"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in Glory." ― Colossians 3:4
"Christ… is our life." The biblical definition of Christian experience is, indeed, remarkable. At the point of our exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the scriptures, one order of existence ended and another began.
To be a Christian, according to the Bible, is not simply to be transplanted, as when an entity is removed from one location and rooted in another, but the entity itself is changed; it takes on a new order entirely. In the biblical perspective of conversion, not only is the believer found in a new environment, ("hid with Christ in God," v.3) but he is himself a 'new creation.' "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new [II Cor. 5:17, italics mine.]."
It is not merely a career that is ended, it is a whole order of being. Both the center and the circumference of this new order is Christ. "Christ is our life." And that is the perspective we are here enjoined to adopt.
The story is told of one of the early Christians of note, that one day he was confronted by one of his former consorts who solicited his attention, calling him by name and crying, "It is I!" As he fled from her presence and would be advances, he responded, "I know, but I am no longer I." Would that every believer would perceive and embrace that perspective; anything and everything that is apart from and contrary to Christ is part of the old order and the old nature, and has no longer any claim or validity for us.
For now, of course, this which is essentially true is an eternal fact, but a temporal process. We are still "in the world." We must adopt by faith the position that we are not "of it." A significant element in cultivating the proper perspective is focusing on the prospect the new order sets before us: Jesus is coming again. "… Christ, who is our life, shall appear… " If we will live properly in this transition state, we must live expectantly. Early Christians, it would seem, lived in much keener awareness of Christ's return than we do today. For us the "second coming" is a distinct part of our theology, but has little bearing on our conduct or values. We hold the doctrine as a promise of eventual relief from life's hardships; they held it as the key to the manifestation of the new order and motivation for new values in the interim.
The apostle John wrote, for example, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, (a new order of being) and it doth not yet appear what we shall be (transition state): but we know that when He shall appear (the imminent prospect), we shall be like Him (the final transformation), for we shall see Him as He is." (Cf. I John 3:2) On the strength of that prospect the apostle urged, "And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure [ v.3]." The prospect of Christ's return was not abstract, but dynamic. So should it be for us.
"Then shall ye appear with Him in glory." That is the promise, looking forward to the moment when we will "catch up with our (new) selves," so to speak. What is even now spiritually true will become visibly evident in that great day. What is here held out to us is not the realization of our new state, but the revelation of what is already an established fact in the mind and heart of God.
The whole thrust of New Testament ethics is that the believer should no longer live as he was, but as he is "in Christ Jesus," Who "is" his life. As this perspective, prospect and promise penetrates our consciousness, it will stimulate a passion to break with the old nature and embrace the new. "Things above" will have our hearts (Col. 3:2) and be our dominant quest ( v.1), and heaven will be the environment of the soul. To the watching world we may look the same, but we will not be the same. The difference will be in demonstration of Christ, Who is our life, in the "today" of our experience!
For HIS praise,
"Pastor" Frasier
"Christ… is our life." The biblical definition of Christian experience is, indeed, remarkable. At the point of our exercise of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the scriptures, one order of existence ended and another began.
To be a Christian, according to the Bible, is not simply to be transplanted, as when an entity is removed from one location and rooted in another, but the entity itself is changed; it takes on a new order entirely. In the biblical perspective of conversion, not only is the believer found in a new environment, ("hid with Christ in God," v.3) but he is himself a 'new creation.' "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new [II Cor. 5:17, italics mine.]."
It is not merely a career that is ended, it is a whole order of being. Both the center and the circumference of this new order is Christ. "Christ is our life." And that is the perspective we are here enjoined to adopt.
The story is told of one of the early Christians of note, that one day he was confronted by one of his former consorts who solicited his attention, calling him by name and crying, "It is I!" As he fled from her presence and would be advances, he responded, "I know, but I am no longer I." Would that every believer would perceive and embrace that perspective; anything and everything that is apart from and contrary to Christ is part of the old order and the old nature, and has no longer any claim or validity for us.
For now, of course, this which is essentially true is an eternal fact, but a temporal process. We are still "in the world." We must adopt by faith the position that we are not "of it." A significant element in cultivating the proper perspective is focusing on the prospect the new order sets before us: Jesus is coming again. "… Christ, who is our life, shall appear… " If we will live properly in this transition state, we must live expectantly. Early Christians, it would seem, lived in much keener awareness of Christ's return than we do today. For us the "second coming" is a distinct part of our theology, but has little bearing on our conduct or values. We hold the doctrine as a promise of eventual relief from life's hardships; they held it as the key to the manifestation of the new order and motivation for new values in the interim.
The apostle John wrote, for example, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, (a new order of being) and it doth not yet appear what we shall be (transition state): but we know that when He shall appear (the imminent prospect), we shall be like Him (the final transformation), for we shall see Him as He is." (Cf. I John 3:2) On the strength of that prospect the apostle urged, "And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure [ v.3]." The prospect of Christ's return was not abstract, but dynamic. So should it be for us.
"Then shall ye appear with Him in glory." That is the promise, looking forward to the moment when we will "catch up with our (new) selves," so to speak. What is even now spiritually true will become visibly evident in that great day. What is here held out to us is not the realization of our new state, but the revelation of what is already an established fact in the mind and heart of God.
The whole thrust of New Testament ethics is that the believer should no longer live as he was, but as he is "in Christ Jesus," Who "is" his life. As this perspective, prospect and promise penetrates our consciousness, it will stimulate a passion to break with the old nature and embrace the new. "Things above" will have our hearts (Col. 3:2) and be our dominant quest ( v.1), and heaven will be the environment of the soul. To the watching world we may look the same, but we will not be the same. The difference will be in demonstration of Christ, Who is our life, in the "today" of our experience!
For HIS praise,
"Pastor" Frasier
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