Bible Reading: Leviticus 5; Psalms 3-4; Proverbs 20; Colossians 3
Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
This is not a reality that most people want to embrace. It is not something that gets preached on a whole lot. It is difficult to understand (try explaining this to a young child). And yet this is the truth of a person who is IN CHRIST. The old life is dead and Christ has come to live his life in you. The Christian life is a life of 'already' and 'not yet' in many different areas. Christ is already the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but he has not yet set up his earthly kingdom. The same is true of being dead and having my life hid with Christ in God. Positionally, I am dead. Conditionally, I have to put the old man to death.
Colossians 3:5-7 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 6 For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 7 In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.
You are dead, but you are told to mortify or put to death your members upon the earth. In other words, you are to kill those old passions that used to rule your life because that is not your life any more. These old, sinful habits are the reason God's wrath comes upon those who do not know Christ. You used to live motivated by those things, but no longer.
You now have a new life in Christ. Your life is hid with Christ in God.
What is this new life like? Well, it is the life of Christ himself. We are in the process of transformation right now. Our minds are being renewed day by day by the Word of God. When the transformation process is complete, we will be like Christ.
Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
God is fitting us for glory! Think of the implications of what God's Word is teaching us. We are not told to clean up our old, sinful life. We are told that we are dead to that old life and Christ has given us a new life! We put off the old man and have put on a new man! Christ gives us a completely new life. The key to living for Jesus is to stop living out of the old life passions and habits and let the new life of Christ motivate us. If you try to clean up the old life, you will fail. You must let Jesus live the new life in you!
In Christ,
Rody
