Scripture: "Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God .... Christ is our life."—COL. iii. 3, 4.
Let us now sum up what has been said about the new life we are to live in Christ. Let us see if we have grasped the lesson this book would teach us, and whether we really intend to live this life.
St. Paul writes to the Colossians: "Ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Only God's Spirit can enable the believer to grasp and appropriate the truth that he was actually crucified and died with Christ. The new life he receives in Christ through the Spirit is life out of death. In Christ as the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the power of that life is shown as a crucified life in each one who has received it. The Holy Spirit gives me the assurance that I died with Christ, and the power of His death works in me.
And of Christ's life: "Your life is hid with Christ in God." This is what Christ said in the last night: "Ye shall know that I am in the Father and ye in Me"—with Him in the Father. My life is safely hid with Christ in God, and from there I each day by faith receive it anew through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Is this not the reason why so many of God's children make so little progress? They do not know that the life of Christ who died on the cross and now lives in heaven is truly THEIR life hid in God, and must daily be received afresh from God in the quiet hour. What joy to know my spiritual life is not in my keeping, but is hid in God. Christ and the Holy Spirit will grant to each humble believing child of God to receive this new life.
What joy to know that the new life of God's children around me is also hid with Christ in God! What a bond of union this will be. How sincerely we should love each other and pray for each other.
"Your life is hid with Christ in God . . . Christ is our life."
O Spirit of God, let me rely upon Thee to make this true in my life!
