To Encourage You

Colossians 3:3 “. . . for you died . . .”

It’s so interesting that the statement above was written to people who were fully alive.  It’s from Paul’s letter to the Colossian church. In these three words he’s telling them one of the greatest truths of the Christian faith.  He’s telling them that the “you” they used to be is no longer alive, and that’s a wonderful thing. So, what’s he talking about?  How can a person be both dead and alive at the same time?  

Well, before these people were Christians, they were alive physically, but dead spiritually. They had no interest in spiritual things.  Just like a corpse has no appetite for physical food, the spiritually dead have no interest in spiritual food, like the Bible, the very bread of life.  Before they were saved, they were spiritually deaf, for they couldn’t hear what God was telling them. They were spiritually lame, for they couldn’t walk by the Spirit.   They were spiritually mute, for they didn’t praise God with their mouth and they didn’t sing spiritual songs.  But now that they had put their faith in Christ, who they had been had been put to death. Through faith, who they were then had died with Christ. In other words, the death penalty that was hanging over their head because of their sin had been paid by Christ who died FOR them, so that now his death sentence was payment for theirs. 

But just as they died with Him, they had also risen with Him to a new life, the born-again life, the life that is born of the Spirit of God. So now everything was new.  What was true of them as well as for “you” before salvation is no longer true of the new “you.” So, what is true of this new spiritual being?  What is true of us who now know Him?  

First, we are now spiritually alive. As such, we have a spiritual hunger, spiritual sight, a spiritual walk, and a spiritual talk.  And spiritual life is eternal.  It’s a life that will live forevermore.  What else is new? Well, we have a new home waiting for us in heaven. We have a new Lord, the God of the universe. We have a new family, the sons and daughters of God. We have a new desire, i.e., the desire to glorify God in every aspect of our new life.  We have a new hope, a new joy, a new gratitude for the absolutely complete forgiveness the Lord has showered upon us, and for the grace that He’s poured into our lives.  The new “you” knows the incomprehensible love of the Father, and has free and open access at any time to His holy throne.  We have a new purpose, and that is to share with others around us the good news that all that has happened to us can also happen for them.  

How wonderful this truth that those for whom Christ died have themselves died, but that’s not the end of the story, for there’s a new “you” that’s alive, gloriously resurrected by the power of God.