The Fullness of God's Word

Spirit & Truth # 254

“The Fullness of God’s Word”

By Greg Smith

Merry Christmas!  God is among us!  Everything’s changed!  Just as the herald angels sang Jesus’ birth and declared God’s monumental arrival on the earth, so too God’s people must go and tell!  Go, tell it on the mountain.  Go, tell it in the cities and in the country.  Tell it in the offices and in the schools.  Go, tell God’s salvation to everyone who will hear it, because God has sent His joy to the world.

You’ve been waiting for Christmas so you can celebrate the season.  You’ve been waiting so you can sing some songs of joy.  You’ve been wanting to seek some solace.  But is that all there is?  Comfort and cheer?  Joy to the world?  Nothing more?
            In Colossians 1:25 (NIV), the apostle Paul said that God had commissioned him “to present to you the word of God in its fullness.”  What is the fullness of God’s word?  It’s more than the customary Christmas story.  It’s more than carols and candles.  The fullness of God’s word is “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people (Colossians 1:26).”

            Paul uses the word “mystery.”  But this word with Greek origin doesn’t mean what you think it means.  It doesn’t mean something secret that only a sleuth can find.  It doesn’t mean a perplexing puzzle that baffles the brilliant.  The word “mystery” actually means something revealed—like that final scene in a whodunit when the crime is solved and everything set right.

            Paul said the mystery is solved.  The secret is revealed.  Everything is set right.

            What’s the solution?  “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).”  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  This is the fullness of God’s word.  

            You see, it’s not enough to celebrate Christmas, the day when God came into the world.  His name, “Emmanuel,” means “God with us.”  But it’s not enough that God was with us in the flesh, or that God is with us in the spirit.  You can celebrate His advent into the world all you want, but this Christmas I ask you whether Christ has come into your heart.  Christ in you is your hope of glory.  Only then will everything truly change.  Only then will you truly know His peace, love, hope, and joy.

If God is in your heart, then everything’s changed!  God gave His word that we might know and believe.  God gave this word that we might be saved—and more than that.  He wants believers to come to full maturity in Christ (verse 28).  He invites you to go deeper into the mystery, to go and tell it on the mountain that in Christ, everything’s changed.

If you’re not a believer, then God invites you to receive the Babe of Bethlehem and give real meaning to your celebration of Christmas.  He invites you to believe the Lord of life and the message He brings.  He invites you to conceive even as Mary did, inviting Jesus inside so that you can know “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  Won’t you respond to His call this Christmas?