Col

Col. 3:1-4

6/10/2007

“Keep Seeking the Things Above”

Last week we saw how being raised with Christ means that we have been truly, really and spiritually raised from our true, real, spiritual death in trespasses and sins. This is the Christian’s present condition as he lives between the First and Second Coming of Christ. We have already been raised spiritually from our spiritual death but we have yet to be raised physically from the dead. Today, let us consider the glory of our present condition in Christ and what it requires of us.

Notice the order: understanding who we are in Christ before we try to obey the apostolic command is absolutely imperative. Notice the conditional: “If you have been raised with Christ, [then] seek the things that are above….” The logic is obvious: we have to be raised with Christ first before we can seek the things that are above. For, as long as we remain dead spiritually, we set our minds on the things that are on earth. By definition the spiritually dead cannot, and do not, seek the things that are above. How can we see the things that are above without the sight that is given from above? How can we seek the things that are above without the life and power that come from above? Only those who are raised with Christ are no longer blinded by the things that are one earth. Only those who are raised with Christ can, and desires to, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

So how important it is for us to reaffirm what God has already done for us, who we are now in Christ Jesus! For the basis, the reason and the motivation for our obedience all come from understanding our new life, our new identity, our new status in Christ Jesus. And if our Christian life is not what it is supposed to be, it is very important for us to go back to the very basics and renew and deepen our understanding of who we are in Christ. There are other problems that hinder our Christian life, as we shall soon see. But the solution is found, and must be found, in who we are in Christ, what Christ says we are in Him!

So before he gives us the command, Paul reminds us of our glorious new condition in Christ Jesus: we have been raised with Christ! What glorious things are spoken of us in this declaration? What are some spiritual benefits of Christ’s resurrection for those who are in Him? Please listen carefully and attentively. Your spiritual wellbeing depends largely on how well and how truly you understand these things, not just with your mind but also with your heart. And we are talking about you and your benefits of being raised with Christ. And if you do not know Christ in a saving way, this is what can be yours if you are found in Him. Imagine having a rich relative and having his will read to you. The content of that will can radically change your life. Would you be distracted by anything? But here we have something far greater than any rich relative of yours can leave you. What we have in Christ is what God has poured out on you according to the riches of His infinite grace! They say familiarity breeds contempt. Don’t let that happen to you at least in regards to God’s heavenly gifts. So great they are in their magnitude and value that we ought never to grow too familiar with them that we treasure them no more. God’s gifts are too great and our lifetime is too short for that! So what are the spiritual benefits of our being raised with Christ?

At the most basic and foundational level, being raised with Christ means that the sting of death is taken away. The physical death is still a reality for us. No matter how far we push out cemeteries from the center of our activities, death for us is an unavoidable reality--unless Christ should return before we die. As we add more years to our age, the number of our friends and acquaintances that pass away grows more and more. And we ourselves approach the grave closer and closer each day. But even as the reality of our physical death looms larger and larger before our eyes, if you are in Christ, if you have been raised with Christ, death has lost its sting to those who are raised with Christ. We can no longer be afraid of death as the end of all and to all!

But Christians are not the only ones who do not fear death, are they?

We can think of Socrates and what they say about how he died. We have heard of many heroic tales in which people faced death head-on. But there is much difference between true courage and temerity, true gallantry and foolish audacity. Just because one is not afraid of death, does that mean he is victorious over death? We romanticize a tragic hero’s death. He may refuse to bow down to the threat of death and crawl under its power. He may go down with his head held high, with his pride in human dignity in tact. But what is that to death? Does death notice him? Is death impressed by his audacity? No matter how one dies, a simple fact remains the same: he died and he is swallowed up in death’s victory. To death, human beings may be nothing more than ants. When it squashes us with its thumb, does it matter to it that we are running away in fear or we are standing against it with our fists held up high? It may be impressive to other ants but not to death: it hardly even notices the difference, as we don’t when we kill ants. (Maybe there were some brave ants standing up against our thumb and we just did not notice them!) What is the applause of other men when you are swallowed up in death!

How different it is when we face death as those who have been raised with Christ! When we sing our praises to God in our deathbed, when we comfort those that we leave behind, when we urge them to place their trust in Christ and not depart from their faith, are we simply being defiant against death? Are we just being audacious to the point of being pathetic? No! For we have been raised with Christ truly and really in Christ’s real, true, historical resurrection! Christ conquered death--not just temporarily but eternally--and we have been raised with Him. Looking at the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, we can sing, “Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Cor. 15:54, 55)? Though the sorrow of leaving behind our loved ones is great, greater still will be the joy of seeing Christ face to face! Death to us can no longer be the end of all and to all. It will be to us the beginning of all that we ever wanted in fullest measure! “For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling…” (2 Cor. 5:1, 2). “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23)--that is the confession of the true Christian. We can no longer fear death. Death can no longer hold any sway over us!

Oh how great is the impact of not fearing death, no longer being under the tyranny of death! We are not talking about any reckless disregard for our life. We are speaking of the confident, living hope of eternal life, which cannot fail us! We know that the fear of death is not reserved only for the last moment of our life. The fear of death makes its restricting influence felt all throughout our life in every aspect! We cowardly back away from standing for what is right and true and noble because this life is all we get and we don’t want to jeopardize it in any way! We are prone to compromise our principles to get whatever we can get out of this one life to live, even if we must lie and cheat. Thus fear of death limits our vision to the things that are on earth, making them absolute in our eyes. How can we bear to miss out on the things of this world when we have only this life to live! How unbearable is every unfairness we are subjected to!

But you have been raised with Christ. You have been set free from the fear of death. Your greatest goal in life is no longer to preserve your life as long as you can and to acquire earthly riches and fame as much as you can. You can do what is right. You can stand for what is true. Not even death can stop you from following the Way, standing by the Truth and living out the Life! You can forfeit your life because you have gained something far more precious than your life, because you have been raised with Christ unto a life that is imperishable and immortal!

Another benefit is to have our debt cancelled. We read in 2:13-15, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” (2:13-15). To be raised with Christ is to be set free from our debt.

Imagine being debt free--your house paid off and all your loans paid off! Think about the financial freedom you can have when that happens! Now think about what Paul declares about you and the total cancellation of your debt to God. This debt causes more than some anxiety about how to make the payments. This debt places you under the wrath of God, under the condemnation of the law! This debt throws you into the lake of fire in hell!

This debt also places you in bondage to the rulers and authorities (2:15)--to Satan and his cruel tyranny. This is not to say that God owes anything to Satan for our redemption, or that God has to make some kind of payment to Satan to redeem us! The payment for our redemption must be made to God and to His divine justice, not to Satan. For when we sin, we sin against God first and foremost. Besides, what did Satan ever do to purchase us and to make us His? When we speak of our slavery to Satan, it is not in terms of his legitimate ownership over us; it is in terms of our willing, total conformity to Satan in our sinful desire and will. We are bound to Satan insofar as there is unity of will and purpose between Satan and us.

But Paul declares that, in Christ Jesus--in His atoning, redeeming death--all our spiritual debt has been cancelled! God erased the record of all our debt! He nailed it to the cross and did away with it once for all! We are no longer under the wrath of God! There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!

And you are no longer in bondage to Satan. That means that Satan has nothing on you! Although he did not have any legitimate claim on us, he had a strong hold on us, didn’t he? He did so by speaking fear into our hearts concerning God’s judgment on sinners; by reminding us of the judgment we must face before God; by denying any possibility of reconciliation with God. “When and if you go to God, you can expect nothing but condemnation and punishment. I know all the terrible things you have done and I will be glad to testify against you!”

Satan’s hold on us is somewhat like the tactics that the human trafficking cartels use. They keep their victims in bondage by threatening that they will kill their families if they ever escaped! So the victims stay on in the most inhumane and miserable circumstances for the fear of bringing harm upon their family. But can you imagine if they have the assurance that their families are safe? Is there anything that can keep them in their bondage? Christ has reconciled us to God through His death and resurrection. God is no longer Someone to run away from but Someone to run toward as fast as we can! All our debt to God has been cancelled. All our trespasses against God are forgiven and forgotten! Satan’s accusations are no longer legitimate! He does not have anything on us that we should obey Him--absolutely nothing! Praise the Lord!

Then why such a great distance between what we read about us in the Bible and what we see in our life? Why is our spiritual life not as great as what we read in the Bible? It is because, while our spirit has been raised with Christ, we still dwell in our fallen body, in our sinful flesh. Our new life requires nurturing and care but this nurturing takes place in the midst of our sinful flesh raging war against every effort for spiritual growth. While our legal standing before God as justified and adopted cannot be changed, our experience of its benefits can vary significantly. We can grieve the Holy Spirit (Eph. 4:20) and quench Him (1 Thess. 5:19) by our disobedience and indulgence in our carnal desires. If we do not walk in the Spirit and if we obey the lusts of the flesh instead, our new life can be choked and starved, weakened and crippled.

Many of us recognize that our sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit. So then, even the degree of our sanctification is determined by our sovereign God according to the measure of His grace granted to us. But it would be a terrible sin to use God’s sovereignty as an excuse for our spiritual complacency and indifference. How far each of us can advance in our sanctification in this life belongs to God’s secret will, which is hidden from us. Therefore, God’s secret will can never be the basis for deciding the course of our action. What we are accountable to and responsible for is God’s revealed will, which is clearly laid out in His word and His law. And His revealed will clearly prescribes that we are to obey His word, walk in the Spirit by faith and not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Here we must acknowledge that our sanctification is ultimately a mystery. We don’t know how the Spirit works in us both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). But we do know that God uses the ordinary means of grace to increase our faith and cultivate our spiritual growth and promote our sanctification. There is no power in our own efforts, even when we apply ourselves diligently to the means of grace. But we also know that, ordinarily, no spiritual growth should be expected apart from the means of grace, such as the Word of God, the Sacraments and prayer.

These dynamics are wonderfully demonstrated in Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead. Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus stood in front of the tomb and called out, “Lazarus, come out!” When this command reached Lazarus lying in the tomb, he was brought back to life. And he walked out in obedience to the Lord’s command.

Let us observe briefly what just happened. Notice, first, the impossibility of Jesus’ command. It was impossible for the deceased Lazarus to obey this command on his own. But Jesus’ command went out to Lazarus with a life-giving power and brought him back to life. Because of the newly given life, Lazarus was able to walk out of the tomb. He who commands also provides the strength to obey.

But notice also what Lazarus had to do. He had to walk out. In fact, he had to struggle hard to walk out because he was all wrapped in linen strips. But Lazarus did not wait for some special prompting of the Holy Spirit to start walking out! The new life Christ had given him and the command he received were sufficient. The new life pervaded throughout his once dead body, which now pulsated with strength and energy. And Christ did not levitate him and carried him out: He commanded him to walk out on his own.

But notice as well that, when Lazarus came out, who deserved the credit--Lazarus or Jesus? Jesus, of course! Lazarus had to will to walk and apply strength to his legs and body to walk out. But where did the strength to do so come? Where did the life to hear Christ’s command and to will and to move come? Apart from His life-giving power, Lazarus could not have walked out. Though Lazarus had to a lot of work--maybe he was sweating profusely by the time he stood in front of Jesus--but all glory was due Christ, not him!

Such is our new life in Christ! Through our regeneration (being raised with Christ) we have a new nature. Our new life has a supernatural origin. Yet this new life flows through our natural faculties to manifest itself. This is important to remember. Many of us want God to treat us like a robot or a puppet when it comes to our sanctification. God has given us a new life and with that life the power and ability to obey His commands. What else do we need? And if we lack anything, He is more than willing to supply all that we need to fulfill His will. Of course, as long as we dwell in our fallen body, we will never be able to perfectly obey God’s commands. But we must recognize that God has given us all that we need to obey His word. And through the means of grace He reminds us and urges us to heed to His commands. We cannot wait until we are levitated and puppeteered by the Spirit to do what we ought to do. No! God is nurturing and cultivating us to be an obedient people. And what is true obedience? That which involves our whole being--our mind, our heart, our will and our action! How can God produce such obedience in us by puppeteering us?

So then, let us seek the Lord. Let us apply all of our strength, all of our might, all of our heart, all of our mind, knowing that, if we are raised with Christ, they all come from the Lord! But even more importantly, we must remember Him, who sought us first, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord. From eternity He set His mind on us. It was His unfading intention to save us from sin and death. He came into this world, all the way from heaven, to seek and save us. It did not matter what kind of sufferings He might endure, what kind of sacrifices He might make. Some of us can look back on the trials we had to go through and say, “Had I known how difficult they would be, I am not sure if I would have been able to go through them at all!” But Jesus knew exactly what they were and what they would cost Him. Yet He was still willing--He was willing to leave His heavenly glory and enter into this lowly world in the frailty of human flesh, to suffer our sufferings and die our death on the cross. Because He wanted us, He sought us with His precious life. How could we not seek the things that are above, where He is, seated at the right hand of God?

So then, let us seek Him, in whom all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form (2:9), in whom all the riches of heaven are found, who is our strength, our blessedness, our life eternal! Let us seek Him deliberately, intently, passionately, wholly exercising our natural faculties with our newborn mind, passion and will. Let us seek Him wholeheartedly, resisting Satan’s temptations and mortifying our sins--until that day when Satan shall be cast into hell forever and our body glorified, no longer hindering us but aiding us in our worship and enjoyment of God to the fullest measure through all eternity! Amen.