I have been on dozens of airplane trips, and my preference is a window seat. There is something wonderous about the view at 35,000 feet. Above the clouds peering down upon the mountains, trees, streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, roads, farms, towns, and cities is a breathtaking experience. High up in the sky gives me an opportunity to see things on earth in a whole different way.
Paul likewise instructs Christians to envisage the whole of life from a new vantage point. Not observing life from a different altitude, but from the perspective of being in Union with Christ.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1).Believers are to reckon themselves as presently united with Christ in resurrection. [1] Still alive, not yet buried, but presently “raised with Christ.” [2] They are born again into an everlasting life (Jn. 3:1-21; 1 Pet. 1:3-5). Thus, they are bidden to “seek the things that are above.” Their aim is now to store up heavenly treasures which neither moth and rust destroy nor thieves break in and steal (Matt. 6:19-21).
The word picture of “Christ” being “seated at the right hand of God” has grand significance. The right hand of God the Father is the position of highest honor and authority. This means that the search for the things above involves giving to honoring Christ above all other allegiances. He is the centerpiece of Christian worship.
“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2). This is not just thinking happy thoughts all day long. Rather this has to do with thinking Christianly about life. It is about developing a biblical worldview.[3] In other words, being conformed to Christ likeness. Elsewhere, Paul writes: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Thought life is transformed in union with Christ. This is the putting on of the new self that has been created in the likeness of God which is truly righteous and holy (Eph. 4:24).
A way to set the mind on things above is for the believers to realize their union with Christ in death and glory. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” writes Paul (Col. 3:3).[4] Death to the former life apart from Christ has taken place. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”, the apostle testifies (Gal. 2:20). Just as Christ died upon the cross, the believer enters the water to signify the death to the former life apart from Christ. Yet, just as Christ rose from the dead, the believer emerges out of the water to signify the new life in union with Christ. The former life has passed away and a new life has begun.
Christians are “hidden with Christ in God.” Christ in an unseen way has a hold upon them, and they are safely kept in the presence of the Lord. They are the sheep, Christ is the shepherd, and He has them in His hands. Moreover, nobody can snatch the sheep from the Heavenly Father who entrusts them to Son (Jn. 10:28-29). The Lord moreover said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (Jn. 14:18-20).[5] Still living in this world, participating in its daily activities, but in an unfathomably mysterious way we are joined with Christ and the Father.
“When Christ who is your life appears,” writes Paul, “then you also will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4). Just as day follows night, Christ will appear again in fullness of glory, and His saints will be resurrected immortal and imperishable, and death will be defeated (1 Cor. 15:50-55; 1 Thess. 4:16-17). The Lord’s return even called the wedding feast of the Lamb. On that day, Christ the groom will comes to receive the saints as His bride in holy matrimony (Rev. 19:6-10). The New Jerusalem is also likened to a beautifully adorned bride (Rev. 21:2, 9-27).[6] The marriage supper of the Lamb will be something glorious for Christ and the Christian. Believers are thus united with Christ in glory.
Participation in the sinful ways of this fallen world have come to an end for those who have died and are hidden with Christ in the Father. Christ is the life of the believer, and when He appears again in glory, they too will appear with Him. The glorious future is set, yet that glorious future has already arrived ahead of schedule (at least in part) on account of believers being in union with Christ, and this is all the reason for them to live in the present as if they are already there.
Christians are thus united with Christ in life, death, and glory. The lives of Christ and Christians are interwoven together. Put it another way:
When we are in Christ, every part of Christ’s life, not only his death, has significance for us. We share in his life and obedience, his death and his resurrection, even his ascension! We participate in another’s victory. All that is his becomes ours. How can such things be? God in Christ assumed our full humanity to heal our full humanity. He came all the way down to blaze a trail all the way back — for us to live in the presence of God. This means our union with Christ is rooted and grounded in Christ’s union with us in the incarnation.[7]
Weighing ourselves down with legalistic prescriptions in an attempt to work our way into God’s approval is never the way to go. Our own strength is insufficient in successfully resolving the problem of sin. Rather, the solution to the sin problem is union with Christ.[8] On account of being united in Christ death, resurrection, and glory, the Christian is never in need to earn their place in heaven through keeping rules and regulation in order to earn their good standing with God. Rather, the Christian life is about participating in the heavenly glory already received on account of being in union with Christ.
— WGN
Notes:
[1] Colossians 3:1 is a first-class condition sentence. The protasis, “If then you have been raised with Christ,” is presumed to be true for the sake of discussion. The reader is then prompted in the apodosis to “seek the things that are above…” Cf. discussion in Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics – Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, 1996), 690-694.
[2] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[3] A biblical worldview includes: the Creator/creature distinction, the divine origin of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Absolute truth is another element of the biblical worldview. Truth is neither the convenience of pragmatism, nor the peaceful comfort of subjectivism, nor personal opinion relativism. Truth is what corresponds to reality. Other elements of the biblical worldview include principles of knowledge such as the law of non-contradiction (A and non-A can never be simultaneously true in at the same time and place, either one can be true and the other false, or both can be false with truth being another proposition), the law of causality (If something can be established as an effect, then it must have a cause), the basic reliability of sense perception (our faculties though imperfect in ways still allow us to have an adequate understanding of the external world), and the analogical use of language (human languages can adequately speak about God). Interestingly, these four principles of knowledge are challenged by both modernist and postmodernist alike. (These principles of knowledge are further expounded in R.C. Sproul, Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2003).
[4] Paul reiterates the same idea on being united with Christ in death already presented in 2:11-12 and 2:20-23. The same gist is expressed and expanded in the Epistle to the Romans: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:1-4).
[5] Even the ministry of the Paraclete (i.e., Helper or Holy Spirit) is very closely tied in with the Christian’s intimate connection with the Father and the Son. See John 14:15-17; 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-15. Union with Christ is then part and parcel of life in the Trinity.
[6] It is without any doubt that the bride is the community of all saints who were brought out of kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light on account of Christ, i.e., the Church. Paul likens himself to a jealous father who his daughter, the church at Corinth, as a pure virgin to the groom, who is Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). Elsewhere, the apostle points to Christ love for the Church as an example for the love a husband is to have for his wife (Eph. 5:22-33). John the Baptist considered his prophetic vocation as being a friend to the bridegroom, who rejoices to hear the voice of the bridegroom, but understands his place is to decrease while the place of his friend is to increase (Jn. 3:29-30). Thus, the Church is the bride of Christ, and the marriage supper of the Lamb is the day when Christ the groom comes to receive His bride.
[7] Rankin Wilbourne, Union with Christ (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2016) 45
[8] Curtis Vaughn explains that “the only remedy for sinful passions is found in the believers’ experience of union with Christ—a union by virtue of which the Christian dies to sin and to the world’s way of thinking and doing. The opening verses of the third chapter, representing the positive counterpart of those verses, teach that this death with Christ involves also participation in his resurrection life. This releases into the believer’s life a power that is more than adequate as a check against the appetites and attitudes of the lower nature. These four verses, then, point to the believer’s union with Christ as the root principle of the whole Christian life. It is the point of departure and the source of power for all that he does” (Curtis Vaughan, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon, vol. 11, ed. Frank E. Gaebelein, [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1981], 209).
Love Truth Blog 