Colossians Study: Chapter 3, Verses 1-4
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?”
2 Corinthians 13:5
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
There is no doubt that believers “have been raised up with Christ”
- It is accomplished
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
Romans 6:3-4
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
- Christians are obligated to live with this reality
Romans 6:11-12
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts.
1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
“with Christ”
- we have been risen with Christ
- He alone is all we need
“keep seeking the things above”
- “keep seeking”- means continuous action
- “the things above”- refers to the heavenly realm
“where Christ is seated at the right hand of God”
- “where Christ is”- Christ is our compass; we should be striving to walk toward Him
- “seated at the right hand of God”- The One who owns all resources
Psalm 110:1
The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”
Luke 22:69
But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
“Set your mind”- think (Continuous action)
Matthew 6:20-21
But store up yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
- Paul is saying that our preoccupation of heaven should govern out responses here on earth.
- View things, people, and events of this world through His eyes and with an eternal perspective.
Romans 8:34
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.
Hebrews 1:3
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 8:1
Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
“For you have died”
- Believers have died to the world system that at one time held us in bondage
Philippians 3:10
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;
- The reason that we should be living with our mind on Christ
- This is in the past tense, indicating that it happened already. At salvation
“and your life is hidden with Christ in God”
- The new life is concealed from the world
- Non-believers are blinded to the spiritual world
1 Corinthians 2:14
But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
Romans 8:19
For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.
- It is even partially hidden to us
1 John 3:2
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know what when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
- Believers share a common life with the Father and Son
1 Corinthians 6:17
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
2 Peter 1:4
For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
- The Lord knows who are His, and one day it will be revealed
2 Timothy 2:19
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.”
- Christ is “our life”
- Christ does not just give life; He gives it abundantly
- He completely changes us from the inside out
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ’ and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.