The idea here is that there are layers to Christ's fullness and when the biblical authors present Christ to us they might only explicitly refer to one layer but as they do that the underlying layers are also implied. or to put it another way, the glory of the underlying layers shine through the layer that is presented to us. That might sound strange, abstract and not particularly helpful but let me try to explain.
The incarnation implies the pre-existent Word
In the beginning was the Word. The Word took flesh. When John identifies "Jesus Christ has come in the flesh" as the key test of orthodoxy, Augustine asks (Homily 6 on 1 John) how can this be when so many heretics happily affirm the humanity of Jesus but deny his deity? Augustine then asks us to dig a bit deeper and consider: From whence did he come? "Was he not God?" Simon Gathercole demonstrated (in his 2006 book, The Pre-existent Son) that Jesus' phrase in the synoptic gospels, "I have come", implies divine pre-existence.
So whenever we hear of Jesus' fleshly existence we should think of God the Son coming to us in the flesh. Fully God, fully man. Two natures inseparably joined in one person. God coming into his creation and manifesting his glorious humility through sweating, weeping, serving, obedient, humbled-to-the-cross flesh (Phil 2).
The death of Christ implies the perfect life of Christ
"Why did God become man?" Anselm famously asked. Hebrews 4 gives a particularly clear answer: he was made lower than the angels (implying that he was previously above the angels), shared fully in our humanity, was made our brother - why? - that he might taste death for us, that he might break the power of the devil and rescue us from slavery. Galatians 3-4 similarly says that God sent his Son (pre-existent) born of a woman, born under the Law (perfect obedience) - why? - to redeem us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. As Martin Luther saw, Christ's perfectly obedient life was not first and foremost an example for us to follow but a substitution for us.
He "learned obedience obedience from what he suffered [not that he was previously disobedient but until he was in the flesh he had no opportunity to practice obedience to the Law in the face of suffering and opposition] and once made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Heb 5:9). He had to be the "lamb without blemish" which God's Law continually called for. And what are lamb's for in the Bible? 9 times out of 10 they are for sacrifice.
So there is a sense in which the death of Christ swallows up the life of Christ - to the extent that the NT authors can jump straight to the cross of Christ - straight to "gave his Son" (John 3:16) or "God presented Christ" (Rom 3:25) - implying both his pre-existence and his perfect life. It is what the Apostle's Creed does - "for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us." Nothing about his life of teaching and miracles and obedience. But it is implied.
So when Paul speaks of boasting in "the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" we should think of his sacrificial death in our place... as the perfectly obedient incarnate Son of God.
The resurrection of Christ implies the uniquely significant death of Christ
Clearly you can't be "raised from the dead" if you haven't died. But it is more than simply presupposing a death, the resurrection of Christ includes the idea of a uniquely significant death. Resurrection as prophesied in the OT is an eschatological (end time) event - the end of the age of death and of sin and of the flourishing of God's enemies and the beginning of a new age of life and righteousness and the vindication of God's people and the defeat of God's enemies and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Resurrection means God has won. Peace - Shalom - has come.
When Jesus was raised what was the first thing he said? Peace. And what is the first thing he showed his followers? His marks of crucifixion - the marks of sacrifice. He is the "looking-slain lamb standing" (Rev 5:6). He is showing them the wounds of Isaiah 53 by which they are brought peace - the wounds of punishment they should have received but he took in their place that they should be counted justified and granted resurrection life.
It is often claimed that the apostles in Acts preach the resurrection of Christ not the cross of Christ. To this it might be pointed out that a) they do actually often preach the cross, b) sometimes they are actually preaching the resurrection of believers through Christ, but also c) when they do just mention the resurrection of Christ they are implying the epoch-changing, cursed-on-a-tree-for-us death of Christ.
This is why Paul can shorthand his gospel as "Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David" (2 Tim 2:8 cf. Rom 1:2-4). As we receive the resurrected Christ we receive the one who is the eternal Son of God, who has lived a perfect earthly life as the true Son of David, and who has suffered in fulfilment of the Psalms of David - e.g. Psalm 22 and 23 - as the representative of God's people (their shepherd) suffering for them (as a lamb).
The ascension of Christ implies the resurrection of Christ
Particularly in the book of Revelation there is a compression of the narrative which seems to miss out the life and death and resurrection of Christ: "She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron sceptre. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne." (Rev 12:5) Revelation is clearly aware of the lamb slain to purchase people for God who is now standing (Rev 5); clearly aware that this is the pre-existent First-and-Last (Rev 2:8; 22:13 - in fact this document throughout shouts the full deity of Christ louder than any other NT document). The Psalm 2 allusion in Rev 12:5 brings in all the freight of the Son-King: oppressed, victorious, saving. So why the shortcut to "snatched up to the throne"? Because the emphasis in Revelation is on the enthroned Lamb (whose glory includes all that has come before).
Another example of ellipsis would be the Psalms that speak of God "ascending" or "going up" or "coming in" (Psalm 24, 47, 68). As Paul says in Ephesians 4, "ascended" logically implies that he must have first descended (earthly life) and he who descended must be the God who fills the universe.
The ascension/enthronement includes the resurrection, includes the death, includes the life, includes the pre-existence. So when we are encouraged to fix our eyes on Christ, the ascended, enthroned Christ seated at the right hand of the Father (Col 3:1) we think not only of his current rule and intercession for us but also of the fact that he is God-from-God who has provided purification for sins and "sat down" (Heb 1:3). There is a perfect divine slain lamb standing on the throne!
The return of Christ implies all the fullness of Christ
The importance of the return of Christ in driving NT theology is impossible to overstate. Someone has suggested that 1 in 7 verses in Paul is about it. Jesus was frequently talking about it, especially as his death approached. Christians can be described in shorthand as those who "love his appearing" (2 Tim 4:8). How can that be the description of those who will receive the crown of righteousness? Because the coming/appearing of Christ is the coming of Christ in all his fullness.
The idea of 'his coming' (parousia) implies that his arrival from somewhere - where? - from the right hand of the Father, from the throne. And coming as who? The Word of God, Yahweh the judge who is also the victorious-through-suffering Davidic King (Rev 19:11-16).
1 Thessalonians, a letter which refers to the coming of Jesus at the end of each chapter, wonderfully packs the fullness of Christ and the fullness of the gospel into one coming-orientated verse: 1 Thess 1:10: "and to wait [Christians are fundamentally those who are waiting for the coming of Christ] for his Son from heaven [the one coming from heaven is the divine Son of God] whom he raised from the dead [resurrection, eschatological event] Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath [by his incarnation, perfect life, and death in our place, Jesus absorbed the eschatological wrath we deserve in advance so that on the final day we can be safe in him].
He is coming soon. Coming in all his fullness - divine Son, made perfect man, slain for us, raised, ascended and enthroned - He is coming.
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