For fresh Christians, there are several passages that bring comfort. And it is a comfort they truly need as they take a leap of faith to trust an invisible God. One such passage says that you are complete in Him. If you stay the course, you soon experience an even stronger interpretation of that passage. You discover that you are only complete in Christ. In other words, outside of Christ, you can never experience completeness.
There will always be something in your life that is wanting any time you are outside of Christ. You know, like those times when we neglect or refuse to confess our waywardness. Naturally, if you jumped ship at the first storm, you will never experience this phenomenon. You will never know that outside of Christ, there is no completeness.
That is not to say that this is only addressing die-hard believers. Even if you are an unbeliever, and you find that your life is always dissatisfying, it applies. All you need do is get on board the Christ boat to start finding completeness. Because you are only complete in Christ and in no other, not even presidents or earthly kings.
The Reason You Are Only Complete in Christ
It is quite clear in scriptures that God put all of Himself into Jesus before sending Jesus to walk the earth. Or, as the relevant passage says, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form.” It is hard to conceive of any need that you may have outside the fullness of the Godhead. In Christ, you find God; in Him, you find the Holy Spirit and in this same Christ, you find Christ.
The entire Godhead is in Christ, not partially but in full. You can almost conclude that anything outside of Christ pertains to the devil and his devices. Or as someone says, outside of Christ you find crisis. Many who came to Him with their crises received not only healing but wellness aka wholeness.
In the same way, you can bring your problems to Jesus and receive wholeness or completeness. That is because you are only complete in Christ. Now, you may be wondering at the need for this post, particularly if your life is sailing rather smoothly. You feel complete, with only a hiccup here or there and therefore, see no need to hear this message. Hold on! You do not learn to sail in a storm.
Why It Is Critical To Know That You Are Complete in Christ
When the storm arrives, if you are not already equipped, it will likely destroy you. And storms do come, in anyone’s life, usually without warning. So, it is important to know beforehand where your defense lies. Hence the need for this understanding that you are only complete in Christ.
He is our safe harbor to whom we may resort before the storms of life come upon us. As they are sure to do. Consider the disciples of Jesus. They got caught in a storm with Jesus. Naturally, they were at risk of perishing, just as we are when we are without Jesus. Fortunately, they had enough sense to cry out for Him. He arose, commanded the storm and immediately, the crisis was over.
You Are Complete In Christ, The Prince Of Peace
The rapidity with which the storm ceased at Jesus’ say-so astounded these recently-beleaguered disciples. You see, they did not know what you and I know: that Jesus is the Prince of peace. He was thus able to tell the storm “Peace, be still.” The storm understood that short sentence much better than the disciples did.
You may also be interested in:
- Avoid Being Bewitched In Church
- Many Peddling The Word Of God
- The Efficacy Of The Blood
- A Brighter Future
- Choose Your Pastor With Care
It knew that Jesus was introducing Himself before giving the command. Expanded, that terse sentence would read something like this. “How dare you rage in my Presence? Have you forgotten that I am the Prince of peace? Therefore, I command you storm, be still.” But you might already know that Jesus is a man of few words, like His Father.
And if you have spent some time around televangelists, you probably know the most popular definition of peace. Mostly, they define peace as nothing missing, nothing broken. Which brings us around again to that concept of wholeness and completeness. Whichever way you look at Jesus, you find that your wholeness is in Christ and in no other. You discover that you are only complete in Christ both by precept as well as by experience.
Avoid Religious Deception
In addition to wholeness and peace, the Apostle Paul wanted believers to have this understanding for a specific reason. Because, if you are not sure that you are only complete in Jesus, you will look for help in diverse places. The early believers ran the risk of being deceived into thinking they needed something in addition to Christ. Those included philosophy and empty deceit; the tradition of men and the basic principles of the world.
Not so, proclaimed Paul. All you needed, need and will ever need is in Christ. And what’s more, you are only complete in Christ. Don’t let anybody beguile you into thinking that you need something else in addition to Christ.
For us today, it is even worse. We are in danger of being deceived into thinking that we need something other than Jesus Christ. Note the difference. Initially, it was Jesus plus, say philosophy. Now, it is Jesus? Not Jesus, just philosophy. Total substitution. We who are alive today should really be more appreciative of Paul. He took the trouble to tell us unequivocally “you are only complete in Christ.”
Don’t look elsewhere because elsewhere is nothing but crisis. And we don’t need to look too far today to realize that the world is in crisis. It is looking for help where there is no help. Trust me, you are only complete in Christ.
Maranatha!
1 thought on “You Are Only Complete In Christ”
Comments are closed.