The Oberlin Evangelist
July 5, 1843.
HOLINESS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE PRESENT LIFE:--No. 10.
FULNESS THERE IS IN CHRIST.
Modernized by Cliff
Collins
“For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” (Col. 2:9-10)
The context that today’s passage stands, shows that
the Apostle Paul is working to establish the difference between an outside
legal religion, and religion by faith in Christ. For this purpose, he warns the Colossians in verse eight to
“beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to
the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not
according to Christ”. And in the twentieth
verse, by an earnest and solemn appeal, Paul strives to tear them away from
subjecting themselves to the commandments and doctrines of men. (See Col 2:20-22) Indeed, the main purpose of Paul’s epistle was to turn the Colossians
to the religion of faith, and cut them off from a religion of legalism.
In today’s discussion, it is my plan to show
I. What the declaration that Christians are complete
in Christ does not mean.
II. What the declaration that Christians are
complete in Christ means.
III. I will point out some things that our nature,
circumstances, and character demands, in order to accomplish what is best for
us.
IV. I will discuss some of the conditions on which
we may see these things accomplished in our own experience.
I. What does the declaration that Christians are
complete in Christ not mean?
1. When I say that we are complete in Christ, I
don’t mean that we are complete in the sense that we have received some kind of
an imputed righteousness. The other
evening, you will recall, I showed that the doctrine of imputation is an absurd
and destructive doctrine. It is not
necessary to talk about that again tonight.
All I need to say is that God could no more perform works over and above
what He was required to do than any other moral being can, and therefore, there
could be no righteousness to impute.
Moreover, a transfer of moral character from one person to another is
naturally impossible.
2. Being complete in Christ does not mean that all
Christians have, as a matter of fact, so received Christ, that in their own
character and experience will be complete on its own; nor does today’s passage
state that anybody ever did or ever will fully realize this completeness in
their own character and experience.
II. What does the declaration that Christians are
complete in Christ mean?
The declaration that Christians are complete in
Christ means that, in Him, all the demands of our existence are met; that God
makes and sets before us full provision to meet all our needs, and to make us
all that God desires us to be.
III. I will point out some things that our nature,
circumstances, and character demands, in order to accomplish what is best for
us.
The question is, what do we really need? What must belong to a savior in order for
Christ to be the kind of savior that we really need?
1. Our nature and circumstances expose us to
countless trials and temptations. I
have spent a lot of time in these lectures, discussing the trials that come
from our peculiar nature, when we are placed in certain circumstances. No one is exempt from these trials. Even in the Garden of Eden, man’s nature,
placed in certain circumstances, created trials. We shouldn’t regret this either.
These trials can be to our advantage if we use the help that God
provides us in meeting them. These
trials will produce a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2 Cor 4:17) Men can be placed in so many different circumstances, and because
they have so abused their nature, and because the trials, which they endure are
extremely great, the help they need must be both adapted and adequate to meet
all their needs concerning these trials.
2. Our frailties and infirmities are great, because
we have abused ourselves for such a long time.
The demands of all our appetites and passions are greatly
aggravated. We strain our nervous
system to the breaking point. Our long
established habits are deep-rooted.
Each successive generation is placed under new attacks until, like a
reed, can be swayed by every breeze, or carried adrift on the ocean of life,
like a vessel torn from its moorings, and driven by a violent storm. Hence, we need strength for our frailty, and
we need grace sufficient for our infirmity.
3. Our ignorance is very great, and since we need
motives to influence us, we can be influenced towards God and holiness only in
proportion to the amount of enlightenment we receive. The motives that encourage us to sin are bold, obtrusive, and
those who are ignorant of spiritual things can easily see them, but the
opposite is true of the motives that would encourage us to walk in
holiness. As a result, we must have a
Savior who is able to enlighten and charm us away from the influence of visible
and material things, and bring us under the influence of things that are unseen
and eternal. The longer I live, the
more I am astonished at the ignorance of people concerning religious
truths. Many professing Christians
today scarcely know their religious A, B, C’s. Very few professing Christians
can give you one good reason why they believe the doctrines of their
faith. As a result, the great majority
of them readily receive doctrines published by the press, and promoted from the
pulpit, which, to seriously thinking minds, are clearly at war with human
reason.
Take, for example, the doctrine of imputed
righteousness, which is so popular today.
Doesn’t it astonish you that so few see the obvious fact that Jesus
could not do more than what God required, demanded, and expected Him to do, and
therefore, there was no righteousness to impute? What more could Christ do than to love His father with all His
heart and His neighbor or as himself, which was the requirement of the
law. The Atonement and all His other
works are virtuous, only because Christ did all these things in fulfillment of
the law of love. God required Jesus
Christ to be unselfish and loving just as much as He requires every other being
to be unselfish and loving, and of course He could no more impute His
righteousness, than any other holy moral agent can impute their righteousness,
no more than Gabriel’s can impute his righteousness.
Now, how com so man people end up believing such an
absurd doctrine as this, unless it is because they are completely ignorant of
spiritual things? Why, if this doctrine
is true, the gospel is another gospel.
It was Christ’s goal to save men from their sins, and not to throw on
top of their filthy, ulcerated, sinful backs, a robe of imputed
righteousness. I call it ignorance to
believe such a doctrine because an intelligent being who understands this
doctrine, and understands the objections to it, can’t believe in it. And, this is only one example of many
equally erroneous teachings that are sanctified in the creeds and the common
faith of most of the Churches today.
The creeds in Churches today are full of superstitions, errors, and ignorance
on a thousand subjects. The reformation
cast off many of these errors, but many are left, some of which time has
outgrown, yet others remain.
Now, the way we can straighten out our theology is
by gaining an insight into the gospel.
It is truth that comes in that thrusts error out, and therefore, we need
somebody to deliver us. We need somebody
to teach us the very A, B, C’s, of religion.
We need some patient instructor who will be willing to teach us
repeatedly, even the same things over again..
“What's that?” “That’s A.” “Well, what’s that?” “Oh, that’s B.” Now, let’s go back to A again, and ask, “What’s that?” “I don't know”, says the pupil. “Well”, says the kind hearted teacher, “That’s
A”, and thus, he goes over the subject again and again, until he remembers
it. Therefore, Christians need to be instructed
by some kind agent who will not tear their souls to shreds, and discourage them
with harsh words, but who will sooth them down in love, and then gently remove
their errors, and graft in the word of truth.
4. We have a subtle adversary of great power and an
evil disposition. It has become
unpopular to talk about the devil.
People have become so skeptical concerning his existence. I have no doubt, that this state of affairs
is the result of his infernal agency, since, if people doubt his existence, it
will be a lot easier for them to become his prey. However, the Bible says something different. The Bible requires people to pass the time
of their sojourning here with fear, to be sober and vigilant; because our adversary
the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (See 1 Peter 5:8) The Bible represents Satan as being very subtle, and ready to
take ten thousand advantages, even making himself appear as an angel of light,
to delude and destroy souls. And, who
is able to resist him? Who can detect
all the vile deeds and plausible but false arguments from a mind as old and as
malevolent as his? I have often felt
that the devil would just as certainly have my soul, in spite of everything I
have done against him, if Christ did not save me just as I am. I might as well expect to escape a devouring
lion, whose strong power had already overwhelmed me. Who has not discovered that sometimes the devil has made a lie appear
so much like truth, that we are almost ready to take an oath that it was
truth. No doubt, ten thousand times,
people have thought the Lord was leading them, when in fact, it was the devil
that had involved them in a web of lies and false arguments, and was hurrying
them on to the very edge of total destruction.
Now, anyone who does not know these things, will never do anything to
get away from the devil. From the
devil? From thousands of devils, all
leagued to destroy. Who can protect
us? Our Christian journey lies on a
path that winds all the way through the enemy’s country, and throngs of devils
are prowling about on all sides, and if the Lord does not deliver us the devil
will attack and swallow us whole!
5. Our education, habits, and prejudices all give
Satan a decided advantage over us. He
has been weaving his web of vile deeds and lies for thousands of years, and
with all his profound experience, his great mental capacity, and his legions of
comrades, he is able to weave his devilish plots into everything. You cannot have a benevolent society without
Satan having a hand in it. Even if you
are starting up a Bible Society, his counsel and agency must be there
somewhere. He has a corner at every Missionary
meeting and he carefully watches its workings.
Anyone who will look narrowly into those prospects that people feel are
the most benevolent projects of the day can hardly fail to see that the devil
has a hand in them, and is exercising his infernal craft to pervert them to
evil.
If I had time to take up the habits and opinions of
society in general, I could show snares, pitfalls, and ambushes that Satan
arranges with remarkable subtlety and adaptation, and he has been very effective
in promoting the ruin of the entire human race. These snares and pitfalls also exist in family relationships and
even in individual relationships, and with every crisis in life. Demons and devils take advantage of habits,
education, and people’s behavior to work out the endless overthrow of mankind.
How can we escape the devil? Who can deliver us? We need a wiser and a mightier person than Satan
to defeat him and enable us to escape.
6. We need someone to meet the righteous demands of
the law that our sins broke, who will make it consistent for God to pardon
us. Why did the governor of this state
feel that it was difficult to pardon Colt?
It was because he was afraid that the influence of Cole’s pardon would
weaken society. He was willing to pardon
him, but he did not have any desire to gratify malevolent feelings. Therefore, he was afraid to pardon Colt
because it could encourage others to break the law. The same is true in the government of God. God cannot extend pardon to sinners unless
he extends pardon on grounds that will not destroy, but uphold the influence of
His government. God must do something
to appease, or to meet the demands of the law, which is what the word
propitiate means whenever the gospel uses it.
There must be an atonement, or God cannot forgive sin without doing
tremendous damage to public interests, and being unjust in exercising
pardon. Therefore, we need a Savior who
can make an atonement and thus meet this need.
7. We need an influence that can break our stony
hearts and bring us to repent. We need
someone, who will not only atone for or sins, but will also reclaim us. Any gospel, which simply pardons men, and
then leaves them to achieve their own victories over the world, the flesh, and
the devil, is a very thin gospel. That
kind of gospel can’t save anyone. We
need a gospel that will come to us where we are, break up the deep foundations
of our selfishness, and transform us into vessels of love.
8. We need an influence that not only initiates us
into the spirit of the gospel, but also keeps us all along the way to
glory. We need a Savior who will watch
over us until He gets us within the sacred enclosure. Should the Lord forsake us, even at Heaven’s golden gate, we will
turn away and go back to hell. God must
place us safely within the gate before we can be secure.
9. In order to keep us this way, God must possess so
much overwhelming loveliness, and radiate so much charm, that He draws our soul
away from all other fascinations and lovers.
He must be able to make us lovesick, so that we will follow Him through
any trials, and through every seductive influence, unattracted by any of them,
without anyone or anything drawing us away from our steadfast devotion to His
love. We need somebody to draw us. If God should flash livid lightning bolts,
and hurl them in our direction; if He should blast the lurid fires of hell in
front of our faces, it might amaze and horrify us, but it won’t do us any
good. It won’t draw us to Him. It would not draw out our love. When Elijah passed by Elisha, Elijah placed
his mantle on Elisha. He immediately
left his oxen and everything he possessed, and followed Elijah. I have often thought that what Elijah did,
drew Elisha’s heart. In the same way,
Christ, as He passes by a soul, seems, to so captivate that soul, that it would
seem as if Christ could lead that soul even through hell. I don’t know, but He could. If circumstances demand the sacrifice, that
soul would kiss his cross, and say, “drive your nails and crucify me. I willingly endure it for Christ’s sake, who
loved me and gave Himself for me.” Oh,
we do not want a legal Savior, but a savior “in whom dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily”, in whom we are complete, whose beauties can ravish and enchain
our hearts. (See Col 2:9) What is a Unitarian Savior good for? Nothing!
We don’t need that kind of savior.
But we need a savior who can so captivate us, that if a thousand racks
and gallows stood in the way, they would not deter us from following Him
wherever He goes.
10. In short, we need a savior who is able and
willing to save us, not only throughout eternity, but here in this world. We need this savior daily, and unless we
have such a savior, we must daily wallow in the gutters of iniquity, and suffer
the misery that accompanies our sins.
We need a savior who will meet every need, and we need to have our souls
made complete in the whole will of God.
We need to be filled with His fullness.
IV. I will discuss some of the conditions on which
we may see these things accomplished in our own experience.
1. One condition that will help us realize the
fullness of Christ in our own experience is that we realize all our needs. The Lord Jesus Christ said to one of the
churches of Asia: “Because you say, ‘I
am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ and do not know that
you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you
may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of
your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that
you may see.” (Rev 3:17-18) Please notice, that one of the biggest obstacles
that prevents people from experiencing the fullness of Christ in their own
lives, is that they are so full in themselves, and they are so well off and
have everything they need in their own eyes, that they completely fail to see
that they need Christ in everything.
They cannot see that their need for Christ is as vast as the things they
lack. They must realize this.
2. Another condition we need to realize that we are
complete in Christ is that we must realize that, in Christ, we have all we
need. Now, people often admit this in
words, but not in fact. They often
think there is something so peculiar about their situation, about their habits,
education, relations, or trials, that Christ can’t save them. They seem to think Christ can save everybody
else but them. But they must understand
that they are complete in Him no matter what their relations, trials, habits,
and circumstances are. They must realize this.
3. Another condition by which we may become complete
in our own experience is that we must renounce our dependence on our
selves. We must not depend on our
learning, our own philosophical insight, or anything else, or we will never
depend on Christ. We must become fools
that we may be wise. Just as far as we
think we can get along without Christ, we will get along without Him, but we
will be away from God. When we are full
of self-dependence, we really have no faith in the existence of God, nor faith
in His attributes. Self-dependence and
infidelity are allies. Every good, and
every perfect gift, comes down from the Father of light. (James 1:17) Should God withhold from us those things we depend on Him for,
nothing but certain destruction would follow.
This dependence runs through our moral life as well as through out
natural life, and we must feel and acknowledge this dependence.
4. If you want to be complete in Christ, you must
give up looking for help anywhere else.
As long as a man runs to anybody and everybody, and puts more confidence
in men than in God, he can go to the best man on earth, to an apostle, or an
angel, and it will do him no good. He
might as well go to a child, as far as any efficient help is concerned. Sometimes, I have told sinners, “I won’t
pray for you, nor will I have anything to do with you, if you are going to
depend on me, and put me in the place of the Savior. Go to Christ if you want help.”
During the last several years that I labored as an evangelist, the
church depended on me so much, that I spent more time and energy trying to get
them to look to God, than I spent laboring to convert sinners, and this is
still true today. Because of this, I
was afraid to come here and preach to you today. And right now, brethren, I feel that you depend on me, more than
you have any right to. It is a form of
trusting in an arm of flesh, that God hates.
Many will flee to books, to anything, and sometimes even to the Bible,
and put it in the place of God, and cling to all kinds of worthless help, until
God compels them to look to Himself alone.
5. If you want to experience the fullness that there
is in Christ, you must stop trusting in any means of any kind. I do not mean that we must stop using means,
or methods, as means, but we are not to put them in the place of God, or
substitute them for a Savior. I wish I
could impress it on you, how much even professing Christians trust in means
more than they trust in God, and they put these means in the place of
Christ. You must completely stop
trusting in these means, if you want to be complete in Him.
6. You must give up your cowardly unbelief, and dare
to trust Christ wholly. Do you know
that unbelief is a form of cowardice? I
sometimes try to make people see that they are afraid to trust Him, and I try
to show them that they must have more courage, or they can never be complete in
Christ. Dare to trust Him, if you want
His love to fill you completely.
7. You must give up your love of reputation with
men. When you really come to Christ
indeed, you will see what Christ meant when He said, “If they have called the
master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his
household”! “'They will cast out your
names as evil.” (Matt 10:25; Luke
6:22) You must carry all of this. You must be content to hear others
misrepresent you, charge you with evil motives, look contemptuously on you,
slight your company, and stare at you to see if the dilation of the pupil of
your eye indicates that you are insane or on drugs. You must be content in all these things just as certainly as you
give yourselves up to be led by Him in all things. Don’t worry over these things.
Those people need your pity more than your frown. They, poor souls, don’t know what they are
doing.
8. You must forsake everything you have. You must spare no lust, have no sinister
goal, but you must give up everything.
You must be crucified to the world.
I know this is a big step to take, but you must take that step or die. You must reckon yourselves dead indeed to
sin, in order to reckon yourselves alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
9. You must confide in Him for everything you
need. You must believe that you are
complete in Him, not partially complete in Him. No matter what new need you discover, or what new circumstances
you come into, believe that in Christ, there is sufficient grace for every
emergency, no matter how great that emergency is, otherwise He is not your
complete Savior.
REMARKS.
1. Do you see why so many Christians today are so
imperfect? It is because they don’t
realize their needs, and they do not accept Christ as a complete Savior.
2. Christians will always be imperfect, as long as
they know so little about Jesus. I was
talking with one of the most important men in this state about
sanctification. He agreed with me in
theory that it is attainable, and then he said, that, as a matter of fact,
nobody would realize it in this world.
I replied, “if you knew what you should know about Jesus Christ, you
would rather cut off your right hand than say that”. It is a lack of a knowledge of Jesus, which leaves men in sin,
and makes them weak and powerless against it.
I have often thought of the sons of Sceva the Jew, who attempted to cast
out devils in the name of Jesus, ‘whom Paul preached’, and when they had bid
the evil spirit come out, the evil spirit replied, “Jesus I know, and Paul I
know, but who are you”? And the man in
whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them, overcame them, and prevailed against
them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. The sons of Sceva did not know Christ, and
because they did not know Christ, they were defeated. Suppose afterwards, they shared their experience to prove that
nobody ever did or could cast out devils!
Ah! It is one thing to hear and
read about Christ, and quite another thing to trust Him, know Him, and become
complete in Him.
3. As long as professing Christians place so much
reliance on human teaching, and so little on divine teaching, they will
probably remain imperfect. Let them
stand in that relationship that God has placed them, and it will profit their
souls; but when men listening to the minister or some evangelist and depend on
what he says more than on what God says by His word and His Spirit, it will
kill your spiritual growth. You will
not grow in the things of God. As many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
4. As long as men rest in the letter and overlook
the spirit of the gospel, they will remain imperfect.
5. They will also remain imperfect as long as they put their works the place of Christ. As long as they put their knowledge, their resolutions, and their legal efforts in the place of Christ, they will remain imperfect.
6. Also, as long as their guides and leaders are
blind, and as long as the shepherds frighten the sheep away from their
pastures, they will remain imperfect.
7. Many professing Christians today don’t know
Christ, because, they have only been converted and baptized unto Moses. Others have received John’s baptism unto
repentance; and others still know Christ as an atoning Savior. They began in the Spirit, and are now trying
to become perfect by the flesh.
8. Wherever there is an imperfection in Christian
character, there must be ignorance or unbelief, because today’s passage is a
promise that covers all of our needs.
It is remarkable how the Bible abounds with promises that are both
general and specific. Some cover all
our needs, others point to specific needs.
The specific promises seem to be given to accommodate
our ignorance and our infirmities, lest our general confidence should not
suffice in the time of trial; and yet to some minds, a general declaration
implying a promise like the one in our passage today provides greater strength
than any specific promise.
9. How few realize that if they are not complete in
Christ it is because of unbelief. The
truth is, it is because they have never known the exercise and power of true
faith.
10. Doubts concerning the doctrine of entire
sanctification are unbelief, for it is impossible that anyone should doubt the
doctrine of entire sanctification who has a firm faith in what Christ
says. If God promises sufficient grace,
doubting God is unbelief.
11. Many deceive themselves when they say, “I believe the promise, but I don’t believe
I will fulfill the condition”. The
truth is, believing the promise is fulfilling the condition. How many nullify the promises this way. They say they believe that they would
fulfill the promise if they complied with the condition, but they know that
they don’t do this, and they have no confidence, or assurance, that they ever
will. Instead of blaming themselves for
their unbelief, they really turn their unbelief into a virtue, by calling it a
lack of self-confidence. Its real name
is unbelief.
12. If Christ is the depositary of all we need, we
can see why God commands us to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. (Heb 4:16) People today
almost universally regard true faith as presumption, and the kind of boldness,
that Jacob, Moses, and others exercised, they declare as unchristian. This is quite shocking when, as a matter
fact, it is presumption and unchristian not to come boldly to the throne of
Grace. If you don’t come boldly you are
disobeying a divine requirement.
13. There is no real problem in the fact that the
promises are conditioned on faith. For
faith in promises depends on the confidence in the general character of the one
who makes those promises, and to not give full credit to the promise is to
impeach the character of the one who made that promise. Suppose an honest, wealthy man made a
promise with the condition that one must believe the promise. After all, every promise implies this. Would anyone have any problem with such a
condition? Not in the least! As long as we had confidence in his
character, we should regard it silly to make the condition that we must believe
He will keep His promise an issue. But
if we knew that man was unable, or we believed that he was unable or unwilling
to fulfill his promise, or that his general character was bad, then truly the
condition of faith in his promise would be a stumbling block. In fact, under those conditions, to
completely believe would be absurd and impossible.
14. It is impossible that unbelief would not make
the soul wretched, or that faith will not bring the soul deep rest.
15. What a tremendous foundation we have for
universal rest in Christ. He is a
Savior who exactly and perfectly meets our situation and needs as they
are. In Him dwells all the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Oh, it is so
important that we should know Him. It
is so important that our relationship with Him should be full. We need a more thorough relationship with
Christ than with anybody else. There is
such a thing as knowing more of Jesus, as having a more intimate relationship
with Him than the kind of relationship that exists between a husband and his
wife, or between the dearest, closest friends.
Whoever is ignorant of this, is ignorant of the very substance of the
gospel. A personal relationship with
Christ increasingly strengthens our confidence in Him. Yes, and such a relationship removes our
filth and makes us clean. James
Brainard Taylor exclaimed, “I am clean”.
Brethren are you clean? Are you
complete in Christ? Let us go to Him
and receive of His fullness, until we are “filled with all the fullness of
God”.