Complete in Christ!

And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all authority and power. Colossians 2:10 MEV

So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. Colossians 2:10 NLT

 Have you ever felt incomplete? That you are lacking or deficient in some area of your life? Ever saw yourself as not fully measuring up? Ever thought you were lagging behind and watching others bypass you? Should this be the norm in our Christian walk?

 Did the redemptive work of Christ Jesus not cover some area of our life? Did Jesus not fully provide for us? Is His Finished Work Not Enough?

 We may feel like we are incomplete sometimes in our Christian journey. We feel like we are lagging behind. Certainly, religious tradition declares and proclaims how incomplete we are, how we are losing ground and always failing to measure up. Is this the Gospel message?

 Is this the truth of our identity in Christ? The Good News is Jesus' work of Redemption is complete. Jesus won. He has fully provided for us and made us new creations in Him. No matter how we see ourselves, or what wrong idea or concept we think and believe, we are complete in Him.

 We are connected to Christ. We are one with Him. We aren't far from our Father. We are in perfect union because of Jesus. This is based on the perfect work of our Savior. It is not based on how we feel or if we get it all right from day to day. We are always connected to Christ.

 We are clean, not filthy sinners any longer. We are cleansed from all our sins. Jesus' blood was shed for the full remission of all our sins. His blood is enough. This spotless blood covered and cleansed all sin. We are not guilty in the eyes of our Father. He doesn't look upon us as dirty and unholy. He sees us as cleansed and spotless, fully Righteous.

 We are close to God. We became close when we accepted Jesus' free gift of Righteousness and the forgiveness of sins. We are one with Him. We don't have to work our way to closeness to Him. 

 I can hear religious tradition "freaking out" if you will at this thought. If religious tradition had a motto it would be "working my way to you Lord." Traditional religion likens our spiritual disciplines and works as a mean to become closer to God. They are working for what they already have.

 We are complete in Christ. We don't have to try to be complete. We are complete in Him. We need to rest in our identity. We need to accept we are who He says we are.

 Now religion says we are complete until we are incomplete. How does this happen? When we don't follow all their rules, when we aren't as "spiritual" as them, or when we sin too much. 

 Clean, close and connected? Only if we haven't sinned. If we sin, we are far off. We are unclean and disconnected. We then need to get right, we need to get back to God, we need to "rededicate" or reconnect. This concept is foreign to the Gospel spelled out in the Epistles. The vocabulary of distance, disconnection and uncleanness is not found in the Epistles concerning the believer. 

 The Good News of the Gospel is we are fully complete and close to God forever because of Jesus. Our sins or level of spiritual disciplines have nothing to do with it. It's by Faith in Christ that we have this new life, Righteousness and perfect union with Christ. 

 In summation, don't allow tradition to rob you of your true identity in Christ. You are clean, you are close, and you are forever connected to the Father. You are complete in Christ and nothing can change that. It is all because of Jesus. 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net