From the Archive: Initiative, Sufficiency, Accomplishment
There is no more concise and yet complete presentation of the miracle of Christmas than the very profound sentence of Colossians 1.19-20 —
For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in [Christ], and through [Christ] to reconcile all things to Himself . . . by making peace through [Christ’s] blood shed on the cross.
The word we use to describe this event at Christmas is “incarnation.” The dictionary defines this word as “the Christian doctrine of the union of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ.” Isaiah understood that this was a phenomenon with “more than meets the eye” when he wrote —
Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given . . . (Isaiah 9.6)
Isaiah prophesied that the One whose birth he was describing was more than a baby — even though He would come as a baby. This One who would be born as a baby would be the Son who was being given. This One who would enter the world as a baby was far from normal — He was God! The infinite God in a finite form — Jesus Christ!
We need to make conscious note of three things in Colossians 1.19-20 which demand that we acknowledge the incarnation as a “God-phenomenon” — Initiative, Sufficiency, Accomplishment.
“For God was pleased . . .” — Initiative.
“all His fullness dwell in Christ” — Sufficiency.
“and through Christ to reconcile all things to Himself.” — Accomplishment.
For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him permanently. And God purposed that through (by the service, the intervention of) Him [the Son] all things should be completely reconciled back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross. (Amplified Bible)
From the Bulletin Article Archives, circa 2005.