Bible Studies in Colossians
Col 3:3-4 Those Concealed Shall Soon Be Revealed
By I Gordon
Introduction
The last study was about setting your minds on the things above – ‘Setting your sights on the heights.’ Carrying on with a rhyming title theme this one could be called ‘Those concealed shall soon be revealed’, or more simply, ‘What’s the plan Stan?’ Because this is about the grand plan, the big picture – specifically as it relates to a particular glorious revelation. We will only look at a couple of verses in Colossians but we’ll be doing some bible finger gymnastics as we flick around examining related verses.
We’ve been encouraged in this little passage, as we saw last time, to set our minds on the things above so that is what we will do. The following verses in Colossians go on to talk about sin, lust, impurity and some of the lovely things that can weigh us down in the here and now. So we will be plummeting down to earth with blistering break-neck speed in the near future... but not yet. Today is a big picture sermon. It is about the surety of the overall plan of God and the revelation of the sons of God.
Our Text
Col 3:1-4 ‘Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.’ (2) ‘Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.’ (3) ‘For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ (4) ‘When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.’
Now our text says some things that may not be outwardly apparent. In fact they are completely and utterly not outwardly apparent! They are things that need to be seen with the eyes of faith. It says the following:
1. You died
2. Your real life is now hidden
3. You will be revealed when Christ is.
Let’s have a look at these:
1. You died – Now this is obviously not talking about your physical life. Sometimes when I am speaking I do start to wonder with some in the congregation but I won’t go there! This passage is not speaking about having died physically. This is talking about your position in Christ. That you were placed in Christ and crucified with Him. You died with Christ and have been raised to a new life. The Bible says that ‘If any man be in Christ he is a new creation! The old is gone and the new has come.’
2. Your life is hidden - Though, it must be said, that this new life is now hidden compared to what will be revealed. A few months back I did a sermon on the Divine Treasure Hunt. You may remember that I said that God likes to hide things. He hid Christ, grace, the gospel coming to the Gentiles, the day of the rapture and, as it says here, He has hidden the real you. We don’t see what we are going to be just yet.[1] The Bible Knowledge Commentary says that “Hidden” implies both concealment and safety; both invisibility and security.’ That new life is certainly hidden from the world. They may see the change in us and hopefully they do, but they cannot see what empowers that change.
3. You will be revealed - Things will not be hidden forever! That which is hidden shall be revealed and our text tells us that two incredible revelations are still to take place. The first is the biggest event that has ever happened and will ever happen ever again. It will change the whole course of human history forever. I speak of course of the return and revelation of Jesus Christ. The second revelation is one that I find even more surprising. We will be revealed... We will appear with Him, in His likeness and glory. The real you will be revealed! The caterpillar will have shed its skin and been transformed into a butterfly. The ugly will become beautiful and the earthly, heavenly.
The fact is that God has one amazing plan which is sure and complete. It is a plan which culminates it the last line of our main text this morning - When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. As I did some study on this I came across a limerick the other day which summed up someone’s thoughts about doubting the plan of God. I’d seen it before but had forgotten about it. It went as follows...
God’s plan had a hopeful beginning
But man ruined it all by his sinning
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory
But at present the other side’s winning!
Well, actually, the story will end in God’s glory (and believer’s glory for that matter!) and the other side is not winning.[2]
Now, while it is true that most of my time devoted to this study went into the limericks (don’t blame me... they’re not easy to get right!), I do have a few cross-reference verses that I wanted to look at that speak of this sure plan and the coming glory to be revealed in believers. Remember our text again:
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
So there are a few questions that I sought to answer. Namely:
1. How sure is this plan and the coming glory for believers?
2. Who is longing for it?
3. How will it happen?
4. How does our life today relate to it and influence it?
5. Does the Bible reveal what will we think on that day?
So we’ll be looking at 5 passages for 5 questions. Each passage is great in its own right and we can’t do them justice in our brief little survey. But hopefully even a quick glimpse at each one will start consolidating and confirming in your mind what a great plan God has got for the believers future.
So, let the ‘glory’ questions begin!
1. How sure is this plan and coming glory?
Romans 8:28-31 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.’
Here is a passage that contains the ultimate purpose of God. We all know Romans 8:28 well. Many of us have had times when we have had to lay everything upon that foundation – that solid rock of a verse. Verse 29 is not as well-known however though it contains the overall plan of God in this age. You’ll remember from Genesis that when God went to make man He said ‘Let us make man in our image and in our likeness…’ That was the desire from the beginning. It was a plan that mankind could and would reflect the image and likeness of God. Obviously part of the likeness included giving us free-will and the rest, as they say, is history. But God’s ultimate plan was to restore that image as it says in Romans. True believers are ‘Predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son’. And when I read this again the other night the thing that struck me was the surety of this plan. It cannot fail. Look at verse 30 – It is all about God what He has done, and our glorification[3], which is a future event, is spoken of in the past tense because it is so sure it is as good as happened. In fact, let me change that; in terms of time, it is still to happen. But spiritually speaking, it has happened because a true believer is in Christ and is seated in the heavenlies. God has done it all. And look again at the surety of our salvation and glorification. If God justifies, He glorifies. It is as simple as that. No true believers justify themselves. ‘Justified’ means to be declared totally righteous. You can’t do this to yourself! God is the only one who can pronounce such a decree. And He has said that of all that He justifies, He glorifies. It’s incredible! The surety of God’s plan is wonderful![4]
2. Who’s longing for that day?
Rom 8:18-25 ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits’ in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope, 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.’
Who’s longing for that day of glorification? Well, all of creation is for a start![5] It waits in eager expectation for the revealing of the sons of God for, in some unclear way, it knows that its freedom from bondage and decay is linked to the revealing of the Sons of God. So it has an ‘eager expectation’ – this word means ‘Attentive or earnest expectation or looking for, as with the neck stretched out and the head thrust forward’ J.B Phillips New Testament translated verse 19 as ‘The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own.’ The fall of man led to the fall of creation but the restoration and revealing of God’s sons and daughters leads to creation itself coming back into its own freedom and glory. And somehow creation knows this! So it waits... and it longs...
And we ourselves groan inwardly waiting for that day! So it’s ok to groan! Don’t moan... but if you inwardly groan longing for that day that is perfectly normal. We wait eagerly for this day. We too stand on tippy-toe, head stretched out looking as well. This whole thought here is smothered in ‘Hope’… It speaks of the incomparable glory that awaits true believers.
3. How and when will it happen?
1 John 3:1-3 ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him’. 2 ‘Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All that have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
What we will be has not yet been made known – This is the ‘hidden’ of Colossians 3:3 that we started with. Your life, the real you, is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ appears we will see Him as he really is and it will change us – we will be changed into His image. The fact is that we are currently a grand mixture of God’s working in our life producing love, kindness, patience etc plus a good dollop of ‘munted’ humanity. We are not yet what we shall be. We don’t see each other as we will be. We see glimpses.[6] We see and know in part. Then we shall know even as we are known. How does this transformation take place? Well, it happens in the same way that we are changed progressively into His likeness right now in this life – by seeing Him. In this life the Bible says ‘we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.’ (2 Cor. 3:18). Then we shall see Him fully and be fully changed!
Note also that this glorious thought produces godliness here and now. It has a practical outworking right now. We can’t purify ourselves by our own strength (in that we can’t use the power of the flesh to fight the flesh...) but this thought of what is to come should draw us back to commit ourselves to the One who can purify and live through us now.
4. How does our life today influence the glory to come?
2Co 4:16-18 ‘Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (17) For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (18) So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Now the whole passage here is good but the key verse for us is verse 17. This is a great verse and a great hope. It speaks of an ‘eternal weight of glory’. And this glory is ‘beyond all comparison’. There is a direct link between our lives here and now, and all that we go through, and the eternal glory that shall follow. The former produces the later. The Amplified Bible says it as follows:
2 Cor. 4:17 For our light, momentary affliction (this slight distress of the passing hour) is ever more and more abundantly preparing and producing and achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory [beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease!][7]
And it’s not just the trials, testing’s and difficulties that produce this eternal glory. It’s your love for the Lord and one another. It’s your desire and hunger for the Lord and your obedience in following what He places upon your heart and calls you to do. Daniel got a glimpse of this day and wrote:
Multitudes that sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever. (Dan 12:2-3)