Fullness of Life in Christ - Exegesis of Verses IX-XIII of Colossians 2

TRANSLATION OF COLOSSIANS 2:9-13 FROM THE ORIGINAL LANGUAGE (GREEK)

9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10and you are fulfilled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11Also in him you have been circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the putting off of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; 12having being buried with him in baptism, in which you also have been raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raise him from the dead; 13and you being dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God has made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.

EXEGESIS

In the preceding verses, Paul encourages the Colossians to live in Christ since they have already received him. He wants them in verse seven to be rooted and built up in him and established in the faith. This is very important if we are to put verses nine to thirteen in context. Is Christ not the vine and are we not the branches? We therefore need to be rooted in him for "in him we live and move and have our being". We also need to build on him for he is the only foundation. We have one church, one faith, one baptism and one Lord. The hymn writer realizes this when he observes that 'Christ is our corner stone, on him alone we build'. The Gnostic teachers need to bear this in mind. Paul, aware of the false teaching around, warns the Colossians that they should watch out lest no one makes a prey of them through philosophy or vain deceit according to human tradition and the elemental spirits of the universe. Jesus categorically attacks tradition in Matthew 15:3 when he observes, "Why do you transgress the word of God by your tradition?" What are the elemental spirits Paul is referring to in verse eight? One must admit that this passage bristles with exegetical difficulties. Maybe Paul is referring to the forces that attack us.

With this background, it is very easy to understand the passage in context. It is not surprising that in discussing the sufficiency of Christ, Paul repeatedly uses several related phrases or statements in the passage. Some worth mentioning include:

a. In him the whole fullness...

b. You are fulfilled in him...

c. Who is the head of the all...

d. In him you have been circumcised

e. Being buried with him

f. Being raised with him

Christ indeed is all sufficient. This reminds one of Colossians 1:24 where Paul uses the phrase 'panta anthropon' (every man) thrice to show that there is no spiritual aristocracy. The Gospel is for every man. Here Paul stresses the sufficiency of Christ. He was all the Colossians needed and, by implication, all Christians need today and will need in the future. There is no need to go through several stages the Gnostics believe one should use to reach perfection.

Verse nine clearly shows that Jesus is God. In 325, Constantine convoked the Council of Nicea to resolve the problem created by the Arian controversy. (Arianism teaches that Christ cannot be divine since he was created". Equality of the Son with the Father was however established. In Chalcedon (451), the dispute surrounded the nature of the person of Christ. He is fully God and fully man. Today, some revert to heresy but Paul categorically observes that the whole fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him. He is indeed God's visible image.

Paul addresses another important theological issue when he observes that the Colossians have been circumcised with the circumcision of Christ. This is not like the physical one. In Acts 15, the Jerusalem Council was convoked to discuss the relationship between Jews and Gentiles. It decided that the law, impossible for Jews was not required for the Gentiles. This is a great lesson for Paul realizes the damage that the Jews or false teachers wanted to impose on other Christians. Interestingly, this is a very serious problem in Christianity today. We accuse the west of imposing its own brand of Christianity on Africans but it is sad to note that influential tribes also impose their own belief systems on others who embrace the Christian faith. We must realize that God has forgiven us like the Colossians, and has raised us with Christ, having forgiven our trespasses. Legalism, ascetism, worship of angels, to mention a few, cannot provide salvation for us. We are fulfilled and complete in Jesus.

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