Our Identity In Christ
July 10, 2024
Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
Colossians 3:1-4, “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.”
Paul is pointing out to the Colossians that they are to first look at who they are, their identity in the modern vernacular. What is our identity? Who are we as Christians, as believers? The first one is that you, we, have been raised with Christ. We have died to the flesh, to ourselves, to sin (Romans 6) and we have been raised to a new life just like the Father resurrected Christ. Then in that identity we are supposed to seek those things that are part of our new life, a new way of thinking, a new life which is, if you look at verse 3, that word hidden, our life is hidden (or crypto like we get crypto currency or cryptography), secured and hidden in the person of Christ is our new life, our new identity which will be revealed. You see in verse 4, that word appears or appear, “and you also will appear” or be uncovered, made apparent or revealed, which is right now hidden in Christ. That new life will be made evident to us in eternity when we are with him in glory.
I found this helpful in all the ways we pray in to fight sin, to pursue holiness and sanctification. We know Christ wants us to pursue it radically. We know that from his almost grotesque example he gives to us in Matthew 5 to pluck out a right eye, cut off a right hand, better than the whole body spend eternity in hell. We know that asceticism, tradition, they only go so far because they don’t touch the heart. Our hearts don’t change when there is the outward social pressures or rules, regulations, legalism. In 1 Peter we are reminded that we have a God who is holy. The phrase is repeated again and again in Leviticus, “Be holy for I am holy.”
So this really became another encouragement in our identity, in our fight for sin. Look to our identity, look to heaven, we have a new life in Christ and we should think of ourselves as not only dead to the old man but that we are living a new life, even though we are still here on earth and we don’t yet clearly see what we will be in eternity. It is truly a secret, or crypto or hidden in Christ himself who is in heaven. As sure as our faith is, as sure as Christ is resurrected, as sure as he is coming back; that new life, the way we should be living now will appear when he returns here in glory.
It is just another encouragement, another tool, another approach to continue to encourage us to fight sin. We should radically cut it off as Christ commanded us otherwise it will overcome all of us. We should be holy because our God is holy and that is who our Father is and our identity is we are now dead to that former life. We should also think of ourselves as our new life with a new mind, new thinking on things above and to put off as you see later in this chapter, put off that old man as we are putting on our new man, we are putting on Christ. That is my encouragement to you, it was encouraging to me. The more I meditated on it the more I realized another benefit as we go through God’s word to fight sin. You see from Old Testament and New Testament the Lord has given us plenty of reasons to encourage ourselves and use as weapons against the devil, our sin, the flesh and the world.
Pastor Bernard Ibrahim
Colossians 3:1-4, “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.”
Paul is pointing out to the Colossians that they are to first look at who they are, their identity in the modern vernacular. What is our identity? Who are we as Christians, as believers? The first one is that you, we, have been raised with Christ. We have died to the flesh, to ourselves, to sin (Romans 6) and we have been raised to a new life just like the Father resurrected Christ. Then in that identity we are supposed to seek those things that are part of our new life, a new way of thinking, a new life which is, if you look at verse 3, that word hidden, our life is hidden (or crypto like we get crypto currency or cryptography), secured and hidden in the person of Christ is our new life, our new identity which will be revealed. You see in verse 4, that word appears or appear, “and you also will appear” or be uncovered, made apparent or revealed, which is right now hidden in Christ. That new life will be made evident to us in eternity when we are with him in glory.
I found this helpful in all the ways we pray in to fight sin, to pursue holiness and sanctification. We know Christ wants us to pursue it radically. We know that from his almost grotesque example he gives to us in Matthew 5 to pluck out a right eye, cut off a right hand, better than the whole body spend eternity in hell. We know that asceticism, tradition, they only go so far because they don’t touch the heart. Our hearts don’t change when there is the outward social pressures or rules, regulations, legalism. In 1 Peter we are reminded that we have a God who is holy. The phrase is repeated again and again in Leviticus, “Be holy for I am holy.”
So this really became another encouragement in our identity, in our fight for sin. Look to our identity, look to heaven, we have a new life in Christ and we should think of ourselves as not only dead to the old man but that we are living a new life, even though we are still here on earth and we don’t yet clearly see what we will be in eternity. It is truly a secret, or crypto or hidden in Christ himself who is in heaven. As sure as our faith is, as sure as Christ is resurrected, as sure as he is coming back; that new life, the way we should be living now will appear when he returns here in glory.
It is just another encouragement, another tool, another approach to continue to encourage us to fight sin. We should radically cut it off as Christ commanded us otherwise it will overcome all of us. We should be holy because our God is holy and that is who our Father is and our identity is we are now dead to that former life. We should also think of ourselves as our new life with a new mind, new thinking on things above and to put off as you see later in this chapter, put off that old man as we are putting on our new man, we are putting on Christ. That is my encouragement to you, it was encouraging to me. The more I meditated on it the more I realized another benefit as we go through God’s word to fight sin. You see from Old Testament and New Testament the Lord has given us plenty of reasons to encourage ourselves and use as weapons against the devil, our sin, the flesh and the world.
Posted in Pastor Devotional