SOUNDING OUT:
Complete But Not Completed
One of the most difficult truths for people to
accept is that they are complete in Christ. The work of God in
Christ in us is magnificent, and our acknowledgement of it is
vital as we walk with Him.
Colossians 2:9,10:
For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10 And ye are complete [pleroõ]
in him [Christ], which is the head of all principality and power:
We are complete, filled to maximum
capacity, in Christ. Our completeness is absolute, and this great
reality of life is a springboard from which we can dive into a
life of service to God. Just as surely as Christ is the head of
all principality and power, we are complete in him.
To communicate the magnitude of our completeness the Aramaic
uses a special conjugation. This fourth conjugation, the eshtaphal,
shows the most intensive and extensive form of the verb. We are
not just complete; we are completely, completely, absolutely complete.
We lack nothing; God has provided for us exceeding abundantly
above all that we could ask or think.
As born-again sons of God we are completely, completely,
absolutely complete. Now our challenge becomes manifesting or
demonstrating our completeness. Although we are complete, we are
not completed. Paul prayed for the believers to continue to grow
and demonstrate their completeness. God has done a complete work
in us, but he is not done with us yet. Indeed we are complete,
but not completed.
Philippians 1:3-6:
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,
4 Always in every prayer of mine for
you all making request with joy,
5 For your fellowship in the gospel
from the first day until now;
6 Being confident of this very thing,
that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ:
We are complete, but not completed.
God continues to work with us as we manifest and demonstrate our
completeness to the world. It may be difficult for to think of
something as complete unless it is fixed. Our completeness still
allows for growth. Perhaps it may help to use an illustration
of a seed.
A seed, for instance, is complete. It is inert, fixed,
perfect in every detail. It is tightly sealed in its rigid case.
You can pick it up and examine it. However, the seed is not complete,
if by complete you mean completed. The seed has scarcely begun.
Its end is to begin. A seed is sealed and complete. But this self-enclosed,
walled-around globule has the power of expanding and growing into
— a blade of grass, a flower, a redwood tree, a frog, an
elephant, a human being. It is not limited; it may reproduce itself
many times. It may expand into generations of roses, redwood trees,
or human beings.
Living things, without exception, begin as a single cell.
In the living world of which we are part, we typically see things
begin as a seed, a cell, an egg, an embryo. Then, cell by cell,
it grows. This is a universal rule of the living world. Nothing
starts out full-grown. Everything has to grow… we become…
our powers develop… our faculties mature.
God made us complete, but He did not make us with our growth
achieved. He made us with the power to grow, and He promises to
work with us until the day of Christ. We lack nothing. The full
extent of how complete we are in him can only be known when we
see him face to face we shall be like him.
Colossians 3:1-4:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is
hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
What a day that will be. When we
see him face to face we shall be like him. When we appear with
him in glory we will demonstrate that we are completely, completely,
absolutely complete in him. How exciting and invigorating life
is as we realize we are complete and are being completed as we
renew our minds to believe and appropriate His Word to transform
our everyday living.
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