GRACE AND THE TRUTH - DAILY INSPIRATION

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SELFLESS SERVICE
By Miles Stanford



"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11).

It is easy to just "let George do it," but it is so unrewarding. There is a Christ-honoring ministry of being and sharing awaiting each believer, and the secret is to let Christ do it!

"Our Father has a different line of things for everyone, and each of us has been sent into this world for some special mission. It is not a question whether it is great or small; it may be only a flower to shed fragrance, though this is really the greatest of all.

"There is no higher service than moral influence, 'thy whole body ... full of light'; and this, of all the highest moral order, is within the compass of all. 'Christ shall be magnified in my body whether by life or by death' (Phil. 1:20) ."-J.B.S.

"A mark of the true servant is that he is consciously nothing. John could speak of himself as only a 'voice,' and a greater than John was consciously 'less than the least of all saints.' The moment we think ourselves to be anything, we are out of the servant's true position and spirit. There is a beautiful contrast between John's account of himself, and the Lord's description of him (John 1:22-27; Luke 7:26-28 ). The more worthy we are of the Lord's commendation, the less do we think of ourselves." - CA.C

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus upon a foundation of good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2.10). (Rotherham)

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THE FIRST CAUSE
By Miles Stanford


"A man's goings are established of Jehovah; and he delighteth in His way" (Ps. 37:23, ASV).

Throughout time and eternity the God of circumstances has every situation planned for our good, and for His glory (Rom. 8 :28, 29). That is all that should matter to us. "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee." "For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God" (Ps. 76:10; II Cor. 4:15).

"What the other person said or did to you was undoubtedly wrong and cannot be justified. Nor did he do it at God's direction; but God permitted him to do it for some wise reason which will yet prove to have been abundantly worthwhile for you. By the time that action reached you it had become the will of God for you, since to a yielded believer there are no second causes.

"He believes the Psalmist's declaration that every step of his life's pathway has been ordered by the Lord. No trial or affliction can reach you who are abiding in Him, without His permission. You can, therefore, be confident in every circumstance of life, however baffling, that it has been permitted in your own best interest by the wisest and most loving of fathers, who knows our 'load-limit' (I Cor. 10:13)."-0.S.

"All that we pass through is that we may get a fresh view of the Lord Jesus, or a deepening of a former one; but often we are so occupied with ourselves and the circumstances, that we fail to 'behold the glory of the Lord.' " - C.T.

"If the external planning's of men or Satan further God's plans, they succeed; if not, they come to nothing," - J.N.D.

"Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand" (Ps. 37:24).

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"Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ"  Ephesians 1 :2-3

THE BLESSINGS OF GRACE

As Paul bade farewell to the saints at Ephesus. knowing that this was a sad and final parting, he comforted them, saying. "I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified (set apart)" (Acts 20:32). God bestows many blessings on even the unregenerate. But it is those who are sanctified that receive the rich and satisfying spiritual blessings of which the apostle is speaking as he reassures the brethren.

The limitless scope of grace whereby we receive such blessings is often emphasized by Paul in his epistles. In the Ephesian letter he writes that God "is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20). And the assurance that this is so is our source of peace, which is in itself our greatest of all blessings. "For He (Christ) IS our peace..." (Ephesians 2:14) We are even instructed as to how we may most fully enjoy this most precious of gifts. "Be careful (anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God,which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6.7).

We are reminded, of course, that peace through prayer does not result from the granting of specific requests as we petition "For we know not what to pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us." (Romans 8:26). This comforting assurance is what brings us peace.

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GIVING THAT HONORS GOD
By HAROLD STEINBRON

Scripture Reading: Proverbs 3:9; 11 Corinthians 9:6, 7

Verse 9 is the fourth admonition the wise teacher is putting forth to those who will listen: Verse 5-trust wholly in God and not in self. Verse 6---acknowledge God in every pursuit. Verse 7---true wisdom is to fear God and forsake evil. Now that that ground work has been laid, the wise teacher reaches to touch our wallet or purse. You see God does not request those earthly supporters of His work to give one nickel until they have truly given their life and person to God. Once the blessing of God has enriched our home, our work, our relation with others then we will be glad to invest some of the financial blessing God has graciously given. I must say personally, that God has not given me too much in the way of money; only so much as is good for me. In Proverbs 30:8, 9 the writer prays God to give him neither poverty nor riches lest he be poor and steal, or be rich and forget God.

Our handling of money is a good index of our level of true spirituality. Paul in these verses tells that if we send on ahead very little of the money God blesses us with here, we will reap a meager harvest in the life that begins at the death of this body. God does not really need our money. We know God paves the streets with gold in that city that comes down out of Heaven. We need to give, to deny the old selfish, greedy, grasping nature that Paul says we have died to, but we want to keep it alive, and pamper it. God has put within us a nature that knows it is more blessed to give than receive. God loves hilarious givers.

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LOVED, TO LOVE
By Miles Stanford


"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3).

His love is mine when I know what He did for me; my love is His when I know who He is to me - He who is Love, is my Life. He loved, and died; that I might live, and love. "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine" (Song. of S. 6:3).

"My Father, in His grace, has come in and ended my history in the flesh, by the Cross, and now by the Spirit I am brought into association with His Son at His own right hand in heaven.

"The Lord Jesus wins my heart in His humiliation; He satisfies it in His glory. A won heart is not necessarily a satisfied heart. But if a heart is truly won by the Lord Jesus it never will be satisfied without Him. No heart that is won is ever satisfied but in the company of the One who won it. Absence does not 'make the heart grow fonder'! You only discover in absence what you have gained in presence." -J.B.S.

"We talk of difficulties and perplexities. How little the heart is really in concert, in simple concert with the Lord Jesus! He has gone up to the right hand of the Father in greater power than ever, and He is using the elevation that He has gone to, to effect deliverance for me from all things that would break fellowship between Him and me. And He uses His Word to keep me from all that would interfere with that blessed communion."

"Thy Word have I hidden in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee" (Ps. 119:11).

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The Spirit Of Sonship
by Pastor C. R. Stam



“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [Lit., sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15).

The position of the believer in the family of God is amply illustrated for us in the Epistles of Paul. In Gal. 4:1-5 the Apostle alludes to the fact that in the life of every Hebrew boy there came a time, appointed by the father, when the lad was formally declared to be a full-grown son, with all the rights and privileges of sonship. It was now assumed that the young man would no longer need overseers to keep him in check. There would be natural understanding and co-operation between father and son. And so the “adoption” [Gr.,son-placing] proceedings took place, indicating that the child, now a full-grown son, was no longer under law, but under grace.

“And because ye are sons,” says the Apostle, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a [full-grown] son”(Gal. 4:6,7).

This is the position of every believer in Christ. He may, like the Corinthians, still be a babe in his spiritual experience (I Cor. 3:1), but in Christ he occupies the position of a full-grown son, and to grow spiritually it will do him no good to go back under the Law; he must rather recognize his standing before God in grace. This is why the Apostle says in Rom. 8:15:

“Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption [sonship], whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

A recognition of this position will do far more to help us live godly lives than will the “dos and dont’s” of the Law.

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THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
By the late Pastor ROBERT E. HANNA


 Scripture Reading: I Timothy 3: 16

The mystery of godliness might well be defined in human terminology as an incredible paradox. To be both God and man, to be both visible and invisible, to walk guilelessly among men and reign supreme in glory---surely this is a mystery beyond comprehension. Even though this mystery has been divinely revealed, it remains nevertheless incomprehensible.

How then can mankind possibly acknowledge such a seeming impossibility? In the realm of mortality, we think of "solving" a mystery. That this is impossible becomes immediately self-evident. One alternative exists---only one. Only BY FAITH can we accept and possess such profound spiritual truth. And even that very faith is itself of God; it cannot be self-generated. We can exercise the believing faith only because He has enabled us so to do.

"By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). In the words of Matthew Henry (in his commentary), "Both that faith and that salvation are the gift of God. God has ordered all so that the whole shall appear to be of grace."

God's mysteries cannot be discerned apart from faith. And precisely what IS faith? "Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen ... Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed [ages were planned] by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear" (Heb. 11:1,3).

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PERFECT IN CHRIST
By Pastor Floyd Baker


Scripture Reading: Colossians 1:28

"To whom (His saints vs. 26) God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory WHOM WE PREACH, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present EVERY MAN PERFECT IN CHRIST JESUS: whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." Along with this we read in Ephesians 4:13, "Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a PERFECT man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Many times 1 Corinthians 13:13 is referred to and we are instructed that "love is the ultimate" in God's will for our lives. But this verse must be understood in the light of the context. Paul has been showing the transitory purpose of certain gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and knowledge and in this light love is said to abide. What we are to realize is "that which is perfect" is in view and in Colossians and Ephesians "that which is perfect" (same Greek word) is present. We do not minimize love but it has to be put into proper perspective. Love is not to be apart from the "full-knowledge" of God's truth for the administration of grace but along with it.

Notice the words Paul uses to describe his God-given instructions to present every man "perfect in Christ Jesus." "To which end also I am constantly laboring to the point of exhaustion, engaging in a contest in which I am controlled by His energy which operates in me in power" (Wuest).

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SATAN AND THE TRUTH
by C. R. Stam



"If any man be in Christ he is a new creation..." (II Cor. 5:17).

"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus..." (Eph. 2:10).

"And ye are complete in Him..." (Col. 2:10).

"In Christ!" What a glorious truth! What a high and holy position! No religious ceremony, neither circumcision nor baptism, needed to make us spiritually complete. God only asks now: "Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (Eph. 4:1).

Many Christians are satisfied with salvation through the blood of Christ, but God wants us to have much more than this. He wants us to have "the full assurance of understanding" (Col. 2:2), to know the security, the blessedness, the glory of a position in Christ. He wants us to know "the exceeding riches of His grace" (Eph. 2:7), and to enjoy "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 1:3).

But Satan does not!

For proclaiming these glorious truths the Apostle Paul was bitterly opposed on every hand, even by some saved religious leaders of his day.

And Satan has not changed!

Proclaim this message today and "your adversary the devil" will soon be roused to action. He hates this message of grace which the glorified Lord revealed through Paul (Eph. 3:1-3) and let us not be asleep to the fact that, as in Paul's day, he will again seek to use even saved religious leaders, evangelical "big guns," if he can, to oppose it, thus robbing Christ of His glory and believers of their blessings.

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THE WILL OF GOD IN CHRIST
By Pastor M. Duncan



Scripture Reading: I Thessalonians 5:18

In I Thessalonians chapter five, Paul outlines several activities that God expects of the saints. It is God's will that the saints "esteem" very highly those men of God who labour among them (Vers. 12-13). They are to "see that none render evil for evil unto any man" (Ver. 15). The saints are to "rejoice ever-more" and "pray without ceasing" (Vers. 16-17). They are not to "quench" the Spirit (Ver. 19) and are to "abstain from all appearance of evil" (Ver. 22). All this activity, Paul says, "is the WILL OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS" (Ver. 18 ).

The point Paul is making by this statement is that EVERYTHING God expects in the life of the saints can ONLY be carried out by the POWER of Christ through the new nature which the saint received at the moment of salvation. Not only is salvation the GIFT OF GOD, but the where-with-all to do that which God expects is also a GIFT OF GOD. Everything the saint IS or EVER WILL BE comes from Christ. We see this by what Paul says in Philippians 4:13. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." We today can only do the will of God as Christ also strengthens us.

Many saints today make the same error in their thinking as the Galatians did in Paul's day and we need to be reproved just as sternly as Paul rebuked the Galatians in Galatians 3:3. "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Can we today be saved through faith in Christ's death for our sins and then take off in the strength of the flesh to accomplish God's will for our Christian life? Surely not! Our only strength is "IN CHRIST" and God's will is that we do all things through HIM Who strengthens us.

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Liberty Not License
by Pastor C.  R. Stam

 The fact that we are given perfect liberty in Christ does not mean that we should spend our lives in gratifying our own fleshly desires. Just the opposite is the case. Believers have been delivered from the bondage of childhood and given the liberty of full-grown sons in Christ (Gal. 3:24; 4:1-7), and this advance from infancy to maturity in itself implies the acquisition of a sense of responsibility.

The doctrine of our liberty in Christ does not support, it rather refutes, the false theory that those who are under grace may do anything they please. Paul was “slanderously reported” in this connection (Rom. 3:8 ), but there were carnal believers then, as there are now, who actually did use their liberty as license to gratify their own desires. To turn from liberty to license in this way is fully as serious an error as to turn from liberty to law.

Many a believer, motivated only by his own fleshly desires and not at all by love for Christ or others, has indulged in pleasures of the flesh and of the world, justifying himself on the ground that he is under grace and has liberty in Christ. Taking others down with him in his spiritual declension he complains of any who would help him, that, “They are trying to put me under the law”.

Such are actually guilty of departing from grace, for “the grace of God…hath appeared”:


“Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world;

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

“Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all  Iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11-14).

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THE ETERNAL PURPOSE IN CHRIST
By Donald Weffald



Scripture Reading: Ephesians 3:11

"Who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:9b-11).

Here we are told by the Apostle Paul that the Church is part of the "eternal purpose" of God. Although the Church is subject of the "mystery" that had been "hid in God (Ephesians 3:9) and "in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men" (Eph. 3:5), it definitely was not after thought. It is part of the grand plan "purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11). Purposed in the Greek is poieo and means "to do (Lat. ago), i.e. to follow some method in expressing by deeds the feelings and thoughts of the mind" (Thayer). God had it in mind all along. God always  does things with a purpose.

The Church is now making known the "manifold wisdom of God" to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places" (Ephesians 3:10). This is the Godward side of the wonderful  truth of the dispensation of the mystery. What God is doing now through the Church is displaying His wonderful wisdom to the angelic beings. And look at what He has done through Christ! He has taken ruined sinners and made them saints (Ephesians I:1). "In whom (Christ) also we (the Church) have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).

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COMPLETE IN CHRIST
Part 1 of 4
by William B. Hallman


Colossians 2:8-10 - "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of The Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power."

THE GREATEST DISCOVERY that any human being can make is the discovery of the ALL-SUFFICIENCY OF CHRIST, and the utter worthlessness of man without Him. Christ is all, and in Him we have all. Without Him we are nothing, absolutely nothing. It makes no difference how many times we multiply ciphers: they will be devoid of all magnitude or quality until we place some digit before them. But, once a digit is placed before them, they take on meaning, value, significance.

"CHRIST IS ALL" is the covering principle of this Book of Colossians. Look at the following verses: "That in all things He might have the preeminence" (1:18 ); "In Him should all fulness dwell" (1:19); "In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (2:3); "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (2:9); "In Him, which is the Head of all principality and power" (2:10); "Christ is all and in all" (3:11).

I am sure we all can sing with Charles Wesley, "Thou, 0 Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find."

Browning wrote, "I say, the acknowledgment of God in Christ, accepted by that reason, solves for thee all questions in the earth and out of it, and has so far advanced thee to be wise." And it was Bishop Moule who said, "No surer test according to Scripture can be applied to anything claiming to be Christian teaching. Where does it put Jesus Christ? What does it make of Jesus Christ? Is He something in it, or is He all?"

This Epistle of Colossians is a positive presentation of the antidote to every form of heresy. Epaphras had come to Paul at Rome with the news that a real danger of false teaching had beset the church at Colosse. This new heresy called Gnosticism was a combination of Judaic Ritualism and Oriental Mysticism (see 2:16-18 ). These Colossians were asked to accept something in addition to Christ. They taught that Christ was not sufficient, not unique. They taught an additional philosophy (v. 8 ), an additional astrology (v. 8 ), "elements of the world" having to do with stars and planets), an additional circumcision (v. 11), additional ascetic rules and regulations (vss. 16, 20-23), and additional worship of angels (v. 18 ).

When anyone says that we are to be saved or kept by the Law, they have never understood the phrase, "COMPLETE IN HIM." "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth" (Rom. 10:4). When anyone suggests that we can add to our salvation by doing something, they have never understood the phrase, "COMPLETE IN CHRIST." "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8 ). When anyone suggests that water baptism in any form is necessary for salvation, or as a testimony to one's faith or the door to the church, they do not understand the phrase, "COMPLETE IN HIM." "For we are Buried with Him in baptism" (Col. 2:12). When we are told that we must keep the Sabbath, we know men do not understand the COMPLETENESS we have in Christ. "The Sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2:16-17).

The word translated ''fulness'' in 2:9 is in the Greek the word pleroma, and the word "complete" in 2:10 is the word pepleromenoi. This latter is a perfect passive participle of the word pleroo. The word means to "make full, to fill up, to fill to the full, to diffuse throughout, complete, nothing wanting." So the great word in this Epistle, both with reference to Christ, is this word pleroma or pleroo. This fulness is worked into the very structure and language of the Epistle. (See 1:9; 1:19; 1:24; 1:25; 2:2; 2:9, 2:10; 4:12; 4:17.)

Not only in Colossians, but in the whole Bible we have tributes to Jesus Christ. He is seen in every promise, parable, prophecy, type, poem, narrative, allegory, and symbol. He is likened to the sun, the stars, the shepherd, the lamb, the lion, the door, the cornerstone, the foundation, the bread, and the wine. Everything about Him is superlative. He is the "Lord of Lords," "the King of Kings," "the fairest among ten thousand."

Nothing can go beyond completeness. You can add nothing to it. You might as well try to purge a sunbeam, or purify the whiteness of the newly fallen snow as to add to that which is already perfect. And it is not only true that "all fulness dwells in Him," but also that we are "COMPLETE IN HIM."

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COMPLETE IN CHRIST
Part 2 of 4
by William B. Hallman


One day Michelangelo went into the studio of the young painter Raphael, and, finding him gone, left without leaving his name. But before he went, he took a piece of chalk and wrote on the canvas of the poor and meager design of Raphael a bold and sweeping line with the word "amplius" (wider). When Raphael returned and saw this, he knew immediately who had been there and done this. He thus changed his style. So our Lord points to His fulness and our narrowness and emptiness, and challenges us to partake of His fulness - His pleroma.

It is the privilege of every person to recognize their completeness in Christ. This can be done first,

BY RECOGNIZING CHRIST'S FULNESS

"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9)
Alford paraphrases this verse, "For in Him all the complete perfection essential to the Godhead abides corporeally, substantially, and really, and not in the manner of shadows."

CHRIST'S FULNESS is resident in His Person ("in Him" -en auto). This phrase is given the emphatic position in the verse, and draws our attention first to the One Who has the FULNESS. The Holy Spirit wants us to see Him, even before we see HIS FULNESS. This is important.

We must also recognize the Permanence of this FULNESS in the word "dwelleth" - katoikei. This word means "to settle down, to be at home." Deity is at home in Christ, and dwells so in a permanent way.

There is also the Plentitude of this FULNESS as seen in the words, "all the fulness of the Godhead" - pan to pleroma tes Theotetos. To make this matter exceedingly clear, the Apostle use the word "pan" (all), emphasizing that the FULNESS is complete. There is no portion of the plentitude that is not present. Paul is pointing out further by the use of the word Theotetos (Godhead) that not mere quality of God resides in Christ, as seen in Romans 1:20 by the use of the word Theiotes, but the absolute essence of God dwells in Christ. CHRIST IS NOT MERELY LIKE GOD, THAT IS DIVINE, BUT HE IS THEOS - GOD. This was Paul's declaration against the Gnostics before Athanasius had to oppose Arius (who said that the Son is not of the same substance as the Father, but was created as an agent for creating the world).

IN THIS FULNESS OF CHRIST we also recognize the place in the word "bodily" - somatikos. This is an adverb modifying the verb "dwell," pointing to the manner. It means "bodily/' or "in bodily manifestation." This does not mean a mystical dwelling, nor a mere spiritual dwelling, nor a limited bodily dwelling. It does mean an eternal bodily dwelling. There can be only one tenable explanation, and that is that Christ was and is God. All the fulness dwelt in Him before the incarnation, during the incarnation, and continues so permanently. Since "in Christ" the plentitude dwells permanently, and bodily, there is the manifestation that gives the lie to all forms of Gnosticism, which perverts the truth about the person of Christ.

If the foregoing exposition is true, and it is, then certain things follow in logical sequence.

CHRIST IS HEAD OF ALL CREATION. "For by Him were all things created, ... all things were created by Him, and for Him" (Col. 1:16-17). In creation, Christ is preeminent. Every form and kind of matter, simple and complex, were created by Him. The atom and the star, the sun and the cloud, every grade of life from the worm to the angel, every order of intellect and being around and above us, the splendors of Heaven and the nearer phenomena of the earth are the product of the first-born of all creation. Three prepositions are used in relation to Christ as Creator - en, dia, and eis, - "in Him," "'through Him," and ''for Him." Christ is the source, the means and the end of all creation. He is also the conserver of all- "by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:17). He impresses upon creation its unity and solidarity, making it a cosmos instead of a chaos. He feeds the sun with fuel and the sparrow with corn. He guides the planets in their courses, and keeps the heart beating in man. He cares for the tiniest insect that makes the coral and the mightiest leviathan which plows the deep. He guides the seraph and the cherub in their inter-spacial missions. The helm of the universe is in His hands that  were nailed to Calvary for you and me. Everywhere we behold His footprints; out of every storm and solitude we hear His voice across the darkness saying, "It is I, be not afraid."

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COMPLETE IN CHRIST
Part 3 of 4
by William B. Hallman



CHRIST IS ALSO THE HEAD OF ALL REDEMPTION.



"And having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself' (Col. 1:20). He is both the "Author and Finisher" of our faith, the "Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and End" of our redemption. When He cried, "It is finished," it was finished. Nothing was left undone, and nothing need be added. In the incarnation He became both God and man; in the crucifixion He became our means of peace and provision for every spiritual blessing; in the resurrection He became our power over death, the grave, and Lake of Fire; in His ascension and seating at God's right hand, He became our guarantee of all future glory with Him. Nothing has been left undone for our future glorification with Him "in the Heavenlies."

CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH, HIS BODY.
"And He is the Head of the body, the church" (Col. 1:18 ). The head is the glory of the body. There the chief beauty of manhood dwells. Christ is fairer than all. We are circumcised with Him, baptized (IDENTIFIED) with Him, risen with Him, ascended with Him, and seated with Him in glory. What a complete identification! It is the head which unifies the body, coordinates all its movements, regulates all its actions. From the head comes the mandate which lifts the hand and moves the foot.

CHRIST IS AGAIN THE HEAD OF OUR HOPE. "When Christ Who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Christ takes care of all our sorrows, sufferings, trials and tribulations. Matthew Arnold shows the failure of  the Greeks' religion to take into account the sorrows of life. It was only a fair- weather religion.


Twenty miners were once buried in a coal pit in Wales, standing in water to the waist, until but five remained. Yet they were singing, "In the deep and mighty waters there is none to hold my head, but my only Saviour Jesus, Who was offered in my stead." The South Sea Islanders have a palm tree that they use for bread, drink, clothing, shelter, light, material for books, cordage for boats, and for needles. So our Lord Jesus Christ is all and in all. We are God's heavenly people; our citizenship is in Heaven, and from thence we look for our Saviour. "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13).

THE "FULNESS" OF CHRIST is but half of the story. The apostle hastens on to show the other side. So we must also,

RECOGNIZE THE CHRISTIAN'S FULNESS.
"Ye are 'complete in Him" (2: 10). Note our present possession in the words "ye are." This word in the Greek holds the emphatic position. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God" (I John 3:2). Note also our present position "in Him." Again the Greek gives this an emphatic location. "In Him" is the richest little phrase in all of Paul's Epistles. This is the sphere of the believer's life. It is a sphere, not a mere circle. We are "in Him," surrounded above, beneath, beside, and all around. So nothing can come from without to harm us, and with Him within we should be "more than conquerors." "In Him" we have all that He has, and He is our fulness, our complement, our completeness. So also our past perfection as believers. The word is pepleromenoi, and means "COMPLETE, FILLED FULL, PERFECTED." This is a perfect, passive participle, so it represents a past perfect work. Demosthenes used the word here translated "complete" in describing a ship fully manned. Truly our ship is fully manned, from prow to stern, by her Captain Who steers the vessel, stills the storm, guides through rocks and reefs, feeds the crew, fills every need, and brings the vessel to its desired haven.