COLOSSIANS 3: 1-4 / Christ Above All Series
RESURRECTION LIVING
The Resurrection is regarded in Scripture in three aspects- as a fact establishing our Lord’s messiahship, as a prophecy of the believer’s rising from the dead, and as an enabling for the Christian life here and now. The last aspect is the one taught here. Scripture teaches that the believer is so joined with Jesus that he has died and risen with Him.
The settled unshakable conviction of the apostle Paul was that the open tomb opened the way to a life of immense possibilities. He wanted the Colossians not only to believe in the power of Christ’s resurrection but to claim the victory of it as their own. So he taught them the secret of Resurrection Living in Colossians 3:1-11. Victorious Resurrection Living can be realized through a conscious habitual pattern of thought in the mind and an attitude in heart (CIT). The victory of Christ’s resurrection enables Resurrection Living.
The death and resurrection of Jesus to many is just an objective fact concerning how the world was reconciled to God. You can not be too emphatic about that fact, but that is not the whole gospel. The gospel is intended to be personally received, it is intended to change life, it is intended to become a living reality in the lives of those who believe and receive Jesus as their life. It is the foundational principle for truly living the Christian life.
Let’s look into our text and learn how you can appropriate the gospel, how you can live a life in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For living in the power of Jesus’ Resurrection enables Resurrection Living.
I. SEEKING THE THINGS ABOVE, 1-2.
II. FINDING LIFE IN CHRIST, 3-4.
The only remedy for the indulgences of the flesh (2:30) is the believer’s new life in Christ. By our union with Christ in His death we can died to the world’s way of believing, thinking and acting. In the believer’s union with Christ in His resurrection the power to live a new life is found. Verse 1 commands us to center our life on Christ by seeking His virtues. Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
We have learned that baptism symbolizes our death and resurrection with Christ (2:12). This union with Christ in His death and resurrection is the key that unlocks the power of Resurrection Living. When we surrender or yield our life to Christ we are incorporated into His death and life. When Christ comes to live within us we experience a resurrection to a new life and can live under His guidance and power -if we will surrender the control of our life to Him. That is why Christ commands us to die to our old life, to our old self, to our fleshly nature which we can only do by appropriating, by claiming His death to sin as our death to sin (Rom. 6-7). The mathematician Blaise Pascal said, “It is one of the greatest principles of Christianity that that which happened in Jesus Christ may happen in the soul of the Christian. We have a linking not only with Calvary but with His Resurrection.”
This vital union with Christ gives one a new set of desires, and a new purpose, and a new perspective. The power of the Resurrection puts heaven in our hearts but it needs to be transmitted to our minds. The Colossians had accepted Christ and His salvation but it lay dormant because they were engrossed with earthly things. Their earthly priorities were controlling -directing their lives.
We can identify with them can’t we? Long after our new life has begun our thoughts, energy, and time can be focused on our agenda of personal success and prosperity. This duality of direction, this split personality is what debilitates so many of us. St. Augustine said, “Christ is not valued at all unless He is valued above all.” When many of us came to Christ we never died to our personal set of purposes, plans, and priorities. Scripture calls for a radical transformation of our attention and a reordering of our values (Rom. 12:1-2).
So as we apply our union with Him in His death we will die to the world and the flesh. If we apply our union with Him in His resurrection our born-again spirit will cause us to aspire in love, thought, desire and obedience so that we focus on Jesus who is on His throne where He rules and blesses the souls whom through faith live the new life of heaven on earth.
The devil tells us that if we seek the things above we will miss out on the things below. That’s not necessarily true. God is the rightful owner of the earth and all it contains (Pss. 24:1; 50:12; 89:11; 1 Cor. 10:26). “Seeking the things above” does not mean we abstain from the earthly things but that we use earthly things for God’s glory. You can use and enjoy earthly things better when your not seeking your satisfaction from them but are seeking fulfillment from God. Taste, touch, and tabulate can never really satisfy. Position, popularity, and people don’t bring us security. But if we focus on them they cause divided loyalties between Christ and our own agenda.
The testimony of a man who suffered greatly while BATTLING CANCER was, “This illness has put everything into perspective. Though I believed in Christ I realized that I have put all my thinking and energy into my career and the standard of living it afforded. Because of this crisis I have met the Savior about whom I have heard so much in church for so long. How sad that I’ve missed all those years with Him!”
If you have been raised with Christ in the power of His resurrection to a new life, seek the things above. If you haven’t, then keep seeking the things of earth. For one’s union with Christ is the only power that could enable us to seek the things above instead of focusing on earth.
In addition to setting our hearts on Jesus, verse 2 commands us to concentrate and direct our thoughts to the eternal. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.”
That is, concentrate your concern on the eternal, not the temporal. “Fix [your] eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18).
The similarity of the two commands in Colossians 3:1-2 reinforces their impact. “Set your hearts on things above” [is the imperative ta anô zçteite -], and “Set your minds on things above” [is the imperative ta anô phroneite]. The first suggests striving; the second suggests concentrating. You must not only seek heaven you must think heaven. For in order to change you actions you must first change your beliefs and your thinking, then, in due course your actions will change. So give a larger place in your thought life to heaven than to earth.
Satan wants to keep you so occupied or preoccupied with the things of earth that he can block out the things of heaven. First he want to make you ineffective in Christ’s cause, then he wants to take away your light and saltiness.
While driving along a highway, I have often seen VULTURES soaring high overhead, swooping down, and then rising up again with the air currents. Every so often, a small group of them can be seen sitting right on the roadway, tearing apart and gobbling up the carcass of some unfortunate creature. I get the impression that these ugly birds are on the lookout continually for what is loathsome and repulsive!
Some people are like that. Nothing seems to satisfy them more than feasting on what is sinful, corrupt, and immoral. The books and magazines they read; the TV programs they watch; the conversations they engage in, and the activities they pursue reveal a vulture-like appetite.
How much better is the spiritual diet the Bible suggests: "Whatever things are true, whatever things are noble/honorable, what ever things, are just/right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue/excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise meditate/dwell on these things" (Phil. 4:8).
What kind of “food" do you prefer? Don't be like the vulture. Rather, “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby" (1 Pet. 2:2). The new birth creates a new appetite and requires a new diet. [RWD. Our Daily Bread]
I took a sunny afternoon off one day to CLIMB A HILL. When I reached the top, I stretched out on the grass to relax. Turning my head to one side my eyes focused on some blades of grass within inches of my face. This short range focus not only strained my eyes, but it blurred my view of any thing beyond the end of my nose! So I began to adjust my focus, and then a distant town came into view instead.
I found I could shift my sights from near to far at will. The choice was mine.
Our Scripture emphasized that followers of Christ need to be heavenly-minded,
not earthly-minded. We can choose which it will be.
We can succumb to selfish, earthbound thoughts, blurring our view of anything beyond the end of our noses. Or we can gaze through this sinful scene and fix our attention on things above, where Christ is seated at God's right hand-and we with Him! Then, and only then, are we in a position to see what's most important in life.
Only the mind that's set on things above can say no to sin and yes to Christlike holiness. The choice is ours.
In his classic spiritual allegory PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, John Bunyan paints a word picture of a man who only looked downward. This poor guy was on his knees in the dirt and filth, working constantly trying to unearth with a rake some choice morsel that would enrich his life. Yet all the while a bright crown of immeasurable worth was within reach just above him.
Bunyan summarizes the tragedy: "There stood One over his head with a celestial crown in His hand, and [pr]offered him that crown for his muck rake; but the man never looked up as he continued gathering to himself the straw, the small sticks, and the dust of the floor!”
Bunyan’s words remind us that the rewards of heaven will have no appeal unless we set our mind “on things above, not on things on the earth.”
Although we who have trusted Christ as Savior have to live here in this world, we should not cling to material things. We must become so occupied with pleasing Him and working for the crowns of eternal rewards that we lose our preoccupation with digging in the dirt of this fleeting world.
Isn't time that you and I adjust our priorities? Isn’t it time that we focus our attention and life on Christ? All the things above are found in Christ. All the splendors of eternity are in Christ. Love, mercy, grace, compassion, righteousness, holiness, wisdom, understanding, truth, creativity, humbleness, justice, courage, boldness, faith, hope, sound mind, light, ..... Jesus Christ is the summing up of all the eternal treasure of God, of all the blessed things that are above. Praise, worship, thankfulness, virtue, honesty, good works, self-control, patience, integrity, contentment, healing, wonder .....
Now that does not mean we need not be concerned with the things of earth, but that they are not to be our priority, they are not what we aim for, not to be our goals and dreams, the master of our everyday life. We are to seek first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness ...Mt. 6:33.
The things of earth that are not evil in and of themselves are far more satisfying when they are of secondary instead of primary importance. When they are in proper perspective we control and use them, instead of them controlling and using us. “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven” and your other aims as students, business men, parents, scientists, or anything else will be far more rewarding by subordinating them to the conscious aim of pleasing God. This world is not our eternal home so stop living like it is by giving it undue attention.
[Do you realize that the only people who are truly happy on earth are those whose hearts are in heaven. John came into the kitchen one day whistling and smiling. “Sixteen more days, Dad,” he said. Sixteen more days until graduation, and he would be through with high school. He saw the finish line. Consequently, it caused him to go through the last few weeks of school whistling.
I am thoroughly convinced from watching people and studying the Word that the people who are truly content are those who constantly realize that this world is not where it’s at. On the other hand, those who try to find happiness here are perpetually frustrated. The possessions they purchase are never quite what they were supposed to be. The relationships they form are never as satisfying as they thought they would be. The dreams they pursue are never as fulfilling as they hoped they would be. Nothing is ever quite right until we realize, “Hey, it’s not here!”
I believe this is why the Lord constantly tells us in the Word to set our hearts on things above. People are bogged down, with stomachs churning, brows furrowing, and hearts breaking because they are taking the things of earth far too seriously. When a person finally understands that heaven is where it’s at, he is free to enjoy life. It doesn’t matter where he lives, what he does vocationally, what kind of car he drives, bike he rides, or skates he has. All of that is irrelevant because he sees the finish line—he realizes that graduation is only sixteen days away.
Set your heart on things above. Live for heaven and you’ll enjoy life. [Courson, Jon: Jon Courson's Application Commentary. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003, S. 1316]]
[You may very often see dead fish floating with THE STREAM, but you never saw a dead fish swimming against it. Well, that is your false believer; that is the hypocrite. Religion is just floating down the stream, but resurrection living is swimming against the current, no matter how strong the tide. The person in the process of sanctification and the unsanctified one look at heaven very differently. The unsanctified person simply chooses heaven in preference to hell, thinking that if one must go to either one heaven is the better choice.
It is like a man whose firm has offered to place him in another country, where there is said to be a gold mine. He hates to give up all he has and take any risk. But if he is going to be fired and must leave, and has his choice of living in a wilderness or digging in a coal pit, or else take the gold mine, then there is no hesitation. The unregenerate man likes heaven better than hell, but he likes this world the best of all. When death stares him in the face, then he thinks he would like to get to heaven. The true believer prizes heaven above everything else, and is always willing to give up the world. Everybody wants to enjoy heaven after they die, but some don't want to be heavenly-minded while they live.]
II. FINDING LIFE IN CHRIST, 3-4.
We can only change our mind set, changes our priorities if we are united in Christ’s death. Verse 3 tells us how we can set our mind on heaven. “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
The person who dies to sin by the power of Christ’s death, which destroyed the power of sin over us, this person’s life is hid in Christ. There is something bold and defiant and jubilant about being dead to sin and the old life by our sharing in the death of Christ. The fact is that Christ has destroyed the power of sin. Now, because we share in the death of Christ, we reckon ourselves dead to sin, and are empowered to become what we potentially are, what we were recreated in the new birth to be. In His death we died to sin, the old man, and the world so that even while we live in the body we have another life derived from Jesus.
Authentic faith in Christ leads one toward “being made comformable unto His death, [having our] nature transformed to die as He died” (Phil. 3:10, Moffatt). Paul boldly turned his back upon the old man in order that the new life that had come to dwell in him might have room for growth.
The fact is plain in Scripture (Gal. 2:20; 5:24-25; Rom. 6:6-14) that unless a person dies to flesh, self-will, to the world, he will never have a life that is worth calling life. The pre-condition for all life and growth is death (John 12:24) and for the believer it is daily death (1 Cor. 15:31; Lk. 9:23-24) in order to live the resurrected life that springs from death. Jesus said, “Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it die it brings forth much fruit.” The door which leads to resurrection life is death, is dying to the world, the flesh, and the devil by calling upon the power of the death of Christ which He died for you and with you.
[“Hidden” implies both concealment and safety; both invisibility and security. We are not yet glorified, but we are secure and safe in Christ. In fact, Christ is our very life. If you life is hid in Christ it is hidden from the world which neither sees it, comprehends it, nor can sustain it.
You cannot lose any thing or your life that is hid in Christ. No hellish burglar can break into Christ. What is hid in Him is safe.
Your life is safe if it is in Christ. You can risk following Him for He is in you and He will watch out for you. British clergyman F. B. Meyer wrote about two Germans who wanted to CLIMB THE MATTERHORN. They hired three guides and began the steep and treacherous ascent. They roped themselves together in this order: guide, traveler, guide, traveler, guide.
They had gone only a little way when the last man lost his footing. He was held up by the other four, because each had a toehold in the niches they had cut in the ice. But then the next man slipped and pulled down the two above him. The only one to hold on was the first guide, who had driven a spike deep into the ice. Because he held on, all the men beneath him regained their footing.
Meyer concluded his story by drawing a spiritual application to Christ. He said, that He is like one of those men who slipped, but thank God, he is bound in a living union with Christ. And because He stands secure I will never perish."
All of us slip again and again as we walk the Christian pathway. But we are held securely by the Lord, and we can be restored to close fellowship with Him when we confess our sins (l Jn. 1 :9).
Yes, we are safe in Christ (Col. 3:3). We can have the confidence that He will keep us and bring us to our final destination. Our salvation is secure because God is doing the holding.]
Every year on the Saturday following Thanksgiving, 103,000 fans crowd into the football stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to witness the classic football rivalry between ARMY AND NAVY. The midshipmen are on one side frenzy rooting for navy while the cadets are doing the same for Army on the other side.
However, the ball players are not listening to the thousands of fans. In fact, they are practically oblivious to their presence. The ball players listen to only one person, the quarterback. He is the one who calls the plays and leads the team.
In the course of our Christian life, we have all around us the shouts and cheers of the world. But if we are within the will of God, we are not listening to the thousands of voices from without; we listens to Christ, our quarterback, who is within us.
So, “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
We who have died with Christ are also united in Christ’s resurrection. Verse 4 confides to us that the Resurrection life and the final resurrection belong together. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”
When the Bible refers to “Christ who is our life” (3:4), it is making an astounding claim. The new life into which we enter by conversion is nothing else than the life of Christ Himself (Jn. 1:4). For us to live is Christ (Phil.1:21). Our life is not only with Christ, it is Christ (John 14:6; 2 Cor. 4:10, 11). Here is the radical claim that this new life is nothing less than a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and right now we can walk in the new life, the new power of the next world.
This means at least two things. One, death has no power over us. The risen and exalted Lord conquered death. We do not wait for eternal life; it is ours now! Risen with Christ, the glorious privilege of beginning now the life with Christ which will continue eternally is ours.
Sharing Christ’s risen life means a second thing: the power which raised Jesus from the dead is also our power. We do not have to be the victims of sin. The hampering limitations of the present order need not overcome us. We have moved from the domain of the flesh into the realm of the Spirit. [Dunnam, Maxie D.; The Preacher's Commentary Series, Vol. 31: Galatians / Ephesians / Philippians / Colossians / Philemon. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc, 1982, S. 371]
Listen again to the blessed hope those in Christ are anticipating. “When Christ is revealed, then we also will be revealed with Him in glory.” This reference is to the second coming of Christ. As John put it, “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” [believers will be glorified as He is glorified; 1 John 3:2; 1 Cor. 13:12; Col. 1:27]. So Paul added a new direction to the believers’ focus of attention: not only should we look upward to Christ’s reign over us in heaven, we should look forward to His return for us in the clouds. Isn’t the Holy Spirit within groaning, longing to be cloth with Christ’s glory?
CONCLUSION
Dear brethren, we may all have the risen life for our life, if we will unite ourselves, in humble dependence and utter self-surrender, to the Christ who died for us that we might be dead to sin, and rose again that we might rise to righteousness. And if we have Him, in any deep and real sense, as the life of our lives, then we shall be blessed, amid all the divergent and sometimes conflicting nearer aims, which we have to pursue, by seeing clear above them Him who satisfies our need, who leads if He is followed, and who never disappoints. God help us all to say, ‘This one thing I do, and all else I count but dung, that I may know Him, and the power of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I may attain unto the Resurrection from the dead!’ (Phil. 3:8-10)
["I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,: and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, [10] that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; [11] in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead."]
A PILOT WAS FLYING over the Arabian Desert and landed at an oasis to refuel his plane. After taking to the air again, he was soon over a mountainous area when he heard a scratching noise behind him. It sounded as if some animal had gotten into the fuselage of the plane. He became quite alarmed, for he knew if an animal gnawed away at the electrical wiring it could cause a serious malfunction. But there was no place to land in that rugged territory.
Then the pilot had an idea. He accelerated the plane and nosed it upward. Higher and higher into the sky he took it until the gnawing and scratching ceased. Later, when he landed at an airport, he found a huge desert rat that had crawled in unnoticed when he had refueled at the oasis. But the unwanted stowaway was dead! Accustomed as it was to the desert, it could not live when the plane climbed to the higher altitude.
So it is in our spiritual life. As we "draw near to God" (Jas. 4:8), we put to death our mean, selfish, and sinful ways (Col. 3:5). The old patterns of living cannot survive.
We live in the world, but we must not let the world live in us. So, "Seek those things which are above" (Col. 3:1). The set you mind on Christ and the closer you draw in your relationship to the Lord, the more you will leave the world behind! [HGB. Our Daily Bread]
Lord, lift me up, and let me stand
By faith on heaven's tableland;
A higher plain than I have found
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground. -Oatman
And that song - Higher Ground - will be our Hymn of Commitment
