Who Are We? (Colossians 3:1-4)

My telephone rang the other day, but it rang out before I could get to it. So I dialled 1471 to see who called me. I did not recognise the voice, so I asked the person their name. Instead of telling me, the person asked, ‘And who are you?’ I told the individual and discovered that I actually knew the person very well. But the question I was asked is an interesting one to be asked at other levels. To put it another way, ‘What does it mean to say that one is a Christian?’ How would we answer the question, ‘And who are you?’

Or take the information we have to put in a census form for the government. When we are asked about our religion, no doubt we tick the box that says Christian. Would it be acceptable for me to enlarge the line about which faith I identify with to say that in addition I am raised with Christ, that I have died with Christ, that I am hidden with Christ, and that I shall yet appear with Christ? After all, merely to say that I am a Christian might not say very much because millions of others might make the same claim, even although they and I are very different in our beliefs. So who are we if we are real Christians?

Connected to the question of identity is the matter of activity or experience. What can a Christian do? Or what should a Christian do? Is he or she able to do certain things no matter the circumstances in which he or she is in? Does the fact of lockdown prevent a Christian from engaging in regular activities that define them or does he or she have to modify them? Or are there some things that they can do, whatever their external circumstances? What does the lockdown have to say to being raised with Christ, or having died with Christ, or being hidden with Christ, or appearing with Christ in the future?

Paul answers those questions in the opening verses of Colossians 3 when he writes: ‘If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.’ 

It will help to understand what Paul says if we say how a person becomes a Christian in the first place. The way that happens is that he hears the gospel which tells him something about himself and something God has done to help him. The gospel tells him that he is a sinner, that he is someone who has failed to live a perfect life because he has broken God’s commandments. It also tells him that God sent his Son to the cross to provide salvation for sinners. It also tells him the response that God requires from the sinner in order for him or her to become a Christian. They have to repent of their sins and trust in Christ. Although he died on the cross, he rose from the dead three days later and then ascended to heaven after another few weeks. The gospel says that since Jesus is alive, we can trust in him, commit ourselves to him, and depend upon him. 

So we can say that a Christian is a person who has repented of his sins and trusted in Jesus. But it is not all that we can say about him. We don’t normally define a person by one aspect of his life. A man may be a husband, a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a brother, a cousin, a chess player, a book collector, a stamp collector, a traveller, a bus driver, a golfer, and many other things. In a similar way, we can say a lot about a person who is a Christian. We can say that he is accepted by God, adopted by God, indwelt by God, sanctified by God, guided by God. Or we can say that he is a worshipper, a disciple, an heir and a believer with many other roles.

Raised with Christ

When Paul uses the word ‘raised’ here, he is not referring to the resurrection of Christ. Rather, he is describing the exaltation of Jesus to a particular position in heaven – he has been raised high. That position is the throne of God, described as ‘seated at the right hand of God’. Jesus was given that prominent place as a reward for completing the work that the Father asked him to perform, which was to live a perfect life, die an atoning death, defeat the powers of darkness, overcome the power of death, and having done so, to ascend to heaven as a triumphant conqueror. 

We can probably understand that process as far as it is a logical order of events that happened to Jesus. But how can we be said to be raised with him since we are still down here, seemingly a long way from a high place in heaven? The answer to that question is that, when we believed in Jesus, we were united to him and received certain privileges as a result. 

Imagine a woman who marries a wealthy man with an estate in another country. It is now hers, and she can think about it even if she has not been there yet. In a far greater way, we can consider the things that belong to Jesus in heaven because, at one level, they also belong to us since we are Christians united to Jesus.

Paul tells us how we can do this by using two verbs. One is ‘seek’ and the other is ‘set your minds’. There are some things in heaven that we can discover now if we focus on them. Before we ask what those things are, we should observe one activity that will prevent us from discovering those heavenly things, and that is to think about what Paul calls ‘things that are on earth’. There is a contrast here that requires a choice because both options cannot be pursued at the same time.

What are some of the things in heaven that we can experience? And how is it possible for us to do so? We can do it because the Holy Spirit will enable us to do so. Because of his work, we can search the things of heaven even while we are sitting on an armchair on earth or going for a walk along a road on earth or even when we are at work or washing the dishes. It all depends on where our minds are, says Paul.

So what can a Christian know about heaven? First, he can know who lives there. So he knows that God is there, that each person of the Trinity is experienced there. He also knows that the angels are there, participating in the praise that occurs there, and going back and fore performing tasks required by God. He is also aware that the souls of innumerable redeemed people are there, now made perfect in holiness. He knew some of them when they were imperfect on earth, but it gives him great joy to think about them now as perfect.

Moreover, he can receive some blessings from there, although not to the extent that the inhabitants have them; nevertheless because of the work of the Holy Spirit he can enjoy them to some extent. So he can have conveyed to his soul samples of the love, peace and joy that saturates the heavenly world. If we don’t have them, we have to ask if we have followed the methods stated by the apostle which is that we have to seek them and think about them. It looks a straightforward process, but if we don’t use the map, we don’t get to the destination.

Died with Christ

We know that Paul means that his readers have died with Christ because he uses that way of speaking in the previous chapter. He does not mean physical death obviously, because they were still breathing. Rather, he means that they are connected in some way with the effects of the death of Christ. So we need to ask ourselves what happens when someone dies.

The answer to that question seems obvious – at death, they cease to exist. So what ceases to exist for the Christian who has died with Christ? His old identity has gone. What was his identity before he was converted? He was a slave of sin, but he has been liberated from that terrible life. He was an outsider from the kingdom of God, but now he has been brought into it, and he is presently a servant of God. Previously, he was estranged from the family of God, but now he has become a member of the heavenly family. If we take Paul as an example, we can see how the old Paul had gone, did not exist anymore. Paul had a new identity.

Moreover, Paul says that having died with Christ, he is now hidden with Christ in God. I suppose this could mean that his real identity was unknown to most people because they would have thought he was a kind of religious Jew who believed that Jesus was the Messiah. Their assessment was true to some degree, but it did not really say who Paul now was. He was a freeman of heaven, a servant of God and a permanent member of the divine family.

In addition to that idea, the notion of hiddenness also points to the security that Paul had. Who had hidden him? God had, and what he did for Paul he does for all believers. In fact, they have a double security – they are hidden (1) with Christ (2) in God. Who can really harm them and prevent them thinking about the things above if they are determined to do so?

Appearing with Christ

It is not only believers who are hidden today as far as identity is concerned. There is a sense too that the identity of Jesus is hidden. How many people in our city or country know where Jesus is and who Jesus is? But one day he will appear. The word ‘appear’ means more than that he will be visible. It also means that people will know who he is, that he is the great God, the Saviour of sinners, the Judge of all.

Paul also points out that those who were hidden in Jesus will also ‘appear’ at that time. When that occurs, they will be different from how they seem now, because then they will appear in glory. Ever wondered what your neighbours will think when they see you glorified when Jesus is revealed? 

What will it be like to appear in glory? We have samples of it in the Bible. For example, there is what Moses and Elijah looked like on the Mount of Transfiguration. They appeared there the way they currently looked like in heaven. The apostle John reminds us that believers will be like Jesus in that they will be transformed into his image merely by being with him forever.

Paul points out here that Christ is our life. This must mean that somehow what he wants for us, we will do. It means that he shares his life with us. He commenced our spiritual life and he sustains our spiritual life. In the next world, we will have more of the life that he gives to his people, but it is the same life from the same source for all the redeemed.

As we say often, we have lots of things to think about. If we are Christians, it is much better for us to think on the things that are above rather than the things that are on the earth. The things that are on the earth are perishing, one day they will be gone. But the things that are in heaven are eternal.

Application

Have we given consideration to how we should explain who we are to people who ask us about ourselves? Would they respond to our explanation by saying, ‘I would never have guessed that was the case?’ Or would they say, ‘I wondered what it was that made you tick because it seems much better than what lots of other people live for?’ People may not know why Christians are different, but they should sense that Christians are different, and they may ask us why.