Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col 3:1-5)In Chapter 2, Paul says that we “have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world” (Col 2:20). “Therefore,” he says in Colossians 3:1, and proceeds to suggest the logical conclusion. We died with Him, so we are raised with Him. He said the same thing in Romans 6. So if that’s true, he says we should “keep seeking the things above” because, after all, we’ve died to the elementary principles of this world. Seek Christ. Set your mind on the things above. That, according to Paul, is a basic description of the Christian life. If we begin by dying with Christ, the obvious next thing is to be dead to sin and have our minds set on Him.
He says our life is hidden with Christ. What do you suppose that means? Clearly it means our identity is hidden. It’s not available to the world’s evaluations. It is hidden like a treasure, so it is protected in Him. It is even unclear to us, so we know it is yet to be revealed. Your identity, your true self, your deepest self, your future glory … it’s all located in Christ. And, “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col 3:4).
That’s reassuring because I am not happy with who I am. He’s saying, “You don’t truly know who you are.” So I’m left to trust Him in that and live as if this world is not my home. “Seeking the things above.” Dead to sin. It’s a simple formula. Look beyond this world. Die to this world. Simple … but not simply done. But Christ, who is our life, will finish what He began.
2 comments:
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” Very early in my Christian journey, after attending a women’s retreat at which Col. 3:2 was the theme, that verse became one of my “life verses.” It represented quite a change in perspective for a “liberated woman” in her early 20s to adopt; yet, as I came to learn, that was the call upon me as a new creature--one with a new identify in Christ.
Stan, when you say, “I am not happy with who I am,” I assume you mean “who I am now, still in the flesh,” rather than “who I am in Christ.” That made me think immediately of Romans 7:13-25. “I am now in captivity to the law of sin in my members but shall be delivered through Jesus Christ to serve the law of God.” That is my true identify, hidden in Christ for now but to be revealed and celebrated for all eternity. Praise God!
Like many problems in our life, the solution is simple, as in not complex, but is rarely easy. Thankfully we have a God working in and through us to accomplish His good works. Without Him, we'd be lost and hopeless.
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