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(Eph. 4: 16). And it is this church, as body and temple, that bears the title: "The fullness
of Him that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 23).
We have, therefore, two important references to "the fullness" in Colossians. The first
of these is concerned with the purpose of the ages, and the redeemed of all dispensations,
of which the church which is His body stands first:--
"And He is the Head of the body, the church; Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn
from the dead; that in all things He might have the pre-eminence" (Col. 1: 18).
He is the Beginning, "The Beginning of the creation of God", as Rev. 3: 14 shows.
He is the Firstborn from the dead, and Head of a new creation in which His pre-eminence
shall never again be challenged:--
"For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell" (Col. 1: 19).
"All the fullness" is the goal of the ages, purposed by God to blot out the
consequences of the entrance of sin into the universe. It is, therefore, linked with the
"blood of His cross" and "the body of His flesh through death" (Col. 1: 20, 22). The
riches of the glory of the mystery is Christ, and in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge. This leads to the second reference to the fullness, not this time
concerned with the redeemed of all ages, but with the mystery of godliness--"God was
manifest in the flesh". He has now been made known as He never could have been made
known otherwise. And so the apostle's argument follows. Philosophy is vanity; the
tradition of men and the rudiments of the word, bondage. We have all things in Christ:--
"Ye are complete (filled full) in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power"
(Col. 2: 10).
In Col. 1: He is the Head of the body, the church (Col. 1: 18); in Col. 2: He is the
Head of all principality and power (Col. 2: 10). We may, in a later article, be able to
consider these principalities and powers in their relation to the purpose of the ages, but
this will be better appreciated when we arrive at Col. 2: 15.
The practical word for us is that, with the fullness of Christ on our behalf, and because
of our completeness in Him, we should be proof against all attempts on the part of the
enemy to come between us and our glorious Head. The means employed by the Wicked
One and the correctives supplied by grace are to be more fully examined in subsequent
papers. Meanwhile, let not the problematic character of some of our studies cloud for
one moment the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Let us magnify the Lord and
hold the Head, allowing no usurper; and we shall not only be to the praise of His glory,
but we shall enter into some of the "riches of the full assurance of understanding to the
acknowledging of the mystery of God--Christ; in Whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge".