' ... you have been given fullness in Christ ... '' ... you are complete in him ... '
The Bible teaches that in ourselves we are destitute - that we have no goodness or righteousness with which to satisfy God's holy requirements, and that we have a great back-log of sin for which we must bear the guilt and the judgement.
The parable of the unforgiving servant highlights our utter destitution and our inability to ever repay the debt incurred by our sin.
Into this situation of absolute spiritual destitution the Gospel comes and tells those who truly believe in Jesus Christ: you have been given fullness, completion, in Christ. All that God ever has and ever will require of you is yours: you are, right now at this present moment, and for all moments, complete in him.
This truth of being complete in Christ outlaws all human perceptions in which we think that we must add some of our own good works to gain or maintain our salvation. To do so would automatically make our salvation incomplete, diluted, and uncertain, for our personal contributions are always imperfect and marred by sin. As the Bible states, if we add our efforts to the work of Jesus Christ 'Christ will be of no value to you at all ... you have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.' Such is the foolishness of thinking that salvation is the result of Jesus plus ourself.
This complete salvation is complete precisely because it is all of Christ and nothing of our own. Nothing that we have done achieved it; nothing that we do can reduce or cancel it. In this is yet another reason why the salvation that is granted in and through Jesus Christ is good news of great joy.
[Scriptures: Colossians 2:10; 2:10 (KJV); Romans 3:9-20; 1:18; Matthew 18:23-35; Galatians 5:2-4; Luke 2:10]
'When you were dead in your sins ... God made you alive with Christ.''He who has the Son has life ... '
The Bible teaches that the whole human race is born dead. Physically alive, but spiritually dead, severed by sin from God, the source of life.
For this reason, salvation is the restoration of life - the regeneration of that which was without life. It is a reconnection with God that constitutes a reconnection with life.
Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, repeatedly identified himself as the source of life, apart from whom spiritual life is not possible: he is the bread of life, he is the fount of living water, he is the light of life, he is the resurrection and the life, he is 'the life'. To know him is to have eternal life; he is, in fact, eternal life.
In addition, he went right through death as our substitute, taking the punishment for our sins, and rose to life beyond death. The Bible teaches that those who by faith in Jesus Christ are united with him in his death for sins, are also united with him in his resurrection to life beyond the reach of death.
To be made alive in Christ is to possess the gift of spiritual life that can never again be destroyed by sin; it is to possess permanent, present, uninterrupted and indestructible connection with God, the source of life. This gift of indissoluble life has no dependence on our own merits or ability, but depends totally on the perfection of Christ's life and power of his death for our sins.
The person who truly believes in Jesus Christ has already and permanently escaped from spiritual death, and has, by the action of God, been 'born again' - regenerated, resurrected, restored to life, in the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Saviour.
[Scriptures: Colossians 2:13; 1 John 5:12; Genesis 2:17; Ephesians 2:1,5; John 6:35; 4:14; 8:12; 11:25,26; 14:6; 17:3; 1 John 5:20; Romans 6:4-11; Galatians 2:19-20; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 3:1-4; John 5:24; 3:1-7]
© Copyright Rosemary Bardsley 2018