The Fullness of Christ

Spirit & Truth # 253

“The Fullness of Christ”

By Greg Smith

            A couple of years ago, my brother Paul and I had an online debate on our two blogs.  I posted a story about a woman in one of our local shops who told me, "You sure look like Richard Dreyfuss. You even sound like him." Then, with all seriousness in her voice she said, "Are you Richard Dreyfuss?"

My brother was surprised by this story, because people have always told him told him that he is a dead ringer for the actor.  On his blog, he had even posted pictures side by side, of himself and the actor.  Even our mother said she had seen the photo of Dreyfuss and wondered if Paul had simply grown his hair long. 

We asked our blog readers for their comments, and overwhelmingly they voted that while Paul was actually a doppelganger of Richard Dreyfuss, I was in fact the clone of the myth-busting Adam Savage.  It seems that with around 6 billion people on the planet, there are only so many faces to go around.  Everyone is rumored to have a doppelganger, a non-biological twin or double, walking around out there somewhere.

Genesis 1:27 tells us that our Maker made us to reflect God’s own glory.  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  That image was broken by our sin, and now we are poor examples of God’s likeness.  So God planned to restore His image in one sinless man: His own divine son Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1:3 says, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.” In Colossians 1, verses 15 and 19-20, Paul writes:  “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation…For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

In one man, Jesus, dwelt both the fullness of God, and the fullness of frail humanity.  His sinless life and His sacrificial death reunite our heavenly Father with anyone who would again become a true bearer of God’s image.  Colossians 2:9-10 says, “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.”  Being the head over every power and authority in your life, He sets you free to serve Him and represent His character to the world.

This means that if you’re a Christian then you become not just a poor soul living out your time on this earth—you become Jesus’ doppelganger for other people to see.  When they see you, they see our Lord.  Colossians 1:27 says that “Christ in you [is] the hope of glory.”  He is your own hope, and when you bear His image to the world, He becomes their hope as well.  This Christmas as we remember that Jesus came into the world as a little baby, let’s also remember that He remains in the world in the witness of every Christian who bears His image and His name.