The Fullness of the Deity

July 29

"In Christ, all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority," Colossians 2:9-10.

In Christ. Not in self-realization of any sort—not in professional achievements, not in romantic conquests, not in political power, not in financial acumen, not in societal acceptance—does a man find fulfillment. Fullness of joy and completeness as a human being are found in nothing but the fullness of Christ.

No matter how far up the ladder of success and acclaim an individual climbs, he will not find the satisfaction that drives him still higher in any of the accolades he receives along the way. No matter which rung of the ladder of life a person finds himself upon, he will not know personal fulfillment there apart from the fullness he can discern as one who has placed his life at the feet of Jesus.

The prestige and power that accompany success are sweet to the tongue but become as gravel in the belly. What seemed at its ingestion to be the ultimate taste of success will quickly unsettle the palate of the one who consumed it. In fact, the things for which a man might grasp in order to attain the pinnacle of success might well become the source of his undoing.

As Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived stated in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.” And Solomon should know, for he allowed the trappings of power and prestige and wealth to diminish him from wisdom to apostasy. He is said to have had 700 wives and 300 concubines whose religious perversions caused him to fall away from true faith.

Solomon had an amazing and exceptional spiritual endowment from God at the beginning. What he sought from God, wisdom so he could justly rule over Israel, was pleasing to God.

In I Kings 3:9 Solomon asked of God, “Give Your servant a discerning heart to govern Your people, to discern right from wrong, for apart from You I cannot govern this great people of Yours.”

In response to the King’s request, God gave Solomon wisdom and more: “God said to him, ‘Because you have asked for wisdom and not for long life or wealth for yourself or victory over your enemies but for discernment, I will give you what you ask but also I will give you riches and honor so that you will have no equal among kings,” I Kings 3:11-13.

“As a result, King Solomon was given riches and wisdom greater than that of all other kings and the whole world sought audience with him in order to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart,” I Kings 10:23-24.

His Godly wisdom allowed him to rule wisely until his proclivity for ungodly marriages and associations robbed him of God's favor. In I Kings 11:1, 2, we are told, “King Solomon loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites—nations from which God had told the Israelites they should not take wives for they will turn your hearts after their gods; yet Solomon held fast to them in love.”

We are told that the LORD became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from Him, that the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice became angry because Solomon did not keep the Lord’s command but followed other gods (see1 Kings 11:9,10).

If one who enjoyed the wealth and power of Solomon could fall away as described in I Kings 11:6-8, “So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods,” how much more can we deny ourselves of the fullness of Christ if we allow the allure of the world to turn us from the true faith?

Solomon’s sad tale of falling from grace and honor in the sight of the Holy One must have a sobering impact upon us, for the words of Ezekiel 33:18, 19 are still true: “If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil, he will die in his sin and if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live.”

Can we not, must we not therefore, forsake the way of the world that seems right but leads to death, in order to embrace the way of the Lord which is the fullness of the Deity and life eternal!