Raised With Christ

Last week Paul buried the false way to change, the rules with an appearance of wisdom that could not touch the heart. This week he hands you the true way, and everything hangs on the first three words. If then you have been raised with Christ. The command always comes after the identity, never before it.

This is the whole engine of the Christian life. Not try harder to become someone new. Live out of the new person you already are. For five days we take off the old self on purpose and put on the new, one piece at a time, being remade into the image of the One who made us.

Your Life Is Hidden With Christ

Watch the order. Paul does not start with do this and stop that. He starts with who you already are. Raised. So seek the things above, where Christ is seated. Notice that Christ is already seated. The work is done. He is not fighting for the victory. He is seated in it, and you are seated in Him.

Then hear the anchor for your worst day. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your life is not out in the open where the enemy can steal it. It is tucked away, safe, behind two walls. Nothing reaches your real life without going through Christ and through God first. And your future is already secured, because when Christ who is your life appears, you will appear with Him in glory.

Greek Words: zēteō (ζητέω), to seek, to pursue, to go after and phroneō (φρονέω), to set the mind, the settled orientation of your thoughts. Paul uses both. Aim the whole self upward, the effort of the will and the attention of the mind together. What you seek and what you dwell on will decide what you become. So aim it up.

Reflect:
1. Where are your thoughts aimed by default, above or on the things of earth?
2. What worry loses its grip when you remember your life is hidden with Christ in God?
3. What would it look like today to seek Christ rather than strive to secure yourself?

Put the Old to Death On Purpose

Now the command, and notice the word therefore. Because you have been raised, put the old to death. The killing comes after the raising, not before it. You are not putting sin to death to earn new life. You are putting it to death because you already have new life, and the old clothes no longer fit.

Paul is specific. Sexual sin. Impurity. Greed, which he calls idolatry, because greed is worship aimed at the wrong throne. He names the old wardrobe piece by piece and says take it off. These are the things you once walked in. They are not who you are now.

Greek Word: nekroō (νεκρόω), to put to death, to mortify, to treat as dead. The word is decisive and deliberate, not a slow fade. You take the old appetite to the cross on purpose. Do not wait for sin to die of old age. It will not. You act, because the risen life is already in you.

Reflect:
1. What old appetite have you been waiting to die on its own instead of taking to the cross?
2. Where has greed or desire quietly become worship aimed at the wrong throne?
3. What is one deliberate step to put a specific sin to death today, not someday?

The New Self Is Being Renewed

Put them all away, Paul says. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy talk, lying. Why can you take it off? Because you have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self. It is already done in Christ. Now make it true in practice.

And look at what the new self is becoming. Renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. There is our word from week two. The image. In Genesis God made you in His image, and sin shattered it. Christ is the image, the unbroken display of God, and now He is remaking you back into it. Made in the image, marred by sin, being remade by the One who is the Image. And in this new humanity there is no Greek and Jew, no slave and free. At Babel God scattered a proud people into nations that could not understand each other. In Christ He gathers one new people out of every nation. Christ is all, and in all.

A Picture Through the Whole Bible: Watch the clothing. All through Scripture God is the One who clothes His people. He clothed Adam and Eve when they were naked and ashamed. The father ran and put the best robe on the prodigal. In Zechariah the high priest stood in filthy garments and God said take them off and dressed him in clean ones. You do not sew your own righteousness. God strips the filthy coat and dresses you in Christ.

Reflect:
1. Which piece of the old wardrobe, in your speech especially, still needs to come off?
2. How does it change your effort to know the new self is already put on, and being renewed?
3. Where are you tempted to sew your own righteousness instead of receiving the robe God gives?

Put On the New Self

You took off the old. Now put on the new. And look at how Paul dresses you. As God's chosen ones, holy and beloved. That is your identity before he lists a single virtue. And those are not random words. Chosen, holy, beloved is exactly what God called Israel in Deuteronomy, a people treasured and set apart and loved. Paul takes the oldest election language in the Bible and lays it on you. You do not put on kindness to become accepted. You put it on because you already are.

Then the wardrobe. Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Meekness. Patience. Bearing with one another. Forgiving each other the way the Lord forgave you. And over all of it, like a belt that holds the whole outfit together, put on love.

Greek Word: enduō (ἐνδύω), to clothe yourself, to put on like a garment. Christian character is not squeezed out of you by willpower. It is put on like clothing over the new self you already are. You get dressed each morning in what is already true of you, chosen and holy and beloved, and you wear compassion out into the day.

Reflect:
1. Do you live as chosen, holy, and beloved, or are you still trying to earn it?
2. Who has a complaint against you that love is calling you to forgive as the Lord forgave you?
3. Which garment, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, or patience, will you put on today?

Let Christ Set the Atmosphere

Paul sets the atmosphere of the new life. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching, singing, filling the room. And let thankfulness run through all of it. This is not a stricter rule book. It is a whole climate, set by Christ inside you.

Then the sentence that covers your entire life. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Not a longer list of rules. One life, lived in one Name. There is no sacred and secular anymore. The dishes and the boardroom and the diaper and the sermon are all done in His name, and all of it turned to thanks.

Greek Word: brabeuō (βραβεύω), to umpire, to make the call, from the word for the referee at the games. Let the peace of Christ be the deciding voice inside you, not a bystander. When you do not know what to do, let His peace make the ruling. It is not a mood. It is the umpire God installed in the heart of every person He raised.

Reflect:
1. Where do you need to let the peace of Christ umpire a decision instead of your anxiety?
2. Is the word of Christ dwelling in you richly, or only visiting on Sundays?
3. What ordinary task today can you deliberately do in the name of the Lord Jesus, with thanks?