“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

It couldn’t be any more clear—Christ…is…our…life!  But what exactly does that mean?  And what does it mean for us today, right now?  The implications become clear once we understand the unique emphasis of the Apostle Paul’s teaching.  Let’s set the context.

Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians as a corrective to some bad doctrine that was infiltrating the church in parts of Asia Minor (modern day Turkey).  Part of this false teaching included asceticism, the practice of extreme self-denial and self-affliction to obtain personal holiness.  This is what Paul writes against in 2:20-23.  But notice how he begins: “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world…”  What he is saying is that the basis of any personal holiness is the death of Christ, not our ‘good’ works.  So total is the corruption of the flesh in us that we must die!  But you and I are very much alive.  When and how did we die?

The Bible teaches clearly of the substitutionary death of Christ.  He died in our place as our punishment for sin.  But Paul also says that Christ died as the Head of a new redeemed race (see Romans 5:12-6:14).  As Adam was the head of the first race that fell into sin, Christ is the “last Adam” (1 Cor. 15:45), “the firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18) who gives life to those in Adam’s family who trust Christ for salvation.  In this parallel picture, what happened to Adam happened to us.  In fact, we not only follow our earthly head into sin, we were born into sin (see Psalm 51:5)!  However, Christ becomes a believer’s new head.  What happened to Him is counted to have happened to us.  He died; we died.  He was buried, we were buried.  He arose, never to die again (Rom. 6:9), we too have risen in like fashion.

But when did this happen?  When it happened to Christ.  When he died, none of us had been born yet.  However, God counted his death as fitting and applicable for everyone, including you and me.  That means we are already new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 5:20), and “are not in the flesh but in the Spirit…” (Rom. 8:9, NKJV).  That is our God-given position, which the Bible calls being “in Christ” or “in him” (Eph. 1:2-4, 7, 9, 10, etc.).  So “you died with Christ” (Col. 2:20) when he died.  Likewise “you have been raised with Christ” (3:1) positionally when he rose 2000 years ago.

In response Paul calls us to “set [our] hearts…[and] minds on things above, not on earthly things” (3:1b-2).  Now consider this: How many religions tell you to reflect on the heavenly realm?  How many draw us to the Godhead for meditation and goal setting?  None, really, because they are too busy telling us what we still need to do to be accepted or forgiven or good enough.  That is due to the fact that religion does not offer salvation; only Christ does, and he is “seated at the right hand of God.”  This is strong confirmation that God has forgiven us, and that we are accepted!

Our life, then, “is now hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3).  Can you think of any safer place?  Verse 4 says, “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  This appearance will be when Jesus returns again, when “every eye will see him” (Rev. 1:7).  That speaks of a future time.  Clearly then, God has our lives framed in time.  Both our past and our future are already in Christ, like bookends on a shelf.  Our present, our today, is between them.  Indeed, he is our life!

Naturally this has implications for us in the present tense: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…” (v. 5).  It requires that we walk in the presence of the cross, where Jesus died.  It requires saying ‘no’ to earthly pleasures and worldly thinking.  It requires discipline and diligence.  And it requires consistency!  It is no good, as the world says to do, to act like a Christian on Sundays, but not the other days of the week.  Christ did not die for a day, but for a people.  He lived to do God’s will; he expects and desires the same from us.  After all, he is our life, and his will is the best thing going.  If we are living 24/7 for him, allowing a pagan world to see him in us, we will be matching our lives with his, like a child tracing an image onto a piece of transparent paper.

Can people see you tracing your life from his?  Is your present life reflecting his past and your future?