“Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
Today will be an extension of last week’s lesson of necessity for two reasons. One is that Paul as the writer is continuing his line of thought; the second is that I finished last week touching on the doctrine taught here and today we are coming back to it once more.
These first four verses of chapter 3 mark the end of the primarily doctrinal portion of this letter and then Paul will apply what he has taught to Christian character and lifestyle.
But let’s not be too anxious to move on. These are some of the most wonderful verses in the Bible and we cannot help but benefit each time we stop to consider these marvelous truths that define us and encourage us concerning our eternal position.
RAISED UP
First then, let’s look at this very first phrase, and work our way step by step through these four verses together.
“If then you have been raised up with Christ…”
Now, my NASB was printed in 1977 and in 1995 the translation was updated to smooth out the language for easier reading. So the new NASB begins verse 1 this way, “Therefore if you have been raised…”
The NIV says “Since then…” and that may express the thought a little clearer in that it omits the word ‘if’. Paul wasn’t calling into question the salvation of the Colossian Christians. I also do not think he was making a distinction purposely between the saved and the unsaved.
He is simply saying that in relation to the things he has said before, concerning the false doctrines and the legalism and the man-made traditions that were fretting them, that they should freshly consider their new life in Christ and leave those things behind.
“You are raised up with Christ”. Now it is clear that Paul is referring to resurrection, and in the physical sense we have not yet been resurrected, because in the physical sense we have not yet died, if you are still hearing my voice today. But there is a sort of death we have died, and it is a death in Christ, therefore our spiritual raising up is also in Him – He rose from the dead and brought up from spiritual death all His chosen ones.
In the words of a minister of a past generation:
“When our Forerunner triumphed, He bore up with Him into safety the spiritual life of all His people.” E.K. Simpson, The Pastoral Epistles, (London, 1954)
Think now about what that means, ‘raised up with Christ’.
Where is He now? Well, let’s look at a couple of scripture passages, and then make sure we’re understanding the theological truth behind them and not imagining something that is really a faulty understanding and cheapens the concept.
First there is Acts 1:9-11
“And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. 10 And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. 11 They also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.”
We’re familiar with the account of the ascension of Christ from the Mount of Olives, just take special note today that verse 11 says that these men, who we understand to be angels, specifically told the Apostles that Jesus had been taken up “into heaven” and that He would come back in just the same way; in other words, that He would come down out of heaven.
Next, listen to 1 Corinthians 15:23-25 as Paul writes to them about the resurrection:
“But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, 24 then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.”
Then Hebrews 1:13, quoting Psalm 110:1, which our Lord Himself cited as a reference to Himself and is recorded for us in Matthew, Mark and Luke
“But to which of the angels has He ever said, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET”?
So in these few passages we have expressions of the preeminent authority of Christ over all rulers and powers and authorities. We see that He bodily ascended into heaven as His disciples looked on and watched with their physical eyes, and then received the testimony of heavenly visitors that He had indeed been taken up into heaven and would return in the same way they saw Him go; then we have this declaration that the Father has exalted Him to a place of honor from which He reigns as King until His enemies are altogether abolished.
Now here is what we have to make clear. Jesus is not sitting on a throne somewhere in heaven, next to the right hand of the Father.
He in fact pervades the universe with His presence. Paul told the Ephesians (4:10)
“He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.”
The declaration that He sits at His Father’s right hand is a designation of His majesty and authority as King and Ruler over all, as he goes about conquering and to conquer (Rev 6:2).
While it is true that He has taken a body for Himself and is now in this risen, glorified body bearing the marks of His suffering, which rose into the heavens and will return in majesty to reign, we must remember that Jesus Himself told us the Father is Spirit. He doesn’t have a body, and the scripture verses that make reference to the Father’s hands or His eyes and so forth are metaphors only.
What I am saying is that when we use our very finite imaginations to try to place Jesus in time and space we will always fall far short of understanding the surpassing immensity and greatness of our God.
We must not think in terms of time and space, but in terms of rank, of designation, of position of authority and privilege. Only then can we begin to understand our own position.
When Paul writes that we’ve been raised up with Christ, if we think only in terms of time and space then our minds tend to relegate the words to myth, or at the very best, a vague hope that they will one day be realized.
But if we understand that he is speaking of spiritual truth that has its base in reality and finality, then we can begin to comprehend that whatever the flesh tells us, whatever the influence on our minds of the physical realm and the circumstances of this mundane existence, the actual fact is that by God’s grace and power and the spiritual life He has imparted to us, we are as raised up and eternally positioned as our glorified Head, Christ our Lord.
This is the essence of verse 1.
Since then, you have been raised up with Christ, pay attention to and continue to pursue the realities of the realm into which you have been raised and eternally positioned, considering you are now positionally in perfect favor with God.
SET YOUR MIND
The instruction of Paul in verse 2 is the most difficult mandate of scripture for the believer to follow, and I would say especially in our day when there is so much distraction from every mode of communication in existence.
When he says to ‘set your mind’ on the things above he is talking about intensity of attention. He is talking about heart-felt devotion to something that requires deep concentration.
The King James version says to ‘set your affection on things above’. The idea is that our hearts should be attuned to heavenly things.
We’ve all known people who were so obsessed with something that it was all they talked about; seemingly all they thought about. After a while you dread being around them. You avoid them if at all possible, unless of course, you are as obsessed over the same thing, then it’s everyone else avoiding the two of you.
When Lynn and I drove to California in 2001 for my daughter’s wedding we stopped and stayed the night in Las Vegas.
Since we were there we checked out some of the sites, and one piece of entertainment being offered at the time was a Star Trek ride at one of the hotels. It was like an amusement park ride, where you felt you were in a space shuttle flying around. When we were done we were browsing around a shop that sold all kinds of Star Trek memorabilia, and as we did we listened to two young employees of the shop talking about Star Trek. They were actually recounting to one another the numbers of episodes and quoting things said in those episodes. For example, “Hey, remember in episode 92 when Scotty said to Spock …..etc.”
Lynn and I left the store chuckling. But that sort of devotion is really what Paul is talking about here. In chapter 2 verse 10 Paul said that Christ has made us complete, or full, and now he says since we are full in Him we are to be full of Him.
Now folks, this is something that takes deliberate thought and effort. I know I said this is still the doctrinal portion of this epistle, but doctrine means beliefs…that’s what the word means…and what we truly believe is what is going to be demonstrated in our behavior.
Putting it in an example for simplicity’s sake, if you believe you are about to fall you grab at something for support, don’t you? If you believe an approaching vehicle is going to hit you, you dodge out of the way.
If you really believe that the best way to ensure a secure future is to have money stored away, then you put any extra money you have in savings so it will be available when needed. Get it?
If you believe the doctor when he says if you don’t get your blood pressure in balance you’re in for a stroke or a heart attack, if you really believe it, you will follow his advice to improve your health. Right? What you truly believe will always be demonstrated in your life through behavior.
So if we truly believe this Biblical doctrine that God has raised us into new life and positioned us forever with Christ in the place of complete and eternal acceptance with Him, then it is inconsistent with that doctrine to be anything less than desirous of filling our minds and hearts with the spiritual truths that now pertain to us.
How do we do that? There is only one way – immersing ourselves in the lifestyle that marks one who is no longer of this world although still in it.
Devout Bible study, prayer, the seeking out of frequent fellowship with Christians who will be an encouragement and a Godly example, instead of people who will drag our thinking and our speech back into the thinking and ways of the world.
Now I’m not talking about isolationism here. I’m not advocating a monkish lifestyle that shuts out the world and hides in a corner. I’m talking about being conscious of what our doctrinal position is and feeding our minds and affections with Godliness so that we will be apt to walk in a Godly way in an ungodly world.
Mk 8:33 Rom 12:16 Eph 1:18-23
THE HIDDEN LIFE
I do not remember where I read this so I cannot site the source, but I remember reading that in some pagan cultures there has been a belief that the life, the spirit of a person is linked in some way to an object. It might be a gem or some other small thing precious to the owner. So they would take that object and hide it in a place where no one but the owner had access, believing that as long as the object was safe, so was their life.
As backward and pagan as that is, it serves as an illustration of what Paul has said here of our lives. They are tucked away safe, and doubly safe, as they are with Christ, in God.
Think about that in relation to the harsh dangers of this world. What can man do to you, what can the world take away, when your very life is not anchored here, but safe with Christ in God?
Repeating the words of E.K. Simpson, which I quoted earlier, when Christ rose from the grave and ascended into heaven He, “…bore up with Him into safety the spiritual life of all His people.”
Preparing to go to the cross Jesus assured His disciples – and us…
“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” John 14:18-20
The world no longer sees Him, and therefore does not see the life we have. It is hidden with Christ in God. We don’t see it either. We accept on faith that despite the decay of our flesh, despite the aches and pains and sorrows of this physical existence, our real life is where it cannot be seen until we are glorified.
That is what John meant when he wrote to the church,
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2
When He appears. When He is revealed.
THE REVEALED LIFE
H.C.G. Moule, in his 1898 commentary on Colossians, wrote of a friend who had been walking home over a dark field following a mission worship service he had conducted, and was reflecting on his text which had included the phrase “Christ, who is our life”.
He quotes his friend as saying to him, “Within ten paces, as I walked, life was transformed to me. So wonderful was the discovery that the Lord Christ is not merely Rescuer, Friend, King, but Life itself. Life central, inexhaustible, springing up within my heart, rising to eternity.”
When Christ, who is our life…he has gone from assuring us that our life is safely anchored with Christ in God, to the more glorious assertion that He is in fact our life.
This is what inspired the Apostle to say in another place, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain” Phil 1:21
Our lives are not separate from Christ, true believers. We must repent of the sin of ever thinking that our lives are our own to do with as we please. What pretension! What audacity! We had no life to take up or lay down. We were dead and utterly devoid of spiritual life.
While we were in that deplorable and helpless state He purchased us with His blood, triumphing over death and the grave and spoke His life into us.
He provided for us what we could never have. He graced us with what we could never deserve. He made us into something we could never have been. He brought us to a place we would never have seen and we still have not seen but we have His own assurance that the life He has called into being is secure with Him and He is indeed our very life.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Gal 2:20
When Christ who is our life is revealed, then we will be revealed with Him. It is inevitable. It can be no other way. Our life is in Him as the branch is in the vine. It is in Him as the glow is in the light.
In the eternal economy of God it is finished and done. He has chosen, He has called, He has Justified, He has sanctified and He has glorified.
There can be no outcome other than the revelation of His Son with His elect in glory.
Now I want to reassure you of something by way of encouragement for your days here on earth and then I’ll close.
Our revelation, this one Paul talks about in verse 4, will also be our vindication.
Christ appeared in this world in the flesh and in the weakness of flesh; not sinful flesh, but vulnerable flesh. He came as an infant and grew into a Man, and was seen by few for a while in the flesh.
Then in a spiritual sense He was made manifest through the preaching of the gospel, as the spiritual eyes of His elect were opened to ‘see’ and understand who He is.
There is in the future a third way He will be revealed, and that will be the revelation that will be to the whole world, when He comes in glory with His holy ones.
This is the coming Job was speaking of in what is believed to be the oldest book of the Bible, when he declared, “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will take His stand on the earth.” Job 19:25
Don’t be afraid, Christian, to speak boldly and plainly of sin and God’s call to repentance. Do not be ashamed to proclaim clearly that you serve a living Savior who died and rose bodily into the heavens with a promise to return.
Don’t let the scoffers embarrass you and never let the bullies intimidate you into silence.
There is a day fixed which no one knows but the Father, but it is sure and surely approaching, when the Glorious risen Christ, who is our life, will descend in triumph to conquer the nations and rule in Majesty and you and I will, by virtue of our spiritual co-existence in the very power that raised Him from the grave, descend with Him, riding in His victory, before the eyes of all, and both He and we will be finally and fully vindicated
“Rejoice, believer in the Lord,
Who makes your cause His own;
The hope that’s founded on His word
Can ne’er be overthrown.
Though many foes beset your road,
And feeble is your arm,
Your life- is hid- with Christ- in God,
Beyond the reach of harm”
-John Newton
“For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay” Hebrews 10:37
Phil 1:21, 3:20-21 Rom 8:29, 30 2 Cor 4:16-18
