Sufficient Savior

Intro.

Have you ever noticed how many cinematic references have become cultural idioms? For example:

“I’m gonna give him an offer he can’t refuse!” from Godfather 2

“You can’t handle the truth!” from A Few Good Men

“May the Force be with you!” from the Star Wars franchise

“You complete me!” from Jerry McGuire

This last one, if you’ve ever seen that Tom Cruise movie, is spoken by a guy who had been a sleezy sports agent. He underwent a rather large personal and moral change, and in the big romantic moment of the film, as he is reconciles with his wife, he reinforces his love for her and that he believes she is his missing half, “You complete me.”

Ever since, the phrase, “You complete me,” has had the romantic part of our culture in a chokehold, and people say it to or about people or things they love all the time!

In our text this morning, we are going to find the truth about completion. That we don’t need romance, stuff, or vast knowledge — we need only Jesus.

Superior Savior

Colossians 2:9 LSB

9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily,

Notice here what Paul asserts about this Jesus who, as previous verses clarify, is also the place where all wisdom and knowledge are held and is Himself the Mystery worth knowing.

In Christ the “fullness of Deity dwells bodily,” or, as the ASV says it, “the fullness of the Godhead...”

What does “the fullness of” mean?

The Greek word means a “total quantity”. The heretical doctrine of the day in Colossae was that if you wanted to find God in His completeness, you had to attain to certain mystical, cosmic knowledge. Paul is here asserting that Jesus is God and everything that is God is found in Christ Himself.

If you have Christ, you have also God the Father — They are not the same in Person but they are always found together.

If you have Christ, you have the Father — Who is neither Father nor Son but equal in Deity.

This also means that everything that God is, Christ also is.

All the goodness, all the power, all the authority, all the sovereignty, all the mercy, all the wrath, all the grace, all the justice.

The “fullness” of Deity being found in Jesus means that if you want to know God, and have all of God, and have and intimate relationship with God, you only need Christ and you need go no further!

Sufficient Savior

Colossians 2:10 LSB

10 and in Him you have been filled, who is the head over all rule and authority;

Having found all that God is in Christ Himself, we also come to know the One Who is the Supreme Authority over all Creation both visible and invisible.

Rule

This word means primacy. Think of the governmental seat of Prime Minister, which means that person is the chief minister over the State.

Authority

Where “rule” means chief authority, this word is the right to exercise power and to command.

This is Who Jesus is! He is the Chief Authority toward Whom the universe stands at attention.

“In Him you have been filled...”

It is in this Jesus that we each find our completion. Even romantic love, as great as it is, isn’t an essential for full life — no one person on earth will “complete you” as Jerry McGuire said. But Jesus will!

In Him we are filled, a similar word as used in v.9 which here means “to make whole”.

*LENA* — Imagine a big puzzle with one final piece missing right in the middle, but you’ve got maybe three shapes leftover. Other shapes could be crammed into the slot, but that will end up causing problems for the whole puzzle because it wasn’t meant to be the completing piece. Only one piece was.

Similarly, we can try to find for ourselves some level of fulfillment through work, people, romance, money, reputation, or any number of other things destined to become idols. Only Jesus Himself can perfectly fit into the void each of us seeks to fill; only He can be that final puzzle piece; only He can cause a man to be fully and completely whole and entire at last.

Conclusion