In Christ
What are you ‘in’ today? It’s a slightly odd question… with a wide variety of possible answers. You might be ‘in’ your home, drinking a cup of tea or ‘in’ the shower. You might be driving ‘in’ your car – hopefully listening to the audio version of this not reading the email! You might be ‘in’ love or in’ a bad mood. You might be ‘in’ your uniform for school or work, or ‘in’ comfy clothes like me, having been unwell all week.
Here are a few verses from Colossians chapter 2:
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Colossians 2.9-12 (NIV)
I would like to pull three things out of these rich verses.
First, ‘in Christ all the fullness of God lives in bodily form’. How that works, I do not know, but what it means is when we see Jesus we see God, when we listen to Jesus we listen to God, when we come to Jesus we come to God. The bodily form’ is vital; for how else can we creatures truly know God if he doesn’t come to us in a way we can understand, in a form we can relate to, in a body like ours?
Second, ‘in Christ’ we ‘have been brought to fullness’, or more simply we ‘have been filled in him’. Do you ever feel ’empty’? Not in terms of running out of energy, but in the sense of feeling something is missing, that there must be more? People try to fill the void with things that are not God, hoping that by ‘expressing themselves’ without limit, or ‘following their heart’s desire’ the gnawing emptiness with be filled. But it won’t, it just leaves us longing for more. We were made to be filled – to be filled in Christ.
Third, ‘in him’ we were ‘circumcised’ – by which Paul doesn’t mean a medical procedure but baptism. I was really sad not to be able to baptise Edith yesterday. Baptism is a wonderful thing. It is a sign pointing us to God’s grace, his gift of life – to which all must respond in faith, either immediately or as they grow up. Baptism is the way Christians say, ‘I’m with Jesus – what’s true of him is true of me.’ That’s what Paul means when he says ‘we have been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him’: ‘when you are in Christ’, what’s true of him is true of you.
Many of you reading or listening to this are ‘in Christ’. My prayer for you is that whatever else you are ‘in’, you may know deep in your heart that you are first and most importantly ‘in Christ’ – what’s true of him is true of you – and that you may be filled with all his fullness.
Some of you reading or listening might not be ‘in Christ’. If you want to know true fulfilment, if you want to fill the emptiness, the longing in your heart – stop looking, because what you are looking for is ‘in Christ’, and we would love to help you find out more.