Christ, who is Your Life

Colossians 3:4 ~ "When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory."

Christ is more than the first priority of your life, as if He is at the top of a long list of other priorities, some of which might actually find their way to the top of the pile. For Jesus is more than just "in" your life, He "is" your life.

If you are a believer, a born-again Christian who has received from the Lord the cleansing grace of His atoning sacrifice on the cross, and has believed in His resurrection and the promise of your resurrection as well, then you have moved from being dead to being alive. Romans 10:9 testifies, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." But for most, Jesus is merely an attachment upon their current condition--not the fullness of life--just another appendage. And if that is Christ to you, just another priority in a list of other priorities, it might be that you have not been truly made alive.

Paul addressed His new life in this way: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). Consider a modern rendition of a testimony of salvation: "I have asked Jesus into my heart." I understand the sentiment of the statement, and am sympathetic to the desire of those who use such terms to describe their salvation.

But how about we change that to something more akin to what our text says--that Christ IS our life. For when we ask Jesus into our hearts, it remains OUR hearts. But the Christian knows that their heart is dead before Christ saves and alive after He saves. So, instead of asking Jesus into my heart, I have surrendered my heart to Him--it is all His now, not mine at all. And, I am His now and not my own. There is more Biblical truth to it, for in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 it states, "You are not your own, for you were bought with a price."

Just before our text, verse three states, "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." The Apostle Paul gives us a great illustration in 1 Timothy 5:6 with this statement: "...but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives." There are those who are "dead even while they live." Their hearts are self-indulgent, they desire only that which is satisfying to themselves, and they possess no real life for they do not have Christ in them. But when we die to self, having surrendered our lives to Christ, we are given real life and, as Paul states, though dead--we live, for our lives are alive in Christ (see Romans 6:11).

Beloved, it is a simple question but one that must be answered: is Christ your life? More than an attachment, more than a priority--Jesus is the very essence now of all that you are. Many people have their lives wrapped up in other things--family, career, hobbies, etc. And often those things are good things. But none of those things can deliver your soul from a state of death unto a condition of life. Only Jesus can save.

But, my friends, what a wonder it is when we are alive in Christ! Then we find that in our hobbies, families, careers and all other aspects of life we can live as Jesus would have us live and bring Him glory through all of those attachments. It all comes down to who is your life.

In His Grace,
Pastor Michael

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