Live As Those Made Alive With Christ
Welcome to 2023. I always admire the buzz that accompanies the beginning of a new year. There always seems to be a lot of optimism, goal-setting and hope that’s renewed every new year. Many see a new year as a chance at a clean slate towards their goals, commitment, walk and fellowship with God. As children of God, we know that God’s love and mercies are new daily (Lamentations 3:22-23). It also means that we have a chance to walk in righteousness every day we wake. God’s faithfulness towards us is unwavering; we don’t need to wait for a new year to experience God’s mercy and faithfulness towards us. It is a new year, maybe a new you but the same God.
One of the reasons God created times and seasons is so that we can rest, be refreshed and recharge. It is God’s way of making us flourish and blossom. Left to some of us, we would work round the clock, burn out and live our lives pleasing the flesh even to our hurt and destruction. Last year’s end-of-the-year holidays were an opportunity to rest and be refreshed. It is the right time to make decisions that inspire spiritual and physical growth for the year. One decision we can make to flourish and blossom this year is to live as those made alive with Christ. Colossians chapter 3 gives a template of what it means to be made alive with Christ and to live like one who has been made alive.
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 minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. – Colossians 3:1-4, NLT
After Jesus died and was resurrected, he left the tomb. When Jesus left the grave, his focus was on heaven. He knew he would ascend there; everything he did was towards heaven. This is an example for us; if we have been made alive with Jesus, our pursuits cannot only be earthly things. We live as those made alive with Christ by setting our minds on things above. It means our desires, wants, and aspiration is to love heavenly things. It means that when earthly pursuits don’t go your way, you don’t react like these things are the bane of your existence. And even when they do, you don’t let them define you. They don’t become your idol or have you.
The foundation for practical Christian living is built on the understanding that this earth is not our be-all and end-all. This is an easy concept to grasp in theory, but we may find ourselves thinking and living as though nothing else matters beyond this earth. We can fall into the trap of defining our lives by earthly things when faced with life’s challenges and when the journey of our lives doesn’t go as planned. For instance, your reaction and thoughts when you lose something earthly, i.e. job, car, house, etc., can tell the posture of your heart. Living as those made alive with Christ is not determined by what we do or do not have materially. Instead, it is determined by what we have eternally, which is eternal life. It is determined by living Christ’s life, which is our life. Nothing on this earth is worthy of making us reject the eternal life Christ gave us.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. – Colossians 3:5-11, NLT
Your earthly nature is always interested in only pursuing earthly things. This is why Paul wrote that we should put whatever belongs to our earthly nature to death. To live a life that flourishes and blossoms, your earthly nature has to be “put to death”. Putting to death here means separation, cutting away or pruning. It means we lose appetite for those things; they become dead to us.
Being made alive with Christ is identifying with Christ. If Christ can’t live in the sins that Paul outlines, neither should we if we truly identify with him. Some earthly things are amoral, but they become harmful when they are the subject of our focus. Some desires of our earthly nature could be masked under altruistic pursuits. Still, the result, impact, or gain of our pursuits counts for nothing if it feeds the earthly desires we are to put to death.
For instance, you might say, “I need more money so I can give to the needy”. While that’s a noble pursuit, your desire for more money might be your lust for money and not necessarily the desire to be generous. Let’s say you acquired more money as you wished and gave it to the needy. If you did not deal with your lust for money or “put to death” that nature lurking in you, the impact of your gesture counts for nothing but only destroys you.
The foundation for practical Christian living is built on the understanding that this earth is not our be-all and end-all.
The only way to show we have adopted a nature that gazes at things above is to put to death the nature and desires of our flesh. This decision will reflect what we say when faced with challenges this year, what we think when met with opposition, how we speak when joyful, and how we see the people God has placed in our lives this year.
In this year, decide to live as if you have been made alive with Christ because you have been. Your life is hidden and secure in Christ. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can live a life of victory over sin, and we know that no sin, hardship, blessings or riches this year can snatch us away from Christ. Stop idolizing the things of the flesh. Die to your feelings and die to your fleshly desires and wants. Leave that flesh-inspired nature in the tomb and live as those resurrected and made alive with Christ.
Further reading: Colossians 3:12-27.
