I’m continuing the series on: How God Sees Us, which commenced here.
“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority” (Colossians 2:10).
What does it mean to be complete in Christ? The idea is that we are incomplete without God. Blaise Pascal is credited with this quote, though it seems to have been modified since he said it: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of every person, and it can never be filled by any created thing. It can only be filled by God, made known through Jesus Christ.”
Only God can fill the vacuum in our hearts. When Jesus comes into our lives he completes us. God didn’t design human beings to function without him. We weren’t created to operate independently of God.
A car is made to transport us to places we want to go. But cars need petrol in order to do that. These days we hear about homeless people sleeping in cars, you don’t need petrol if you are only going to sleep in your car, but that is not their purpose, that is not why they were made. Likewise God made us, but we need fuel. We need his Spirit to live in us and give us life, so we can function in the way God intends and fulfil the purpose he created us for. We need his Spirit in our lives so we can be complete in him.
We have needs in our lives that only Christ can meet. As we have seen, we have a need for acceptance, security and significance. Only God can meet these needs on an ongoing basis. As Peter said, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life” (2 Peter 1:3).
God has provided everything we need but do we accept God’s provision? Do we look to God to meet our needs for acceptance, security and significance or are we still hoping that our families, our spouses, our children, our parents or our friends will provide for us, what only God can provide? People are fallible, they will let us down. We might expect the people in our life to make us feel good about ourselves, at the very time they are expecting us to make them feel worthwhile.
It’s also important to be aware that being compete in Christ doesn’t mean being mature. In Colossians 1:28 Paul teaches converts in the hope that people will become mature. “He [Jesus] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28).
Maturing is a process, it doesn’t happen automatically. Paul teaches to encourage maturity. However not all Christians commit to the process. Nevertheless, all converts are complete when Christ comes into their lives. When we have Christ we have everything we need. Christ is Enough.
