" (1 Pet. 3:22).* *All quotations are from the New Translation.*

Let us consider the terms used in our verses.

The apostle has been speaking of Christ as the object of our faith and walk. He is this as come in flesh, having accomplished redemption, triumphed in resurrection, and entered heaven. Now "in Him"-the Person present in this world, God's Son sent forth by Him, come of woman (Gal. 4:6), the Word become flesh, and now in heaven-"dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." It "dwells"-a word which signifies permanent abode. It is neither transient, nor partial. It is all the fulness.

"The fulness of the Godhead" denotes the divine nature itself with the totality of the attributes and powers of deity which belong to it. Therefore, He in whom this dwells must be personally God. This is true of Christ, whether we think of Him as man in the world, or now glorified in heaven.

That the way in which this fulness dwells in Him is not to be taken in any secondary or subordinate sense as though it were a mere Gnostic emanation of transient or partial character, but in such an absolute sense that He concerning whom it is predicated must be acknowledged as personally God (even though He is in bodily form in the likeness of men), is emphasized by the use of the word Godhead, theotes, instead of, for example, theiotes, that is, divinity, as in Rom. 1:20.

This latter term rather denotes Godhood. This was given manifestation in creation. In it divine qualities, such as power, wisdom, glory, were displayed. Thus God's "invisible things are perceived.. through the things that are made." This is quite apart from God personally being present among the things made, and His being made known by such a coming into His creation. Now of Christ it is said, "All things received being through Him, and without Him not one thing received being which has received being," for "all things have been created by Him and for Him" (John 1:3; Col. 1:16), and He, the Creator of "the things that are made," "came to His own [things]" (John 1:11). He came as the "image of the invisible God" (Col. 1:15)-all that God is being perfectly presented in Him, for the fulness of the Godhead, the essential nature with all its attributes and powers, permanently dwells in Christ. Therefore it was no longer simply the manifestation of divine qualities (Godhead) as in creation, but the actual presence in the world of divine personality in all the fulness of nature and attribute dwelling in Christ bodily.

This word "bodily" leads us to think of Him as having come in the likeness of men, and being found in figure as a man, having that body which though human in its elements was intrinsically sinless – the prepared body. Further, this word being an adverb denotes the way or manner in which the action here spoken of took place, and it also defines the relation of time thereto. The dwelling was bodily-wise, in union with a body, and hence was true of the Person referred to at the time He took up the body prepared for Him. This plainly affirms that full deity pertained to Jesus Christ come in flesh. Such a Person cannot be called a creature.

It is not, however, as though this body was like a casket holding a jewel of inestimable worth which remained quite distinct and separate from that which contained it, but rather that the fulness of the Godhead dwelling in Christ did so as in union with that bodily fashion in which He appeared among men and abides, now glorified, in heaven.

The Son, then, took up full human nature-body, soul, spirit, and so His divine, eternal personality came into union with His humanity. The fulness dwelt in Him bodily. Now we think of the one eternal Person having two natures, the divine and human. That which He had assumed-human nature, sin apart-did not impair, limit, or make partial His possession of that fulness which was inherently His as being God. It was as much His when in the form of a servant and in the likeness of men as when He subsisted in the form of God. It is the truth of this that the apostle definitely asserts in this verse. It follows that the fact of His self-emptying (Phil. 2) does not touch the matter of such possession. It rather has to do with change of "form," with what was assumed by Him as entering upon that different form, and the exercise of prerogative in His humiliation.

The fact that this fulness is in union with the bodily fashion assumed by the Son when coming into the world, the fact that His divine personality is given to the full human nature which He took up, makes clear how the Lord can say when on the earth, a Man standing in the presence of other men whose likeness and figure He bore.

"I came down from heaven" (John 6:38,41); "

I came forth from God" (John 8:42); "

I came out from God. I came out from the Father, and have come into the world" (John 16:27, 28);

"I have been born for this, and for this 7 have come into the world" (John 18:37);

"The Son of Man ascending up where He was before" (John 6:62).

It appears certain that the "I" in these declarations must include His humanity, for He uses it concerning Himself as being among men. Those who heard Him speak looked upon a Man who said, "I came down from heaven." Did then the Person thus speaking bring from heaven all that He was as He stood among men and said "I"? Are we to conclude that in some way His humanity was out of heaven, and did not have its beginning as conceived in the Virgin? Surely not, for how then could it be said, "Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, He also, in like manner, took part in the same" (Heb. 2:14)? What then? He is surely speaking of Himself as the Person who ever existed, emphasizing the thought that in Him as come in flesh personality resides in His deity. So whatever He has taken up or assumed in the process of incarnation is not to be considered a distinct and separate personality, but as indissolubly united to the Person who "came." In view of this, even though in such entirely different form and condition from that occupied before incarnation in which He took the body and nature of man (sin apart), He can say, "I came," even declaring, "Before Abraham was, I am."

Of course such passages do not imply that manhood was always essentially in the Son. On the other hand they intimate that what gave character to the humanity of Christ was His personality as the Son. This imparted to His humanity its uniqueness, and what He was as the Son entered into His experiences incident to His humiliation. "Though He were Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered" (Heb. 5:8). Thus too the moral perfections of God came to be displayed in His life as man-"The life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested unto us" (1 John 1:2). His very speech is that of God, God speaking "in the person of the Son" (Heb. 1:2).* *"The absence of the [Greek] article here is important, though difficult to render in English; the result is, that God, speaking in the prophets, is clearly distinct, and using them as His mouth. έv υί, literally, 'in Son,' is not exactly 'as Son,' because that would be the character of the speaking, yet is perhaps the nearest to an adequate expression. It is an instance of the use of έv. On the whole, I have paraphrased it, 'in [the person of the] Son.' It is God Himself who speaks; not by another; not as the Father nor in the person of the Father; not merely by the Holy Ghost using a person not divine, but as Himself a divine person, and that person the Son."-J. N. D., New Translation.* Then also the presence of the Holy Spirit, and the overshadowing power of the Highest, working in the preparation of that humanity, assured its preservation from all taint of sin as conceived in the Virgin (Luke 1:35).

What we may learn from these scriptures is that the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Him, indissolubly linked as in Him with His bodily fashion so that He could say, "I came down from heaven;" "I came out from the Father, and have come into the world."

This impenetrable mystery of godliness-"God has been manifested in flesh"-must bow us in lowly worship at the feet of our glorious Saviour, of whom it remains ever true, "No one knows the Son but the Father."
Returning to our verses, one more statement remains:"Ye are complete in Him." Perhaps it is better read, "Ye are in Him filled full." We come to be in Him by faith. In the light of what we have just considered, how blessed to accept the truth of these words as applicable to ourselves-"Ye are in Him"-the One in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells. "We are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life"(l John 5:20). Who can set a limit here? We are like tiny vessels set in a boundless ocean that we "may be filled even to all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:19). That is such fulness as God imparts through the dwelling of Christ in our hearts-Christ, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells. What limitless supply, what boundless blessing, what abiding sufficiency! To the new man "Christ is everything and in all" (Col. 3:11).

Holy Ghost using a person not divine, ut as Himself a divine person, and that person the Son." J. N. D., New Translation.
John Bloore.

(To be continued, D. V.)