God is mysterious, and He needs the Word to define Him. The all-inclusive Christ is the Word of God to define God (John 1:1). As the Word of God He speaks God, and He is thereby the definition, explanation, and expression of God. As the Word Christ is God defined, explained, and expressed. The Word, therefore, is actually God Himself, not God hidden, concealed, and mysterious but God defined, explained, and expressed.
The all-inclusive Christ is the embodiment of God to express God. "In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). Before Christ's incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but it did not dwell in Him bodily. From the time that Christ became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in Him in a bodily way, and in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) now and forever it dwells. The Christ who is the embodiment of God not only speaks God and defines God—He also expresses God. Because He is the solid embodiment of God, He presents God to us, expressing Him.
The Christ who is the mystery of God, the reality of God, the definition of God, and the expression of God is also the universality and centrality of God's eternal economy (Col. 1:13-19). In God's economy Christ is the center and the circumference.
God's economy may be likened to a great wheel, having Christ as its every part. Christ is the hub, the center of this wheel. "All things cohere in Him" (v. 17). This means that just as the spokes of a wheel are held together by the hub at their center, so all things exist together by Christ as the hub, the holding center. In the wheel of God's economy, Christ is also the spokes, the support, and the rim, the circumference.
We need to know the all-inclusive Christ as the God-allotted portion to be the enjoyment of His believers. Colossians 1:12 speaks of Christ as "the allotted portion of the saints." This refers to the lot of the inheritance, as illustrated by the allotment of the good land of Canaan given to the children of Israel for their inheritance (Josh. 14:1). The New Testament believers' inheritance, their God-allotted portion, is the all-inclusive Christ.