Be Full in Christ
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He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
in order that, as it is written: The one who boasts must boast in the Lord.
So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God.
When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Believer, your life is risen with Christ. This is a fact, it is not conjecture, it is not emotionalism, or sensationalism. If you have surrendered your life to Christ, your sin is forgiven, and you are accepted by God in Christ. How is this? Because of the great love the Father has for the Son, and the great love the Son has for the Father. They are indivisible, they are One. One has the mind of the other. Each has the love of the One. They have One Spirit, one mind. One righteousness, one justice. Having sent His Son, the Son willingly going, sinful flesh was reconciled unto God. Flesh that knew no sin, paid the price and redeemed all flesh that knew nothing but sin (Rom. 8:3-5).
One Spirit in the Father and the Son, united in One purpose - One Kingdom, One Flesh, no opposition, no opposing kingdom. Just as the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, dwelt in Christ, that same Spirit of God dwells in you, giving life to your mortal body (Romans 8:11). You Believer, are not of the flesh, but you are in the Spirit, so live in and with the Spirit, set your mind on the things of the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you! (Rom. 8:5-6; 9). As the Apostle Paul says to the Romans,
Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
Believer, are you hidden in Christ? If you have placed your faith, your trust in Christ, you are hidden in Christ, because the Spirit lives in you 1 Cor. 12:13.
For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Have you drank the drink of Christ? Have you drank HIs blood, have you eaten His body? The Spirit of God in you will confirm this, if not, you have not. As the Apostle Paul states, the Spirit will bear with our Spirit that we are children of God, in fact heirs of God being joint heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16). Are you hidden with Christ? Are you married to Christ? If you are not married to Christ, you are still bound to sin. Only upon a righteous death is one discharged from sin (Rom 7:6). The Apostle Paul uses an analogy from marriage. While you and your spouse are living, you are bound to one another because of law and your oaths before God. They are binding, you will have no other. Sin is at your door if you do, and you can be assured death will have you. But if one of the two of you passes on, the one left is free to marry another because they have been discharged from the law concerning marriage and concerning God’s ordinances.
So is being raised with Christ. When I join in faith to Christ, I die to the law through the body of Christ. Sin’s hold is dissolved, death no longer has a valid claim because I am ‘hidden’ in the death and life of Christ. His perfect, sinless, sacrificial life covers mine. Jesus’ life, Jesus’ perfectness, Jesus’ holiness becomes my covering, my blanket.
But now we have been released from the law, since we have died to what held us, so that we may serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old letter of the law.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
Together with Christ Jesus He also raised us up and seated us in the heavens,
Pastor Warren Wiersbe makes this anonymous quote, “Life is what you are alive to”. What are you and I alive to? What are we ‘hidden in’? For the Apostle Paul he was alive to Christ,
For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.
Can you believer say the same thing? Am I alive to Christ? Then I will be dead to myself, to my flesh. You believer, are alive to Christ, you can be dead to yourself, you have the Spirit within you, the Spirit of Almighty God. No burglar, no deceptive philosophy, no progressiveness is able to take away or improve upon your standing being “risen in Christ”. If you believe in Christ, you are risen with Christ, therefore you are united with Christ! He is the source of your life, He is your life through the Spirit of God who indwells you. So then what…? You can seek what is Above, you can focus on what is Above.
Seek What is Above, Focus on What is Above
The Greek word for the word phrase “set your minds” means just that - to think, have a mindset. The activity represented by this word involves the will, affections, and conscience. One has to choose to do so, to be mindful of, and/or devoted to. What are the things of Christ and the things of Heaven of which should consume our thoughts? The things of Christ and Heaven are that which bring life and peace to your life. The things of the flesh are of the earth, that war against God and His glory. That take His place of being number one. Those things that exault themselves against the knowledge and glory of God (Rom 8:5-6; 12:2; 2 Cor 10:3-5; Eph 4:22-24).
Seven Thoughts of Christ and the Things of Heaven
1. God sent His Son into the world to redeem men through His death and resurrection (Rom 1:3-4).
concerning His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who was a descendant of David according to the flesh and who has been declared to be the powerful Son of God by the resurrection from the dead according to the Spirit of holiness.
2. Jesus’ resurrection saves and justifies men (Rom. 4:25).
He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Justification means one is in or set to a right relation with God. When one is made and declared righteous before God. This is only made possible through faith in Christ.
We who are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners”
know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. And we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
Through following the commandments of God, no one is made righteous. One is only declared in right standing with God be faith in Jesus. Many a “good” person will not have eternal life, or find themselves in Heaven, even though they do “good things” or keep the commandments of God. One is only declared justified before God by receiving His Son Jesus and following Him. Abraham was declared righteous by God because He believed God. We are declared righteous only by believing in and trusting in Christ.
Therefore, it was credited to him for righteousness. Now it was credited to him was not written for Abraham alone,
but also for us. It will be credited to us who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.
He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
Being declared righteous is the only way to have peace with God, being in a right relationship with Him. We may think following the Bible and living like the world will put us in Heaven, but that is like living common-law. God only considers that one is truly married when they are bound before God, blessed by God, and follow His commands and will in marriage.
Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. We have been raised up with Christ into a ‘new life’, therefore walk in new life (Rom 6:4)
Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life.
4. Sins and trials no longer have power over us and we can bear fruit (Rom. 7:4)
Therefore, my brothers, you also were put to death in relation to the law through the crucified body of the Messiah, so that you may belong to another—to Him who was raised from the dead—that we may bear fruit for God.
What is the fruit of God? Redeeming men by sharing the love of God and His Kingdom accessed by and only through belief and trust in Jesus, His Son. A redeemed man will show evidence of his redemption by the Spirit of God living in him and through him.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.
so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience, with joy
Through one’s union with Christ, one bears the fruit of Christ. We spoke about this last week: a branch of Christ is connected to the vine of Christ and will bear the fruit of Christ (John 15:1-5).
5. We have a living hope of Christ and God’s Kingdom awaiting for us (1 Peter 1:3-4).
Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.
Physical death is not the end of the story for the believer and non-believer. The believer will be welcomed by Christ into eternal life in the Kingdom of God. The non-believer will be judged for his/her sin, and eternal torment will await in Hell, for the non-believers rejection of Christ.
The one who rejects Me and doesn’t accept My sayings has this as his judge: The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day.
The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather from His kingdom everything that causes sin and those guilty of lawlessness.
They will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s kingdom. Anyone who has ears should listen!
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, separate the evil people from the righteous, and throw them into the blazing furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
Our union with Christ, or lack of union with Christ, is a condition that needs to be seriously considered. If we are not ‘hidden in Christ’ we are not hidden from hell. If we are ‘hidden in Christ’ we are hidden in Heaven, God’s Kingdom.
He will repay each one according to his works:
eternal life to those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality;
but wrath and indignation to those who are self-seeking and disobey the truth but are obeying unrighteousness;
affliction and distress for every human being who does evil, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek;
but glory, honor, and peace for everyone who does what is good, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
6. Christ’s Resurrection Guarantees our Resurrection (Rom 6:5).
For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection.
The believer in Christ is counted as dead in Christ when we believe in Him. Being dead, a dead man cannot sin. A dead man no longer lives for this earth, but for God’s Kingdom to come. Being dead in Christ, we are dead to sin and dead to it’s effects. But being resurrected with Christ, we are alive in Christ, to the same benefits of Christ. We live and move and have our being in Christ! (Acts 17:28).
For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’
We know that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and present us with you.
Since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, in the same way God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus. For we say this to you by a revelation from the Lord: We who are still alive at the Lord’s coming will certainly have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the archangel’s voice, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are still alive will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord.
Therefore encourage one another with these words.
Are you hidden in Christ?
7. God will Judge the world by Christ (Acts 17:31; Jn 5:27-29)
because He has set a day when He is going to judge the world in righteousness by the Man He has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead.”
And He has granted Him the right to pass judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice
and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment.
Be full in Christ, because you are united with Christ if you have believed upon and trusted Christ. You may not feel that this is true, but in fact it is true. Feelings are deceptive and can be manipulated. Satan is a deceiver and manipulator waiting and gnawing upon your feelings in order to deceive you and make you believe you are less than you truly are and can be in Christ Jesus. Be full in Christ, because you are hidden in Christ! One will never have peace with God, in this world, or in the age to come without a right relationship with Christ! It is impossible to come to God, be in right relationship with Him, without coming through Christ. The only way that you know this to be true, that you have been hidden with Christ, become truly united with Him, is by the evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life and in your actions. God does not wish for any person, any human being to be seperated from Him, but will not override one’s own decision to reject Christ. Be hidden in Christ! Be united with Him and be united with God!
We will always live the life we are alive to! What am I, who am I alive to?
What does it look like to live a life alive unto God? Hidden in Christ? Look to the story of Elijah (1 Kings 19:9-18). Elijah was freed from death, because he was hidden in God. Will you be freed from sin and death because you are hidden in Christ? Be hidden in Christ, be united in Him, have peace with God. Be full in Christ. Amen.