“You have been raised to life with Christ. Now set your heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side.”
Colossians 3:1, CEV
Paul’s explanation is given that is meant to clarify things for us. Perhaps it is too simple, too straight-forward. We seem to prefer the complex; ideally a 12 point plan, on ‘PowerPoint’, that makes us feel holy and strong, and even ‘spiritual.’ We’d feel much better if it was just a question of intelligence, rational mind and ‘practical thinking.’ Paul shares with this young Church of the Colossians. By the time he gets to chapter 3, he is ready to communicate an essential truth, which is meant to challenge our weak and faulty understanding.
“You have been raised to life with Christ.” The truth is this; the real world starts for you when you understand your resurrection as already taken place. You were once dead, and now you are alive! The life that you live is a resurgent life. You have awakened from death. Essentially, you entered ‘piggyback’ on Jesus. He has carried you into the deepest place in heaven.
It all can make sense if, “set your heart on what is in heaven.” This is the first mention of us taking action. Up to now, Jesus has did everything. But at this precise moment, we must act– to set our heart on the deep priority of eternity. To commence becoming who you really are. You’re now a spiritual man, or woman, who just so happens (at this point) to have a physical body.
It is a place of triumph and power, “where Christ rules at God’s right side.” This is no inconsequential place. This is the ‘very center of the center.’ The presence of God is all-powerful, and all-knowing. And it is accurate to say that we have been brought into that same atmosphere, where we breathe in the ‘shekinah’— that is God’s glory.
Embedded in this single verse in Col. 3:1 is a vigorously rich sense of how and what is the spiritual life. It should never be formulaic or mechanical. (We will not find our intellect charging the way into God’s presence.) Simply, we must believe in our hearts what has happened already. We enter by faith. It is so easy, but can be quite challenging. You are now a ‘citizen’ of heaven.
“But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.”
Philippians 3:20
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