Colossians 3:3,4
by Dr. Grant C. Richison
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Colossians 3:3
"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
Paul gives two reasons he wants the Christian to "seek" and "set
our minds" on "things above." The first reason is that we
died with Christ and are therefore hidden with him in God.
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"For you died"
"For"-- the reason for setting our minds on "things above"
(v. 3).
At the point of our salvation we died spiritually with Christ (Gal. 2:20).
The Greek tense indicated that our death with Christ took place at a definite
point. This death was a definite past experience.
The believer died 2000 years ago. This is not a death the believer experiences
over and over. It took place once with Christ. Jesus took our death by
his death. We died once for all to the world and now live with Christ in
God.
This is the death of justification. Justification established our position
before God in Christ. Justification places on us the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. We are a partner in his righteousness. This past positional death
in Christ (2:10) is the basis for daily living.
Verse one shows our identify with Christ in his resurrection; this verse
shows our identify with Christ as he hung upon the cross. God identifies
us we the death of Christ.
Because Christ is our portion we died to things below. If we died to these
things it is foolish to "seek" and "set our mind" on
"things below." Since we died to these things positionally we
should behave like a dead person to these things. Sin should not affect
us like it once did.
PRINCIPLE: We base our right of living before God on calculating our past
death in Christ.
APPLICATION: "Dead reckoning" is a nautical term. When a captain
cannot make astronomical calculations because of cloud covering, he must
use "dead reckoning" to properly find his place in the ocean.
"Dead reckoning" gauges the ship's location from the records
of its progress made in the log book.
The Christian's log book is the Bible. There we find our position in Christ
from what God has gone on record to say. We need not consult our feelings.
We do not evaluate circumstances. We just calculate what God did for us
in Christ.
"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or
do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we
have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also
shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old
man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with,
that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been
freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also
live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead,
dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that
He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives
to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:6-11).
God wants us to reckon (calculate) ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.
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"and your life is hidden with Christ in God"
"Hidden with Christ" is a statement of our eternal security in
Christ. This does not mean that it is hidden from us but that it is hidden
for us. Jesus lays away our life in his. God reserves eternal life in
heaven for us (I Pet. 1:4,5).
The Greek tense of the verb "is hidden" means in this context
that our life was hidden at a point in the past with the results going on
forever. At the point we received Christ, eternal life began and goes on
forever. When Christ comes (v.4), the life hidden in Christ goes with him.
"With Christ in God" constitutes a double shield. Not only are
we in the bank but we are in the vault of the bank. God doubly safeguards
the security of the person who trusts in Christ.
"With Christ" connotes identity. The believer has a fellowship
of identity with the death of Christ and with the risen Lord that carries
us to God.
PRINCIPLE: No intruder, not even Satan himself, can separate us from God.
The believer owns a double security before God.
APPLICATION: God has locked us together with Christ in God. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:31-39). God secures
our position against the precarious conditions in life. Our own whims,
other people or the devil himself cannot touch our eternal status before
God.
When the Caesar threatened to take the life of Chysostom unless he renounced
Christ, he said, "You cannot, your majesty for my life is hid with
Christ in God."
The eternal security of the believer is a matter of our position in Christ
before God. This is something that Christ did for us. It has nothing to
do with what we do. We cannot secure this position by the kind of life
we live. The security rests in the death we died in Christ. Our eternal
security before God is a matter of grace. Grace is what God gives, not
what we do.
We do not become a Christian by what we do but by what we become. We are
not secure in God by what we do but by what we are. However, what we have
become and what we are impels us into a life that pleases God.
Colossians 3:4
"When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear
with Him in glory."
This verse speaks of our future with the Lord Jesus. This is the destiny
of the believer.
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"When Christ who is our life appears"
The word "appears" means to manifest. Manifest is more than "appear."
The true meaning is to uncover, lay bare, reveal. It means to cause to become
visible -- to make appear, to make visible, to cause to be seen, to cause
something to be fully known by revealing clearly and in some detail.
When Jesus comes he will be made known, made plain. He will be brought
to light to Christians. If a person appears in a Halloween mask, they are
not what they appear. When Christ comes in manifestation he will demonstrate
what he truly is. He will reveal his true character (John 3:21; I Cor.
4:5; II Cor. 5:10,11; Eph 5:13).
He will appear at the Rapture (1 Thes. 4:16-18). Then he will be visibly
manifest. God is moving toward a new era. Even though God is presently
working toward this new era, it is invisible to this present age.
God wants us to make "known the knowledge about him in every place
like a sweet aroma" (2 Cor 2.14).
Christ is the believer's life: "I live, yet not I, but Christ lives
in me" (Gal. 2:20). He is the principle and end of the Christian's
life. He lives in us by his Spirit, and we live to him in all we do, "To
me to live is Christ" (Phil. 1:21).
Christ will appear again. He is now hid but he will appear in all the grandeur
of God's glory.
PRINCIPLE: On the occasion that Christ appears God expects us to celebrate
our life in Christ.
APPLICATION: Do we look forward to Christ's coming to take us to himself?
Should we not set our affections upon that world and live above this world?
What is there here to make us fond of this age? A true Christian's heart
draws to eternity. Our Lord is there, our home is there, our wealth is there.
Since our hope is there, we will be there for ever.
This is the point when the believer will receive ultimate sanctification.
Ultimate sanctification involves a new body and a soul separated from sin
and the capacity to sin.
The best is yet ahead for the Christian. Meanwhile we should set our hearts
on things above. We need to cultivate a taste for eternity and fellowship
with God. We cultivate that taste by study of God's Word. Many have lost
their appetite for the Word of God. When that happens, we are headed for
spiritual disaster.
At the coming of Christ we hope for the perfection of our happiness.
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"then you also will appear with Him in glory"
When Christ comes, we shall then appear with him in glory. It will be his
glory to have his redeemed with him; he will come to be glorified in his
saints (II Th. 1:10). It will be our glory to come with him and be with
him for ever. At the Christ's coming there will be a general meeting of
all the saints. Those whose life are now hidden with Christ shall then
appear with Christ in that glory which he himself enjoys (Jn. 17:24).
The word "then" shows that God links us to Christ's coming. Christianity
is not a religion but a relationship. God establishes that relationship
by positional truth. That is why when Jesus comes we will link to him.
When Jesus comes he will glorify the saints. As John proclaims it, "We
know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is" (i.e., believers will be glorified as He is glorified; I John
3:2; cf. I Cor. 13:12; Col. 1:27). Paul adds a new point to the believers'
focal point of watchfulness: we should look upward to Christ's sway over
us in time and also forward to His coming for us in the clouds.
We are united to him now but then we will share his manifested glory (splendor).
"Glory" describes eternity. There will be no regrets in God's
presence. We will experience no shame in the presence of God because of
our position with Christ.
PRINCIPLE: The destiny of the Christian is not the grave but fellowship
with the Lord of glory.
APPLICATION: The final resting place of the Christian is not the grave
or crematorium. We will enjoy the fully manifested glory of Jesus Christ
in eternity. We now fellowship with him spiritually, then we will fellowship
with him in his physical presence.
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved.
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