Colossians 2:9

For He is about to shew that "Christ" is the antithesis of this false gospel in two respects; (a) His glorious Person is all in all as the substance of the true Gospel; (b) His code of resulting observance appears not in an ascetic rule but in a life of liberty and purity in union with the Risen Lord Himself.

in him dwelleth&c. See above on Colossians 1:19.

the Godhead The Greek word (theotês) stands here alone in the N.T. It is as strong as possible; Deity, not only Divinity, which is a word much more elastic and inclusive. The Latin Versions have divinitashere; and the word deitaswas coined later, on purpose to express the true force of theotês. See Lightfoot, who quotes Trench's Synonyms.

bodily " - Bodily-wise," -corporeally"; with a bodily manifestation" (Lightfoot). From all eternity the Divine Plenitude had "dwelt" in the Son of the Father. But in the Incarnation of the Son this indwelling dwelling had been, "for us men and our salvation," conditioned by the fact of the Lord's true human Body. In that Body, and through it, was manifested His union with us, and was wrought out His work for us in life and death. From Him now exalted, not only as the Son but as the Son Incarnate, Slain, and Risen, radiates to all His members the Holy Ghost (Revelation 5:6). So, for us, the Divine Plenitude dwells in Him "bodily-wise"; not circumscribed by His holy human Body, which "is in heaven and not here" (see the last Rubric of the Communion Office), but eternally conditioned, as to our fruition of It, by the fact of His Incarnation.