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Renewing Your Mind
Hidden in Christ
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Even after being spiritually united to Jesus, Christians face many struggles in this life. Today, Sinclair Ferguson reminds us that all the riches of the gospel are already ours in Christ. This reality shapes how we live in a fallen world. Request...
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Growing in God's Word is a new curriculum from Ligonier Ministries to help you guide children through an overview of the Bible in 52 lessons. Learn more and pre order yours today at growing in God's word.org we need.
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To set our minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. We don't naturally think that way because we bring into the Christian life the old mindset often, don't we? The old instinct. And we need the Word of God to grind away at our thinking so that we understand who we really are.
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That is why we call this daily teaching outreach, renewing your mind that day by day, under God's blessing, our minds would be renewed, that our thinking would conform more and more to to the truths contained in the Word of God. So welcome once again to Renewing youg Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and I'm so glad that you're joining us. If you're a Christian, as you'll hear today, your life is hidden with Christ in God. So this week's theme of union with Christ is so rich and is important to unpack if we're to understand who we really are. So here's Dr. Ferguson with a message titled Hidden in Christ.
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Now we are turning again to our study together in the theme of union with Christ. And in some ways we are coming to the biggest passage of all. We're going to take the panoramic view and turn to Colossians chapter three and the first 17 verses. And it will take us, I think, a couple of sessions to get through the wonderfully rich material that Paul gives to us here in this passage. It's helpful, I think, when we study Colossians, to remember the background. Reading any New Testament letter, as we sometimes say, is like listening to one end of a telephone conversation. In a way, you've got to make up the other end to understand what's being said. And the same is true of the background to Paul's letters. We can't always be clear exactly what was going on. We pick up hints by the way he responds often to false teaching. And there was false teaching either already in Colossae or coming to Colossae. And the Apostle Paul is wanting to give his Christian friends there counsel. It was probably especially important for him to do that because he'd never been, it seems, in Colossae. The Colossian church had been planted when he was in Ephesus. Perhaps Epaphras, who is mentioned in this letter, was one of the pastors of the church. Perhaps he'd been converted. He had certainly visited Paul, had preached the gospel. And then there seems to have been false teaching making its way at least into the city and perhaps into the church. And I think probably part of that false teaching began like this. Well, the gospel that you heard from Epaphras, that came, of course, from the Apostle Paul, that was okay. But don't you find some disappointment in your Christian life? These were young Christians. Have you discovered that the Christian life isn't all that you imagined it might be? Finding yourself struggling? Well, we have come to teach you how to deal with that. And so these false teachers either already were or soon would be saying, now, yes, it's great to trust in Jesus Christ, but there are also these principles and laws that you need to follow, these spiritual laws. And they emphasize that they were spiritual. And it looks from what Paul says that they were saying, if you really want to have fullness of life, then if you glance down at the end of chapter two, you'll notice that they were saying, well, there are certain things you need to do in terms of your diet. There's a way you need to live in terms of getting in touch with nature. You know, there are certain kinds of rhythms that will help you in the Christian life. And they were saying, this is the way to fullness. And we're used to this kind of thing, aren't we? People who appear in the media, especially perhaps on television, because it seems for some reason or other, that's the more expensive medium. But it therefore is the medium that brings in the most money. Who will say, now what you got in your church was okay, but it's this ministry that will give you the super plus. This will bring you to the fullness. And Paul is saying to these Colossian Christians, do not be deceived by this false teaching, because you have already come to fullness of life in Jesus Christ. There is nothing to be added to him. So what you need is not to add to Jesus Christ to fill up what is lacking in Jesus Christ. What you need to know is the fullness that's already there for you in Jesus Christ. This is the real problem. The real problem is you've received Christ, but you haven't yet fully grasped what it means to receive Christ and all the riches of God's grace that are found in Jesus Christ. And so he's urging them in chapter two verse when he says, you've received all fullness in Christ in verses 9 and 10, not to be deceived, but to be rooted and built up. In him and to walk in Him. And if you read your way through Colossians, you'll notice how he keeps on returning to what has become our theme in these studies. It's knowing who you are in Jesus Christ and knowing who Jesus Christ is for you. That's your fullness. So live out of that fullness and you will find that those false teachers will not be able to get their murky paws upon you and mar your Christian life. And here, as I said, I think we have perhaps the most panoramic view in the New Testament of what it means for us to be united to Jesus Christ. And I want us to think especially first of all about what he says in verses one through four of chapter three, because we're back to the same principle. You've come to fullness of life in Jesus Christ, first of all, because that has given you a new identity. Now, we've explored this under the microscope. You're united to Christ in His death and resurrection. But you notice now Paul stretches this. Just look at his words. He says, you've been raised with Christ, so seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. So now he's saying, you're so united to Christ that you were united to him in his death, united to him in his burial, united to him in his resurrection, united to him in. In his ascension. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. You are united to him in his heavenly session and reign. And when he appears, he will not reappear without you when he appears. Isn't this an amazing statement? Then you also will appear with him in glory. The early fathers used to have a lovely way of putting this that the Reformers also echoed. Our Lord Jesus Christ considers Himself incomplete without us. Isn't that something we're not worthy of, that in fact we feel so unworthy of, that there's something in us that refuses to believe it? How could this possibly be true? But because he has become the second man and the last Adam, because He's united us to Himself, he now considers Himself to be incomplete without us. So that if I can put it this way, he has already said to His Father, I'm not going back unless they're coming with me to appear with me in glory. And I know this is something that we don't think this way naturally. May I repeat that? From what we've seen before, I understand none of us thinks of ourselves naturally this way. But what Paul is saying, you're no longer supposed to think of yourself naturally now that you're a believer. You've got to think about yourself biblically to believe what the Gospel provides for you. A good number of years ago now, I read a very moving book by the philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff. Many of you will know his name. It's called Lament for a Son. And it's a narrative, rather like C.S. lewis book, written after his wife died. It's the narrative story of how his son died in a climbing accident, I think, when he was in his early 20s. And there's a sentence in that book that struck me very forcefully. Some of you will appreciate this, I think, from your own experience. Professor Walter Starf writes, now, if anyone wants to know who Nicholas Wolterstorff is, he needs to know, I am a man who lost his son. I am a man who lost his son. Perhaps you have been in that situation or lost a brother or one of those experiences that marks you for the rest of your life and means that you live in a kind of world of your own that most people know nothing about. But if they really want to get into the inner circle of your life, they need to know this about you. As Walter Sorf says, I am a man who lost his son. Now transfer that way of thinking to what Paul is saying here. Paul is saying here, if anyone wants to know who I am, they need to know I am somebody who died with Christ, was buried with Christ, was raised with Christ, ascended with Christ. My true life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ appears, he will not appear without me. It's amazing. He will not appear without I am not going. It's not that he's saying this the way our children or our grandchildren says, I'm not going to. It's not stubborn resistance to his father. It's part of his covenant with his father. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the Father said to him. And now he's claiming his people from among the nations. And his Father is delighted that he so is united to his people. He's not coming back without them. But for the moment, says Paul, our lives are hidden with Christ in God. You remember John's version of the same. At the beginning of 1 John 3, he says, we are already the children of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be. But when he appears, we shall be like, like him. And that's true, isn't it? Christians do shine in the world. People see the grace of Christ in your life. They don't really know who you are unless they're Christians, because your true life is hidden with Christ, in God. Some of you will be familiar with the way in which Christians have, I think, quite often describe this as what they call positional truth. I don't know if that's an expression you're familiar with. Often I hear people say, this is positional truth. I think I want to say, that's okay, but it's not good enough. This is not just positional truth, as though there were some other kind of truth. This is the truth about you. This is not just a position that you hold. This is the deepest reality of your life. If you're a Christian. This isn't make believe, this isn't a fiction. This, says Paul, is the reality of our Christian lives. And he says if this is true, then we need to set our minds on it. And that means setting our minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. You see, he said, we have been raised into this new order, this new humanity in Jesus Christ. And so we've got to learn to think that way. We don't naturally think that way because we bring into the Christian life the old mindset often, don't we? The old instinct, and we need the word of God to grind away at our thinking so that we understand who we really are. So the new identity that we're given in Christ leads of course, to a new mentality. We seek the things that are above. We fix our gaze upon our Lord Jesus Christ, in whom our lives are hidden, and we fill our hearts with devotion to Him. In the church I served a number of years ago, I always seemed to be asked to be involved in any appointment to the staff that would have to do with any kind of pastoral care, from children through to elderly. And so the candidates were always hauled into my office, poor things, eventually to be grilled. And I then discovered that there was a question I always asked, especially the youth staff, always passed on to the candidates. He's bound to ask you this question. And it was this. What do you think about when you've got nothing else to think about? What do you think about when you've got nothing else to think about? Now, why ask that question? Because it would be an index of the affections, wouldn't it, when you have nothing else that's focusing your mind when Your mind is free. Where does it drift? Where does it drift? And Paul is saying, you need to learn more and more for your mind to drift to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if somebody said to me, you know, I think about my mom and dad, that certainly to me would have been better than I think about the New York Yankees. But thinking about the New York Yankees might be better than thinking about the Atlanta Braves for all I knew. How would I know anything about that? But it's when we've nothing else to think about that often the drift of our affections comes out. And do you notice that Paul uses these two kinds of things? If you've been raised with Christ, set your mind on things that are above, because that's where your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And as we've already seen, it's as we set our mind on these things that our affections flow. Follow so that when we begin to flow bibbling like John Bunyan, we sometimes find our affections flowing to the Lord Jesus. When our minds are kind of empty, you know, we're not sitting there thinking, I must remember Colossians 3, or Romans 6, or Galatians 2, or Romans 5, 12, 21, or the whole of the Epistle to the Ephesians. But it's so become part of our instinct that our minds drift to the sheer privilege of being a child of God and being united to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we shouldn't leave this point without remembering that. Paul has taught us who Jesus Christ is. In Colossians 1, 15, 20. Paul does not focus so much on union as on union to Jesus Christ. And our enjoyment of that union is going to be in direct proportion to our knowledge of the Lord Jesus. So that in chapter one, verses 15 to 20, he's told us he's the image of the invisible God. He's the creator of. Of things visible and invisible. He sustains all things. He's the head of the body, the church. He is the one in whom the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. He is the one who has reconciled to himself the family on heaven and the family on earth by making peace by the blood of his cross. This is what's sometimes called a cosmic vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. So to be united to Him. Well, this is privilege beyond measure. And when I have nothing else to think about and my mind drifts to the fact that my true life is hidden with him in heaven, then my life begins to be suffused with thanksgiving and with praise because I've been given A new identity, because I've begun to develop a new mentality. And also becauseand this is so wonderful, as we've already hinted, I've been given a new sense of destiny. Yes, my identity is now hidden from this world, and actually, to a certain extent, it's hidden from me. And your identity is hidden from me. But my destiny is that when he appears, I will appear with him. Not only that, but when I appear with him, I will be like him. What does that mean? Do you know? I think sometimes we can grasp what the New Testament is teaching us if we think about it this way. On that day, what God has done in you by his spirit transforming you into the likeness of the Lord Jesus, what He has done inside will appear outside. At the moment you are an inside, outside person. But then you will become an outside, inside, outside person. And sometimes I think of meeting people that I've known who have been believers and have lived their own, often modest, simple Christian lives. I think of meeting them in the new heavens and the new earth, and I suspect the first thing I will say to them is this, oh, so that's who you really were. That is who you really were. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ working in our hearts. You know, the world is all jumbled up. The people who have prominence in the church are probably not the most important people in the church. You know, you love to think about this future day when God will take all the jigsaw puzzle pieces of all of our experience and of all of our churches and throw them on onto an almost infinitely large table, and they will begin almost Harry Potter like, to sort themselves out. And actually we will see what he was really doing and through whom he was really doing it. Some of you have maybe heard me say before that I was converted, listening in part to the testimony of a young businessman who had been moved to an office in my home city. And as young businessmen do, he was getting to know all the departments. And as he did that, he often walked past what they used to call a typing pool, and he noticed there was a typewriter in that room. Going with a consistency, he recognized the particular typewriter, although he couldn't see the typist. And this was like a fishhook in his brain. And he said to a colleague, in some irritation, why is that typewriter always going with the same consistency? The colleague, I don't think he was a Christian, just said casually, well, that's so and so. She's a Christian. And he began to think, what on earth can be the connection between how she works and the fact that she's a Christian and it led to his conversion. I'd love to end the story by saying they met, fell in love and got married, but I don't think that happened. But I've often thought this, that one day, by God's grace, I may meet that typist and there will be something about her that will put on display how important her faithful consistency in union with Jesus Christ has been in my life. And then when Christ, who is our life, appears, she will appear with him in glory. The wonderful things that God does in hidden people who are united to Jesus Christ. And that's who most of us are. Hidden people. But one day it will all become clear because we're united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hmm.
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And we long for that day, don't we? That was Sinclair Ferguson on this Thursday edition of Renewing youg Mind. If you'd like to own today's message titled Hidden in Christ, we'll unlock streaming access to the audio and video of it in the free Ligonier app when you give a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. But in addition to today's message, we'll unlock the entire 12 message series and its study guide so that you can use this in your family or small group. Plus, we'll send you a hardcover copy of Dr. Ferguson's brand new book Union with the Blessings of Being in Him. So please help fuel this listener supported outreach by giving a donation@renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast Show Notes and this Union with Christ Resource bundle will be yours for our global listening audience. The series study guide and the brand new ebook are all available for you when you donate@renewingyourmind.org global. But be quick as as these offers end tomorrow. I can still remember when our union with Christ was a totally new truth for me. But even those Christians who have studied this doctrine before can sometimes neglect to reflect on our connection to Christ in His death and resurrection. So that's how Dr. Ferguson will wrap up this series tomorrow here on Renewing youg Mind.
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Sam.