“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. 2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4. When Christ, who is your life, shall appear, then shall ye appear with Him in glory.”
New Testament church preaching was centered in the death and resurrection of Christ. The risen Christ changed everything historically, but He also changed everything personally for you and me. Because Christ is still alive and is “on the right hand of God,” We can be raised with Him. He raises us to newness of life. If you are raised with Christ, the following changes should have taken place in your life. He changed your past. Verse 3a: “for ye are dead…” How can the past be changed? This was illustrated by Leonard Griffith: “Imagine standing before an angel, attempting to explain the record of your life. When you have confessed what you consider your worst sins, you say, ‘I want to be forgiven.’ The angel looks at the pages of the golden book and says, ‘there is nothing here to forgive. We have no record of such sins.’ You reply, ‘But there must be. Did you get the name right?’ The angel replies, ‘That name isn’t here either. There was once such a person, but he died and closed his account. Your record begins after his death.’” Aren’t we glad that God has an eraser? Aren’t we glad that the risen Christ forgives us? In this life we can carry scars from the past, but the Lord has removed the record that caused the scars. He changed your present . Verse 3b: “And your life is hid with Christ in God.” This means that the risen Christ became an integral part of our lives. When we believed, we became one with the Father and the Son. We should make decisions in our lives now, not based on the “old man” but on the “new man.” The risen Christ has made us new people. We are identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. We are different people with new minds and a different way of looking at life. We have a new relationship with God through our faith in Christ; therefore, we now have a new way of living. We know that we are not our own, but we have been “bought with a price,” the price of the body and blood of Jesus. We now look beyond ourselves and “seek those things which are above…” We now, “set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” He changed your future.Verse 4: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we appear with Him in glory.” Because of our trust in the risen Christ, our view of the future should have changed from pessimistic to optimistic. We know that we will inevitably face rough times in the future, but we know that we will not face them alone, for Christ is alive and will be with us every step of the way. To quote an old cliché: “We don’t know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.” Furthermore, we know that at some time in the future we will die, but we also know that death is not the end. We know that the grave is not our final resting place. We will be with Jesus in glory. The grave will be the depository of our earthly remains, but it will also be the place of our new birth into the presence of Christ. The entrance of the risen Christ into our lives does, indeed, change everything. He changed everything for His first followers and He changes everything for us as well. Rejoice! Take a few minutes and celebrate by praising the risen Christ!!!! Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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