The Path to Holiness
Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God Colossians 3:1-3
There are two worlds. We live physically in the old world. While in one sense Jesus is the God of this world, in another sense He lives in another world, a heavenly world.
One day, Jesus will flood this present creation with the new life which exists right now exclusively in the heavenly realm. One day Jesus will appear again in our present world, transforming the entire cosmos, so that what is at present unseen will be seen and heaven and earth joined in the new creation (Revelation 21:1-3).
When that happens, all those who are “in Christ,” whose present life is now hidden with Christ in God will appear as the glorious, renewed human beings they already are.
Christians don’t belong to this world ‘below.’ We belong to the world ‘above.’ Until the time when this world ‘below’ is transformed, our hearts are with Christ ‘above.’ He cares for this world but because He dwells ‘above,’ our hearts will always be with Him ‘above.’
The Colossian church was honestly looking to be a holy people, but they were choosing a pathway of rules and regulations (Colossians 2:20-23). The path to holiness is found exclusively in Christ. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (3:3). This is the great key to a holy life. Rules and regulations (“Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”) all have to do with this perishing world.
The key to overcoming in the present world, the world ‘below,’ is focusing on Christ who waits in the next world, the world ‘above.’
The key to living victoriously in this world is to set our minds, set our thinking, on heavenly values and not the values of our decaying surroundings.
Does the way you think set you apart from those around you who don’t know Christ?
Does the way you live stand out from the world?
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