The All-Encompassing Christ

Notes toward a Bigger (Wider, Wilder, and More Interior) Christology

By Sam Caldwell

Is our Jesus as wide and expansive and interpenetrating as the big sky over Kansas? Or is He cheap and small, like a Pez dispenser? What is Jesus doing in the world? Is He doing everything, or is He occasionally putting a cherry on the pope's pie, occasionally showing up to a desperate soul, and occasionally sparking a revival or two?

A big, cosmic view of Christ is needed to save us from lukewarmness and mere Sunday school religion. When we start to grasp the dimensions of the gospel, our eyes widen, our hearts start pumping, and we walk out into a whole new world, where Christ is "all and in all" (Colossians 3:11).

The following meditations are steps toward a more Christ-exalting Christology. "Christology" refers to our "study" or "account" of who Christ really is. These are some truths to remember as we step into life, prayer, worship, contemplation, and kingdom advancement.

The basic idea here is that an anemic Christology will provide no fuel for our lives, while a full and glorious Christology will utterly transform our lives.

If we sit down to pray to a mere Judge up on a cloud somewhere, we will quickly find ourselves with no prayer life.

If we see Jesus as nothing but a ticket to heaven, we will quickly care little about Jesus, and less about heaven.

If we do kingdom work with a transactional gospel and a Sunday-only Jesus, we will become stale and exhausted.

But if we walk forward with the cosmic, mysterious, all-encompassing Christ of the Word, our hearts will feel, our lips will sing, and a mysterious thing called "love" will start to ooze from our lives – on our best days and on our worst.

I pray these Scripture meditations can be used as springboards into a bigger view of who Christ is, and a fuller account of how He is working in all creation, in all people, and at all times...

1) All humans are made in the image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But this image has been marred by sin.

Genesis 1:26 is key to a full understanding of what Christ is doing in the cosmos: “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’” Here we see that our One God is speaking with plural pronouns. This is the Three Persons of God speaking in unity – an early articulation of the Trinity.

It sounds odd to say, but God makes man in "Their" image, not just in "His" image. The image of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is stamped on every human at creation.

This means that something deeply relational and glorious is a part of every human soul. This is true of the unbeliever, the atheist, the Muslim, the murderer, the lukewarm Christian, and the new ager – the relational love of the Father, Son, and Spirit is stamped on their soul. And this eternal, relational purpose cries out for expression in every single person. That is why we find family love, sacrificial love, and mysterious beauty in the life of every person on this earth – it is an innate expression of Trinitarian glory in the soul of every human. David speaks of how God has blessed the human soul in this way: "You have crowned him with glory and honor" (Psalm 8:5).

However, this "glory and honor" has certainly been obscured and confused. As Paul puts it in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We see the image of the Triune God in people, but we see it faintly. It cries out for expression, and we humans also try to suppress it.

The "marred image of God" in us keeps seeking an answer, a solution, a restoration...

We have a sense of our purpose, a sense of our innate dignity, but we are like Humpty Dumpty, trying to put the pieces together again...

2) Christ is the image of God. He is perfect theology. He is the final and perfect revelation of the true character of God. All humans can have that image restored to their souls through Christ. 

God's plan to restore the image of God in humankind finds a solution in Jesus Christ, the God-man, the meeting point between God and humans. Where there was confusion about this image of God in us, Christ comes to earth AS the image of God, as the perfect representation of God.

In Hebrews 1:3, Christ is described as “the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person.”

In John 14:9, Christ spells this out a bit more. He has come as the perfect representation of the Father: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.”

And in John 1:18, we read that Christ is the "declaration" or "showing forth" of God's nature: “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”  

Here's where things get wild. Christ didn't come just to show us that image of God, He came to restore that image in our souls. That is how Paul describes the inner workings of salvation in Colossians 3:10–11: “You have put on the new man, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created Him, where…Christ is all and in all.”

And in 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read of the same reality, where salvation is the process by which we are being "transformed into the image" of God: “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

So Jesus is not only saving people through their belief in His cross. At a deeper level, through His cross, He is showing us the true nature of God's character. And through intimate indwelling in the soul of man, He is restoring the marred image of God in our practical, experiential, life-long journey with Him.

3) Christ has united Himself to humanity in His incarnation

The vital mechanism of this image-restoration is the incarnation of Christ.

In His crucifixion, Jesus dies for sinners. In His resurrection, He proclaims His power over death. But in the incarnation, He unites divinity to humanity. And it is only with the ramifications of God-in-human-flesh that we can start to have a properly earth-shattering Christology.

It is easy to see the incarnation as a fact, because it is codified Christian dogma. But the challenge is to see the incarnation as a fact with potential. It is a bridging of the gap between God and man, which declares forever that God and man can be bridged.

Consider how all the great incarnation texts of the Bible do not merely state a fact about Jesus; they also bring our ailing souls into the equation. That is, the incarnation immediately affects the ontology of humankind.

In Galatians 4:4–5, God's Son is born among us, so that we would become God's sons and daughters: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

In 1 Timothy 3:16, God appears in the flesh in Christ, and this is the crucial motivator in our becoming mysteriously more godly: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh…”

In Romans 8:1–3, Paul links Christ's coming in the flesh to our ability to walk forth without condemnation, utterly liberated and free of legal guilt: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, an account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh.”

In John 1:14 the incarnation opens up the very possibility of our contemplation. That is, God is made visible to us in Christ's humanity, and this leads to our life of gazing upon Him, and having any grasp of such things as grace and truth in the first place: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

In Ephesians 1:10, we read of the incarnation as this massive, cosmic, communal gathering place. The heavenly and the earthly are gathered in the hypostatic union of Divine and Human natures in the Person of Jesus; but that gives way to a cosmic reconciliation of ALL THINGS at this very intersection: “…that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.”

At the very vaguest, we can say that the incarnation has effected a massive shift in the ontology of the world. The potentiality of mankind, and the purpose of all matter, has been jolted through "Infinity being dwindled to Infancy," as Gerard Manley Hopkins puts it.

4) All people, and all of creation, are swimming in and sustained by Jesus all the time

God has always been and will always be omnipresent. But after the incarnation of Christ, something odd happens. The apostolic writers start preaching the all-encompassing nature of God in a much clearer way than Old Testament preachers had done.

After Christ has linked divinity and humanity in His very person, the New Testament writers start to see the all-encompassing Christ everywhere. It would seem, as Baxter Kruger says, that we are indeed "breathing Christological air," or "breathing Incarnational air." Consider just how startling these articulations are:

In Acts 17:27-28 Paul tells unbelieving Athenians: “He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said.” Again note, he is not speaking to believers. Unbelievers and believers alike "live and move and have their being" in Christ.

In Ephesians 1:23, Paul says that Christ “fills all in all.”  

In Colossians 1:16–17, the Apostle to the Nations soars high above every nation: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.”

He's at it again in Romans 11:36: “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”

John speaks the same way in his gospel, John 1:3–4: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

And the writer of Hebrews says that Christ “upholds all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3).

Could we let ourselves be startled by this language again?

This is not normal speech.

These are not realities we should take for granted. We preach the gospel of a pervasive, all-involved, all-creating, all-sustaining, and all-filling Christ.

5) Christ’s death and resurrection have opened up the radical option of “death to self and living for Christ” for every single human

As we return to the "legal stakes" of Christ's death and resurrection, we can certainly affirm that, yes, we believe in Christ and we receive His grace, salvation, and eternal life. But in light of the above Christology, this moment of receiving Christ is bigger and more transformative than that.

Consider the following well-known gospel passages, and see how the results of the gospel are far greater than "being saved" or "going to heaven." This all-pervasive Christology instead presses us to a place of dying to self and living in Christ – in effect, stepping into the mystery of Christ's total intimate love for all things.

In John 3:16, note that God's love is all pervasive, and it leads not just to heaven but to a present life not dominated by perishing but by the eternal life of Christ: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life."

In 2 Corinthians 5:14–15, Paul speaks of a gospel that shatters selfishness, by bringing us into this all-encompassing love of Christ: “For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.”

In Romans 6:5, Paul mentions Christ's death and resurrection not as mere mechanisms of our salvation, but rather as works of Christ for our full union and participation: “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

And in the favorite bumber-sticker verse, Galatians 2:20, we see that the believer is not merely one who is saved, but is one whose life is now engulfed in Christ's life and faith: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

6) Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are now mystically dwelling in, filling, and internally transfiguring all who believe

The point is that the marred image of God is not restored virtually, positionally, or in some sort of legal fairy tale in an unknown land called heaven. In the gospel, the image of God is restored to man through a Mediator who dwells within the soul of man.

The image of God is not stamped on the soul of the believer; the image of God now dwells within the soul of the believer – and all Christian transformation must be seen from this point of view.

Because Christ is the perfect image of God, His mediatorial work enables the Triune God to dwell in the soul of the believer – a reality too great for words.

In John 14:20, Christ prophesies a time when believers would know this mystical indwelling of the Trinity. That time is now – in the age after Christ's ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit: “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”

In Matthew 10:20, Christ again makes clear that this indwelling involves the Spirit of our Father Himself: “For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.” Banish every thought of a distant, judgey Father staring down at us from a cloud! Instead, He is looking out from within the believer!

In Romans 8:11, Paul speaks more explicitly about the Spirit's indwelling in us: “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

And in Colossians 1:27, Paul says that the one dwelling within is Christ Himself: “God willed to make known what are the riches of this mystery among the nations, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

At this point, we have moved so far beyond mere moral transformation. We are talking instead about a restoration of God's image to the soul of man through the indwelling of God in the soul of man.

7) The Triune God is now producing our prayers and praying for us from within

What's more, this indwelling Trinity is not static. Our God is moving, living, and praying within us.

In Romans 8:26 Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit's work of internal intercession in His vessels: “but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” And in Romans 8:34, He adds that Christ Himself is praying for us: “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

So we have a God who moves heaven on our behalf...from within us!

There is no room for distance, separation, and abandonment in this picture. This is a gospel of intense nearness, of infilling, and of prayerful, soul-stirring, glowing union.

8) Creation is groaning for the children of God to rise up into their identity and calling (both now and in heaven)

With such an all-encompassing Christ and a transformative indwelling God, we may be led to ask: To what end? What effect will this have? Is it noticeable? Why are so many Christians just like everyone else?

But Paul tells us that someone, something is waiting for us to rise up. In fact, all of creation is waiting for the children of God to step into their heritage.

Yes, we are supposed to glow. Yes, we are supposed to radiate the transformative effects of the God of love loving us from within. And all creation is watching and waiting for the show. In Romans 8:19–22, the apostle writes: “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

So the all-encompassing Christ is not satisfied with the mere salvation of a few human souls. This gospel reaches out for the restoration of the whole earth.

Such covenantal beauty is predicted by prophets like Hosea, who write of a mysterious covenant with creation: "In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, to make them lie down safely" (Hosea 2:18).

This is why gospel transformation leads to the beautification and appreciation of the earth. This is what we humans were fashioned for (Genesis 1:28–31).

This is why Francis preaching to the birds matters (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFgXxoEepnQ).

This is why Gerasimos taming and befriending the lion matters (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSQjCoe1mn0&t=602s).

This is why the IPhone-harried modern Christian learning to contemplate nature again, to throw the ball with his son again, dearly matters.

9) This beautiful gospel is meant to be proclaimed by all of God’s people everywhere 

With this all-encompassing view of Christ, we can now let the gospel call echo through the corridors of our soul.

In Mark 16:15, Jesus tells us to act like Francis: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Every little corner of this created world is ready to receive glad tidings, to ring with great joy.

Paul find this liberating. It casts off the chains of shame. The gospel of the life-penetrating Christ makes the little man bold and determined: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16).

And Christ Himself sees our call to evangelize as deeply incarnational. He was sent to embody the message, and now He sends us to live with out the very same incarnational mission: “As the Father has sent me, I also send you” (John 20:21).  

Christ indeed "fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:23).

And somehow, through no other miracle than that of mystical love, we are His fulness (Ephesians 1:23).