RQ: The Fuillness of Christ by Milt Rodriguez
God has placed all that He is inside of Christ. Paul says that the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. Christ is the fullness of God! This statement should startle you. The Father has made the Son His everything, His All. He has invested all of His life, power, love, authority, wisdom, knowledge, and glory into His Son. He has invested everything in Christ. All the riches of God are stored up in Christ. All of the Father's thought, plans, and purposes are deposited into Christ. You could say that Christ is the All of God. The fullness is of all that God is has been placed into Christ.
If God Himself has made the assessment that Christ is His everything, then who are we to make any lesser assessment? If Christ is sufficient for the Father in all things, they who are we to think that He is not sufficient for us? All the fullness of God rests in Christ. This is God's assessment. This is God's estimate. Who are we to disagree?
What does it mean to have Christ as our fullness? It means that He becomes your point of reference for all things. He becomes the focus of all things. He becomes your one and only relationship to all things. If Christ is not the focal point then nothing will work properly in your Christian life. It's just like the operating system in a computer. If the operating system (like Windows) isn't working right, then nothing else on your computer will work right. The operating system is the core and center for the whole computer. Everything runs by and through the operating system.
When Christ is your fullness, then He has the first place in everything. He is the "place" out from which you do everything that you do. He is your environment in which you live, breathe, and move. This is what it means to be "in" Christ. When Christ is your fullness (your All) then you don't know how to handle yourself. You don't know how to handle sin. You don't know how to handle your outward circumstances. But you don't have to! Christ has already handled all these things and more. Your part is just to fellowship with Him.
You will become whatever you focus on. Whatever you make your center, whatever you give all of your attention to, that is what you will become. If you want to become a lawyer, then you must devote all of your time and attention to the law. The law must become your focus, your center. Then you will become the law! You will become a law-yer.
When Christ becomes your focus, then He becomes your All. You see all things through His eyes. You live by His life instead of your own.
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If God Himself has made the assessment that Christ is His everything, then who are we to make any lesser assessment? If Christ is sufficient for the Father in all things, they who are we to think that He is not sufficient for us? All the fullness of God rests in Christ. This is God's assessment. This is God's estimate. Who are we to disagree?
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According to the scriptures, God's viewpoint comes from inside of Christ. That's because God's fullness is found in Christ. Therefore, in order to see things as God sees them, we need to understand everything in Christ, from Christ, through Christ, and to Christ. Without this, you cannot understand anything properly.
Unless you see Christ, you only have the shell of an understanding. He is the content, the core of all understanding. The proper understanding, therefore, is to see Christ as all and in all. This can only come from having our minds renewed. This should be the only way that we approach the scriptures. We do not approach the scriptures in order to find out what God wants us to do or not do. We do not approach the scriptures as an instruction manual for living. We do not approach the scriptures in order to gain bible knowledge. We approach the scriptures to see Christ! He is the focus of all the scriptures (Luke 24:25-27).
According to the scriptures, God's viewpoint comes from inside of Christ. That's because God's fullness is found in Christ. Therefore, in order to see things as God sees them, we need to understand everything in Christ, from Christ, through Christ, and to Christ. Without this, you cannot understand anything properly.
-----------
Unless you see Christ, you only have the shell of an understanding. He is the content, the core of all understanding. The proper understanding, therefore, is to see Christ as all and in all. This can only come from having our minds renewed. This should be the only way that we approach the scriptures. We do not approach the scriptures in order to find out what God wants us to do or not do. We do not approach the scriptures as an instruction manual for living. We do not approach the scriptures in order to gain bible knowledge. We approach the scriptures to see Christ! He is the focus of all the scriptures (Luke 24:25-27).
-----------
What does it mean to have Christ as our fullness? It means that He becomes your point of reference for all things. He becomes the focus of all things. He becomes your one and only relationship to all things. If Christ is not the focal point then nothing will work properly in your Christian life. It's just like the operating system in a computer. If the operating system (like Windows) isn't working right, then nothing else on your computer will work right. The operating system is the core and center for the whole computer. Everything runs by and through the operating system.
-----------
When Christ is your fullness, then He has the first place in everything. He is the "place" out from which you do everything that you do. He is your environment in which you live, breathe, and move. This is what it means to be "in" Christ. When Christ is your fullness (your All) then you don't know how to handle yourself. You don't know how to handle sin. You don't know how to handle your outward circumstances. But you don't have to! Christ has already handled all these things and more. Your part is just to fellowship with Him.
-----------
You will become whatever you focus on. Whatever you make your center, whatever you give all of your attention to, that is what you will become. If you want to become a lawyer, then you must devote all of your time and attention to the law. The law must become your focus, your center. Then you will become the law! You will become a law-yer.
When Christ becomes your focus, then He becomes your All. You see all things through His eyes. You live by His life instead of your own.
-----------
When Christ is our fullness, then He becomes our "handling center." We handle all things by turning to Christ. We do not engage the problem. We engage Christ. We fellowship with Him because He is always our focus and center. He is the fullness of all things to us.
posted by GBT at
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
