FOR YOU HAVE
DIED: apethanete (2PAAI) gar: (see note
Colossians 2:12,
note on
Colossians 2:20,
notes on
Romans 6:2
, 6:7,
6:8-10,
6:11,
7:4-6,
Gal 2:19,20
5:24
6:14 note
on
1 Peter 2:24)
Note "died"
is first in Greek sentence to emphasize this life changing event.
"For [as far as this world is
concerned] you have died" (Amp)
For
(gar) introduces and explains the reason "living in
the heavenlies" (seeking and minding the things above) is to be the
norm for the believer even though he is on earth. Believers have died
to the world system (Gal 6:14),
through their faith and consequent intimate union with Christ in His
death and resurrection.
You
have
died
(599)
(apothnesko from apo = away from +
thnesko = die) means literally to die off and so to cease to
have vital functions, whether at an earthly or transcendent level.
The
tense of died is
aorist which speaks of a past completed action --
believers died with the moment they believed in Christ they died
as clearly implied in
2Cor 5:17). The mood is
indicative which is the
mood of reality indicating that this spiritual death was a real event
even if though we cannot completely comprehend the supernatural nature
of the transaction.
The
upshot is that when you died with Christ in the
past, you died to the power, rule, mastery, enslavement to the old
task master sin, which has now been rendered inoperative (see note
Romans 6:6
"done
away with") by the death, burial
and resurrection of Christ Jesus and your faith in His finished work
which has brought you into union with Christ.
To be sure the
presence and power of SIN (see
"the Sin") will continue to harangue us for the
remainder of our physical earthly existence but it can no longer
condemn us. The question then is: Are you living like a ''dead''
man? Since we died and were raised with Christ, anything foreign to
Jesus should be foreign to us. Although it's a "done deal" so to
speak, we still need to make daily daily choices in light of and
consistent with that truth. These choices often involve "Death to
self" a truth emphasized often by Jesus as a requirement of those who
wished to follow Him as His disciples
(Mt 16:25;
Mk 8:35;
Lu 9:24;17:33;
Jn 12:25
See Torrey's Topic on "Self
Denial").
In
these verses in Colossians Paul is explaining what "death to self"
should look like (Col 3:5-4:6).
Dying to self and living to God (Christ increasing, us decreasing
Jn 3:30) is the essence of the
heavenly minded "much fruit" life (Jn 15:8)
our Father desires all His children. But praise God it is no longer we
who are "living' but Christ living His life thru us (see
note
Galatians 2:20).
John Eadie adds
"Neither “seek nor
savour” the things of earth; for having died, and having been even
buried with Christ, your sphere of being, action, and enjoyment, is
totally different from your former state. As Luther says— “we live not
in the flesh, but we dwell in the flesh.” When they did die, their
death was but a birth into a new life." (Eadie,
John: Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Colossians - Download 377
page Pdf - 1884)
Spurgeon (click complete text)
has some insightful comments regarding the our death & new life in the
Spirit:
Aforetime we
were natural men and discerned not the things that be of the Spirit of
God. We minded earthly things and were moved by carnal lustings after
the things which are seen; but now through divine grace a spirit has
been created in us which feeds on spiritual bread, lives for spiritual
objects, is swayed by spiritual motives and rejoices in spiritual
truth. This change from the natural to the spiritual is such as only
God himself could have wrought, and yet we have experienced it. To God
be the glory. So that by virtue of our rising in Christ we have
received life and have become the subjects of a wondrous change,-
“old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2Cor 5:17)
MacArthur notes that
"By using such phrases as with
Christ (Col 3:1); where Christ (Col 3:1); with Christ
(Col 3:3); when Christ (Col 3:4); and with Him (Col 3:4), he
stresses again Christ’s total sufficiency (cf. Col 2:10).
Unfortunately, many Christians fail to understand and pursue the
fullness of Christ. Consequently, because of not knowing what
Scripture says, or not applying it properly, they are intimidated into
thinking they need something more than Him alone to live the Christian
life. They fall prey to false philosophy, legalism, mysticism, or
asceticism."
Rob Morgan commenting on
Colossians 3:1-4 offers an interesting sermon title "The Best
Christians are Dead Christians" noting that in Colossians 3:1 Dead
People Have a New Master, Colossians 3:2 Dead People Have New Values,
Colossians 3:3 Dead People Have a New Perspective, and Colossians 3:4
Dead People Have a New Future. (Morgan,
R. J. Nelson's Annual Preacher's Sourcebook: 2002 Nashville: Thomas
Nelson Publishers)
AND YOUR
LIFE IS HIDDEN: kai e zoe humon kekruptai (2SRPI): (John 4:14;
5:21,24,40;
6:39,40;
10:28-30;
14:19;
Ro 5:10,21;
8:2,34-39;
1Co 15:45) (The
believer’s final manifestation with Christ)
and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God (Amp)
you have a secret life with Christ (BBE) (Ed note: But He
should show forth to those around you! Don't keep the secret to
yourself!)
Hidden
(krupto)
is in the
perfect tense which indicates
that it was hidden at some point in time (day of your salvation) and
remains hidden or concealed which conveys the ideas of permanency and
irrevocability. The death (aorist tense) is over, but the
results of the hiding (perfect tense) of the life in Him
abide.
As Handley Moule says,
The ‘death’ is fact
accomplished, the resulting ‘life’ is fact continuing.
As missionary
James Calvert approached the Fiji Islands, the captain of the ship
tried to discourage him from setting ashore on a cannibal island. “You
will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among
such savages,” he said. Calvert only replied, “We died before we came
here.” This passage says, “For you died, and your life is hidden with
Christ in God.”
John
Eadie explains our hidden life as the
"life is at once divine and mediatorial—God's gift to believers
through Christ; and the gift, along with its medium and its destiny,
are hidden in the Giver, as the infinite source. But this concealment
is no argument against present and partial enjoyment; for one may
drink of the stream and be unable either to detect its source, which
hides itself far away and high among the mountains, or conjecture at
what distant point its deepening current pours itself into the ocean.
The life is not said, by the apostle, to be hidden in itself, either
from the world or from believers themselves, as so many commentators
suppose. True, indeed, it is mysterious. It is not among things of
vulgar gaze. It is a strange experience; none can know it save he who
has it. For Christians die and yet live; nay, the moment of death is
that of life—the instant of expiry is that of birth. Yet this life is
now enjoyed—is therefore now a matter of secret consciousness, though
much about it is beyond inquiry and analysis. No one can lay bare the
principle of physical life; the knife of the anatomist cannot uncover
the cord which binds the conscious thinking essence to its material
organ and habitation. But the special thought of the apostle is, that
the ethereal nature of spiritual life eludes research, alike in its
origin and destiny. Its source is too high for us to climb to it, and
its destiny is too noble to be written in human language. As to the
former, it is hidden with Christ in God; and as to the latter, it
shall not be fully revealed till Christ come the second time in glory.
But it shall be ultimately disclosed. For Christ, with whom our life
is hidden, shall reveal Himself, and we whose life is so hidden with
Him shall also appear with Him in glory. When its medium is revealed,
its character and destiny shall also be laid bare." (Eadie,
John: Commentary on Paul's Epistle to the Colossians - Download 377
page Pdf - 1884)
Vincent notes that a
believer's
"new spiritual life is no longer in the sphere of the
earthly and sensual, but is with the life of the risen Christ, who is
unseen with God".
As Paul reminds the Philippians
our
citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (see note
Philippians 3:20)
Believers were a colony from heaven in Philippi! Christians are
citizens of a kingdom not of this world for as our Lord has said
My
kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then
My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to
the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm. (John 18:36)
Spurgeon
in Morning and Evening writes that...
Regeneration is a subject which
lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very diligent to
take heed that we really are "born again," for there are many who
fancy they are, who are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian
is not the nature of a Christian; and that being born in a Christian
land, and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of
no avail whatever, unless there be something more added to it--the
being "born again," is a matter so mysterious, that human words cannot
describe it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Nevertheless, it
is a change which is known and felt: known by works of holiness, and
felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is
not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is
infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the
entire man. It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature,
so that I am not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus.
To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it
alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other. If you have
then, been "born again," your acknowledgment will be, "O Lord Jesus,
the everlasting Father, Thou art my spiritual Parent; unless Thy
Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual
life, I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses and sins.' My
heavenly life is wholly derived from Thee, to Thee I ascribe it. 'My
life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who live, but
Christ who liveth in me." May the Lord enable us to be well assured on
this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned,
without God, and without hope.
Three thoughts are suggested by this figure "hidden":
(1) Safety or security
Believers are permanently hidden, securely locked together with
Christ. Satan can’t break the lock and no burglar (even false
teachers) can break the combination. Thus a believer's salvation is
safe & secure with Christ (Jn
10:28).
Indeed as Paul writes elsewhere, who shall ''separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.'' (see note
Romans 8:35-36,
8:37-39)
(2) Identity
Believers are now intimately linked "together with" (sun)
Christ in (en) God. This picture expresses the fellowship of the
believer, his identity with his risen Lord. Ignatius wrote,
“You
are then all fellow travelers and carry with you God, and the
Temple, and Christ, and holiness, and are in all ways adorned by
commandments of Jesus Christ.”
He used the word
christophoroi,
which means Christ-bearers, and it is a lovely description of a
Christian identified with Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father
(cf
Jn 1:18,
10:27–30).
(3). Secrecy.
The believer’s life is nourished by secret springs and located “where
the world sees Him no more” (cf.
Jn 14:19). Thus, his bent of
life is to be directed toward its source and away from the visible and
carnal.
T. R. Kelly has this devotional
thought on a practical aspect of our lives being hidden with Christ in
God
"There is a way of life so hid with Christ in God that in the
midst of the day's business one is inwardly lifting brief prayers,
short sudden utterances of praise, subdued whispers of adoration and
of tender love to the Beyond that is within. No one need know about
it. I only speak to you because it is a sacred trust, not mine but to
be given to others. One can live in a well-nigh continuous state of unworded prayer, directed toward God, directed toward people and
enterprises we have on our heart. There is no hurry about it all; it
is a life unspeakable and full of glory, an inner world of splendor
within which we, unworthy may live. Some of you know it and live in
it; others of you may wistfully long for it; it can be yours."
Larry Richards gives an interesting
illustration of our new life with Christ:
"In Tarpon Springs, a
little city about 10 miles from where we live, one of the major
occupations is sponge diving. The sponge diver puts a helmet on his
head, drops into the water, and as he gathers sponges he breathes
through air lines fed by pumps in a boat far above him. Without that
connection to a source of life far above him, the diver would be
unable to survive. Paul is telling us that we too live this life in a
dangerous and deadly environment. But we too are connected to a source
of life far above us. Whenever we feel down, or get discouraged, or
feel endangered, we’re to fix our minds not on what surrounds us, but
on what sustains us. The very life force of Jesus flows into and
through us. Because we are connected to Him, we will not only survive.
We will triumph." (see note
Romans 8:37)
WITH CHRIST
IN GOD: sun to Christo en to theo: (Jn 14:19,
see note
Philippians 4:7;1Jn 3:2,
see Torrey's Topic
Union w/ Christ)
With
is
sun/syn which conveys the picture of intimate union,
bringing out the truth that we are now in (new) covenant with Him and
our oneness and identity with Christ.
A T Robertson adds that your
life
remains concealed, locked “together with” (sun)
Christ, “in” (en) God. No hellish burglar can break that
combination.
Believers now share a common life with the Father
and Son (cf
1Co 6:17)
and are “partakers of the divine nature”
(see note
2 Peter 1:4).
Furthermore our new
life with Christ in God is concealed from the world & unbelievers are
unable to grasp the full import of the believer’s new life (1Co 2:14).
The true manifestation of the sons of God is yet to come in the next
world, so that people cannot see what believers really are like (see
note
Romans 8:19)
Wiersbe
comments that
"While attending a convention in Washington, D.C., I
watched a Senate committee hearing over television. I believe they
were considering a new ambassador to the United Nations. The late
Senator Hubert Humphrey was making a comment as I turned on the
television set: “You must remember that in politics, how you stand
depends on where you sit.” He was referring, of course, to the
political party seating arrangement in the Senate, but I immediately
applied it to my position in Christ. How I stand—and walk—depends on
where I sit; and I am seated with Christ in the heavenlies! When the
nation of Israel came to the border of the Promised Land, they refused
to enter; and, because of their stubborn unbelief, they had to wander
in the wilderness for forty years (Nu
13–14). That whole generation, starting with the
twenty-year-olds, died in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua,
the only two spies who believed God. How were Caleb and Joshua able to
“get the victory” during those forty difficult years in the
wilderness? Their minds and hearts were in Canaan! They knew
they had an inheritance coming, and they lived in the light of that
inheritance. (cf
Nu 14:24 regarding Caleb)" (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
