Dear Ones:
The apostle Paul, in addressing the Corinthian church, once asked, “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13) Of course, the answer to the question is “No.” Believers in the body of Christ may “think” that He is divided, because they are by their attitudes, but He is NEVER divided. He cannot be. Now let’s ask the question, “Is Jesus Christ perfectly whole?” Is there something missing from His nature, person, essence? The answer again is “No.” Paul wrote to the Colossians, “…For in Him (Christ) dwelleth ALL the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” (Col. 2:10) There is no one aspect of His perfect nature that is missing. We might “think” that something is missing because of some need in our experience in walking with Him, but, just as the Corinthians were wrong about Christ being divided, so we can be wrong about God’s fulness not dwelling in Him. Why is this so very important? If we do not believe in the indivisible Christ, how shall we believe in the “unity of the Spirit” in the body of Christ? Likewise, if we do not believe that “ALL” is in Christ, how shall we believe Him for EVERY need, because He is the source and answer for every need.
Now, where the subject of the “wholeness of Christ” becomes of paramount importance to the believer, is when we read: “…Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) Paul goes on to write, “…Christ…in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (2:3) Lastly, “…And ye ARE COMPLETE in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (2:10) What are we faced with here? The simple answer of eternal significance is, we are brought face to face with, “…the unsearchable riches of Christ,” vast, limitless, eternal, and particular and applicable to every need we have or ever will have. When Paul writes, “…your life is hid with Christ in God…Christ, who IS our life, ” (Col. 3:4) he is declaring to us that Christ is perfectly “whole,” and that this wholeness is ours in Him. The believer is inseparably one with Christ, and all the fulness and completeness of Christ is His…to appropriate and to live.
Practically, we are to live BY His life. This is what is meant by walking BY the Spirit, and being FILLED with the Spirit. The declared work of the Cross speaks to us of an “old man,” an old life independent of Christ, which in the eyes of God, is dead and already buried. We are to believe this, reckon as true and done. But then, there is to be the consequent looking to the new life IN CHRIST, specifically to the ONE who IS the life, the “whole” life. The God and Father who supplies our every need has provided IN Christ, for that need. This is why Wesley would write: “All things are possible to God, to Christ the power of God IN me.” What is the problem then? How is it that we do not live in this manner? The answer is that which the Lord gave to the Samaritan woman, who was faced with her desperate need: “If thou KNEWEST the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, ‘Give me to drink;’ thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” (Jn. 4:10) We need to see that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift in Christ, for every need. And we need to grasp that He is almighty, sovereign, and faithful in the dispensing of the gift for every need. He is waiting for us to ASK, in order to receive. The call, His call, is for us to come to Him with mouths wide open, trusting Him to fill them. (Ps. 81:10)
Dear Lord, make us good, consistent receivers of all that we have in Christ for every need. And as we receive, enable us to give this Life to others, by the Spirit, that they may know and believe that Thou art truly the only God, the only one who can meet every need of mind, heart, soul, and body….for Thy glory, and the blessing of many. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad