Enjoying The Fullness That Is In Christ Jesus (1)
One of the privileges Christians enjoy in Christ is the inexhaustible treasure found in God’s fullness. In the New Testament, we come across the word, “fullness” many times. This word “fullness” has a lot of implications for believers in Christ. Apostle Paul used the word several times, while Apostle John used it at least once. Below are the texts:
"For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross," (Colossians 1:19-20 NLT).
"For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority," (Colossians 2:9-10 NLT).
"And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself," (Ephesians 1:23 NLT).
"For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received (all had a share and we were all supplied with) one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift (heaped) upon gift,“(John 1:16 AMPC). The Greek word for fullness is "pleroma." The Bible mentions the “fullness” (Greek pleroma) of God in different contexts. The fullness of God means, “the totality of everything God is — His attributes, His character, His perfection, His holiness, His power, His love, et cetera. The fullness of God is His complete nature; it is who He is.”
According to John Macarthur: “To be filled up to all the fullness of God therefore means to be totally dominated by Him, with nothing left of self or any part of the old man. By definition, then, to be filled with God is to be emptied of self. It is not to have much of God and little of self, but all of God and none of self. This is a recurring theme in Ephesians. Here Paul talks about the fullness of God; in 4:13, it is “the fullness of Christ”; and in 5:18, it is the fulness of the Spirit.”
God’s fullness is meant to be enjoyed by His church. Christ died so that all the blessings of God may be bestowed on His church. Because God does not want to retain or keep the blessings of His fullness to himself in heaven, where He does not need it, He invested it upon Christ through whom the Church can now access it.
Scripture uses the word “fullness” to describe a sense of completeness. Jesus is the fullness of God’s glory made manifest to man. Colossians 1:16 means, “Jesus Christ is the true fullness… He is the completeness of the believer’s life. Jesus Christ is substance, not shadow; fullness, not foretaste. He is the fullness of God’s saving plan.” Because in Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9) believers can have confidence that one day, when He is revealed in glory, we will also appear with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Our future is certain, based on the person and work of Jesus Christ. Believers need to focus on seeking the things that matter to Christ, who is in heaven and who will return one day (Colossians 3:1-3). The Greek phrasing of John 1:16 could be translated as "grace upon grace," or "grace in place of grace." This implies a constant, overflowing gift. As believers, we are constantly being inundated with the grace of God.