Colossians 2:9 (NKJV) says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily …” Jesus Christ is far more than an inspired prophet, an extraordinary moral teacher, or even some kind of supernatural Being. The very substance or nature of God exists in Jesus the Messiah in His coming in the flesh, His life on earth, and His resurrected body.
Paul, in addressing the Colossians, takes aim at a popular doctrine that grew out of the first century: Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a term that designates a variety of religious movements that stressed salvation through “gnosis” or “knowledge.” Although Gnosticism didn’t reach full bloom until the second century, it existed in its earlier forms for half of the first century.
This naturally led to a seriously defective view of Christ. In Gnosticism the old Greek philosophical dualism had assumed a religious form. The philosophical distinction between the realm of reality and that of apparition now took a new form as God (the light) and matter (the evil), existing in constant antagonism. Therefore Jesus as pure Spirit couldn’t really have had a material body — He couldn’t have come in the flesh.
The declaration that the essence of deity was present in totality in Jesus’ human body was a direct refutation of Gnostic teaching. Colossians 1:19 said, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell.” What a glorious picture of Jesus! We see Him on the pages of Scripture as a man, but He is completely and fully God. This is why when Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us” that Jesus responded, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” (John 14:8-10).
Kyle Campbell