I labor for this, striving with his strength that works powerfully in me. For I want you to know how greatly I am struggling for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person (Colossians 1:29-2:1).

There’s an interesting phrase that appears in Colossians 1. Perhaps “interesting” isn’t even the right word; at first reading, it doesn’t just sound interesting – it sounds downright heretical: 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I am completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for his body, that is, the church (Colossians 1:24).

That phrase might rub you the wrong way. If Paul is filling up or completing in his flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions, then the implication is that Christ’s afflictions are lacking in some way. But what could that be? What could possibly be lacking in Christ’s afflictions? What could Paul add to what Jesus has already done? After all, isn’t that sort of the whole point of this letter?

It is, of course. The Colossian church was under threat from a heresy claiming that there were additional spiritual levels that could be attained outside of Christ. That through the observance of special days, or secret rituals, or a specific diet, these Christians could become more. That they could achieve a new level of spirituality. And Paul is writing to that church with a resounding, “No!” He is claiming that there are no other levels, nothing left to attain – that we are complete in Christ. What, then, could Paul mean by this phrase, “completing in my flesh what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions”?

Paul doesn’t mean that Christ’s sufferings and afflictions were not sufficient; Jesus’ suffering left nothing on the table in His atoning work. Paul doesn’t mean that through his sufferings he finishes the atoning work of Christ; he means that they were incomplete in the sense that the Colossians, and the rest of the world, didn’t personally experience them.

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