J. L. Terveen Colossians 2
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All hints of insufficiency or inadequacy in Christ are eliminated. For the remainder of
Pauls argument in 2:10-15, it is of particular relevance that Gods fullness dwells in
Christ in bodily form, for this accent clearly emphasizes the accessibility of Gods
fullness to mankind "in him" (Christ). In Christ, therefore, man encounters the
accessible God. It is to the dimensions especially redemptive ones in 2:11-15 of this
relationship between Christ as the accessible God and man that Paul now turns.
In Col.2:10 Paul now passes smoothly from the foundational divinely focused
ontological christology (2:9) to a more dynamic redemptively focused christology. He
facilitates this transition utilizing a shared pleroma terminology. The periphrastic perfect
looks back to the believers past reception of Christ Jesus as Lord
(2:6) and accentuates the abiding results of their completeness through union with the
exalted Lord. As the term
in 2:9 connoted entirety and completeness, the
verbal idea here similarly indicates that the believers experience of fullness in Christ
suffers no insufficiencies. The polemical note sounds once again as Paul clearly implies
that no more lofty or more fulfilling experiences are found elsewhere than in the faith
experience of being "in Christ." No restrictions exist for the believer in his relationship
to God through Jesus; he has full and unimpeded access to God "in him/Christ."
Though the distinctive Pauline terminology of "in him/Christ" may on occasion
bear a fomulaic feel, the dynamic character of this present passage precludes any such
understanding. The preposition
marks a close association of parties, a close personal
relation in which the prepositional object is understood to be the controlling power.
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The believer, therefore, is seen to be integrated personally and in terms of identity
with Christ who governs his identity. The phrase presents Jesus as a real living