40 Days of Praise - Day 9
Day Nine
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”
Colossians 1:19
There are two doctrines in historic Christianity that most people find confusing and frustrating: the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. Of the two, the Trinity is the more well known.
The doctrine of the two natures of Christ have to do with the fact that God the Son was fully God and became fully man without giving up being fully God, and without his God-ness and his man-ness getting mixed together. Yet He was one person, not two. That’s who Jesus is — the God-man, Immanuel, “God is with us”.
The doctrine of the Trinity is that there is one God who exists in three persons. The persons are distinct, they don’t get mixed up with one another, and yet they are, together, one God. All the attributes that are true of any one of them is true of all of them. But the Father is always the Father, the Son is always the Son, and the Spirit is always the Spirit. They don’t trade places or switch identities.
My intention is not to turn this devotional into a theology lesson. My goal is to help move us toward the passionate worship of our Lord and Savior. Today’s verse is about Jesus, the God–man. We’ve been learning about Him for several days now. Now we learn that “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
This is the kind of stuff that no one would have imagined 2000 years ago– that God who is three persons but one essence, would be pleased to dwell in a being who was both fully God and fully human. Even as I speak the words, my mind cannot comprehend the complexity of what’s being described.
Before the foundation of the world, as the creation of mankind was being planned, there apparently was a discussion within the Trinity. Because God knows the end from the beginning, they knew that when they created human beings, those beings would sin shortly after they were created. And because the Trinity shared among themselves a selfless and overflowing love, that love moved them such that God the Son took on the responsibility of becoming human in order to pay the sin debt that humans would create. This would cause the Father to forsake the Son and disrupt the unity of the Trinity to provide salvation to humanity.
But after paying the price, the Son would be raised from the dead and restored to the Father and the Spirit, and our salvation would be complete, ready for us to receive by faith.
In Jesus, we receive the entire Trinity, the fullness of God, and by faith we receive salvation from Him. All that we need is in Jesus!
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldn’t die for me?
Pastor Charles M. Butler
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”
Colossians 1:19
There are two doctrines in historic Christianity that most people find confusing and frustrating: the Trinity and the two natures of Christ. Of the two, the Trinity is the more well known.
The doctrine of the two natures of Christ have to do with the fact that God the Son was fully God and became fully man without giving up being fully God, and without his God-ness and his man-ness getting mixed together. Yet He was one person, not two. That’s who Jesus is — the God-man, Immanuel, “God is with us”.
The doctrine of the Trinity is that there is one God who exists in three persons. The persons are distinct, they don’t get mixed up with one another, and yet they are, together, one God. All the attributes that are true of any one of them is true of all of them. But the Father is always the Father, the Son is always the Son, and the Spirit is always the Spirit. They don’t trade places or switch identities.
My intention is not to turn this devotional into a theology lesson. My goal is to help move us toward the passionate worship of our Lord and Savior. Today’s verse is about Jesus, the God–man. We’ve been learning about Him for several days now. Now we learn that “in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”
This is the kind of stuff that no one would have imagined 2000 years ago– that God who is three persons but one essence, would be pleased to dwell in a being who was both fully God and fully human. Even as I speak the words, my mind cannot comprehend the complexity of what’s being described.
Before the foundation of the world, as the creation of mankind was being planned, there apparently was a discussion within the Trinity. Because God knows the end from the beginning, they knew that when they created human beings, those beings would sin shortly after they were created. And because the Trinity shared among themselves a selfless and overflowing love, that love moved them such that God the Son took on the responsibility of becoming human in order to pay the sin debt that humans would create. This would cause the Father to forsake the Son and disrupt the unity of the Trinity to provide salvation to humanity.
But after paying the price, the Son would be raised from the dead and restored to the Father and the Spirit, and our salvation would be complete, ready for us to receive by faith.
In Jesus, we receive the entire Trinity, the fullness of God, and by faith we receive salvation from Him. All that we need is in Jesus!
Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldn’t die for me?
Pastor Charles M. Butler
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