Sufficiency of Christ, Col 2:9-10

[9] For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, [10] and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; (2:9-10)

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary calls verse 8 of Colossians the “poison” for which Paul forewarns the Colossians about [1] and then calls verses 9 and 10 the “antidote” to that poison. [2] And this fits the writing style of Paul perfectly that we see in some of his other epistles. Paul identifies the problem and then presents the solution. It is also a fitting way to describe the role of philosophy in our world today and how the Bible should be viewed concerning this error and all of the other errors that have arisen throughout the history of the Church.

Focusing in on verses 9 and 10, we see what Paul viewed as the solution to what was happening to the Colossians church. In the words of John MacArthur, “Verse 9 is one of the most definitive statements of Christ’s deity in the epistles. It is the rock upon which all attempts to disprove Christ’s deity are shattered.” [3] In essence, Jesus is the solution to the world’s problem with finding truth. There are no secret formulas, secret writings, or hidden knowledge for us to search after to find. The knowledge we need is Christ and Him crucified, the God-man who died for our sins and delivered believers from uncertainty and death to eternal life.

‘For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form’ (2:9) –

• Definition: ‘fullness’ – The Greek word, pleroma { play’-ro-mah } means that which is (has been) filled; completeness, totality, or fullness of time.
• Definition: ‘dwells’ – The Greek word, katoikeō { kat-oy-keh'-o } means to inhabit; to be at home. The word is present tense and indicates that the essence of Deity continually inhabits and abides in Christ. “To live or dwell in a place in an established or settled manner.” [4] Just as the Spirit of God was at home dwelling in the Holy of Holies, so the essence of God's Deity was at home dwelling in a human body; God in the flesh.

‘all the fullness of Deity’ –

• This is one of the most definitive statements on the deity of Christ in the entire New Testament. As in Col 1:19, Paul is equating the Father and the Son; as both being fully God. (John 14:7-9) Every bit of God dwells, resides and abides in Jesus. Jesus had, and still has, every one of God's divine natures and attributes, and possessed them all while He walked the earth. The eternality, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, everything that makes God, God, dwelt in Christ. If there was anything that was lacking in Christ, then He would not have been God in human flesh. (Attributes: Col 1:15; 19; Heb 1:3; Col 1:17; Rev 22:13; Heb 1:12; Eph 1:22-23; John 21:17. The works of God: John 1:3; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2, 10; Col 1:17; Heb 1:3; John 1:12; Col 1:14-20. Received worship: Heb 1:6; John 9:38; John 20:28; Phil 2:10-11) Jesus is in no way deficient of any wisdom, power or grace to redeem and save us. He was and is fully qualified to do all that was and is necessary for our salvation. If any limitations were placed upon His power to create, to save or to bless, all the fullness of the Godhead would not and could not dwell in Him. Paul is saying that Jesus is as much God as the Father is God.
• This was not ‘modalism,’ as in God appearing in different forms at different times in history, being sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, and sometimes the Holy Spirit. This was the eternal ‘God the Son’ taking upon Himself the additional nature of humanity. He did not cease to be God, He exists forever fully God and fully man – two natures in one Person. The word, ‘incarnation’ is Latin and means ‘becoming in flesh.’ The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation teaches that the Eternal Word, the second person of the Trinity, without diminishing His deity took upon Himself a fully human nature. Specifically, this doctrine implies that a full and undiminished divine nature as well as a full and perfect human nature were united in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. According to the Scripture, Jesus Christ is God the Son, in human flesh. (Col 1:19; 2:2-3; Mat 1:23; John 10:30; 1 Tim 3:16)
• Nearly every cultic off-shoot of Christianity starts with some form of denial of the incarnation. Either Jesus is not fully human or not fully God. If you deny that Jesus is God or make Him subservient to the Father, then He becomes a mere human incapable of forgiveness and incapable of delivering mankind from his sin. If you deny His humanity, He becomes a spirit being incapable of identifying with the created world and mankind's condition, which just so happens to be the Gnostic position. In both positions, something more is needed to deliver mankind. And Paul seeks to make that point crystal clear – Jesus is the embodiment of God, alive and living in human flesh.
• Notice that Paul did not say that Jesus was filled with the Deity, but that the fullness of the Deity resided in Him. This was not something that happened separate from His birth, as in an act that occurred later in His life that somehow changed His human nature after the fact. Some have suggested that this is exactly what happened at Jesus' baptism. But Paul's words were purposeful. Jesus was always indwelt. From the moment of His conception until His death on the cross and even to this very day, Jesus was, as He still is, God. (Tit 2:13)
• As Giesler put it, “There is no ‘fullness’ in philosophy based on vain human reasoning. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives. Hence only in Christ can one have fullness. Apart from Him is emptiness. As philosopher Jean Paul Sartre put it, ‘Life is an empty bubble on the sea of nothingness’ (cf. Ecc. 1:14–18)” [5]

‘dwells in bodily form’ –

• Definition: ‘bodily’ – The Greek word, sōmatikōs { so-mat-ee-koce' } means bodily, corporally) pertaining to a physical body—‘bodily, physical, bodily form.’ [6] Barnes’ Commentary says “this word also is found nowhere else in the New Testament” and means “having a bodily appearance, instead of existing or appearing in a spiritual form; and the fair sense of the phrase is, that the fairness of the Divine nature became incarnate, and was indwelling in the body of the Redeemer.” [7]
• It was unthinkable to the teachers of false doctrines that God would take human form. This is precisely why Paul stresses the point. Jesus is for all eternity the God-Man, fully God and fully man.
• Remember from my Gnosticism blog, Gnostics believed that matter was evil and God would never and could never exist in a human form, which is why they rejected the Jesus of Scripture.
• It's also as if Paul was saying, “if all of the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, why would you want to try to find it anywhere else? Why would you want to substitute something that was invented by mankind?” (Lu 3:22; John 1:14; 2:21; John 10:30; 14:9; 2 Cor 5:19; Tit 2:13)

‘and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority’ (2:10) –

‘in Him you have been made complete’ –

• Definition: ‘complete’ – The Greek word, pleroo { play-ro’-o } means to make full, to fill up, to fill to the full, to accomplish, to carry through to the end. This is the same word we saw in Col 1:25, ‘to fully carry out’. The word is also past tense.
• This is an affirmation that we as believers have already been made complete in Christ. There is no need for us to seek philosophy or the wisdom that man can provide. There is nothing missing or incorrect in the Gospel teachings. Nor is it about our abilities, as if we have the ability to deliver ourselves. We don't need self-help books; we need Jesus and His word. The Fall left mankind spiritually and morally incomplete, being unable to fellowship with God and unable to live a life pleasing to Him. But because of our salvation, we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4) and thus are restored to the completeness that God intended for us from the start. Mankind's fellowship with God is restored and he can once again understand God's will. (Col 3:11; John 1:16; 1 Co 1:30-31; Gal 3:26-29; Heb 5:9)
• As with the Colossian warning, the same is true for us today. Human philosophy will leave mankind empty, but Jesus will leave him totally full. Mankind’s problem is that he doesn't feel full because he’s always looking for something else, something new. But with Jesus humanity can have peace no matter the trial.
• ‘in Him’ – our completeness can only be found in Christ Jesus our Lord! We can only be fulfilled if we are in Christ.

‘He is the head over all rule and authority’ –

• Definition: ‘rule’ (‘principality - KJV) – The Greek word, archē { ar-khay' } according to Vines’ means “‘a beginning.’ The root ‘arch’ - primarily indicated what was of worth. Hence the verb ‘archo’ meant ‘to be first,’ and ‘archon’ denoted ‘a ruler.’ ” Strong’s gives the meaning as “beginning, corner, (at the or the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule.” Louw and Nida define the word in this way, “a supernatural power having some particular role in controlling the destiny and activities of human beings—‘power, authority, lordship, ruler, wicked force.’ ” [8]
• Definition: ‘authority’ (‘power’ - KJV) – The Greek word, exousia { ex-oo-see'-ah } according Vine’s means “ ‘authority’ (from the impersonal verb exesti, ‘it is lawful’). From the meaning of ‘leave or permission,’ or liberty of doing as one pleases, it passed to that of ‘the ability or strength with which one is endued,’ then to that of the ‘power of authority,’ the right to exercise power.” Strings’ says, “power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases; the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege), the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed).”
• Jesus is God and He is also the head over the realms of angels and man. Everything is subject to Christ. As Calvin put it, we are surrounded on all sides by Christ, so that 'our faith may not deviate even to the slightest from Christ.' [9] (Col 1:16-18; Eph 1:20-23; 4:15-16; Php 2:9-11; 1 Pet 3:22)
• The idea here seems to be that God had shown His great power in exalting Jesus, and this same power was used in raising up sinners from the death they deserved because of their sin, to the life and honor as they now have as believers. Christians should know and understand the extent and power God demonstrated on their behalf for their salvation. [10]
• Jesus was not merely above the ranks of the heavenly beings, as the head; nor was He one of their own rank, or by office, placed a little above them, but He was infinitely higher and exalted above them. How could this be if he were a mere man, or if he were an angel? [11]

[9] For in Him the whole fullness [completeness, totality] of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell [to live or dwell in a place in an established or settled manner] in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature]. [10] And you are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head over all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power]. (Col 2:9-10)

Footnotes

1. Expositor's Bible Commentary, p/o the Online Bible, Computer Program, © 1987-2024.
2. Ibid.
3. John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Colossians & Philemon, (Moody Bible Institute: ©1992) p. 103.
4. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 730.
5. Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 677.
6. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 93.
7. Albert Barnes’ New Testament Notes on Colossians, p/o the Online Bible, Computer Program, © 1987-2024.
8. Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 146–147.
9. John Calvin's Commentary on Colossians, p/o the Online Bible, Computer Program, © 1987-2024.
10. Albert Barnes’ New Testament Notes on Colossians, p/o the Online Bible, Computer Program, © 1987-2024.
11. Ibid.

The primary sources for this study use J. Hampton Keathley III, Paul’s Letter to the Colossians: An Exegetical and Devotional Commentary, from bible.org, Copyright ©1996-2020 Bible.org, and all attributions are reprinted with permission granted by bible.org, and John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Colossians & Philemon, (Moody Bible Institute: ©1992).

This study uses many of the commentaries, dictionaries and the Greek Lexicon which are all part of 'The Online Bible', Computer Program, © 2023, Larry Pierce, http://www.onlinebible.net/, unless otherwise referenced. See Colossians Bible Study for full attribution. All word definitions are from either Strong's and/or part of the Online Bible Program.

Where noted, Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), p/o Logos Bible Software, Faithlife, LLC, © 2023.

All Scriptures quotes are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Revision, unless otherwise noted. Verse links from Blue Letter Bible, https://www.blueletterbible.org/