Colossians 3:1-11 (NLT2)
“Since you have been raised to new life with Jesus Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Jesus Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God. And when Jesus Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all His glory. So, put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don’t be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, nasty behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Jesus Christ is all that matters, and He lives in all of us.”
Living resurrection life brings a new focus to our minds
Since we have been raised with Jesus Christ, here’s the first character trait of a resurrected life: “Keep seeking the things above, where Jesus Christ is, seated at the right hand of God the Father.” Living the resurrection life brings a new focus to our minds; instead of the world around us and our self-centeredness, we now keep seeking the things above. In “living resurrection life,” believers are called to an upward trajectory - the path of transformation. In Matthew 6:33 Jesus Christ said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” That is, make the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness the main focus of our lives. The word “seek” in Matthew chapter 6 has a powerful bent. It conveys the idea that we must pursue God’s kingdom with deep intentionality - we must be deliberate; we must be motivated to follow after Jesus Christ; our attitudes, and ambitions; our whole outlook on life must be molded by our relationship with Jesus Christ; our allegiances to Him must take precedence over all other allegiances. This means that we love Him more than our husbands, our wives, our children, our jobs, our careers, and our possessions; in fact, we must love Jesus Christ more than life itself.
In our study text of Colossians chapter 3, we are told that resurrected living intentionally seeks out the things above, where Jesus Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. To be "in Jesus Christ" is to become something we were not before; our identity changes from being the fallen version of ourselves, to being associated with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That's who we are to be in the now!!! Living resurrection life brings us “a new framework of thought.” We are to think differently than before. We set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. We are to have – develop the mind of Jesus Christ. We don’t use the current worldview as our reference for problem-solving.
In Philippians chapter 2 verse 5, Paul tells us that “we are to be shaped in our way of thinking, our emotional life, our pattern of attitudes and responses, our preferences in people and entertainment and clothes and jobs and leisure; our hearts and minds are to be shaped by the realities of God and Jesus Christ, where our true life is hidden with Jesus Christ in God, our death behind us, and the spectacular appearance of Jesus Christ is before us, looking forward to the time of our appearing with Him in glory.
In living resurrection life, we are shaped and governed by the things above, where Jesus Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. “To set our minds on the things above” is a call for regular interaction and meditation on the Word of God. This is not a passive pursuit. We are called to seek it out, to set our minds on God’s Word. If we don’t set our mind, we will never have it (the mind of Jesus Christ). “Let the word of Jesus richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” {Colossians 3:16}.
The believer's life is a life that is risen with Jesus Christ. God loves His Son, Jesus Christ - loves Him with an eternal and perfect love. Therefore, when we believe, when we really surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, God forgives our sins and accepts us in Jesus Christ. God identifies us with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. God begins to consider us as having died and risen with Jesus Christ. We were not bodily present when Jesus Christ died and arose, however, God considers all believers to have been there. God does this for us because He loves His Son, Jesus Christ, so much. He loves Him so much that when we believe in Jesus Christ, God does exactly what we believe. He does this because our belief focuses upon and honors Jesus Christ.
