Colossians 2:9-10

"For" introduces another reason for abandoning the false teaching. What his readers had in Christ was completely adequate. He is the very essence of deity in whom this "fullness" permanently resides (cf. Colossians 1:19). The Greek word translated deity (theotetos) refers to the unique essence of God (cf. John 1:1). Divinity (theiotes, Romans 1:20; Acts 17:25), on the other hand, refers to the divine quality of God, which other beings may share (cf. John 1:14).

"Paul here disposes of the Docetic theory that Jesus had no human body as well as the Cerinthian separation between the man Jesus and the aeon Christ. He asserts plainly the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ in corporeal form." [Note: Robertson, 4:491.]

This fullness was present in Christ’s bodily form during His earthly ministry. He did not give up His deity when He became a man. It continues in His resurrected bodily form. [Note: See Johnson, 476:309-10.] As those in Christ we, too, partake of His fullness. We have no essential need that He does not supply.

"This statement crowns Paul’s argument. Because Christ is fully God and really man, believers, in union with him, ’are made full’ (ASV), that is, share in his fullness." [Note: Vaughan, p. 199.]

"In the mystery cults which flourished in the apostolic age the great promise which was held out was salvation through enlightenment." [Note: Carson, p. 17.]