If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. (2) Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. (3) For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

The letter to the Colossians was written by the apostle Paul. The verses we study today sum up the main teaching of this epistle – the close personal relationship of all souls to God in Christ, the mediator between God and man. In His atoning death and resurrection the soul in faith passes into life from spiritual death – a new condition. Paul goes to the next stage of spiritual life, the process of sanctification – seeing all things in relation to God. In faith we are to set our sights on things above and the stress here is on the intentional. Life for the Christian is intended to be very different from that of the unbeliever; different in nature, outlook, interest and aim. Christianity is not living in the shadows of the Old Testament nor is it going through endless ritual and tradition, nor is it bound in conscience by religious legalism – not by keeping man made rules. It is by faith.

Secular life in the material, psychological and philosophical world is now opposed to spiritual life in faith. Christ is sufficient. There is no Jesus AND – no good works, rituals, ceremonies. There is nothing man can do to earn his salvation. It is always and everywhere of the Lord. We are to set our minds and hearts on things above and in true faith and regeneration we cannot do otherwise. The indwelling Spirit provides us grace to seek God as He commands. We have received a new life in Christ and are not on probation. Our real life is in Christ; our truest, best interests are in Him. Our source and sustainer of our lives is in His keeping. We are eternally one with Him and nothing can ever separate the Christian from the risen Christ.

We are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. C.S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”