One of the things that has always amazed me is the concept of my service for the Lord Jesus Christ can bring a smile to the heart of God. I deeply desire that my life would be lifted up as a pleasing offering to our heavenly Father. We’ve been looking at the amazing Word of God as it talks about the centrality and preeminence of the Lord Jesus Christ in our recent blogs. We continue that idea in Colossians where Paul writes, “For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell”, (Col.1:19 NKJV). God was pleased to dwell in His fullness in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In this statement, Paul was refuting the Greek idea that was being propagated that Jesus could not be both human and divine at the same time. Jesus is indeed fully human and fully divine, and God was pleased to dwell in Him. God took delight in dwelling completely in His Son, Jesus Christ. When we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we see God as He has installed Himself in all His fullness into the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus contains the total essence of God’s nature and authority. There was nothing of God’s character or attributes which is lacking in the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is one of the most powerful descriptions of Jesus’ deity. When Jesus was baptized, we read of God speaking from heaven and stating, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,” (Matt.3:17b NKJV). God’s speaking from heaven was a fulfillment of messianic expectations from the Old Testament. But notice the Father was “well pleased” with His Son. So, when we read in Colossians that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Jesus, that fullness speaks of the sum total of the powers and attributes of God that are now present in the Lord Jesus Christ. “To dwell” means that those aspects have an everlasting or permanent abiding place in the Lord Jesus Christ. Deity is permanently at home in Jesus Christ. He is the dwelling place of the very essence and nature of the God of the universe. All the blessings that we have as believers in Christ come out of the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. The cup of our blessing may be full, but the ocean of Jesus’ fullness still remains. For us to dwell “in Him” is one of the amazing blessings God has provided.
One last thought that I would like to share is that you and I can still bring a smile to the heart of God. I believe we can bring a smile to the heart of God when we step out in faith and trust Him to do great things in our lives. I think there are two examples in Scripture of Gentiles who brought a smile to the heart of Jesus by their faith in His ability to work on their behalf. One is the Syro-Phoenician woman who sought Jesus to heal her daughter. When Jesus was reluctant her comments demonstrated an amazing amount of faith which Jesus responded to by healing her daughter (Mark7:25-29). The other was the Roman centurion who had sent servants to ask about Jesus’ healing of his servant who was sick. When Jesus starts on His way the centurion sends word that He doesn’t need to come but simply speak the word and his servant will be healed. Once again Jesus smiled on this great demonstration of faith and promptly healed the centurion’s servant. Are we trusting God to move and work and do great things in and through our lives and through our church? Or are we just accepting the status quo and going along in our nice, easy comfort zone? I want to trust God to do great things in my service for Him and I desire a faith that brings a smile to the heart of Jesus Christ, in whom all the fullness of deity dwells.
Serving the King,
Pastor Rich
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