July 5
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory,” Colossians 3:1-4.
By faith, we are enjoying the blessings of Christ’s suffering and death. On Calvary’s cross, Jesus shed His holy, precious blood to wash away all our sins. Our heavenly Father accepted the sacrifice of His Son and declared us and all people justified and forgiven. We are invited to believe and trust in Jesus as God’s Son and our only Savior, and by faith we make that forgiveness our very own.
Now, in the opening verses of chapter three of his Epistle, the apostle Paul calls upon all Christians to set their sights high. He writes that we have been “raised with Christ.” We are enjoying not only the blessings that come to us through Jesus’ death on the cross, but also the blessings that have been gained for us through His resurrection.
As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Corinthians 15:54-57. Jesus rose triumphantly from the grave. He conquered death! He’s alive, and He promises us that we too will be raised from the dead, and we will be received by Him into the halls of heaven to live with Him eternally in the glory of God.
Raise your sights! Look heavenward! “Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” He is in the position of power, ruling over all things in heaven and on earth. “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” We are pilgrims on this earth. We are just passing through. As Paul wrote to the young preacher Timothy, so he would also tell us: “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out,” 1 Timothy 6:7.
The apostle adds, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” As Christians, we are dead to the voice of our sinful flesh, to the voice of the sinful world, and to the temptations of the devil. We have a special relationship with Christ by faith in Him as God’s Son and our Savior. We are going through life waiting for Jesus to reappear and to take us to our heavenly home. We are given this assurance in the apostle’s words: “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” Remember the words of the poet:
“I’m but a stranger here,
Heav’n is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heav’n is my home.
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on ev’ry hand;
Heav’n is my fatherland,
Heav’n is my home.
What though the tempest rage,
Heav’n is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heav’n is my home.
And time’s wintry blast,
Soon shall be over-past;
I shall reach home at last,
Heav’n is my home.
There at my Savior’s side,
Heav’n is my home;
I shall be glorified,
Heav’n is my home.
There are the good and blest,
Those I love most and best;
And there I, too, shall rest,
Heav’n is my home.” Amen.