This verse was part of a New Testament reading at tonight's Good Friday service at Cornerstone Pres. I've read this verse multiple times, and tonight the power of these words finally made its way through my thick skull and sank deep into my heart, penetrating it to the core. Tears welled up in my eyes.
In Christ, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. He didn't just resemble God (though he did), and he wasn't just close to God the Father (though he was). The fullness of God - his glory, his beauty, his wisdom, his strength, his love - was actually pleased to take up a dwelling place in this perfect human being, called the Son of God and Son of Man. I can't even begin to imagine what the fullness of God looks like. God, perfect and whole, chose to take on flesh and show his fullness in one human being.
All along, God knew that blood would have to be shed. He wanted to reconcile us to Himself, but sin stood in the way. And sin, which is no small thing, deserves a penalty. So, according to God's merciful plan, a perfect being would be crushed in our place. The fullness of God would absorb the penalty. And we would be ransomed from our futile ways.
The fullness of God dwelt in Christ, and now we are filled in Christ. We have everything we need through Christ himself. When Christ declared, "It is finished," he meant that nothing else needed to be done. He had done all the work necessary to bring us from a state of emptiness to a state of fullness.
Thanks be to God.
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