Colossians 3 … Consider Him, Who Is Our Life

Originally posted: 1/27/2021

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory, (3:3-4).

We are to live with an eternal perspective. But even more than that, we are to live in an exchanged reality, His Life for Ours. This was included in what we considered in yesterday’s chapter through His Treasure Trove of Wisdom and Knowledge; that truly, the only possible way in which we can live this Christian Life is through faith In Him. Not faith in what we know; not faith in what we do, or even in what we study, but faith In Him, Who Is Our Life.

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 in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me, (Galatians 2:20).

What Paul writes is not a theoretical concept; for the Word of God teaches that our sin nature went to the cross with Christ, was buried with Him, and when He rose on the third day, our spirit was resurrected with Him.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I can’t truly comprehend it all, but I also want to boldly proclaim that His Word declares it so; and therefore, it is true.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? ⁴ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. ⁵ For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, (Romans 6:3-6).

And after the first four verses of Colossians 3 that set forth this exchanged reality, the remaining verses direct us to view life with the knowledge that we are in fact, dead to sin; and that to live is Christ.

Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to…  (3:5).

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain, (Philippians 1:21).

And in that conviction of the exchanged reality, we are to intently lift our eyes to seek Him, Who Is Our Life, seated in the heavenly places.

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth, (3:1-2).

And because we died with Him and have been raised with Him, we now live hidden with Him, Who Is Our Life, in God.

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory, (3:3-4).

Consider Him, Who Is Our Life

• Because He is Our Life, we will one day be revealed with Him in glory.
  • When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory, (3:4).
    • The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him, (Romans 8:16-17).

• Because He is Our Life, we are to live in unity with His family, for He is all and in all.
  • and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— ¹¹ a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all, (3:10-11).
    • “The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; ²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me,” (John 17:22-23).

• Because He is Our Life, we will have a heart like His.
  • So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. (3:12-13).
    • “for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” (Matthew 6:21).

• Because He is Our Life, we will love as He loved.
  •  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, (3:14).
    • A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. ³⁵ By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13:34-35).

• Because He is Our Life, we will maintain His peace.
  • Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful, (3:15).
    • “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God,” (Matthew 5:9).

• Because He is Our Life, we will teach with wisdom, as He taught us.
  • Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God, (3:16).
    • “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets,” (Matthew 22:36-40).

• Because He is Our Life, we will live to make His Name known, as He did for His Father.
  • Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.(3:17).
    • “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; ²⁶ and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them,” (John 17:25-26).

• Because He is Our Life, we will work and serve, as He worked and served.
  • Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, ²⁴ knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve, (3:23-24).
    • “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45).

How do we respond to Him, Who Is Our Life?

One of the most amazing attributes about Jesus Christ, one that is truly beyond our ability to fathom, is His humility. All that He let go of and all He endured to become our Savior. It certainly goes against the world’s understanding of greatness.

 But Jesus called them to Himself and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. ²⁶ It is not this way among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant, ²⁷ and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave; ²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many,” (Matthew 20:24-27).

Jesus, Who Is Our Life, lived as our Example to follow.

“You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. ¹⁴ If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵ For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you,” (John 13:13-15).

As we walk in Him, Who Is Our Life, we will walk in His humility. And humility recognizes that we have absolutely nothing to do with our salvation; it is His rich mercy that saves us.

He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Titus 3:5-6).

Let’s remember, who we are now is only because of Him, Who Is Our Life, that we would never forget who we were apart from Him.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Ephesians 2:1-5).

We too were dead in our sins, under the dominion of the enemy and governed by the lusts of our flesh, and so deserving of His wrath. And in His rich mercy, Jesus took God’s wrath upon Himself in our place; and by grace we have been saved that we would no longer live in our sin.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, ⁷ and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. ⁸ But now you also, put them all aside…  (3:6-8).

And now, through faith… we are in Him, and He Is Our Life. Oh, that we would live in that truth of the exchanged reality, that we would put aside the works of the flesh, and by faith, we would walk according to the image of the One Who created us.

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—(3:10).

And as we look forward to the day when we will see Him as He is, let’s live today, and every day in the exchanged reality we have in Him, Who Is Our Life; that we too would say, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain,” (Philippians 1:21).

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then [we] also will be revealed with Him in glory, (3:4).

Let’s Grow Together!