Sunday, September 20, 2009
Resurrection Living
(Colossians 3:1-11)
Since Christians have fully identified with Christ in His death and resurrection (2:12, 13), our goals and desires should reflect heavenly, rather than earthly, concerns. Remember, both the Gnostic and the Jewish legalist possessed undue concerns about physical, earthly matters. Believers, according to Paul, should be focused on issues of a heavenly nature (1, 2).
Practically speaking, our heart’s desire should be set on heaven (2). Full identification with Christ means we have already died and our lives are incorporated into Christ (Vs. 3 and Gal. 2:20). The world, then, is at best a foreign place of mission and ministry—not the focus of our dreams and desires. We’re to serve the Lord, minister to others, and await Jesus’ return (4).
Heavenly perspective is a death sentence to the flesh. When we regard ourselves “dead indeed unto sin” (Rom. 6:11), we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (5). Thus, transformed living is not a matter of rigid self discipline and regulation (2:21-23), but rather a matter of reckoning—fully believing in complete identification with Christ in His death and acting upon that belief in life. You see, full identification with Christ is not merely theoretical; it is practical. We don’t live as we formerly did, because we are dead to that way of living (7, 8). Spiritual Christian living involves constant consciousness of the heavenly—of Christ and our identification with Him. In Him we have died to sin; and our lives “are hid with Christ in God.” That, my friend, is resurrection living!
