Taken from the sermon “Things Above from the sermon series Finally Home: What Heaven Means for Earth by Mark Vroegop.
We’re walking through the subject of heaven with a handful of articles here on the College Park Church Resources site. This is the third installment. If you haven’t read the first article, check it out and come back!
If then you have been raised with Christ, 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. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col. 3:1–4).
As is often the case with the apostle Paul, he starts with our spiritual position. Everything flows out of this foundation. What you seek, set your mind upon, and hope for in the future are entirely dependent on this issue of your spiritual position. That is why Colossians 3:1 begins with the word “if.”
So let me say from the outset that what follows in this text is entirely conditional. We will see this repeatedly in our study: If you are not united with Christ, you have no hope of heaven.
The Bible is very clear: Heaven is not guaranteed for everyone, and not everyone has a heavenly mindset. Heaven as a future destination, and living in light of heaven is dependent on what you have done with Jesus. Jesus stated this truth in John 14 when speaking to the disciple Thomas:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (v. 6).
By coming to Jesus and putting one’s trust in him, a person is united to Christ in Christ’s death and resurrection. When you put your faith in Jesus, his death becomes your death, and his life becomes your life. There is a spiritual union between you and Jesus that defines who you are and what your future is. Jesus described it to Nicodemus as being “born again” (John 3).
We see this union in four phrases in Colossians 3:
- “you have been raised with Christ” (v. 1)
- “for you have died” (v. 3)
- “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (v. 3)
- “who is your life” (v. 4)
These phrases unpack the new identity that belongs to the Christian. When a person comes to faith in Christ, a new spiritual reality takes over.
That is why Paul uses phrases like “hidden with Christ” and “who is your life” in verses 3-4. To have died with Christ and to be raised with Christ means that our lives are so dependent upon him and so linked to his that we have everything we need “in him.” We are in him, our lives are in him, and he is our life. Jesus doesn’t just provide life; he is our life!
Why does this matter? Why talk about this union? There are three reasons:
- Without being united to Christ, there is no forgiveness, no redemption, and no everlasting life in heaven.
- Jesus is the center of the gospel, and he is the center of everlasting life in heaven. You cannot be excited about heaven without being excited about Jesus. Heaven would not be heaven without Jesus being there.
- Union with Jesus becomes the basis for a change of mindset even now. Our positional reality affects how we live because it changes what we see, what we love, what we seek, and what we do.
Our understanding of heaven needs to begin with this issue of our spiritual position because union with Christ is the foundation of everything. To be in Christ means that you have a new identity, new freedom, new power, new status, new affections, new longings, a new future, and a new home.
The spiritual position of being united with Christ changes the foundational orientation of a person’s life as well as their ultimate future.
Read the fourth article in this series, where we’ll look at what Paul has to say about heaven and the promise of God, or check out the sermon series Finally Home: What Heaven Means for Earth.
