Complete in Him
Complete In Him
Colossians 2:9, 10:
For in him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily.
And ye are complete in him. . . .
If we are complete in Christ then we are truly complete.
Few Christians have utilized the power of God
within them because they fail to renew their minds to
the absolute truth of The Word in believing that they
are complete. To live the more abundant life and to be
“more than conquerors through him that loved us,” we
must confess and act as the Word of God directs. When
our confession fails to be in line with The Word, we
live below par, we fail to manifest the more abundant
life, and we do not indicate that we are “more than
conquerors.” When we believe too little, we manifest
less than that which legally and rightfully belongs to us
as sons of God.
When I confess that I am not what His Word declares
that I am, God is not less in me, but I am less in Him.
Literally, it makes me a liar. I am then confessing that
God is not right, and that He has not done for me what
He says He has done. God forbid that we should do this
for God is Truth and all men are liars.* If The Word declares
that we are complete in Him then we are complete
—for we are what The Word says we are, we have what
it says we have, we will be what it says we will be, and
we will have what it says we will have.
Our accepted English meaning of the word “complete”
does not convey the proper emphasis in this phrase of
the Scriptures: “And ye are complete in him. . . .” Aramaic
better expresses this phrase with clarity.
In Aramaic there are four different grammatical forms
to show the intensity of a verb. English has no verb
form which corresponds to this Aramaic form. Even in
Aramaic very few verbs go through all four of these
conjugations.
The first conjugation is Peal in Hebrew, Peshitta in
Estrangelo Aramaic, or what would be a simple form in
English. The second conjugation is called Pael in Hebrew,
Marcobta in Estrangelo Aramaic, or what would
be an intensive form in English. The third conjugation
is called Aphel in the Hebrew, Yatair Marcobta in Estrangelo
Aramaic, or what would be an extensive form in
English. To show some sort of comparison with English,
we will use the passive verb “to be complete.” The
intensive form would show a more intense completion—
“to be completely complete.” The extensive form indicates
even more intensity—“completely and absolutely
complete.”
If in Colossians 2:10 God had put the verb “complete”
in this last (extensive) usage—namely, that we are “completely
and absolutely complete in Him”—it would be
very wonderful; but this is not the case. God goes beyond
even this extensive form to show us how complete we
are in Him. The Aramaic manuscripts use in Colossians
2:10 a very rare fourth conjugation.
This fourth conjugation is called Shaphel in the Hebrew,
Yatair Yatair Marcobta in Estrangelo Aramaic,
or what would be an extra extensive form in English. It
is found only a few times in the Bible. This conjugation,
very rarely used, is difficult to translate. But here
is an attempt to translate Colossians 2:10 as it is given
in the Eshtaphal (passive form of Shaphel) form from
the Aramaic: “We are completely, completely, absolutely
complete in Him!” Such completeness is incomprehensible
to the finite human mind. At best, we can know for
a certainty that we are lacking in nothing.
The following are some of the ways which make up
our completeness.
Colossians 1:12, 13:
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us
meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
and hath translated us into the kingdom of [by] his
dear Son.**
Colossians 1:21, 22:
And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he
reconciled.
In the body of his flesh through death, to present
you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in
his sight.
Ephesians 1:7:
In whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of
his grace.
I Corinthians 1:30:
But of him [God] are ye in Christ Jesus, who of
God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption.
Colossians 2:10-12:
And ye are complete in him, which is the head of
all principality and power:
In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, in putting off the body
of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are
risen with him through the faith of the operation of
God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Romans 8:37:
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us.
Romans 6:4:
Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into
death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead
by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life.
As born-again sons of God, we are complete in Him.
The next step is to manifest this completeness. The operation
of the gift of holy spirit in each born-again believer
is the key to unleashing potential power and demonstrating
completeness. The gift of the holy spirit has nine
manifestations which are set forth in I Corinthians 12.
I Corinthians 12:7-11:
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every
man to profit withal.
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom;
to another the word of knowledge by the same
Spirit;
To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the
gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy;
to another discerning of spirits; to another
divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation
of tongues:
But all these worketh that one and the selfsame
Spirit, dividing to every man severally [his own] as
he [the man] will.
When we operate these manifestations, we begin to
evidence some of our God-given power. To go a step
further, the manifestations of the spirit result in producing
fruit of the spirit.
Galatians 5:22, 23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance. . . .
Fruit results from the operation of the manifestations
of the spirit. Christians can no more show the fruit of
the spirit without operating the manifestations of the
spirit than they can manifest the spirit without having
the spirit. Fruit of the spirit, of which Galatians 5:22
and 23 speak, is not the fruit of man’s works. The fruit
which evidences itself upon the operation of the manifestations
of the spirit is the only “fruit of the spirit.”
First we operate the manifestations, the tools, and thereby
cultivate into evidence the fruit. This truth is remarkable
when we consider that for years we have read “fruit
of the spirit” but have consistently acted as if it should
have read “the fruit of the works of man.”
How truly wonderful it is to realize that as sons of
God we have the manifestations of the spirit and that by
the operation of these manifestations is evidenced the
fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit comes into manifestation
in the senses world only as we renew our
minds to act by the power of the spirit within us. Often
people who appear to be producing fruit by their works,
even though it looks like genuine fruit, are producing
the works of man and not the fruit of the spirit. We as
Christians are warned of being deceived by such.
Colossians 2:8:
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.
Colossians 2:4:
And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with
enticing words.
The manifestations of the spirit and the evidencing
of the fruit of the spirit show forth some of our completeness.
The full extent of being “complete in him,”
however, can only be known when we see Him face to
face.
Colossians 3:1-4:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things
on the earth.
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory.
Surely when we “appear with him in glory,” we
shall be able to fully appreciate that we are completely,
completely, absolutely complete in Him. How spiritually
invigorating it is to know and to realize that we as
Christians are what God says we are and that we have
what He says we have. We must renew our minds to
believe and appropriate His Word to our every day living.