THE CHRISTIAN’S JOURNEY
Colossians 3
“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Paul speaks to us of the natural and logical progression from the point when we decide to throw in our lot with Christ (and I’m deliberately avoiding terms like “become a Christian” or “believe in Christ” or “put your faith in Jesus”). What we need to understand about becoming a Christian is that we are putting our fate in his hands, we are getting on the Jesus boat, we are making him our Lord and master. There is an existential change in us, and, consequently, in our circumstances. In that decision we sign away our life because we believe that we will get a new life that is immeasurably better.
When we get this right, then what Paul is saying here makes better sense because he is arguing the logical progression of what happens to us and the life we should therefore choose to live. Listen to the language he employs: “since then”, “for … now”, “when … then”, “therefore” —again and again Paul tells us that things have changed and we need to ride with the changes.
At the heart of it all is the fact that when we tied our spirits to Christ in faith we chose to die with him. “Come! Your only chance is to get to the other side. My body and my blood will protect you. You will die but you will live again on the other side. Trust me.” The picture I have in my mind is me leaping over the lake of fire to cling on to his body as he descends into the death pit.
The sacrifice of Jesus was sufficient to atone for our sin and so at the point of our death, because we willingly partake of his blood that purifies us from all guilt, we become a pure soul just like Christ. Our death with Christ frees us from both the world and from our guilt.
Just as God was able to raise Christ from the dead because he is innocent and pure, so God is able to make us alive because we, in Christ, are now innocent and pure. Death no longer has a claim on us. Paul tells us (see 1:13) that we have been made alive by God , a new creation, once again ready to inhabit the image of God. As we are no longer tainted by the world, God now place his mark of ownership on us—he adopts us as his children and chooses us to be a part of his people in his kingdom—all of which are our new reality because Christ is our King and all who reside in his kingdom are shielded from the wrath of God. With this new self we are free to forge a new path.
However, until we die physically, our new selves remain trapped in our human bodies, subject to the temptations of this dark world and suffering the ravages of our past both physically and also spiritually. But here, in the physical realm, the Spirit of God, sent by God, lives in us and helps us as we journey on.
Therefore, despite the dual reality we now exist in, Paul urges us to live for the future that Christ has won for us and endeavour to be model citizens of our new country, rather than be again mired in the world to which we have died. Together with the other citizens, we practise compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, being generous in forgiving others and excelling in love. In doing so the Spirit of God deepens his power in us as our new self blossoms and grows to become strong in withstanding the temptations of the devil, as Christ did, and we grow into the christ-like person that we have been (re)created to be.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”