other. The "fullness" of Christ dwells "bodily" in the church, even as the "fullness" of

the Godhead dwells "bodily" in Him.

There are moreover many contextual links that bind these references together as one

whole.  In Eph. 1: 21-23, the stress is upon the headship of Christ as the risen and

ascended One, with all things under His feet, the church which is His body, being the

fullness of Him, Who in His turn filleth all in all. In Col. 1: 15-20 the two creations are

brought together, with Christ as "Firstborn" in each (Col. 1: 15, 18), and as pre-eminent in

both (Col. 1: 17, 18). Things in heaven and earth were His creation (Col. 1: 16) and they

are the objects of reconciliation (Col. 1: 20). When we come to Col. 2: 4-23, we have

left the positive revelation of truth, and have entered into the sphere of conflict with error.

For our present purpose we will give the opening and closing members of this great

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Whatever is intended by Col. 2: 9 "all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" is

closely and intentionally carried forward into verse 10, for the word translated

"complete" is pepleromenoi, even as conversely, the title of the church as "the fullness"

is carried upward to Christ as the One Who is filling (pleroumeno) "the all things in all".

Col. 4: 4-23 combats the invasion of a vain and deceitful philosophy, supplied by

tradition and the rudiments of the world and "not after Christ", and later in the same

argument, not only intruding philosophies and traditions, but even divinely appointed

"new moons and sabbath days" are alike as "shadows of things to come" because "the

body is of Christ". The whole Fullness toward which every age and dispensation has

pointed since the overthrow of the world, is at last seen to be Christ Himself. All types

and shadows that once filled the gap caused by sin, are now seen to be transient, and of

value only as they point the way to Him, and then disappear. He is Head, He is

Preeminent, He is Creator and Redeemer, He is the Firstborn of all creation, and the

Firstborn from the dead. He is the beginning of the creation of God (Revelation 3: 14;

Col. 1: 18), the Alpha and Omega, The First and the Last. In deed and in fact "Christ is

all and in all" (Col. 3: 11) in the church of the one Body now, as He will yet be in the

whole redeemed universe in the future.

No more glorious position for the redeemed is conceivable than that revealed in

Ephesians 1: 23. To be one of a kingdom of priests on the earth is a dignity so great, that

O.T. prophets have piled imagery upon imagery in setting it forth. Yet when we come to