Today is resurrection Sunday: the day where we celebrate the most important and defining event in history: the resurrection of Christ from the dead. One of the most absurd actions in regards to this event is the common practice these days that you tend to find in the media (read the National Post: Saturday April, 3 2010. p. WP11)
• These are testimonies inconsistent with their claims of being `Christians``.
Consistency requires that believers live in conformity with the fact that they were raised with Christ, who is not only the Object of their faith (chapters 1 and 2) but also the Source of their life (chapters 3 and 4)
The false teachers at Colosse have attacked the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus Christ. They have made him less than fully God and have attempted to seduce believers into thinking that genuine spirituality is to be found in obtaining more knowledge, keeping more rules, or having more experiences.
The Colossians were beset by the danger of relapsing into paganism with its gross sensuality, etc., as is clear from 2:23 and 3:5 ff. The wrong solution of their problem was refuted in chapters 1 and 2, especially the latter. It was indicated that there is no material cure for a spiritual ill, that neglect of the body will never heal the soul’s sickness but will aggravate it, that heaven-born individuals cannot gain satisfaction from earth-born remedies. Christ, alone, is the answer, Christ in all the fullness of his love and power. (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 6: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Colossians and Philemon. New Testament Commentary (136–139). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
In chapter 2, Paul told us the truth about Christ (he is fully God) and Christians (we are given fullness in him). Now we learn the truth about Christians and spirituality. Genuine spiritual experience begins with understanding our identification with Christ (Anders, M. (1999). Vol. 8: Galatians-Colossians. Holman New Testament Commentary; Holman Reference (326). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).
What difference should it make that Christ is risen from the Dead? Paul calls the Colossians, and by extension, all believers to live a life in light of this fact. Because Christ is alive we can see the 1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a), 2) The Responsibility (Colossians 3:1b, 2), 3) The Resource (Colossians 3:1c) 4) The Reason (Colossians 3:3) and finally: 5) The Revelation (Colossians 3:4)
1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a)
Colossians 3:1a [3:1]If then you have been raised with Christ, (seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God). (ESV)
If denotes reality, as in 2:20, can also be translated “since.” Believers having been raised with Christ is not in doubt. The verb actually means “to be co-resurrected.” It is an accomplished fact. Believers spiritually are entered into Christ’s death and resurrection at the moment of their salvation. Galatians 2:20 says,
Galatians 2:20 [20]I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (ESV)
• In that verse, the apostle shows the union of the believer with the Lord, so that they have a shared life.
Please turn to Romans 6
By saving faith, believers have entered into a new dimension. They possess divine and eternal life, which is not merely endless existence, but a heavenly quality of life brought to them by the indwelling Lord. They are thus alive in Christ to the realities of the divine realm.
Because Christ is alive, He has risen from the dead, Christians have an obligation to live consistently with this reality. Paul delineates the specifics of that obligation in Romans 6:11–19:
Romans 6:11-19 [11]So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12]Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. [13]Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. [14]For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. [15]What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! [16]Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? [17]But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, [18]and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. [19]I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (ESV)
This new life is real and powerful, but so is remaining sin. Though it no longer is our master, it can still overpower us if we are not presenting ourselves to God as servants of righteousness.
Because Christ is risen from the dead, we have all the resources necessary for living the Christian life (cf. 2 Pet. 1:3). Paul emphasizes the centrality of Christ throughout Colossians 3:1–4. By using such phrases as with Christ (3:1); where Christ (3:1); with Christ (3:3); when Christ (3:4); and with Him (3:4), he stresses again Christ’s total sufficiency (cf. 2:10). Unfortunately, many Christians fail to understand and pursue the fullness of Christ. Consequently, because of not knowing what Scripture says, or not applying it properly, they are intimidated into thinking they need something more than Him alone to live the Christian life. They fall prey to false philosophy, legalism, mysticism, or asceticism.
Paul reminds the Colossians and us that believers have risen with Christ. This is the path to holiness, not self-denial, angelic experience, or ceremony. Believers are no longer to live the old life they lived before their salvation, but since they possess the eternal life of Christ they have been raised to live on another plane. They must not be ignorant or forgetful of who they are and how they are to live. All sinful passion is controlled and conquered by the power of the indwelling Christ and our union with Him.
Poem: Annie Johnson Flint wrote in her poem: The Way of the Cross
Some of us stay at the cross,
Some of us wait at the tomb,
Quickened and raised with Christ
Yet lingering still in the gloom.
Some of us ‘bide at the Passover feast
With Pentecost all unknown,
The triumphs of grace in the heavenly place
That our Lord has made His own.
If the Christ who died had stopped at the cross,
His work had been incomplete.
If the Christ who was buried had stayed in the tomb,
He had only known defeat,
But the way of the cross never stops at the cross
And the way of the tomb leads on
To victorious grace in the heavenly place
Where the risen Lord has gone.
( Galaxie Software. (2002; 2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.)
With the reality of the resurrected Christ; we have seen: 1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a) and now:
2) The Responsibility (Colossians 3:1b,2)
Colossians 3:1b, 2 [3:1](If then you have been raised with Christ), seek the things that are above, (where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God). [2]Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (ESV)
The present tense of zçteô seek or keep seeking indicates continuous action. Preoccupation with the eternal realities that are ours in Christ is to be the pattern of the believer’s life. Jesus put it this way:
Matthew 6:33 [33]But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (ESV)
• This seeking, is more than a seeking to discover. It is a seeking to obtain (cf. Matt. 13:45). The emphasis, though, is not on the seeking but on the object sought (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 6: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Colossians and Philemon. New Testament Commentary (140). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Paul is not advocating a form of mysticism. Rather, he desires that the Colossians’ and our preoccupation with heaven govern our earthly responses. To be preoccupied with heaven is to be preoccupied with the One who reigns there and His purposes, plans, provisions, and power. It is also to view the things, people, and events of this world through His eyes and with an eternal perspective.
The things that are above refers to the heavenly realm and hones in on the spiritual values that characterize Christ. As the context indicates, the apostle has reference to such realities as tenderheartedness, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, patience, the forgiving spirit, and above all love (3:12 ff.). Surely, if the hearts of believers are filled with such bounties there will be no room for fleshly indulgence. Here, then, is the true solution (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 6: New Testament commentary : Exposition of Colossians and Philemon. New Testament Commentary (140). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
When Christians realize the resurrected Christ, who lives and reigns in heaven above, they commit themselves to the riches of “the Jerusalem above” (Gal. 4:26), they will live out their heavenly values in this world to the glory of God.
In 3:2, Paul gives instruction on how to seek the things above. He says, Set your minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. To Set your minds is from phroneô and could simply be translated, “think,” or more thoroughly, “have this inner disposition.” Once again, the present tense indicates continuous action.
Quote: Lightfoot paraphrases Paul’s thought: “You must not only seek heaven, you must also think heaven” (St. Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon [1879; reprint, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1959], p. 209; italics in the original).
The term implies more than a way of thinking; it includes values and loves as well. It could well be translated “delight in things above.” (Melick, R. R. (2001). Vol. 32: Philippians, Colissians, Philemon (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (280). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
Illustration: Columnist Herb Caen writes in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle; when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”
Spurgeon writes likewise, “If you are not seeking the Lord, the Devil is seeking you. If you are not seeking the Lord, judgment is at your heels.”
• In the Christian life, it’s not enough simply to wake up. We are called to run, to become more like Christ, to press ahead in godliness (Larson, C. B. (2002). 750 engaging illustrations for preachers, teachers & writers (495). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.).
With the reality of the resurrected Christ; we have seen: 1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a), 2) The Responsibility (Colossians 3:1b, 2) and now:
3) The Resource (Colossians 3:1c)
Colossians 3:1c [3:1](If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above), where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. (ESV)
The believer’s whole disposition should orient itself toward heaven, as it says in the third part of verse one where Christ is, just as a compass needle orients itself toward magnetic north.
Obviously, the thoughts of heaven that are to fill the believer’s mind must derive from Scripture. The Bible is the only reliable source of knowledge about the character of God and the values of heaven. Paul describes that preoccupation as being “transformed by the renewing of [your] mind” (Rom. 12:2). In it we learn the true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and praiseworthy things our minds are to dwell on (cf. Phil. 4:8).
When our minds are filled with the glory of the resurrection, it will produce godly behavior. Sin will be conquered and humility, a sacrificial spirit, and assurance will result.
The believer’s resource is none other than the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: the risen and glorified Christ, seated at the right hand of God in the place of honor and majesty.
Because of Christ’s coronation and exaltation to the Father’s right hand, He is the fountain of blessing for His people. It is expressly because of this exalted position, that Christ grants requests. The reason that he says yes to His saints is that it glorifies the father in Him exercising His reign at the Father`s right hand.
Jesus told the disciples:
John 14:13-14 [13]Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [14]If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. (ESV)
(cf. 15:16; 16:23–24, 26).
Poem: John of Damascus wrote in his poem: The Day of Resurrection
The day of resurrection?
Earth, tell it out abroad;
The Passover of gladness,
The Passover of God.
From death to life eternal,
From this world to the sky,
Our Christ hath brought us over
With hymns of victory.
Now let the heavens be joyful,
Let earth her song begin;
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Let all things seen and unseen
Their notes in gladness blend,
For Christ the Lord hath risen,
Our Joy that hath no end.
(Galaxie Software. (2002; 2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press.)
With the reality of the resurrected Christ; we have seen: 1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a) , 2) The Responsibility (Colossians 3:1b, 2) 3) The Resource (Colossians 3:1c) and now:
4) The Reason (Colossians 3:3)
Colossians 3:3 [3]For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (ESV)
The reality of the resurrection comes from the death of Christ. Likewise, our living out of the resurrection comes from our death to the world system through our faith union with Christ in His death and resurrection. Paul wrote in Galatians 6:14
Galatians 6:14 [14]But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (ESV)
In Colossians 3:3, the past tense of apothnçskô (you have died) indicates that a death took place at salvation. “If any man is in Christ,” Paul writes to the Corinthians, “he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:17).
In what sense has the believer died? In the sense that the penalty for sin has been paid. The wages of sin is death, so we must die. By union with Jesus Christ, we die the required death in Him, thus the penalty is paid and sin can never claim us again. We have thus died to sin in the sense of paying its penalty. Its presence and power still affect us —but it cannot condemn us.
Not only have believers died to sin, but also their lives are hidden with Christ in God. What does with Christ in God mean? First, believers share a common life with the Father and Son. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:17 that “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” Believers are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4).
Second, that new life is concealed from the world. Unbelievers are unable to grasp the full import of the believer’s new life, since “a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor. 2:14). Paul pointed out that the true manifestation of the sons of God is yet to come in the next world, so that people cannot see what believers really are like (Rom. 8:19). The apostle John implied as much about our true identity when he wrote: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be” (1 John 3:2). The false teachers troubling the Colossians could not grasp the truth that the Colossians had already gained transcendent spiritual knowledge and life, and thus had no need of their false teaching.
Please turn to Romans 8
Third, believers are eternally secure, hidden protectively from all spiritual foes. The blessings of salvation are “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you” (1 Pet. 1:4). Our great high priest “is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7:25). Those to whom the Son gives eternal life “shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28). They are hidden away deep in the shelter of their God.
No passage states that glorious truth more eloquently than Romans 8:31–39:
Romans 8:31-39 [31]What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? [32]He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? [33]Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. [34]Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. [35]Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? [36]As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered."[37]No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. [38]For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, [39]nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ESV)
• We will return again to Romans 8
• Here, all the riches of the eternal God are available to those whose lives are hidden with Him through His Son.
To be hidden with Christ though His death, points to a death of ourselves:
Poem:(``Life After Death``)
“Where can I find the road to life?” you ask;
“How can I fill the void that haunts my soul?”
My friend, I know that path to life you seek;
You need not suffer life that’s bland and droll.
The Good News is, abundant life’s in Christ—
The antidote to life that goes askew.
You can escape the futile fling you’re on;
With Christ, you can be raised to life anew.
Before you try to sweeten life with Christ
By thinking he’s like frosting on your cake,
I must make sure you clearly understand
The entrance gate that you must take.
Before there’s life that’s really life, there’s death.
“Not death,” you say, “I want to live, not die.”
I know, but easy shortcuts will not work;
The life you seek will come when first you die.
It’s self that needs to die, the ingrown self.
When you with Christ are dead to self each day,
And to the world of lusts that lure and trap,
Then you can know abundant life today.
(Martin, E. D. (1993). Colossians, Philemon. Believers church Bible commentary (142–143). Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press.)
With the reality of the resurrected Christ; we have seen: 1) The Reminder. (Colossians 3:1a), 2) The Responsibility (Colossians 3:1b, 2), 3) The Resource (Colossians 3:1c) 4) The Reason (Colossians 3:3) and finally:
5) The Revelation (Colossians 3:4)
Colossians 3:4 [4]When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (ESV)
Please turn to Philippians 3
The reality of the resurrected Christ, should put our minds not only on His rise from the dead, but His coming again. When Christ… appears or is revealed at His second coming, we also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Philippians 3:20-21 [20]But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, [21]who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (ESV)
Here and now, according to the teaching of other Pauline letters, it is the province of the Holy Spirit within the people of Christ to reproduce his likeness increasingly in their lives (cf. 2 Cor. 3:18.), but the consummation of this sanctifying work awaits the day of Christ Cf. 1 Thess. 5:23. Indeed, the presence and activity of the Spirit here and now is their guarantee of the heritage which is reserved for believers against that day (Cf. Eph. 1:14).
In Colossians 3:4 we see a perfect balance between the ‘already’ and the ‘not yet’ that are so characteristic of Paul’s teaching on the Christian life. The new age has dawned, and Christians already belong to it. The old age, however, is not yet wound up, and until they die (or until the Lord ‘appears’ again in his second coming) their new life will be a secret truth, ‘hidden’ from view. The life of Christians thus becomes part of the ‘mystery’, the secret plan of God, to be revealed to the world at the end of time: that life is not just ‘hidden with Christ in God’ (v. 3), it actually is Christ himself (v. 4), their hope of glory (1:27). As in Romans 8:18ff., or 1 John 3:1ff., the Christian hopes not merely for the coming of the Lord, but for the full revelation of what he or she already is. Then will it be seen with what faithful diligence and perseverance many outwardly ‘unsuccessful’ and forgotten Christian workers have served their Lord (Wright, N. T. (1986). Vol. 12: Colossians and Philemon: An introduction and commentary. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (137). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.).
In this letter, as we have seen, this function is discharged by the indwelling Christ, his people’s “hope of glory.” The day of revelation and glory will but bring to complete and public fruition something that is already true—that Christians have died with Christ and been raised with him, and in him are partakers of the age to come (C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and its Developments (London, 1936), pp. 147–48; W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, pp 318–19; O. Cullmann, Salvation in History, E.T., (London, 1967), pp. 255–68.).
Return again to Romans 8
When the day of revelation and glory will dawn Paul does not suggest. Its date is unknown; its advent is certain. This consummating act in the series of saving events is assured by those which have already been accomplished. We look at Romans 8:31-39 as to our security in Christ, the two verses preceeding those of the completion of the sanctifiying work of Christ:
Romans 8:29-30 [29]For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [30]And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (ESV)
• The day of glory may be future but (as the past tense of the verb “glorified” implies) its arrival is as sure as if it were already here. For those whose faith is placed in him, Christ is already their glory, as certainly as he is their hope: the hope and the glory are comprehended in the life which all his people have in him (Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament (137). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
(Format Note: Outline & some base commentary from: MacArthur, J. (1996). Colossians (123–132). Chicago: Moody Press.)
