What does it mean to believe in the sufficiency of Christ?

The sufficiency of Christ is a theological concept emphasizing the utter completeness and adequacy of Christ’s work of salvation. This belief is grounded in steadfast, immovable faith in the saving grace and redeeming work of atonement Jesus Christ accomplished for believers on the cross.

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Only Jesus Christ is sufficient to save, redeem, and restore us to a right relationship with God the Father (Romans 5:1). Believing in the sufficiency of Christ means trusting that our every physical, spiritual, and emotional need is fulfilled in Him (see Psalm 68:19; Isaiah 46:4; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Philippians 4:13).

The apostle Paul dedicates almost the entire letter to the Colossians to the sufficiency of Christ. He knows that the Colossians, in their spiritual immaturity, were in danger of believing an altered gospel message. They had not yet fully apprehended the nature of Christ and His atoning sacrifice. They were turning to empty philosophies and false teachings rather than depending solely on Jesus Christ for salvation.

In Colossians 1:15–23, Paul sets forth the core of his theological argument for Christ’s sufficiency in all things, especially for salvation. (Similar passages on the sufficiency of Christ are Hebrews 1:2–4 and John 1:1–14.) First, Paul states that Christ is supreme “over all creation” (Colossians 1:15–17) and over the church, His new creation (verse 18). Christ’s sufficiency is revealed in His personhood as God the Son: “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ” (Colossians 1:19, NLT; see also John 3:35; Hebrews 1:1–14).

The sufficiency of Christ relates to who He is—Jesus is fully God (John 1:1)—and what He had done—His work of redemption: “Through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross” (Colossians 1:20, NLT). Because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, He can do what no other human could ever do—reconcile lost sinners to a holy God. His blood shed on the cross is the only thing that can pay the price for our sins (1 Peter 2:24).

Paul tells the Colossians that Christ’s work of redemption “includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault” (Colossians 1:21–22, NLT).

To believe in the sufficiency of Christ is to accept that Christ alone is enough—He is everything we need for salvation, spiritual wholeness, and healing. No other source, power, method, or teaching is necessary to bring us God’s complete and unalterable salvation. Only Jesus is sufficient to redeem us and bring us into God’s presence. “Jesus Christ has made us friends of God” (Romans 5:11, NLT). He alone is the perfect Savior (Acts 4:12; Luke 19:10; Hebrews 7:25).

The Colossians were being persuaded to think that knowing Christ wasn’t enough—that they needed something more than faith in Jesus to be spiritually whole. Instead of trusting the truth of the gospel, they were becoming captivated by Satan’s lies (see Colossians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:20; Ephesians 5:6).

We don’t grasp the sufficiency of Christ through human effort but through accepting the truth of God’s Word. Jesus Christ is completely God, and through our spiritual union with Him, we are complete (Colossians 2:9–10). Paul writes, “God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin” (1 Corinthians 1:30, NLT). We are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Ephesians 1:3, NLT). Through our union with Jesus, we have everything. Without Him, we have nothing at all.