is in you, the hope of glory” (1:27). You died in Him (3 :3 ). You were “buried with him” (2:12). You are “ risen” with Him (3 :1 ). Truly our position is glorious. But we dare not stop here, as many do. 2. Christ Must Become Our Life Experimentally. Our position before God must be translated into our practice before men. Our walk before the world must correspond to God’s work in our hearts. Our standing must be reflected in our state. The Apostle rightly urges the Colossians on to the duties of the Christian life. And he does so in the proper order by first showing them their union with their living Lord and grounding his exhortations in the fact of that union. Faith in the fact of our union, moreover, trans lates the fact into experimental reality (Rom. 6:11). To this end the Apostle urges practical holiness and heavenly mindedness upon the people of God, injunctions so des perately needed in our day when a decimating and para lyzing worldliness has invaded the church. To many present-day professors, to whom gold is more important than godliness, and worldly pleasure more to be sought after than personal piety, the Apostle’s injunction comes with an unpleasant jar. “Seek those things which are above” (Col. 3 :1 ). But the world is going to dazzle us, entrap us, allure us, too, unless we not only have a vital person-to-person contact with the living Christ but also clearly perceive our glorious position of union with the Son of God, and by faith reckon upon that union. Accordingly, the Apostle gives two arguments for heav enly mindedness and practical holiness. We are to “ seek the things that are above” because this is “where Christ is” (Col. 3:1, Greek). Secondly, Christ is there “ seated on the right hand of God.” This will mean little until we are willing to forego, like Paul, a whole sky full of stars for one “ bright and morning star,” or a whole splendid firmament for “ one Sun of righteousness.” This will be so when we see our exalted position with our exalted Lord at God’s right hand, and begin to count upon it. His Unhindered Flow May we that joy of full surrender know, Our dross removed with a consuming flame, That His pure unll in us unhindered flow; Then with unblemished lips we’ll praise His name. Why fear? ’ tis for our good God stoops to chasten, Our light affliction will His blessings hasten. Though some believe, they shrink from His reproach, Unweaned from worldly, sinful compromise. Upon such lives the tempter will encroach, The lips declaring what the life denies. As outward ills may mean disease within, So worldliness, oft proof of hidden sin. Why dream of some heroic martyr’s course, When Christ does not come first in all our ways? Our selfish unll, springs from an impure source — Who faithless in small things his Lord betrays. Should our devotion be far less complete, Than was His sacrifice, our need to meet? Though His possession, are we possessing Him In all that glorious fullness, which is our right? Our torch of consecration grown not dim, But burning with a brighter, clearer light. In our own strength who can redeem the hour? Yet in the Spirit’s presence there is power. —B lanton W. J ones
The Apostle may seem to repeat the same thought un necessarily in the second verse. “ Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” But the Spirit of God urges and emphasizes a necessary warning in a day of gross materialism, shocking secularization of our educational system, and the appalling and paralyzing worldliness o f the church. The “things on the earth” are good, and in themselves not sinful. Money, stocks, bonds, business, cars, clothes, food, houses, and lands are neces sary, as well as wholesome pleasures and recreations. But these things become snares that entrap men, dangers that drown men in destruction and perdition, when sought after, as they are in America on a colossal scale, in pref erence to and to the crowding out of the things that are above. Only an experience, vital and real, of Christ as our Life can save us from being destroyed by them. Christ is not only our Life, but also Our Life Is Hid In Him This resurrection life is now concealed (Col. 3 :3 ). It belongs to the sphere of the invisible and eternal, to which Christ now belongs. It is “ laid up” or “ hid with Christ in God,” hence secure in Him. Because it is a life “ hid with Christ in God,” it is hid from the world. The world normally cannot understand or appreciate such a life, occupied with the risen Christ, and reaching out after an unseen goal. This resurrection life is, now, however, manifested upon occasion and by measure. Despite the fact that this life is for the most part concealed from the godless and the worldly-minded, yet, when a life down here is lived by this resurrection power, Christ becomes visible to human eyes. It is God’s thought that there should be such a real- • ization of our oneness of life with our divine Saviour and Lord that our human personality shall be but a ves sel in which the beauty, holiness, and glory of the Lord Jesus shall shine with undimmed radiance. But this is not all. Christ is not only our life. Our life is not only hid in Him, but more glorious still (if anything could be more glorious), Christ’s coming glory will be our com ing glory. Our Life Will Be Manifested In Him When? “Whenever he shall appear” (Col. 3:4, Greek). This glorious life (now, for the most part, hidden) shall not always remain concealed. His glorious coming for His own will mean our glorification. We shall each receive a resurrected, changed, deathless, painless, sinless body, like His Own glorious resurrected body (1 John 3:2). Why? Because He is our life. This is not to be toned down to mean only that He is the possessor and giver of eternal life. He Himself is our life. We actually share His life. Identified with Him in death and burial, we are also one with Him in resurrection and in the glory to be manifested to the world in His glorious second advent. As His exalted Person is now hidden in the heavens, which have received Him until the restitution of all things spoken by the prophets (Acts 3:21), so a day is coming when He shall return in power and glory from heaven to reveal His glorified saints to the world (2 Thess. 1:10). What a magnificent prospect for those who are “ in Him.” “ Every heartache gone forever, Only glory, bye and bye.” What blessed links in this person-to-person relation ship! Dead with Christ. Raised with Christ. A life hid with Christ in God. A life to be manifested in glory when He comes again. In a day of mere profession, when a “ form of godliness” which denies the power of these glorious truths, holds sway, let us make sure we are “ in Him,” who is our life, and our coming glory. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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