Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Col.2: 9-19 October 5, 2025

Message: “Complete in Christ!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Introduction:

1. So far we have learned about the gospel of Christ that keeps on producing fruit and growing.

2. Then we learned about the supremacy of Christ through whom “all things were created” and “through whom all things are held together.” 

a. In fact, through the coming of Christ, God revealed a wonderful truth that “Christ in you is the hope of glory”

(Col. 1:27). In fact, all “the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Him” and can be found and experienced through Him (Col. 2:3).

b. For all these reasons, in Col. 2:9, it says: “In Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and you are complete in Him, who is the head over every power and authority.”

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A. Let us consider what it means to be “complete in Christ.”

1. I like the way Paul describes it in Eph. 3:18-19 where he prays that you “being rooted and grounded in love, may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

a. In Col. 2:9-10, it says: “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form and you have been given this fullness in Christ.”

b. Our grandson likes to measure how tall he is and places a mark on the wall to show it.  God wants us to measure our growth in Christ by the standard of God’s fullness.   

2. I believe the secret to that growth is found in Jer. 29:13 where God Himself says: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

a. When we receive Christ, we receive all that God has to offer us – all we will ever need.

b. To grow in Christ is to seek Him and discover all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are there for us. That is a lifelong process.

B. Secondly, we are complete in Christ because of His triumph on the cross.

1. In the O.T., a Jewish man was to be circumcised shortly after he was born. This showed he was a Jew.

a. But the cutting off of the foreskin was also a reminder that he was a sinner who deserved to die. But if he would trust in the Lord, he could be forgiven and live. 

b. Paul warned the Jews of his day that it was not enough to just be a Jew outwardly. To love the Lord and try to live for Him showed you were also a Jew inwardly.

2. Through the coming of Christ, God offered people a better way. Instead of being circumcised by the hands of men, in Col.2: 11, God offered them “the circumcision done by Christ.”

a. Paul calls this “the putting off of our sinful nature” which Jesus accomplished by dying on the cross for us.

b. In vs 13, he writes: “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us of all our sins, having cancelled the written code with its regulations”  (that condemned us), He nailed it to the cross.”

3. Whenever a person was crucified by the Romans, they nailed the grievance against them on the cross. 

a. So when Jesus was crucified, Pilate wrote the charge the Jews brought against Jesus because He  claimed to be their Messiah, the King of the Jews. Of course, Jesus was the king of the Jews. Therefore He did not deserve to die. 

b. But the Bible says Jesus willingly died to pay the penalty that we deserved.  Spiritually speaking, He nailed to the cross all of the sinful charges God held against us, showing they were paid in full by our wonderful Savior.

4. The gospel message is that whosoever will believe in Him will be considered to have been in Him. Thus His death becomes our death, and His resurrection becomes our resurrection. That is why physical circumcision is no longer necessary. We have already been circumcised through the death of Christ in our behalf.

C. Paul calls laws like circumcision “a shadow of things to come, the reality however is found in Christ” (Col. 2:17).

1. Do you understand what he is saying? When the sun casts a shadow, the shadow is not what is most important. The reality that caused the shadow is what matters.

a. This means all the O.T. sacrifices for the sins of the people were like a shadow or picture of what Christ would do. Now that Jesus has died for us, the sacrifices are no longer necessary. 

b. In John 1:29, John the Baptist pointed at Jesus and said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

2. That is why God allowed the temple in Jerusalem to be destroyed in 70 A.D. It had fulfilled its purpose. That is also why the veil in the temple was rent from the top to the bottom the moment Jesus died. Christ our great High Priest offered and paid the last sacrifice that will ever be needed. 

3. In Col. 2:16-19, the Bible mentions a lot of other rules and regulations that were also fulfilled and are no longer necessary. For example, Peter was given a vision where God told him to eat what had always been considered unclean foods. When Peter objected, God said: “What God has cleansed, let no man call common or unclean” (Acts 10:15).

a. Immediately after having this vision, Gentiles knocked on his door and said he was to go and visit Cornelius. Peter understood that through the death of Christ, Gentiles were also being invited to receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

b. All that God asks is that we come to Him and receive Him and allow Him to make us into new creatures in Christ.

In Conclusion:

1. In Col. 3 & 4, we will learn about the changes God desires us to make in our lives with His help.

2. Jesus once compared the gospel to pouring new wine into new bottles. Otherwise, the new wine would break the old wineskin.

a. Even so, Jesus has come to make all things new. It is no wonder the Jews had a hard time understanding and accepting all that Christ has done.

b. This is not because Jesus rejected the O.T. It is because He fulfilled it. In the process, Jesus has given us a new covenant to replace the old covenant.

c. And in Hebrews 8:13, it says: “By calling this covenant new, He made the first one obsolete, and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.”

3. The good news of the gospel is that Jesus came as “the fullness of Deity in bodily form.” Because He is who He is and did what He did, all who receive Him receive the fullness of God and are complete in Christ. 

4. May God give us the ears to hear what this passage is teaching us.  Amen!