In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij begins looking at Colossians 3 and the new life of a believer in Christ. The first characteristic of the new self appears in Colossians 3:1-4: the new self has new pursuits.
1a. The new self is risen with Christ (v. 1a)
1b. The new self is consecrated for Christ (vv. 1b-2)
1c. The new self is identified with Christ (v. 3)
1d. The new self is glorified with Christ (v. 4)
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Summary
We are called to embrace our new identity in Christ as described in Colossians 3:1-4. Because we have been raised with Christ, we are no longer defined by the old self with its earthly pursuits, religious dead works, and self-centered desires. Instead, we are called to seek and mind the things above—centering our lives on Christ, who is seated at the right hand of the Father.
Key Lessons:
- The new self is risen with Christ—our old life of sin and self has died, and we now have resurrection life and power to live for God each day.
- The new self is consecrated for Christ—we are commanded to keep seeking and setting our minds on things above, not on the earthly, temporal, and self-serving pursuits that once defined us.
- The new self is identified with Christ—our lives are hidden with Christ in God, meaning we have both spiritual secrecy (nurtured by the Holy Spirit) and eternal security (no one can snatch us from God’s hand).
- The new self is glorified with Christ—when Christ is revealed at his second coming, we will be revealed with him in glory, which is the ultimate purpose and hope of salvation.
Application: We are called to examine our daily pursuits and ask whether Christ is truly the center of our lives. We should reject the dead works of empty religion, worldly success, and self-seeking, and instead meditate deeply on the truths of Scripture—letting the Word steep into our minds like a tea bag in hot water—so that our affections, habits, and speech are increasingly shaped by Christ.
Discussion Questions:
- In what practical ways does setting your mind on things above change how you respond to everyday temptations, frustrations, or worldly pressures?
- What are the ‘earthly things’—whether religious routines, material pursuits, or self-focused habits—that most easily distract you from a Christocentric focus?
- How does understanding that your life is ‘hidden with Christ in God’ change the way you face uncertainty, fear, or a sense of spiritual failure?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 3:1-4 is the central text, teaching that believers who are raised with Christ must seek things above and set their minds on Christ, who is seated at God’s right hand. Supporting passages include Galatians 2:20 (crucified with Christ), Hebrews 10:12 (Christ seated after one sacrifice), John 10:28-30 (eternal security), and Philippians 3:21 (transformation into Christ’s glorious body).
Outline
- Introduction
- The New Self Has New Pursuits
- The New Self Is Risen with Christ
- Dead Religion vs. Resurrection Life
- The New Self Is Consecrated for Christ
- Setting the Mind on Things Above
- Meditating on the Word
- The Old Self and Its Earthly Pursuits
- The New Self Is Identified with Christ
- The New Self Is Glorified with Christ
- Conclusion: Live for Christ’s Glory
Introduction
Morning. Let’s take our Bibles and turn to Colossians 3.
This morning we’re going to be looking at verses one through four.
If you have your Bible there, turn to it. If you have a few Bibles, you can turn also to that and find Colossians. Let me have a word of prayer first. Let’s pray.
Father, we thank you this morning for bringing us here together. Thank you, Lord, for the word of God that is our food for our soul. I pray, Father, you would mature us with the word of God, make us strong in these days to know the difference between your way and every other way.
Help us to put on the armor of God, to be able to stand up against the wiles of the enemy and to stand in your strength. As we look at the word of God this morning, I pray that we would realize that when we become Christians we become new. Everything has changed, Lord.
Thank you for the word of God teaching us that. As we go on in Colossians, it will describe what changes take place. But today, Lord, let us at least know that we are partakers with Christ, that you not only saved us but you’ve given us your spirit to sanctify us, make us like you, preparing us for your presence.
So thank you, Lord. Give us ears to hear and a heart to receive it and a will to do it. I pray in Christ’s name, amen.
According to Colossians, because of the supremacy of God, the God-man, and the completeness of his work, Jesus is sitting, for his work is done. In Hebrews 10:12 it says, “And he, having offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.”
So let us rise and rest in him. He is sitting on a throne this morning. Observe his majesty, delight in his power, and trust in his dominion.
He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, at the place of honor and favor. This is proof that we are beloved and favored of God, for our representative has a choice place. He is risen, he is done with death and earth, he ascended to a majesty on high.
It says in Romans, “For if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” Several things come to mind when we consider what that says and what these passages say.
We were dead in trespasses and sins, but having believed in Christ, you have been quickened, you have been made alive by his spirit, you have been made new. Conviction and confession of sin, the dread of judgment to come, and the sense of present condemnation was worked in us.
We realized the only thing that could rescue us is Christ. Here is the point: believers in Christ Jesus are no longer spiritually dead.
The first two chapters of Colossians have already laid down the doctrinal foundations while exposing false teachers and the aberrant, transitory, human, and useless methods of their teaching. Like traditions of church fathers and men, like new moons and sabbaths and holy days and holidays, like rules and regulations, like mystical teachings, like physical philosophical teachings, and all the attitudes which really burden us and keep us in the grave.
All these need to be thrown away. All the furniture of your religion needs to be set aside. Religion is pretty furniture to the spiritually dead man’s chamber, but the living man rips off the grave clothes and any garments that are unsuitable for life and for maturity.
A tomb is not a fit place for a living person. The Christian has experienced a radical change of spiritual environment, and that should affect the whole of our life, every aspect of life. Our life, the very way we think, the very way we look at things, the very way we speak, the very imaginations we have in our mind.
The Christian is different. He’s changed, he’s new, he’s alive like never before. God has opened a window on his soul which is letting in the spiritual light for the first time, and everything looks different.
Martin, in his parables of the gospels, tells a story of a rather rough, uncultured man who fell in love with a beautiful vase in a shop window. He bought the vase and put it on his mantelpiece in his room. There it became a kind of judgment on its surroundings.
He had to clean up the room and make it worthy of the vase. The curtains looked dingy beside it, the old chair with the stuffing coming out of the seat would not do anymore, the wallpaper and the paint needed renewing. So gradually the whole room was transformed.
In a very similar sense and way, when Christ is on the mantle of our heart, your whole life is transformed. As Christ is reigning in our heart, when we look around in our past life and what’s going on, things have to change. Everything looks old and dingy and complicated and confusing, but when we come to Christ, that all changes.
“When Christ is on the mantle of our heart, your whole life is transformed.”
The New Self Has New Pursuits
Now, from Colossians 3:1–4:6, the applications are given for living a true Christian life and practicing biblical imperatives. There are at least three things that are realized very quickly about the actual life of a Christian coming into this chapter.
The scriptures before us in Colossians 3 help us to identify some characteristics of this new self, this new man, this new person in Christ. The first of three things I want to focus on this morning is that the new self has new pursuits.
Later, we’ll look at how the new self deals decisively with the old man, and then how the new self puts on new clothing. But today we’re going to look at the new self has new pursuits.
Now, today, if you are a true Christian, you are alive. Because you are alive, God has given to you new aims and pursuits in your life. But there’s a reason for that.
We have to know the new self. We have to know how it looks, what the new self does, and why the new self is able to do those things.
It’s not because we have turned over a new leaf. It’s not because we have the willpower to do it. It’s because Christ has saved us, he’s given us a spirit, and we have a new power to live the Christian life.
“It’s not because we have the willpower to do it. Christ has saved us, given us a spirit, and we have new power to live the Christian life.”
The New Self Is Risen with Christ
And so really the first thing a Christian sees, that is pursuing new things, is that the new self is risen with Christ. Notice in Colossians 3:1, it says that if then you have been raised up with Christ.
Here we have that if again. If, and this is a first class conditional if, and indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument. And the normal idea then would be that if you are raised with Christ, and let us assume that that’s true, I’m assuming the audience is raised with Christ, they are real believers, all right.
And we’re going to do that. Then you always have the if and the then, right. If this is true, then something else is going to take place, something new is going to take place.
When Christ died on the cross for believers’ sins, God counted that we were crucified with him, even though we were not yet born. And when he rose from the dead, God counted that we rose with him.
The Apostle Paul said it this way in another passage of scripture. In Galatians 2:20, he says, “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 of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Now that is a very real truth that a believer has, but we don’t all get it right away. It’s something we grow into, but it’s something that we must be always thinking about, because this change has taken place.
Salvation means death to the old life and resurrection to the new one in Christ. The true believer has real union with Christ, entered into through repentance and faith. It is not something experienced after zealous efforts of fulfilling some kind of self-imposed religious ritual, not at all.
It is a settled fact, accomplished by God through Jesus Christ. That is not something you seek, it is something you receive as a gift from God. God has done everything for us, we receive it by faith as a gift.
So if then you have been raised up with Christ, if you have been made alive in Christ, then you will have new aims and you will be actively pursuing those aims. When you are given newness of life, we should know, we should long to come out of the grave of self-seeking and sin, and fling off those worldly desires and habits, leaving behind wrong religion, and begin to worship in spirit and in truth.
“When you are given newness of life, we should long to come out of the grave of self-seeking and sin.”
So see, he’s already talked about this in Colossians. The Apostle Paul, we are raised with him, and because we are raised with him, we have resurrection life to live every day while God leaves us here on this earth to live for him.
We have to know that this is all part of the Christian identity. And really, the Christian people talk about Christian identity today so often, but I think they distort it biblically. There’s only two things that could happen in identity: either you’re in the old man and the old life, or you have the new man and the new life. That’s it.
That’s my identity right now, in Christ. And so therefore I—why? Because I’ve been raised with him, I’ve been given new life, I’m alive to God, where before I was not alive to God.
The New Self Is Consecrated for Christ
But secondly, I want you to notice in verse 1 that the new self is consecrated for Christ. It says there, “Keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
The two imperatives in verses 1 and 2 point to what those new pursuits include. He’s really setting us up for what’s coming in Colossians: the new consecrated life in Christ entails continuing in two imperatives. Imperatives are commands, but they are commands now because I’m alive in Christ, and I want to do them. No one’s forcing me to do it; I want to do it.
What do I want to do? First of all, I want to keep seeking things above, like it says in verse 1. This first imperative means to search for, and this present imperative points to an action taken repeatedly as a matter of habit.
It becomes a habit of a believer, and this is what the believer aims and strives for every day. This has to do with the outer disposition of the new man, the practical pursuits to obtain what God wants us to be in Christ Jesus. This is the outward proof that we are truly saved and risen with Christ, because now we have a desire to seek heavenly graces, to seek the upward things of life and of godliness.
The direction of the person has changed radically, and it includes some vital activities. Our quest is not simply for a place, but our quest is for a person. It says in the scriptures here, “above” means where Christ is, up there at God’s right hand in the glory of heaven.
We now have a Christocentric theology, a Christocentric mindset. We focus on Christ alone, who is the proper object of worship, the one in whom, as we read, all treasure and knowledge is found. He is the one who has finished his redemptive mission, the one who is now seated in the place of power and dominion.
Christ sitting at God’s right hand is the exercise of all majesty and power of deity according to his risen human nature. The fact that Christ is sitting speaks of his finished work of redemption. Christ does not die over and over again when the communion celebration comes; he has died once, forever and ever.
“The fact that Christ is sitting speaks of his finished work of redemption. Christ has died once, forever and ever.”
This means that our activity as Christians centers around him, that we will seek to please him and look forward to being with him. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Do we want to be with Christ? Don’t answer that question after it’s all over; answer it now, because that’s where we’re heading.
We’re heading to a place where we will be with Christ. We will labor after Christ’s likeness, we will labor after faith and love and patience and zeal and kindness and humbleness of spirit. This also means that we will clean out every catchall closet and every shelf, with all its old grudges.
Grudges and sinful habits have to go; it all has to go. But now we can see it. We can see the destruction our sin has done in our life, we can see what needs to go. We can see our speech needs to change, we can see the things that we dwell upon in our mind need to be altered by the spirit of God.
We see all those things because we’re alive now. We never saw them before. Actually, we lived according to our desires and our lust, but now we’re examining our lusts, we’re examining our desires. Why? Because we’re new.
Dead Religion vs. Resurrection Life
And let me remind you that in the backdrop of this whole letter is the point that the Judaistic religious life is the opposite of the new spiritual life of those who have been raised up with Christ. For the Jew, that was a radical thought. That’s why they wanted to crucify Jesus, because he was exposing their religious system as false, as empty, as just a bunch of dead works.
The Judaistic religious life consisted of decrees about material, earthly things, as it says in scripture, destined to perish. That means they’re just temporal things, like do not handle and do not taste and do not touch, which were just the commandments and the teachings of men.
It also included a particular or peculiar worship of humility and severity of the body, backed by empty philosophy and the traditions of men. Like it says in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
They also gave a show of earthly wisdom and superstition. Where it says in Colossians 2:23, “These are matters which have, to be sure, an appearance of wisdom and self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgences.”
Those are religious things that people did, but they could not expose their heart. They could not give them power to put away their sin and to put it to death. It had no power at all to do that. It’s just a bunch of pile of dead men’s bones, that’s all it was.
That’s where Satan works the most. He works in religion. He deceives people by all the millions of religions that we have in the world today, and he does it just to deceive them, to think they’re doing right and good. But it’s going to end up they’re not, not until the gospel of light shines in and exposes that. Then they come and call on Christ, they repent of their sin, they come in, and now they’re made alive. They see all that stuff meant nothing and could do nothing in their spiritual life.
Paul gives this idea and goal in place of merely ascetic rules. The admonition here is for the reader to live the new spiritual resurrected life and to give a display of the spiritual vitality in your life.
“The admonition is to live the new spiritual resurrected life and to give a display of the spiritual vitality in your life.”
It was a commentator named Lightfoot who says you must not only seek heaven, but you must think heaven. There cannot be spiritual transformation unless the mind is transformed. The Lord is definitely going to change your mind.
Setting the Mind on Things Above
We not only seek the things above where Christ is and the things that go with that, but also we are to consecrate our lives. It also entails continuing in the second imperative in verse 2. Notice what it says: to set your mind on things above, not on things that are on Earth.
In other words, keep minding things above. Remember, we formerly were hostile in mind. Colossians 1:21 says, “Although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds”—that’s who we were before we came to Christ. Our mind was darkened; we could not see the truth.
But now we’re alive, and now we can set our mind above. Our mind is now bent towards Jesus, bent towards truth.
In verse 2, this imperative is to think, to have in mind, to devote ourselves, to attend to something. The things above are not necessarily heaven. What I mean is that we are not to strive to attain heaven and let go of Earth, but that’s not really the thought here.
Believers are to ever be minding things above and not things that are on the Earth. We’re going to either be minding one or the other. You can’t be minding two as a believer; that will be a duplicitous mindset, and there is very, very bad confusion.
The things above are going to be that we are minding what Christ desires for us to put our minds upon. That’s where truth and doctrine comes in.
“The things above are going to be that we are minding what Christ desires for us to put our minds upon.”
The things believers are not to attend to or to mind are the material, elementary, temporal things of the world, as I’ve already mentioned. Religiously, it would be decrees about handling and tasting and touching and certain things, the decrees about eating and drinking and festivals and sabbaths and all kinds of religious rules and rituals they thought to be okay, spiritually powerful, but ended up being all dead works.
These have no salvific or sanctifying value. Instead, believers are to mind the things above. Things above are defined in their high nature by the clause “where Christ is,” in his supreme exaltation, and they are just the opposite of things on the Earth.
Some of those things are, if you go back to Colossians 1:14, the ransoming and the remission of our sins. It says, “In whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sins.” To actually be forgiven by God—that’s what we ought to be thinking about, that your sins are washed away in Christ and nailed to the cross.
That’s what we mind as Christians, and that should be something we mind every day: to know we are forgiven by God. When we do, we’re able to forgive others, because God forgave us in Christ Jesus.
“To know we are forgiven by God—when we do, we’re able to forgive others, because God forgave us in Christ Jesus.”
Secondly, the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are all hidden in Christ. As it says in Colossians 2:3, “In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Christ is the treasure. Why do we have to go anywhere else when he has everything that we need for life and godliness? There’s nowhere else to go.
Or that he, Christ, is the head and supplies the body to make it grow with the growth of God. As it says in Colossians 2:19, “Holding fast to the Head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.”
Christ is in control of growing us, of sanctifying us, of making us new. We are not just left alone to do those things; God is doing it in us.
These are some of the things that must occupy our mind, not religion with rules about material things, temporal things, and with superstitious philosophy regarding those things. We’re to leave these, and then you will be minding a person. You will be minding the Lord Jesus Christ. You will be setting your affection upon him who has first set his affection upon you.
In other words, you will be minding and attending to sound doctrine, and that is the practice and life based on biblical truth. Your thoughts should be on spiritual things and the precepts you are to follow concerning moral conduct.
As we think in our mind as a new believer, we died with Christ, we are raised with Christ, we are seated with Christ in the heavenlies, we are hidden with Christ, we will be received with Christ. In a sense, we’re dead, we’re resurrected, we have new life. What do we have to look forward to? We have glory to look forward to.
Meditating on the Word
There are things we as Christians are to meditate upon, and those things are all found in the word of God. Meditation is that very special thing a Christian has, and it was Donald Whitney who compared meditation to hot water in a tea bag.
Hearing God’s word is like one dip of the tea bag into the cup. Some of the tea’s flavor is absorbed by the water, but not as much as would occur with a more thorough, circling soaking of the bag.
Meditation is like immersing the bag completely and letting it steep until the rich tea flavor has been exactly extracted. In other words, the word of God has to steep and permeate your whole mind, like a tea bag left to steep in a cup of hot water, until the tea leaves infuse the whole cup.
Only then can you enjoy the full and rich flavor of the cup of tea. Only then can we enjoy the full and rich flavor of the word of God, when the word of God will permeate our minds and lead you and me to develop an intense Christocentric focus of our life.
“The word of God has to steep and permeate your whole mind, until the tea leaves infuse the whole cup.”
If our mind is set on Christ, then our activity will center around him, and we will seek to please him, and we will look forward to being with him.
The Old Self and Its Earthly Pursuits
Now, thinking of that, the old self did seek things too. And what did the old self seek? When the Bible says here, “Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth,” there’s nothing wrong with preferring riches to poverty, but when the mind is set on possessions, this is worldly and earthly.
The things of earth could all be summarized as self, or selfishness. Actually, the suffix often has a derogatory meaning, and in slang it means horrible. It could be translated: what is selfish means horrible self. The new self is to be minding the eternal, not the earthly.
So the root cause of sin is self, that sinful nature of ours which says, “I will do what I want instead of living for God and wanting to do his will.” Man loves himself and wants to do his own will. Self says, “I must have my own way, and if I don’t get it I will be displeased and I may get angry.”
This attitude of self-will and selfishness is in the heart of every single human being. The world considers this to be natural and normal, for a person to live for himself and to seek what pleases him the most. The world says, “Seek your own fulfillment, you have the right to do what you want, seek what pleases you, regardless of how it may affect other people, and maybe even destroy other people.”
However, we cannot live for ourselves and at the same time do the will of God. No one can follow the Lord so long as self is in control. As man continues to go his own way, not obeying God, he loads himself down with an unbearable load of guilt.
“We cannot live for ourselves and at the same time do the will of God. No one can follow the Lord so long as self is in control.”
Worldly Success, Pleasure, and Religion as Dead Ends
Man tries many ways to solve his problem of guilt and escape from his guilt-ridden conscience. Some of the ways man tries to meet his inner need and solve his problems is by seeking worldly success.
Many people try to find satisfaction in life by accumulating things: automobiles, houses, luxuries, conveniences. These things may make life easier, but they do not meet the deep needs of the heart.
That scripture tells us, beware, that you be on your guard against every form of greed, for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of possessions. Success, money, power do not make people happy. They don’t even prepare people for the judgment of God that comes after death. It’s all temporal pursuits.
Even Mark tells us, for what does it profit if a man gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Popularity wanes, possessions wear out. It’s all temporal.
Some people, on the other hand, the old self seeks worldly pleasure: eating, drinking, and being merry, for tomorrow we die. Entertainment, fun, vacations, music, movies, food and drink and drugs—all those things our people are trying to get pleasure from.
Some people are trying to escape their life, and one of the ways Satan destroys people is through alcoholic drinks and many different kinds of drugs. People often turn to these things to escape from their troubles. Drinking and drugs may seem to give relief from the problems of life, but eventually they destroy those who use them.
Proverbs gives us wisdom here, where it says, wine is a mocker and strong drink a brawler, and whoever is intoxicated by them is not wise. It’s foolish pursuits. Beauty fades, health fades and fails. Earthly indulgences do not satisfy. They’re all temporal.
James says they’re rotten to the core. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and the rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire.
Some people just try to reform in their life. They say they realize, hey, I haven’t lived such a great life, I’ve been a pretty bad person, I’ve lived this sinful life. They say to themselves, I’ll reform, I will live a good life from now on, and maybe that will make up for my past sins and transgressions.
But no one can live the rest of his life without sinning, no matter how hard he tries. Even if he could, he would not make up for his past sins.
And then some people just say, well, I’ll just be religious, that seems like the best way out. I’ll be religious. Many people go to church and many people pray and they light candles and they give money and they do many religious things, and hope that they will be forgiven of their sins, hoping someday somehow their good will outweigh their bad.
But becoming religious does not take away sins, nor does it change the person on the inside. Again, all these earthly things and pursuits are just nothing but dead works.
The new man keeps minding the eternal. The admonition for us is, don’t become attracted and attached to what is only temporary. It’s all going to be passing away. The only thing to live your life for is Christ.
“The only thing to live your life for is Christ. Don’t become attracted and attached to what is only temporary.”
The New Self Is Identified with Christ
See, the new self is risen with Christ, the new self is consecrated for Christ. But I want you to notice in verse 3 of Colossians 3, it says here, this gives us the third one: the new self is identified with Christ.
There are two reasons for these exhortations. The first reason you are to go on seeking and minding is that it says very clearly—again he says this over and over—the believer has died. That’s in the past tense. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
You died points to a definite event that has happened. Also it includes here the thought that death, which connected you with the saving death of Christ, rendered you dead, a dead person, as far as religiosity operating merely in the realm of the material and the earthly.
Those who have been raised with Christ are to count the old person, the old self, as dead to the old life, finished with Satan’s family. The believer is dead to the old pattern of externalism in religion, as well as dead to the guilt and damnation of Satan’s family, and dead to worldliness, defeat, and doubt.
The new self does not love sin anymore. It doesn’t mean that the new self does not sin, but the new self doesn’t love it anymore. It actually loathes sin. The things of sin should be repugnant to the saint in Christ, as a decaying corpse, dead decaying flesh. If you’ve ever been around it, it really stinks. It will get your nostrils quick and get you out of there as fast as you smell it.
“The new self does not love sin anymore. The things of sin should be repugnant to the saint in Christ.”
Did that old, selfishly sensitive part of you come to an end at conversion to Christ? Did that happen to you, and a new nature come alive in your life? If that has happened to you, I pray that that is your experience. But if not, Christ is calling you to repent today of your sin and to have faith in Jesus to save your soul, forgive you, and give you eternal life, so you can be made new.
See, I’m identified with Christ because I died with him, and I died to this lust and the desire for sin. I don’t want it anymore. I want to stay as far away from it as possible.
Hidden in Secrecy and Security
But there’s a second reason you have to go on seeking and minding, and that is in verse three: you are hid with Christ. And that’s present, right now. It says, you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
This really points to something that is concealed or covered. The perfect tense used here points to something completed, and really alludes to a permanent outcome for the believer. This has happened to us, and this is our case right now as believers.
Believers are hid, which suggests three things. Hidden suggests, number one, secrecy. The believer’s life is maintained and nurtured by an invisible power, and that power is the Holy Spirit of God.
Because we seek those things which are above, this new life is hidden from you. The world can’t see it, your family often cannot see it. They see change, but they don’t see that internal working in your heart. The world cannot see this new life which the believer has experienced. The Christian sphere of life is not Earth but heaven.
And then also it includes security. Notice how it says there, God in Christ—that is the mark of double protection. God wants us to know that as we go through this life, we are protected by God.
A.T. Robertson says it has the force to mean locked together with the unbreakable bond between believers. Christ and God the Father are one. It is this bond that provides the security for believers as they await the final fulfillment of God’s plan in history.
No hellish burglar can break this combination of Christ in God, and now the Spirit of God indwelling us. The Gospel of John says it this way: “I have given eternal life to them and they will never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
John 10:28-30: “No one shall snatch them out of my hand… no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
It’s talking about eternal security. You and I are hid with Christ and protected by him. Satan has no handle on you, he has no right to get you anymore. Christ has you.
That’s something we have to think about every single day. No matter how troublesome life gets, no matter how confusing the world gets, you are hid with Christ.
“No matter how troublesome life gets, no matter how confusing the world gets, you are hid with Christ.”
So that means not only is it secret, not only is it security, but it’s also identity. The believer is identified with the risen Christ. Instead of identity markers that provide external identification of those who follow false teachers, the Colossian believers are called to identify themselves simply in reference to Christ. We are called to identify ourselves as Christ’s followers.
These are the things that attract and excite believers. We belong to God and are citizens in the kingdom of his dear Son. In a very real sense, believers are already living in the company of Christ and in the heavenly realm, all this being hidden from human gaze. But the Christian knows it, because they trust in the character of God and know what God says is true.
That has to be true of you. You are risen with Christ, you are consecrated with Christ, you are identified with Christ, secured in Christ.
The New Self Is Glorified with Christ
And then why all that? Well, look at verse number three, the end of verse number three. It says, when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be revealed with him in glory.
Here, this is the end result. You had the past, being dead with Christ. You have the present, you’re hidden with Christ. And now you have the future. We always have a past, present, and future as believers, right? That’s what gives us identity.
And so if the past is true, that I’m dead and risen with Christ, if the present is true, that I am hidden and secure and identified in Christ, then the future is true also. We will be glorified with Christ.
And this refers to the second coming of Christ and to the revelation of believers in their new glorified states, when we’ll have resurrected bodies and be in the presence of God. A time when the veil will be removed, so that the things which are now hidden from the eyes will be illuminated in a bright light, and we will see him as he is. But we will also see ourselves as we are in Christ.
Christ’s unveiling is inextricably bound with our unveiling in glory. This will take place. This is our hope. As Philippians tells us, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory, by the exertion of the power that he has, even to subject all things to himself.
So the ultimate purpose of salvation is to see him, to live for him, and to ultimately be with him. That is the ultimate purpose of salvation.
“The ultimate purpose of salvation is to see him, to live for him, and to ultimately be with him.”
One man went to call at a place of business of one of his friends, a jeweler who had a large clientele. So he invited them to his jewelry shop, and the jeweler showed his friends a store of superb diamonds and other precious stones. Among them was a stone so lusterless that the friend says, that has no beauty at all.
Hasn’t it? the jeweler said, lifting the stone from the tray and closing his fist over it, covering it. A few moments went by, and he opened up his hand, and the stone glowed with the splendor of a rainbow.
Why, what happened, what had been done? the friend asked. The jeweler smiled and said, this is an opal. It is what is called a sympathetic jewel. It needs only to be gripped in the human hand to bring out the wonderful beauty.
See, it’s like a believer. A believer, once gripped and held securely in the hand of God, that is what brings out the beauty of being a believer. The fullness of what we will be has not been revealed yet. The luster and the wonderful beauty of Christ and his sheep will not be unveiled until Christ is unveiled.
Conclusion: Live for Christ’s Glory
Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, but one day he will come and take his people home. When he does, we shall enter into eternal glory with Christ forever and ever. This is the encouragement of believers to go on and live in this world until Christ takes us out, and to live for his glory.
Here’s the reality of the Christian life. This is where the changed life can be seen, in accord with the very completeness of our death and resurrection with Christ. We are to render dead our members.
But here’s a note of warning. Our measure of glory in that day will depend upon whether Christ is indeed our very life and the center focus of our life on earth. That becomes a very important thing.
Is that your focus? Make sure today that you are in Christ, that these changes have taken place in your life. You can see the fruit of being a believer, of seeing this new self that has emerged once you’ve come to Christ.
If you haven’t seen any of those things, don’t deceive yourself that you’re a believer. You’re not. They have to be evident.
The new self pursues living for Christ because he has risen with Christ, he’s consecrated for Christ, he’s identified with Christ, and he is glorified with Christ. That is our hope.
“The new self pursues living for Christ because he has risen with Christ, is consecrated for Christ, identified with Christ, and glorified with Christ.”
Amen. Let’s pray.
Lord, thank you for the word of God, for the conviction of it, the clarity of it, for us to be able to have it in our hands so we can see these things. Now we can know what you desire and what pleases you, we can know the things that should be going on in our life.
I pray, Lord, as we continue in Colossians, we will see the sin that we ought to put off and the new things we ought to put on. But I pray until that day, Lord, you would make us faithful followers of Christ, and that we would be seeking things above, we would be minding things that have to do with spiritual things and biblical things and things that are related to Christ.
But then also, Lord, that we know that we have a present, a future, and a past that is connected to us as believers. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for providing these truths to us so we can live a faithful, consistent Christian life, and I pray in Christ’s name.