The Fulness of God Is His Character

What makes God God? Most of us were taught: He knows everything, He can do everything, He is everywhere at once. Big words for how far He reaches. But when Scripture tells us what God is, it gives us something else. It tells us what He is like. His character.

This matters for how we see Jesus. Jesus did not know everything. Yet Scripture says the whole fulness of God lived in Him. Both are true, and this chain shows how.

Colossians 2:9

“For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

Colossians 2:9

All the fulness. Paul does not limit it. Whatever the fulness of God is, Christ had all of it, in His body.

But Paul does not say here what the fulness is. So we must not fill it with our own ideas. Just one verse before, he warns: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men” (Colossians 2:8).

Mark 13:32

“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”

Mark 13:32

Jesus did not know the day. He did not know everything. And this is not the only place. “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature” (Luke 2:52): His mind grew. “I can of mine own self do nothing” (John 5:30): His power was given to Him. He was across the Jordan when Lazarus died in Bethany (John 10:40; 11:6-15): He was not everywhere at once.

Both are true. If the fulness of God meant knowing everything and being able to do everything, these two would contradict each other. Scripture does not. So the fulness must be something else. We do not need to split Jesus in two. We only need to let Scripture tell us what the fulness is.

Exodus 34:6-7

“The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”

Exodus 34:6-7

Here God passes before Moses and says who He is. The rest of the Old Testament quotes these words again and again. It is the nearest thing to God’s own definition of Himself.

Look at the list. Merciful. Gracious. Patient. Good. True. Forgiving. Every word is about His character. Not one is about how much He knows or how far He reaches.

1 John 4:8, 16

“He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

1 John 4:8

When the New Testament says “God is,” it finishes the sentence with His character. “God is light” (1 John 1:5). “God is love.” It never says “God is all power.”

And John says the one who does not love does not know God. That only makes sense if God is known by His character.

Galatians 5:22-23

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.”

Galatians 5:22-23

This is what God’s own Spirit grows in a person. Again a list of character.

Peter says the same. He writes that we are made “partakers of the divine nature,” and in the next verses he lists what that nature is: “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity” (2 Peter 1:4-7). Twice Scripture spells out what God’s nature is, and twice it is character.

That does not make me a small god. I am made in His image. His character can grow in me. But He is the Creator, and I am not.

1 Corinthians 13:2

“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.”

1 Corinthians 13:2

Here Paul weighs the two against each other. Give a man all knowledge. Give him power to move mountains. Take away love. What is he? Nothing.

Now think of a god like that: knowing everything, able to do everything, everywhere at once, but without love. The old pagan religions were full of gods like that. That is not the God of Scripture.

This does not deny that God is everywhere. “If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Psalm 139:8). But David is not listing powers. He is saying, “I cannot get lost from You.” God’s reach is real. It is how far His love goes.

Ephesians 3:18-19

“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

Ephesians 3:18-19

Here Paul measures God. Breadth, length, depth and height. And what does he measure? Not His power. Not His knowledge. His love. That is the thing too big to grasp.

And look at the end of the prayer: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” The same words as Colossians 2:9, now prayed for ordinary believers. No one prays that people be filled with all power. But we can pray to be filled with His love.

What this means

The fulness of God is His character: His mercy, His grace, His goodness, His truth, His love. All of that lived in Jesus, in a human body, without a single flaw. He did not know the hour. He grew in wisdom. He could do nothing of Himself. And still the whole of what God is lived in Him.

I thought the part of God I could not understand was His power. Paul says it is His love. I cannot measure it. But I am invited to know it, and to be filled with it.

Road to Eternal Life