Colossians 1:19

As we dive into this week’s passage, let’s review Paul’s reason for writing this letter in the first place. Paul wrote this letter to the Colossian church in order to battle the Gnostic false teachers who had infiltrated the church. These Gnostics taught that Jesus was simply one of many “emanations” with various powers and divine abilities. In our previous passage, Paul countered these false teachings declaring that Jesus is co-equal with God, and that He is supreme over eternity, over creation, over the church, and over absolutely everything.

In our passage for this week, Paul again attacks this Gnostic idea that Jesus was a “lesser emanation” filled with limited power and abilities. The Gnostics used the term “fullness” (the Greek word “pleroma”) to describe the totality of all the thousands of divine emanations or lesser gods. For the Gnostics, Jesus was a distant emanation from God and had limited ability that came from limited “filling”. Paul sets the record straight in verse 19…

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him… Colossians 1:19 NIV

Not only was Jesus co-equal with God, God chose to fill Jesus with all of His “fullness” in the incarnation. The baby Jesus was 100% God and 100% man at the same time. This is a glorious mystery! On earth, Jesus was the image of God, and the literal representation and reflection of who God is.

Let’s not miss that God was “pleased” to have all His fullness dwell in Jesus in the incarnation. Why? Because the cradle would lead to the cross, the cross would lead to the grave, and the grave would lead to the resurrection, the resurrection would lead to our salvation, and our salvation would lead to our victory!!

Questions to consider:
Think on the incarnation this morning. What would it look like to see this baby bursting with the fullness of God?
How does it make your heart feel today knowing that God was pleased to send Jesus to bring salvation so that we could have victory over sin, death, and the grave?
Ask God today to impress upon your heart the wonder of the incarnation.