"Complete in Him"

[Robert Pate]

Courtesy of Worldview Publications

Other than God himself, no one knows the how, or where of God's "origin" yet few human beings deny the reality of a pre-existent God Even in their strenuous denials of devine reality, atheists implicity admit that God must exist.  Agnostics feel that they do not know whether or not there is a God.  On the other hand, Gnostics "know" that God is imprisoned in their own bodies.  Deist claim that the creator-God has wandered to some far-off part of the universe.  Panentheists believe that God is hidden in the universe "below" and that he rises to the level of their consiousness.  Pantheists claim that the universe is God himself. 

Traditional Christians contend that God is ultimately transcendant- above, beyond and apart from all things material-and that he is therefore unapproachable, impassable, immovable.  At the same time, however they paradoxically claim that God is immanent-within the universe,the world and living things and, particularly within the mind of mankind.

Over against these presumptions is the clear evidence of God's "transparence"  Transparence asserts that God is known through the world as the one who really is."  He visited and ate with Abraham as a fellow nomad (Genises 18:1  He came to the brook of Jabbock and wrestled with Jacob through the night (genises 32:22-30).  He appeared to Moses out of the burning bush and declared his name to be YHVH (Exodus3:2-14). He revealed himself to Israel through the pillar of cloud and fire and through the burning mountain (Exodus 13:21, 22; 19:18). He symbolized himself and his "becoming" through the wilderness tabernacle and in its services ( Exodus 25-27). Through the prophets he promised to return to Zion and the Temple as a humble messianic man and as a suffering servant (Zechariah 9:9; Isaiah 53).

And in the fullness of time he did come- or rather, he did become. YHVH came to this earth to become incarnate, to live minister, suffer, die and rise again as the incognito (unknown) One. Nevertheless, he declared himself to be the "I AM".  He accepted "The name" Ha- Shem and other euphemisms for YHVH such as "Adonai/Lord" "Power," "Greatness" and Alpha and Omega"  In fact, he was explicitly arrested, tried and tortured and murdered for blasphemously appropriating the  name, status of YHVh himself.

In the aftermath of his death and resurrection, however, Yeshua (Jesus) remained profoundly misunderstood.  Rome saw him merely as a common criminal.  Rabbinic Judaism believed him to be a false and failed messiah.  Gnostic Christianity regarded him as an example of the imprisoned god.  Jewish Christians were convinced that Jesus, the carpenter's son, had been baptized by Christ the Spirit at the Jordan river. They consequently believed that his dualistic or docetic Jesus Christ was/were seperated at calvary when Jesus the man died and Christ the Spirit returned alive to heaven.

Only the Pauline and Johannine communities were convinced that Yeshua was, in fact the human manifestation of YHVH- that YHVH had become the human Yeshua.  These believers were ostersized, persecuted and martyred.  Out of the rubble of the first century Christianity, there finally emerged the conviction that God somehow had become a man, but only in order that man might become God.  For this purpose, it was believed that Jesus Christ had appeared as an agent, substitute, representative or mediator to assist mankind in achieving divinity.  As Symcon (949-1022), the Abbot of St. Macaras, said in a mystical quote from God,  "Yes, I am God, the one who became man for your sake. and behold, I have created you, as you see and I shall make you God."  There was no admission or recognition that, if man were made to abandon humanity for divinity, an incarnate God would do the same!

The historical fact is that Paul and John alone were empathetically correct. YHVH had indeed become Yeshua, the human one. In an irrevocable act of self abandonment, divinity had forever become human.

The reality of this ultimate "becoming" and its actual significance, however, had yet to be grasped.  Yeshua had come as the new Moses to lead his people out of bondage, but he is was and is more than Moses;  Yeshua had become the New Israel.  Yeshua had come as the eschatological prophet with the promise of a new covenant, but he was and is more than the bearer of the covenantal promises; Yeshua had become the New Covenant.  Yeshua had come as the new Aaron; Yeshua had become the New Temple and all of its services!  Yeshua had come as the new David, but he was and is more than the new King; Yeshua himself had become the New Kingdom!  Yeshua had come to proclaim the good news of the restoration, but he is more than the proclaimer of good news;  Yeshua himself had become the Gospel (Good News)!  Yeshua had come to teach and reveal the nature of righteousness, justification, of right-doing, but he was more than a teacher;  Yeshua himself had become Righteousness , justification and redemption.  Yeshua had come to disclose the true nature of the Torah, but he was and is more than the interpreter of the law;  Yeshua himself had become the new Torah, its fulfillment and its judge.  "For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily"  (Colossians 2:9)

Thus Yeshua had become ultimate  reality for humanity, this world and the entire cosmos.  From the prespective of the Hebrew Scriptures, Yeshua had become all-embracing relationally as the Corporate, Collective, and covenational personality.  And therefore, "ye are complete in him"  (Colossians 2:10)