The Fullness of Christ

It happened just yesterday… God awakened in me a deep curiosity. I was attending a men’s bible study at my church participating in a discussion on James 1:19-25. It was then and there that the questions began running rampant in my mind and heart. What does it mean to humbly accept the word planted in me? What does it mean to have the fullness of Christ in me? What does having a treasure in a jar of clay really mean? And so it was right then both my head and my heart started on a journey of which they are both continuing to travel. If the fullness of Christ is in me, I want to know all there is to know and how it effects how I relate and fellowship with Christ, how I share Christ and how I grow in Christ.

For the sake of discussion, allow me to start with this premise… at the moment of salvation the bible says a person becomes a new creation. It is at that moment of change when we are indwelled with the fullness of Christ through the holy spirit. Therefore it is safe to say… God cannot be anymore in me than He already is. All there is left to do is for Him to acquire more territory that I have and am claiming as my own. Life transformation takes place as we allow the fullness of Christ to be more fully revealed. It’s not a matter of inviting more of God in us it is a matter of Him acquiring more of us. While changing our habits and our ways to better reflect the Christian life are certainly good, what makes us Christ-like, is us doing away with ourselves and allowing Him to be more revealed. So I ask the question… is discipleship and/or Christ-likeness more about change, or death to self and Christ revealed?

Is God not more interested in Christ being revealed in us and through us than He is in us becoming like Christ by mimicking His life? Don’t get me wrong, becoming like Christ must be one of our highest aims in this life, but never at a greater level of pursuit than the fullness of Christ being revealed in us and through us. May we not forsake the fullness of Christ being revealed in us for the transformation of the flesh. What good will it be if we learn to act like Christ, think like Christ, talk like Christ and never allow Christ who is fully in us to be revealed because we have become more interested in an external change than an internal transformation. Hide and limit the very one I am trying to become like? Sounds strangely familiar! I desire to spend more of my time and energy placing my focus on dying to self, in order that the fullness of Christ might become more and more evident in me, rather than doing all of the things I have been taught . to make me a Christian or scarily to say a better disciple. If we are not careful, we can plot and plan ourselves right into mediocrity. May we spend more of our time and focus on allowing God to chip away our jar of clay in order that the all-surpassing power of God might be fully revealed and displayed (2 Cor. 4:7-12). We house the glory of God and live as a display case for His glory. External change and internal transformation may sound as though they will take us to the same destination…but they are altogether different streets! God…if you live in me, then crack this jar and allow my aim in life to be a spillway for you and not a dam. May my fleshly nature be chipped away little by little exposing the presence of Christ in me. Let my life be a stage that I never stand on. Allow the written word to bring alive the Word (Jesus) who lives in me. Allow the Word (Jesus) who lives in me to bring alive the written word. It is when both word’s are alive that I know my jar has been and is being cracked and chipped away.

When people look at me, I do not want them to see a man who is struggling to live a life like Christ, I want them to see Christ in me! When the fullness of Christ that is in me is revealed, have I not become more Christ-like?

Prayer: God…it is my prayer to chip away whatever is keeping Christ from being fully revealed to me and though me.

Pastor Andy Veith