Colossians 2:9–10 (NLT)
“9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”
There’s a kind of instability that slips into a believer’s walk when Colossians 2:9-10 gets misunderstood. It doesn’t always show up as outright rebellion. Sometimes it looks like striving. Like comparison. Like that subtle feeling that you’re saved, but still falling short somewhere. You love Jesus but feel as if you’re still spiritually behind—like others are more spiritually sharp or anointed than you. Dissatisfaction might make you feel like an upgrade is just what you need—that there’s a deeper secret to this faith thing, and lifting to a higher tier is what it will take to feel secure. If we let this mindset settles in, faith stops feeling like rest and starts feeling like a job you can never clock out of. It becomes exhausting instead of secure.
In Colossians 2:9-10, Paul is not offering poetic encouragement here. He is making a definitive theological statement. All the fullness of God lives in Jesus Christ. Not partially. Not symbolically. Fully. And then Paul says that through our union with Christ, we are complete. Complete carries the sense of being brought to fullness, lacking nothing necessary for spiritual standing before God. The logic is direct and unapologetic. If the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and you are united to Christ, then spiritual deficiency is not your identity. In Christ, you are whole.
This is where many believers stumble — not over the word complete, but over the phrase “through your union with Christ.” Union is not imitation. It is not proximity. It is not Jesus standing near you while you attempt to become better. Union means participation in His life. It means that when you believed, you were joined to Him in a way that altered your spiritual reality. The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:17 (NLT), “But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.” That’s not flowery language. That’s God making a factual, unshakable commitment.
When union is misunderstood, faith turns into performance. If you believe you are separate from Christ in your core identity, you will spend your life trying to earn what has already been secured. You will measure yourself against other believers. You will fear that God is disappointed more often than pleased. You will live as if acceptance is fragile. But Scripture consistently points us back to union as the stabilizing truth. Galatians 2:20 (NLT) reminds us, “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” That is shared life. That is inseparable identification.
Jesus Christ has to stay at the center of this conversation, because completeness is not something we work our way into — it’s the result of being joined to Him. The believer’s spirit, recreated at salvation, is not waiting to become whole. It was made whole in union with the One who is already full.
But our soul still has to catch up to that truth.
The mind has to stop rehearsing deficiency.
The will has to stop reaching for validation.
And the emotions have to settle into what Jesus Christ has already secured.
When Paul writes that Christ is “the head over every ruler and authority,” he anchors our completeness in Christ’s supremacy. Your union is not with a limited Savior. It is with the One who reigns. Scripture tells us in Philippians 2:10 (NLT) that “at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” That means the One you’re joined to stands above every power, every influence, every name that could ever rise against you. And if the One you are united with holds that level of authority, then your security is not fragile. Your standing is not provisional. Your identity is not negotiable.
A failure to understand this does more damage than we realize. It breeds insecurity in prayer. It fuels comparison in community. It leaves believers wide open to legalism or chasing spiritual experiences just to feel “mature.” But when union with Christ is understood, something settles inside. Obedience starts flowing from acceptance, not toward it. Growth becomes the unfolding of what is already true, not a desperate pursuit of worthiness. And faith finally rests in Jesus Christ instead of racing to prove itself.
The truth speaks clearly without exaggeration. Through union with Jesus Christ, we are not spiritually incomplete people trying to climb our way into fullness. We are joined to the One in whom all the fullness of God dwells. That reality doesn’t remove the need for growth, but it absolutely removes the fear of not being “enough.”
Your spirit was made whole the moment you received Christ—but your soul (your mind, will, and emotions) has to catch up to that truth. When your thinking, your decisions, and your feelings begin to align with what God has already accomplished within you, faith stops wobbling. It becomes steady, confident, and anchored in the authority of Christ. ■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“We Are Not Spiritually Lacking: Understanding Our Union with Jesus Christ”, written for Springfield Fellowship © 2026. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.