The Fullness There Is in Christ

At a glance

Relevant Scripture

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.”

Colossians 2:9–10 KJV

UECF.NET summary

Finney reads Paul's claim that believers are 'complete in Christ' first negatively, clearing away two misunderstandings. It cannot mean that Christ's own righteousness is somehow transferred onto believers as a legal credit, since Finney has already argued elsewhere that such a transfer of moral character is neither possible nor coherent — nobody can owe or perform obedience on another's behalf in a way that gets 'banked' for someone else. Nor can the text mean that every professing Christian already enjoys this completeness as an automatic fact of their standing, since plainly many believers live far short of it. What the text actually promises, Finney argues, is that in Christ a genuinely sufficient provision has been made for every real need our nature and situation create — not a fiction about our record, but a fact about what is available to us.

Finney then surveys, almost like an inventory, what a human being actually needs in order to be whole: strength for inherited and self-inflicted weakness, light for deep ignorance about God and the gospel, protection from a patient and resourceful spiritual enemy who exploits every habit and institution he can reach, a satisfaction of justice that makes pardon possible without weakening God's moral government, an influence able to break down the heart's selfishness rather than merely excuse it, a guide who will keep watch the whole distance to glory rather than abandon the soul partway, and above all a Savior lovely enough to actually draw the heart's affection, since fear alone can terrify but never truly win love. Having laid out the need this fully, Finney turns to the human side: this fullness becomes a lived experience only through a series of deliberate acts — admitting the extent of our need, renouncing every rival dependence (on our own resources, on other people, on religious activities themselves), and daring, against a cowardice he calls unbelief, to rest the whole of ourselves on Christ without reservation.

Main theological themes

• Being 'complete in Christ' describes a real, sufficient provision for every human need, not a legal fiction credited to an unchanged life.
• Fear and threat can subdue behavior but never win love; only a Savior who is genuinely lovely can draw the heart away from every rival attachment.
• Completeness is available to every believer but experienced by few, because it requires abandoning every other source of confidence — in self, in people, in religious means — and resting on Christ alone.

Key ideas

• Christ's fullness covers the whole range of human need: ignorance, inherited weakness, the assaults of a subtle spiritual enemy, and the requirement that justice be satisfied before pardon can be granted.
• Love, displayed supremely in the atonement, does what threat and terror cannot — it wins genuine affection rather than merely forcing outward compliance.
• Believers remain far short of this fullness chiefly through misplaced confidence — in their own strength, in other people, or in religious practices treated as ends rather than means — rather than through any deficiency in Christ.
• To believe the promise of completeness while assuming it will not be personally fulfilled is not humility but a disguised form of unbelief.

Important concepts

• Imputed righteousness (as Finney critiques it) — The idea that Christ's moral perfection is legally credited to believers apart from their own character; Finney regards this as confusing a legal fiction with the real, experiential transformation the gospel actually promises.
• Disguised self-dependence — Trusting one's own resolve, learning, reputation, or religious activity as a hidden substitute for trusting Christ directly — a subtler rival to faith than open unbelief because it can wear the appearance of piety.
• Completeness as sufficiency, not perfection of record — Being 'complete in Christ' means every real need — for light, strength, protection, pardon, and transformation — has an adequate provision already made, available to be drawn on by faith rather than automatically possessed.

Related Bible references

• 2 Peter 1:3
• Hebrews 4:16
• 1 Peter 5:8
• James 1:17
• Ephesians 3:17–19

Practical Christian application

• List, honestly, one need you have quietly assumed Christ cannot meet in your specific circumstances, and bring exactly that need to Him in prayer this week.
• Notice one place you are leaning on your own competence, a person's approval, or a religious routine instead of Christ himself, and practice consciously redirecting that trust to Him.
• When you next feel the pull to justify yourself to critics, practice releasing your reputation to God rather than defending it, as an exercise in resting on Christ's sufficiency rather than your own.

Questions for study