Ye Are Complete in Him

The TEXT  (in brief) 

1. You read the first two chapters of this epistle in preparation last night; do you know it?
2. You have heard the first chapter read to you again this morning for greater familiarity.
3. Let us first read Colossians 2:10-15, which gives us our text and its related context.
4. You are complete in Christ. You should never forget this very glorious and simple fact.
5. The following verses describe what Jesus has done for His children to surely save them.
6. You are complete in Christ. You should never forget this very glorious and simple fact.

 

The DEFINITION 

1. Complete = perfect = with all required items … nothing lacking or needed … entire, full … realized in full extent … perfect in nature or quality; without defect … fully equipped or endowed. This word occurs only one other time in the N.T. (Col 4:12).
2. Your existence includes this little life, but it is nothing more than a momentary vapor.
3. Even this life tears people to shreds and to suicide, for they are altogether incomplete.
4. Your future, which is but moments away, includes meeting God for your eternal destiny.
5. In Christ, all provision has been perfectly made for complete safety in life and eternity.

 

The PROBLEM 

1. You are not complete by any measure in any aspect of life, but especially before God.
   1. You take tests of many kinds and you vote with very incomplete knowledge of facts.
   2. But the test of life, death, and then judgment should terrify you of being incomplete.
   3. God misses nothing and demands perfection … you must be complete or be damned.
   4. Mortality itself – your sure death – is proof of incomplete readiness for life or God.
2. You are incomplete, imperfect, deficient, lacking, needing, wanting for life and eternity.
   1. You are a mess by any real or spiritual measure, deserving God’s rejection forever.
   2. No person on earth, no matter how accomplished or arrogant, is more than nothing.
   3. You are too weak, too dumb, too short, too wide, too ugly, too stupid, etc., etc., etc.
   4. You have health problems right now that are out of your sight and doctors’ wisdom.
   5. You have emotional, social, psychological problems that you cannot overcome.
   6. The most fit person present would look like a quadriplegic among H.S. decathletes.
3. You have no worth; you have no wisdom; you have no power; you have no helpers.
   1. In the best case, you will take your last shallow breath in a sickbed in a few days.
   2. In another case, your horseless carriage will hit another one and snuff your life out.
   3. No one really cares about you, because there is no return or value for caring for you.
   4. If some truly do care for you, they can do nothing to make you complete before God.
   5. There is nothing you can do about your future, because other forces are in full play.
   6.  You arrived knowing nothing; you will leave the same way; you know nothing now.
4. You are a worthless, vile, condemned criminal before the tribunal of a holy, just God.
   1. The lake of fire is filled with shrieking, tormented souls better than you (Rev 21:8).
   2. You have no righteousness, understanding, or goodness to plead … (Rom 3:10-12).
   3. You have no fear of God or any strength in your evil rebellion … (Romans 3:18; 5:6).
   4.  You know nothing like you ought to know it in important life matters … (I Cor 8:2).
   5. When you search yourself diligently, you can find no good at all … (Rom 7:18-21).
   6. Any good deed you truly come to grasp, you cannot sustain doing it … (Gal 5:17).
   7. No matter what good deeds you do, they are menstrual rags to Him … (Isaiah 64:6).
   8. You are naturally at war with God, cannot and will not obey him … (Romans 8:7-8).
   9. Your past sins have turned God against you as your enemy … (Isaiah 59:1-2; 63:10).
   10. Your future sins are of overwhelming quantity and presumptuous evil … (Rom 5:20).
   11. The devil is much stronger and can capture or devour you … (II Tim 2:26; I Pet 5:8).
   12.  You are ugly, worthless, and no one really cares, if you will hear it … (Ezek 16:1-5).
5. You are grossly incomplete … totally unprepared to meet the Creator God (Amos 4:12).
6. If He inspected you trying to sneak into heaven, you will be speechless (Matt 22:8-14).

 

The CHAPTER 

1. Verses 1-9 … the apostolic foundation of crucial, glorious truth of Jesus against heretics.
2. Verses 10-15 … our text … the completeness and certainty of eternal salvation in Him.
3. Verses 16-23 … specific warnings against Jewish legalists undermining faith and life.
4. We are complete in Him … verses 1-9 … because of WHO the Lord Jesus actually is.
5. We are complete in Him … verses 10-15 … because of WHAT Jesus actually did for us.
6. We are complete in Him … verses 16-23 … because of WHY lying legalists are frauds.
7. The greatest enemies of the gospel Paul faced were Jewish legalists teaching conditions.
   1. A large part of his writings are against these heretics modifying the gift of salvation.
   2. He despised them, ridiculed them, and wished they were dead (Phil 3:2; Gal 5:12).
   3. He knew any addition to Christ’s work (complete) ruined grace (Gal 3:1-3; 5:1-4).
   4. They were Jewish legalists then in love with Abraham’s genealogy and Moses’ law.
   5. Today they are Roman Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, and rabid Arminians.
8. Paul made significant warnings about the danger of heretical, zealous Jewish Zionists.
   1. He began this chapter by describing conflict He had for the believers then (Col 2:1).
   2. He warned these false teachers would beguile them with enticing words (Col 2:4).
   3. He warned of philosophy, vain deceit, tradition of men, worldly rudiments (Col 2:8).
   4. He told them to let no man judge them in ceremonial matters of Moses (Col 2:16).
   5. He warned that arrogant pretenders would try to steal their confidence (Col 2:18).
   6. He told them to fulfill their baptisms by rejecting ordinances for salvation (Col 2:20).
   7. He warned that threats of perishing in hell by human rules is ridiculous (Col 2:22).
   8. The legalists showed off religious self-denial, which God did not require (Col 2:23).
   9. I. For greater expository detail of this chapter … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/colossians-2.pdf.

 

The PRECEDING CONTEXT  (2:1-9) 

1. Verse 1 … ministers have a conflict for souls – they are at war to save you from errors.
2. Verse 2 … ministers have one chief goal – for you to know the Son of God perfectly.
3. Verse 3 … Jesus Christ has all wisdom and knowledge to create, destroy, and save you!
4. Verse 4 … ministers are at war against false teachers with fine sermons to destroy faith.
5. Verse 5 … ministers rejoice to see orderly Christians unmoved in confidence in Christ.
6. Verse 6 … apostolic doctrine of Jesus Christ is all that matters no matter what or whom.
7. Verse 7 … the foundation of apostolic doctrine secures us, builds us, and is thankworthy.
8. Verse 8 … danger lurks by false teachers using a variety of means to spoil truth of Christ.
9. Verse 9 … the antidote to false teaching is to remember the true identity of Jesus Christ.
10. We are complete in Him … in the Christ of context … the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
    1. There is no better, perfect Person for us to be in … fulness of God … and our nature.
    2. There is no limit to His power, for He is fully God … think about all His attributes.
    3. There is no limit to His grace and intercession; He is fully man … think of priesthood.
    4. There are riches to be gained by full assurance of understanding of God in Christ.
    5. We must acknowledge the mystery of the Godhead in Christ to practically benefit.
11.  For greater expository detail of this section … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/colossians-2.pdf.

 

The FOLLOWING CONTEXT  (2:16-23) 

1. Verse 16 … complete salvation in Christ destroys Jewish legalists and all their heresies.
2. Verse 17 … all the O.T. ceremonial junk of Moses was merely to point to Jesus Christ.
3. Verse 18 … these arrogant imposters pretend to love truth while corrupting true faith.
4. Verse 19 … Christ must be preeminent at all times for a church to grow and prosper.
5. Verse 20 … since eternal life is unconditionally sure, why allow worldly rules to get it?
6. Verse 21 … SDA’s … I don’t smoke, drink, or chew, or hang around with those that do.
7. Verse 22 … men have and will invent rules for heaven or hell, like the Jewish legalists.
8. Verse 23 … their religion has the pretense of godly discipline but denies bodily pleasure.
9. There are no laws to keep for eternal life and no sins to commit to cause you to perish
   1. Moses’ damning laws were nailed to the cross – after Jesus perfectly fulfilled them.
   2. Jesus also fulfilled the worst curse of the law by dying and that on a tree (Gal 3:13).
   3. Rather than the vain rite of Jewish circumcision, Jesus was cut off for us legally.
   4. Rather than keeping our flesh like extra skin, we were circumcised by regeneration.
   5. We mock the touch not, taste not, handle not heretics for their lying false religion.
10. For greater expository detail of this section … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/colossians-2.pdf.

 

The IMMEDIATE CONTEXT  (2:11-15) 

1. Verse 11 … the circumcision of Christ is cutting off our sins by death cutting Him off.
   1. The hands-on ritual of the O.T., adored by the Jews, never made anyone complete.
   2. Paul by creative inspiration mocked Jewish legalists to use their surgery differently.
   3. Paul’s circumcision here did not involve hands, which the Jewish one certainly did.
   4. Forget about extra skin cut off in a circle – sinners need all sins completely cut off.
   5. The circumcision of Christ – objective-genitive – is Him cut off by crucifixion death.
   6. Jesus was cut off out of the land of the living to cut off our sins (Is 53:8; Dan 9:26).
   7. There is absolutely no value in circumcision after the Council at Jerusalem earlier.
   8. This is a worldly rudiment – elementary tradition of Moses – Jewish legalists loved.
   9. The verse further elaborates on completeness in Christ – justification by His death.
   10. We are complete in Jesus Christ, because He was cut off by death to cut off our sins.
2. Verse 12 … water baptism is how we declare our faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.
   1. Death in the previous verse made us complete without sin, symbolized by baptism.
   2. Jesus’ death and resurrection is what makes us complete; we declare it by baptism.
   3. We are complete by His death and resurrection, and baptism shows it (Rom 6:3-11).
   4. We are complete in Him – fully assured of our resurrection (I Pet 3:21; I Cor 15:29).
   5. We have faith in God’s operation of salvation in raising Jesus from death and burial.
   6. We do not stop with Jesus dead and buried; we need more; we show more in baptism.
   7. Never forget or overlook that baptism must symbolize a baptism and resurrection.
   8. Never forget or overlook here that risen with him is used by Paul again (Col 3:1-4).
   9. There is no real circumcision in verse 11; there is no relationship or covenant here.
   10. Baptism and circumcision are unrelated spiritually, grammatically, and every way.
3. Verse 13 … based on their sins being forgiven, Jesus quickened them by regeneration.
   1. The vital phase of salvation is included here to fill out how complete we are in Him.
   2. Our natural state is death in trespasses and sins, which totally rejects us from heaven.
   3. We are not only handicapped, impaired, or sick in sin, we are dead enemies of God.
   4. The uncircumcision of our flesh is the vital corruption of our nature by our first birth.
   5. Jesus Christ quickens, makes alive, or resurrects His own by His voice (Jn 5:25-29).
   6. Legal circumcision (sins cut off) was not enough; we also needed vital circumcision.
   7. Here Jesus Christ is the Agent of our resurrection, not the object of God cutting off.
   8. The terminology of quickened together with Christ here is like Ephesians (Eph 2:6).
4. Verse 14 … He forgave us by removing all Moses’ condemning legal claims against us.
   1. The beautiful words of this verse remove all claims by Jewish legalists and Moses.
   2. Whether God writing on stone or Moses on paper, it was all blotted out by Christ.
   3. The law’s commandments were contrary to us – we could not keep them any way.
   4. Sins blotted out is a wonderful blessing from God (Ps 51:1,9; Isaiah 43:25; 44:22).
   5. The most serious obstacle possible between God and heaven and us was removed!
   6. All legal claims against us, Christ took out of the way and nailed them to the cross.
   7. Love the Spirit’s creative words – blotted out, took it out of the way, and nailed it!
   8. You are complete in Him! There is nothing incomplete required by God’s holy law.
5. Verse 15 … Jesus defeated and triumphed over the devil and all his claims against you.
   1. We were translated out of his kingdom by the Ruler of all angels (Col 1:13; 2:10).
   2. The Stronger Man raided the strong man’s palace to take us away (Luke 11:20-22).
   3. Satan had us as surely as he had Judas and a Gadarene to destroy us here and in hell.
   4. We gave the devil the power of death over us in Eden and again in every day of life.
   5. Satan knows your every fault, every secret sin, every weakness, and would accuse.
   6. He and all his charges were thrown out of heaven to make room for you (Rev 12:10).
   7. When Satan thought he had Jesus destroyed on the cross, he was destroyed himself.
   8. This was Satan’s hour; it was time for war (Gen 3:15; Luke 22:53; Jn 12:31; 14:30).
   9. The angelic universe knew what He did at Calvary – you should by faith in its record.
   10. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil by defeating death and gaining heaven.
6. For greater expository detail of this section … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/colossians-2.pdf.

 

The TEXT  (2:10a) 

1. And … having lifted Jesus Christ up as high as possible, Paul added our position in Him.
   1. The first section of this chapter is the crucial, glorious truth of Jesus against heretics.
   2. The previous verse is one of the most glorious in the Bible of Jesus the Son of God.
   3. It is one thing to know doctrinal truth of Jesus … another for God to see us in Him.
   4. Our completeness in Christ should never be viewed apart from His glorious Person.
   5. We must defend the apostolic doctrine of Christ from any compromise (Col 2:1-9).
2. Ye … are believers at Colosse, and then those at Laodicea, allowing our inclusion also.
   1. This epistle was to be exchanged with one to the church at Laodicea (Col 2:1; 4:16).
   2. Identifying words/marks are saints, faithful brethren, believers, lovers (Col 1:2-4).
   3. They were believers that bore fruit from their conversion by the gospel (Col 1:6).
   4. They loved their ministers in Christ, which is a mark of elect brethren (Col 1:8).
   5. If you believe on Jesus Christ, live a holy life, and love brethren, the verse is for you.
3. Are … is not the future tense shall be or the past tense were but present tense right now.
   1. The eternal phase teaches us that God had chosen and predestinated them in Christ.
   2. The legal phase, described in the next five verses, had them in Christ at Calvary.
   3. The vital phase, described in the next five verses, had them regenerated before now.
   4. The practical phase, by which they put Christ on, proved these previous phases true.
   5. The final phase, was already promised based on Christ’s completeness (Col 1:12).

 

Let the earth ring with the shout! You are complete in Him! I am complete in Him! 

 

D. Complete … the most important word of our text is the believer’s perfection in Christ.

1. 1. Complete = perfect = with all needed items … nothing lacking or needed … entire, full … realized in full extent … perfect in nature or quality; without defect … fully equipped or endowed. This word occurs only one other time in the N.T. (Col 4:12).
   2. This is the believer’s standing … his legal position … his condition in Jesus Christ.
   3. 3. In Christ, all provision was perfectly made for complete safety in life and eternity.
   4. 4. Nothing can harm or prevent you from God’s best both here on earth and in heaven.
   5. 5. The abundant life, both here and hereafter, on earth and in heaven, is only in Him.
   6. 6. In Him eternally … by electing grace and purpose given to you before the foundation of the world, with your name in the book of life, and for heaven prepared as early.
   7. 7. In Him legally … by divine imputation and reversal of sin and righteousness to justify you and reconcile God to be fully satisfied to accept you in His Beloved Son.
   8. 8. In Him vitally … is a living connection and union so that we are in Him and with Him and He in and with us in such a way as to be bone of bone and flesh of flesh.
   9. 9. In Him practically … is what we must prove daily with diligence for our eternal life.
   10. 10. In Him finally … is to be united to Him in heaven after resurrection and glorification.
   11. 11. In Him … is detailed by the Spirit in facets to see the full spectrum of completeness, which include justification, reconciliation, atonement, intercession, representation, sanctification, redemption, propitiation, ransom, forgiveness, satisfaction, pardon, mediation, acceptation, bought or purchased, imputation, and adoption.
   12. 12. In Him … you are holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight (Col 1:22)!
   13. 13. In Him … you have a wedding garment God approves (Matthew 22:8-14; Rev 3:5).
   14. 14. In Him … you are beautiful and greatly desired by your glorious King (Ps 45:11).
   15. In Him … you have the full grace and truth of God versus Moses law (Jn 1:15-18).
   16. 16. In Him … you have His guarantee with His Father to never lose you (John 6:38-39).
   17. 17. In Him … you are enclosed in His hand and also in His Father’s hand (Jn 10:27-29).
   18. In Him … you are capable and empowered to bear much fruit for Him (Jn 15:1-9).
   19. In Him … you are perfectly united with God and Son by great love (John 17:20-16).
   20. 20. In Him … you have been justified and redeemed freely by His grace (Rom 3:24).
   21. 21. In Him … there is no condemnation for He was condemned in your place (Rom 8:1).
   22. 22. In Him … you are free from the law of sin and death that rules all others (Rom 8:2).
   23. 23. In Him … your life and glorification are as sure as the past tense (Rom 8:28-30).
   24. 24. In Him … no charges can be laid against you by anyone anywhere (Romans 8:33).
   25. 25. In Him … no one and no thing can interrupt God’s great love for you (Ro 8:38-39).
   26. 26. In Him … no surprises can ever confound or shame (Rom 9:33; 10:11; I Peter 2:6).
   27. 27. In Him … you have wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption (I Cor 1:30).
   28. 28. In Him … you have hope to crush the misery of destruction by death (I Cor 15:19).
   29. 29. In Him … you have a Second Adam that undid the first (I Cor 15:22; Rom 5:12-19).
   30. 30. In Him … you will be changed to be perfectly proper for heaven (I Cor 15:50-52).
   31. 31. In Him … you have complete confidence in every promise God made (II Cor 1:20).
   32. 32. In Him … the preaching of the gospel triumphs in saved and unsaved (II Cor 2:14).
   33. 33. In Him … you have a vail removed that was over the minds of Jews (II Cor 3:14).
   34. 34. In Him … God reconciled you to Himself and wants you to do so (II Cor 5:18-19).
   35. 35. In Him … God has applied or imputed His perfect righteousness to you (II Cor 5:21).
   36. 36. In Him … God has applied or imputed all your wickedness to Him (II Cor 5:21).
   37. 37. In Him … you have a gospel that is simple and rejects false religion (II Cor 11:3).
   38. 38. In Him … you have all the liberty and freedom from Moses’ strict rules (Gal 2:4).
   39. 39. In Him … promises to Abraham are actually fulfilled in Gentile you (Gal 3:16,29).
   40. 40. In Him … you are a beneficiary of a covenant 430 years before Moses (Gal 3:17).
   41. 41. In Him … culture, race, nationality, profession, sex are nothing (Gal 3:28; Col 3:11).
   42. 42. In Him … circumcision and every aspect of Moses’ law do not matter (Gal :15).
   43. 43. In Him … you have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in eternity (Ep 1:3-4).
   44. 44. In Him … God has accepted you (best acceptance) for the praise of grace (Eph 1:6).
   45. 45. In Him … you are guaranteed to be gathered together with all the elect (Eph 1:10).
   46. 46. In Him … you are already sitting in heavenly places from His perspective (Eph 2:6).
   47. 47. In Him … you are a full citizen with the best men/women of the O.T. (Ep 2:13; 3:6).
   48. 48. In Him … you are the object of God’s eternal purpose that He purposed (Eph 3:11).
   49. 49. In Him … you have the full means to be filled with all the fulness of God (Eph 3:19).
   50. 50. In Him … you have ability and power to will and do His good pleasure (Phil 2:13).
   51. 51. In Him … you have the real circumcision of sins that counts with God (Phil 3:3).
   52. 52. In Him … you have a prize coming from God for running your race well (Phil 3:14).
   53. 53. In Him … you have all treasures of wisdom and knowledge before God (Col 2:3).
   54. 5 In Him … when you die and are buried, He will raise your body first (I Thess 4:16).
   55. 5 In Him … you have the promise of eternal life and our God cannot lie (II Tim 1:1).
   56. 5 In Him … God assigned His purpose and grace for you in eternity past (II Tim 1:9).
   57. 57. In Him … you have practical salvation beyond the gift of eternal glory (II Tim 2:10).
   58. 58. In Him … you are perfectly represented by a perfect Priest (Heb 7:18-19; 2:10; 5:9).
   59. 59. In Him … you are guaranteed to final salvation by eternal intercession (Heb 7:25).
   60. 60. In Him … your high priest is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate, higher (Heb 7:26).
   61. 61. In Him … your conscience can be perfectly at peace about sins (Heb 9:9; 10:1-4).
   62. 62. In Him … your sins were put on His body which was nailed to a tree (I Peter 2:24).
   63. 63. In Him … you have the apostolic benediction and blessing of peace (I Peter 5:14).
   64. 64. In Him … you have divine power for all pertaining to life and godliness (II Pet 1:3).
   65. 65. In Him … you are given the means to be a partaker of the divine nature (II Pet 1:4).
   66. 66. In Him … you can have confidence in the Day of Judgment (I John 2:28; 3:19-21).
   67. 67. In Him … you are adopted as a Son of God though the world is blind (I John 3:1-2).
   68. 68. In Him … you have the infinite God in you against any power outside you (I Jn 4:4).
   69. 69. In Him … you have the Holy Spirit for good works and love (I John 4:13; 3:24; 3:6).
   70. 70. In Him … you have confidence that He hears and will answer prayers (I John 5:14).
   71. 71. In Him … is understanding of God and eternal like nowhere else (I Jn 5:20; Jn 17:3).
   72. 72. In Him … your name has been written in His book of life since eternity (Rev 13:8).

 

Let the earth ring with the shout! You are complete in Him! I am complete in Him! 

 

E. In … is our position relative to Christ, which is how God views and treats all believers.

1. 1. If we are in Christ Jesus, then God sees Him when looking for or at us. Hallelujah!
   2. We were chosen in Christ by His purpose and grace in Christ (Eph 1:4; II Tim 1:9).
   3.  We also get ourselves in Him practically, which proves other phases (Gal 3:26-27).
   4. Everything is in Christ, from God’s purpose in eternity to final inheritance with Him.
   5.  For much more about being in Christ … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/are-you-in-Christ.pdfHim … is the glorious Person of all history and of all scripture – Jesus the Son of God

F. Him … is the glorious Person of all history and of all scripture – Jesus the Son of God.

1. 1. Search the scriptures … a very important thing … but it is all about Him (John 5:39).
   2. There is the Bible Jesus … and Joel and Victoria’s Jesus; God forbid (II Cor 11:1-4).
   3. There is no other name under heaven given among men to save like His (Acts 4:12).
   4. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess for His death for us (Phil 2:9-11).
   5. Every substitute, addition, or condition is a heresy against Christ (Gal 3:1-3; 5:1-4).
   6. For more about Christ Himself … http://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/he-is-altogether-lovely-2.pdf. 

The ADDITIONAL TEXT  (2:10b) 

1. Jesus Christ, the fulness of God in a body, in Whom we are complete, rules the angels.
2. He obtained this glorious position at His ascension (Eph 1:20-22; I Pet 3:22; Heb 1:4).
3. Rather than limit this phrase to either good angels or to bad angels, why not see both?
   1. Inspired ambiguity avoids limiting the exceeding breadth of scripture (Ps 119:96).
   2. Bad angels are certainly in context (Col 2:15), and so are good angels (Col 2:18).
   3. We trust the Bible … https://www.letgodbetrue.com/pdf/two-or-three-some-details-do-not-matter.pdf.
4. Considering good angels, the elect and holy angels, there is no need to worship them.
5. Worship of angels is in context (Col 2:18), which is absurd for those in their Head.
   1. As Head of all the good angels, He sends them as servants for believers (Heb 1:14).
   2. Considering evil angels, the fallen devils with Satan, there is no need to fear them at all.
   3. Believers are delivered and translated out of Satan’s power and kingdom (Col 1:13).
   4. They were defeated at the cross in a public display of humiliating loss (Col 2:15).
6. Jesus crushed Satan (Luke 11:22; Jn 12:31; 16:11; Heb 2:14; I Jn 3:8; Rev 12:5-11).
7. 4. Thus, believers are complete … and completely safe … in His love (Rom 8:38-39).