Your life is hidden with Christ in God

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old man with its practices and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator…Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Colossians 3:9,10, 12

How many different ways can Paul say it? It’s clear that the dominant themes of Paul’s ministry were the cross and its work, and then the life that is to be lived on the other side of the cross. For Paul it all came down to those two primary truths. Everything else was an outworking of those two major themes.

The teaching is clear. The life to be lived is the life that God has provided for us “in Christ”. The life is the overcoming life of God, the life that raised Jesus from the dead, the life that is the person of the Holy Spirit and the life that is eternal and incorruptible. That life is “in Christ”, and when we believe and put our faith in Him, that life becomes our life; not only in a legal sense through the imputed righteousness of Christ, but in a very real and practical sense as His life indwells us by the Holy Spirit.

The analogy is also clear. Paul again uses the terminology of “putting on” and “putting off”, and of “clothing” ourselves in this newness of life. Paul says it is a new man, a new identity and a new humanity that has been “renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

The clothing that is Christ’s life, Paul says, is compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. In other words, just as the armor of God is Christ Himself, so the fruit of the Spirit is the very life of Christ. Because we are in Him, all those attributes and qualities can now be manifest in and through us, because they are His attributes and character traits. We don’t have to try to be compassionate; we just need to “clothe” ourselves in Him. We don’t try to suddenly become humble where we have been proud. He is humble. He is gentle, and He is patient.

The Christian life for many has degenerated into a system of self-help and sin management techniques. That’s because we aren’t teaching the church what it means to be in Christ, and how by faith to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian life can’t be reduced to moralism and legalism. That is still death. No it must be seen as living out of His life, a life that is from above and not earthly or powered by human effort.

Brothers and sisters take your eyes off of yourselves and set your hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Fix your eyes on Him, the author and perfecter of your faith. This is Paul’s admonition. This is what he prays for the church and encourages them to understand and do. How many different ways can Paul say the same thing? “Your life is hidden with Christ in God.” “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Yes Paul, we hear, understand, and believe

R. Martinez