“He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20)
Paul wrote the believers at Colossi to address an issue that was troubling the church: syncretism, the watering down of the Christian message through the adoption of pagan theology, human philosophic and/or scientific principles to explain reality. And so, in language that is stirring and emotionally charged, he described for them the fullness of Christ, that is, He is God, eternally existent. Our great God is unique and dwells apart from mankind and yet He lives with His people in the church by His Holy Spirit. And He is truly man as well. He is God incarnate who gave His life as an atonement for the sins of man.
This assertion of the divinity of Christ and his reality as a human being are meant to counteract false teachings that removed Jesus from the central part of the faith and put the individual human being there. The Colossians needed to be reminded of the truth because someone was teaching them that Jesus was not sovereign God but a lesser deity. Someone was telling them that Jesus did not really come in the flesh, that he only appeared to. Denial of either or both of these principles undermines our faith for as
Paul points out, they contradict the truth of the atonement. For the death of Christ to be efficacious He had to be both fully God and man. As God He was the sinless sacrifice. As man He is our proper high priest and representative.
Today there are hundreds of trendy and popular teachings that belittle the Word of God and the Christian faith. The main tendency is the one which puts humans at the center of the universe rather than Christ Himself. The individual determines for himself or herself what is good and bad, right or wrong. Individual choice and individual truth are the sovereign rules. Believers are called to preach the truth of God’s Word in a world that is filled with such chaos. God created all things, sustains all things so He knows best how we should live.