Your Life is Hid with Christ

(Colossians 3:3-4)

These two verses I am looking at today are deep and profound. They give us an insight as to who we are in the Lord and how we ought to think about all things.

Your life is hid in Christ Jesus who is seated at the right hand of God the Father. You are no longer living in the world, even though your flesh and bones exist in this physical realm. But in the spirit you are no longer here. Your life is hid with Christ in God.

And because Christ is in the spirit at this time, we are likewise in the spirit until the time of His revelation to the world at His return and second coming. When that occurs, just as He will be no longer hidden, neither shall we be hidden but will be made manifest as the children of God.

You have died to this world

The important part of these verses is the fact that you have died and are no longer part of this world.

Let’s consider death for a moment. When a person passes away their spirit is separated from their fleshly bodies and the flesh ceases to live or function. The flesh is no longer alive and so is buried or cremated, and that person ceases to exist on this earth.

But the spirits of the dead do continue to exist. They go to either Paradise or to Hades to await the time of the resurrection and final judgement. This is what the Bible tells us.

Now, in these scriptures we are reviewing today we are told that we have died already, that is those who are in Christ Jesus. Look at what they say.

3 For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4)

But you are still alive in the flesh? So what does it mean when it says, “For you have died and your life is hid with Christ.” What is this death Paul is talking about?

Baptised into Christ Jesus

This is the death that we take on when we die with Christ in baptism.

Baptism in water is a representation of death. As we go down into the waters of baptism we symbolically die with Christ and as we are raised out of the waters we symbolically are resurrected with Christ.

But this is not just mere symbolism. We must not think that our baptism into Jesus Christ’s death is just a symbol. This is where faith comes in and is so important.

It is by faith that we believe this is not just symbolism but that we have truly died and been raised up with Christ. Consider these scriptures.

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:3-5)

And;

24 Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

Understanding baptism

Before discussing these two scriptures there is one more that I should add that will help us understand what baptism is all about.

12 and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Colossians 2:12)

Now, we see in the first of these three scriptures that we are baptised into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We were buried with Him and also we are raised up with Him so that we can become new creations and walk in “newness of life.”

It is by baptism that we are born again and become new creations, as so many Christians speak about. We are renewed in Christ by baptism. Our sins are removed because the penalty for sin is death, and since we have taken on the death of Christ, our sins are paid for by Him. And all of this occurs in baptism.

In the second scripture we see that a grain of wheat does not bear fruit unless or until it dies and is buried in the earth. Jesus was speaking about His death at that time as He was about to die and be buried and then be raised up again.

But when Jesus was resurrected to new life, that paved the way for us to take on His death as our own by baptism and so we became the fruit that was born by the death of Christ. It was by baptism, through faith, that we enter into His death and resurrection to become new creations.

And finally we see all of this put together in the third scripture where we are told clearly we were buried with Christ, raised with Christ, and all of this is received by faith and your life is hid with Christ.

How should you think?

This brings us to the important aspects of life in the Spirit. We have been called and follow Christ basically for the purpose of change and being changed.

Change is at the heart of Christianity in many of its aspects.

Repentance is about changing the way you think. The work of the Holy Spirit is all about changing the way we are to transform us into the image of Jesus Christ. Walking in the Spirit is the mechanism of change to win the victory over the flesh.

And baptism is about changing us from the old creation of this earth, bound under the law and bound to sin, into new creations, born again of water and the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God.

So we need to change our way of thinking. We need to believe that we have indeed died to sin and the things of this world. Our flesh is passing away, but our spirits are now alive to God. So we must change our thinking as these scriptures show us:

6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:6-10)

Look at what these words are telling us. It is what you set your mind upon that determines your life or death. It’s about changing the way you think about who you are, what you are doing, and most importantly what and who you are believing in that will change your life.

It isn’t what we do that brings us to life, but rather believing what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We cannot do anything to save ourselves from sin and the destruction coming on this world. All we can and must do is to believe in God.

And we see in the last verse above that even though our flesh is wasting away and will eventually pass away, it is our spirit that is alive because of righteousness.

It is because there is the sin factor in our flesh, inherited from Adam and Eve, that we die. But it is also because of the free gift righteousness given to us who believe in Jesus Christ that our spirits are alive and your life is hid with Christ in God.

This next scripture tells us quite clearly how we are to think in the future now that we are baptised and set free from sin.

8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. 9 For we know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:8-11)

Christ has died and been raised to sit at the right hand of the Father. He can never die again because death has no power over Him. He died to sin to pay a debt He did not owe, but so that He could pay the debt that we owe and so that we could belong to Him and to God.

And just as Jesus now lives His life to the honour and glory of God the Father, so too we must do the same.

When verse 11 here says “you must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus…” it is telling us how we ought to think. We should no longer think of ourselves as being bound by the things of this world because we are no longer of this world. Your life is hid with Christ.

We have died with Christ and been raised with Him to sit beside God the Father in the spirit. We are to think of ourselves in this way.

And also we are not to think of ourselves as sinners because in Christ we have died to sin, just as He died to sin. Sin no longer has power or dominion over Christ, and since we are now in Christ through entering into His death and resurrection by baptism, sin no longer has power over us.

This is how we must think in the future. You are not a sinner but a new creation in Christ Jesus. Sin has no power over you for in Jesus Christ you have been set free from sin and He has removed the law so that you cannot break it and thus you cannot sin.

This is the mindset that all Christian should have because this is the freedom Christ has given us. Freedom from sin, freedom from the law, and freedom from the passions of the flesh.

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