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Dear Disciple,
Last time we looked at verse 3 of Colossians chapter 3, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Again the basic point of this section is to encourage us to reorient our lives around the reality of the risen and exalted Lord Jesus Christ, who is seated at God’s right hand, and to live solely and only for Him. I encourage you to go back and read the postings for verses one through three. Verse three provided one reason for doing what was commanded in verses one and two, and verse four provides a special encouragement to do so – “When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Here is another reason for “seeking the things above where Christ is,” that is, for seeking to direct my life according to loving service to the risen Christ. Christ, who is God’s right hand today, is coming back. He is going to appear again. The King will return. His return will be glorious. There is no word to really capture how magnificent, final, and truly earth shattering that ‘appearing” will be. It will be all that we ever pray for when we pray “Thy Kingdom Come.” It will be all that we can possible ask or hope for when we pray “Come Lord Jesus.” If we have died with Christ and if we have been raised in him, then when he returns we will appear with him in glory. We will share in the great glory of his return. There is nothing worth missing out on that. For that will be for us the beginning of the very fulfillment and consummation of Life itself! For Christ is Life, and He is your Life if you are in Him, dear disciple. The truest most important reality about you and your life, whether other people see and know and understand it or not, is summed up in Him and in your relationship to Him. And he is coming back.
So, in the present we should live with that future moment and that day in mind. We should set our affections on those things that pertain to His kingdom and his reign over us. That is the kind of life in the present consistent with appearing with him in glory in the future. Can’t you taste that glory now? Can’t you imagine the splendor and beauty and wonder and magnificence of the risen Christ returned and appearing to us again? Well, press on disciple, and keep the faith, for you will appear with him in that glory, you will be caught up in it and be transformed by it, and all will be made new. It awaits.
Knowing that you have the courage and hope to live obediently to Christ in the present. It will be worth it, and then some! |
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