As the Mystery of God, Christ is the Embodiment of the Fullness of the Godhead

As the mystery of God, Christ is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9); the entire Triune God, even the fullness of the Triune God, dwells in Christ in a bodily form. What a mystery this is!

We have seen that Christ is the mystery of God, the history of God, and that as such a One, all wisdom and knowledge dwells in Him.

We people think we have wisdom and knowledge, but we don’t; real wisdom and knowledge is in Christ, and especially as we look at what He is and has done, we see God’s wisdom and His knowledge.

God has the top wisdom, the top knowledge; He put the universe together, He holds the universe, and He has a wonderful economy.

In His economy Christ came to be a man, and He passed through many processes to become a life-giving Spirit; now as the Spirit He indwells His believers to be their life and everything. This is God’s wisdom.

Many times in the church there may be some who seek after knowledge and wisdom; what we should seek is not human wisdom and knowledge, but the wisdom and knowledge of God.

Human wisdom and knowledge brings you nowhere; actually, the more you have of this human knowledge, the more you think you’re better and higher than the others, the more you separate yourself from them, and the more problems you have.

Only God’s wisdom is genuine wisdom, and only God’s knowledge is real knowledge.

Wisdom is related to our spirit – in our spirit we can have wisdom, even the wisdom that comes from God; knowledge is related to our mind – in our mind we have the true knowledge, the knowledge of God, as we allow the Lord to renew our mind in His word.

We see God’s wisdom and knowledge in the history of God, in Christ and the processes that He went through, for even though man did his best to put Christ down and even put Him to death, God in His wisdom redeemed all men through Christ’s death and provided a way for all to be regenerated in His resurrection.

Hallelujah for God’s wisdom! May we know and experience Christ as the mystery of God, the one in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden!

May we spend much time in the word of God to pray over the word and receive both spirit and life, and also the spiritual wisdom and knowledge! And may we pray that we may have a spirit of wisdom and understanding in the full knowledge of Him!

As the Mystery of God, Christ is the Embodiment of the Fullness of the Godhead

What does it mean that in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily?

We may understand what the words mean, but what does this mean and how can we apply this to our experience? What is this fullness? What is all the fullness? What does it mean that it dwells in Him bodily?

Col. 2:9 is one of the most difficult verses to understand, but it contains an aspect of Christ which we must see. In Christ as the mystery of God not only the riches of the Godhead but the fullness of the Godhead dwells, even all the fullness of the Godhead!

All the fullness of the Godhead refers to the entire Godhead, the complete God, not just the second of the Godhead – Christ, the Son, but the complete Godhead. The entire God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, dwells in this Christ.

The word Godhead refers to deity and strongly indicates the deity of Christ.

Since the Godhead comprises the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the fullness of the Godhead must be the fullness of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14).

The Father has the fullness, the Son has the fullness, and the Spirit has the fullness; now the fullness of the entire Godhead dwells and is embodied in this Christ in a bodily form.

The fullness of the Godhead dwells as a person in the incarnated Christ bodily, that is, in Christ with a human body. This means that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in a way that is both real and practical, in a way that is visible, touchable, and receivable.

In Heb. 10 Paul tells us that God doesn’t delight in sacrifice and offerings, but He prepared a body for Christ. God prepared a body for Christ, and in this body of Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.

This is unfathomable yet true, for in this little human body of Christ – which the Father prepared for Him – dwells all the fullness of the entire Godhead.

During the times of the apostle’s writing, Gnosticism – a mixture of Hebrew religion and Greek philosophy – invaded the church and damaged it, and this kind of heretical teaching claimed to have wisdom.

This is why Paul said that genuine wisdom and knowledge is in Christ, for the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him.

Furthermore, Gnosticism teaches that all matters are evil, including the human body; but Paul polemically says in Col. 2:9 that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in a bodily form.

In this body – which the Gnostics say is unclean and unholy – God in His mysterious design came to dwell in a full way. Hallelujah!

Oh, may we see this Christ who, as the mystery of God, has all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in Him bodily! May we be filled with the spiritual wisdom and knowledge of this Christ!

Lord Jesus, we praise You for becoming a man to be the mystery of God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily! Hallelujah, the entire Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit – dwells in Christ in a bodily form, and in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell! The God who dwelt in unapproachable light has been incarnated to be a man, and in the human body of this man Jesus Christ all the fullness of the Godhead dwells! We praise You Lord Jesus, and we want to know You as such a One!

The Fullness of the Godhead Dwelt Bodily in Christ and it also Dwells in His Glorified Body

When God became a man, when the Lord Jesus was born as a human being, God put on humanity; the physical body that Christ put on in His humanity had all the fullness of the Godhead dwelling in him.

All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ as the One who had a human body (see John 1:1, 14; Rom. 8:3; Heb. 2:14).

Christ didn’t come as a phantom, a ghost, or a spirit; He came with a human body. He was born through Mary with a human body, and in that body is contained and embodied all the fullness of the Godhead.

Before His incarnation the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ as the eternal word, but it didn’t dwell in Him bodily because He didn’t have a human body (John 1:1).

Christ embodied the fullness of the Godhead as the Word, but this fullness didn’t dwell in Him bodily, not until He was incarnated as a man. Now in His incarnated body, the fullness of God dwells in Him in a bodily form.

It is not only the riches of God like His love, light, patience, joy, etc that dwell in Christ, but the fullness, the overflowing and expression of all that God is that dwells in Christ.

Col. 2:9 refers to deity, which is different from the divine characteristics manifested by the created things; it strongly indicates the deity of Christ, and it is versus the tradition of men and the elements of the world.

Actually, the world’s tradition and the elements of the world cannot be compared with the fullness of the Godhead.

Everything that God is, has, and has done, including what He knows, He can do, He has done, He has attained, He has obtained, and He has accomplished, all this is included in the fullness of the Godhead which dwells in Christ in a bodily form.

The Father is rich, the Son is unlimited, and the Spirit is without measure; the entire Triune God is altogether embodied in Christ, and outside of Christ we cannot find God or contact God.

When we receive, experience, and enjoy Christ, we receive, experience, and enjoy the Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit!

After Christ became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in Him in a bodily form, and in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) now and forever it dwells. Hallelujah!

After His death and resurrection, Christ didn’t put away His body, the human body He put on through incarnation; rather, when He was resurrected, He was resurrected with a body of glory, a glorified body!

In the evening of His resurrection, Christ came to His disciples, and entered into the room they were in; He entered through the closed doors into the room, yet He had a body that was touchable.

His body was glorified; He still has a body but this has been transfigured, and in this body the fullness of the Godhead still dwells!

Praise the Lord, Christ didn’t just put on a body and then ascended to the heavens as a spirit; rather, He resurrected and ascended as a man with a body, and in that body dwells all the fullness of the Godhead!

Our Christ today is in glory and He still has a body, and the fullness of the Godhead are embodied in that glorified body.

Today we as the children of God also have a body, and one day our human body will be transfigured into the body of His glory, for Christ is our Pioneer, our Leader, the Firstborn of resurrection, and we all follow!

Praise You Lord for not only putting on a human body for Your work and living on earth but also bringing this body into glory to transfigure it into the body of Your glory! Hallelujah, Jesus Christ came to be a man with a human body, and in this body all the fullness of the Godhead dwells! Praise the Lord, in the glorified body of Christ the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily! Amen, Lord, we believe that we also will be brought into glory with You, and we eagerly expect the redemption of our body so that we may have a glorified body like Yours! Hallelujah!

Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Ca mister al lui Dumnezeu, Cristos este întruparea plinătății Dumnezeirii.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. James Lee for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 3569-3570 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 5 on the topic of, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ as the Mystery of God.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting, / Christ the Lord is there enthroned; / As the man by God exalted, / With God’s glory He is crowned. / He hath put on human nature, / Died according to God’s plan, / Resurrected with a body, / And ascended as a man. (Hymns #132)
  – The universal Fullness / So pleased resides in Thee. / Within Thee dwells the Godhead, / And Thou, Lord, dwell in me! / Preeminent, transcendent, / Unique in all Thou art, / O’erflowing all the heavens, / Thou now dost fill my heart! (Song on, Christ in Colossians)
  – The fulness of the Godhead dwells / In Him, His very element; / God’s full embodiment is He- / A vessel, God the resident. (Hymns #494)