The Risen Life

While the author of this piece of graffiti had in mind Irish revolutionaries, the slogan fittingly identifies another breed of risen people Christians who have been brought to life through the resurrecting power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Just as every believer who has trusted in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior was taken to the Cross with Him and died to sin in His death (see Romans 6 and the July/August cover article), so every believer rose with Christ potentially by the power of God when He strode from the empty Tomb that early Lord’s Day morning. Hallelujah!

Among the early followers of Christ, the Apostle Paul in particular was given a special insight into the implications of the believer’s own position and identity in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

The Bible affirms that in Christ’s death our old self was crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6); it also affirms that the believer is united with Christ through His Resurrection life (Rom. 6:5). It is through the gift of faith that the repentant sinner appropriates the provisions of Calvary and the empty Tomb. When that takes place, the guilty, condemned sinner receives God’s pardoning grace, is justified freely, given new life in Christ, and has been set apart to God from sin to live only for God.

What are some of the practical implications of having been raised up with Christ? You say that you have been born again? That’s great, but now what? What are you to do? How are you to behave? What does a real Christian look like? As we should expect, God has the answers for us in His Word. Let’s check out Colossians 3.

A Christian Mindset

Paul says to recently converted persons, “Therefore if [the same Greek word can be rendered “since”] you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:1-3).

By a power not his own, into the heart of the new Christian enters the Holy Spirit, who begins an intimate journey of jealously supervising the newborn child of God. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to strengthen the will of the believer. He helps us to keep our focus where it should be.

The Apostle says the Christian is to “seek” and to “set.” He and she is to seek “things above” and set the mind on “things above.” The grammatical tenses and moods suggest that the Christian is to be always actively engaged in elevating his spiritual sight and intently keeping his mind centered on spiritual realities. Lest we wonder where the object of this mindset is, God does not leave us in the dark: “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”

What are these lofty things the Christian is to seek and to set his mind on—these things that are found in Jesus Christ at God’s right hand? As is so often the case in studying and meditating on God’s Word, we see that the immediate context provides the answers.

All the graces necessary to the believer to live a productive and God-glorifying life are found in Jesus Christ. What are some of these graces, which Paul calls “things above”, that the believer is to seek? Let’s take a look at one verse, verse 12.

A Compassionate Heart. It was Dr. Bob Pierce, founder of the World Vision humanitarian agency, who used to say often, “Let my heart break with the things that break the heart of God.” That’s a compassionate heart. We won’t get a heart like that from drinking at this world’s well of selfishness and hardness.

Fanny Crosby, the blind hymnologist of another generation, who was a things-above-seeker, had it right when she wrote, “Down in the human heart,/Crushed by the tempter,/Feelings lie buried that grace can restore./Touched by a loving heart,/Wakened by kindness,/Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.”(1) She could pen those words because she was highly familiar with the transforming impact of a compassionate heart. With a compassionate heart the Christian will be moved by the spiritual lostness of the crowd, the hunger and pain of humanity, and the sorrow of others.

How the church needs this grace. How I need this grace. It’s found in Christ, at God’s right hand.

Kindness. Living in an age that by the day is increasingly becoming more and more uncivil, the Christian is to be a bright star of Christian kindness against a black backdrop of barbarities, impoliteness, and thankless incivilities.

If Jesus Christ was anything while walking upon this earth, He was kind. It wasn’t a syrupy, mushy kind of kindness either. It was a kindness which was always consistent with His holiness.

How I have grieved on occasions when failing to manifest the kindness of Christ. And yes, I’ve had to return and ask for forgiveness.

Just recently while sitting in my vehicle in a Wal-Mart parking lot, I saw an attendant pushing a train of shopping baskets right toward my pickup truck. I said to myself that from the looks of things, this lad would shortly bang into my truck. And he did. I jumped out of the truck and confronted him: “You should try to be more careful!” And he should have been—I think we all would agree.

But I had no sooner said it than I knew that it was not what I had said that was wrong, but the way I had said it. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit for not manifesting the kindness of Christ. The boy did better than I—he immediately apologized; I drove off feeling like a guilty sinner. I had momentarily dropped my guard; becoming careless, I had allowed myself to think more of a 12 year old piece of steel and plastic than of how I might represent Christ to a stranger in a public parking lot.

By keeping our focus on the Man at God’s right hand, we will be replenished with this Christian grace of kindness.

Humility. To be humble is to know our place before God and before our fellows. Humility does not brag and it is not arrogant; it does not act unbecomingly and it is not selfish. It does not think more highly of itself than it should. It does not take credit where it shouldn’t. And when it does experience some accomplishment, it sincerely gives God the glory and others the credit due them.

Humility is not self-preoccupied. The truth is, it is self-forgetful. By focusing on ourselves, our needs and our rights, we become self-centered, proud people. By focusing on Jesus, who “humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death on a cross” (Phil. 2:7), we will grow in humility and meekness.

Humility’s watchword and song is, “Christ must increase; I must decrease.”

Gentleness. The same word is used in Galatians 6:1, where Paul exhorts mature believers to restore failing believers “in a spirit of gentleness.” Earlier in the same epistle he informs us that gentleness is a product of the Spirit (5:23).

Sometimes it is easier to see the meaning of a word by seeing its opposite in action. The late Greek scholar, William Barclay, in commenting on the essence of the virtue of gentleness shares an anecdote describing what it is not.

Sir Joshua Reynolds said of Dr. Johnson: “The most light and airy dispute was with him a dispute in the arena. He fought on every occasion as if his whole reputation depended upon the victory of the minute, and he fought with all his weapons. If he was foiled in an argument, he had recourse to abuse and rudeness.” After a vivid night at the Crown and Anchor, Johnson said contentedly to Boswell: “Well, we had a good talk.” To which Boswell dutifully replied: “Yes, sir, you tossed and gored several persons.”

Goldsmith said of Johnson: “There is no arguing with Johnson for, when his pistol misses fire, he knocks you down with the butt end of it.” Even the Rev. John Taylor who was a close friend of Johnson said of him: “There is no disputing with him. He will not hear you, and, having a louder voice than you must roar you down.(2) Clearly, Samuel Johnson and the grace of gentleness were strangers to each other.

By keeping our eyes fastened on Jesus, we will become more and more gentle people. And certainly the church and the world be the beneficiaries.

Patience.The crucified, risen believer who is being transformed increasingly into the likeness of His Master, is to be characterized by the grace of patience. The context suggests that the word, as used here, means the ability to act in forbearance toward others: “bearing with one another” (v. 13).

There is a difference between forbearance and forgiveness. When a brother or sister in Christ, for example, wrongs us, sins against us—the situation requires us to forgive the offending party. However, when we become irritated, for example, by the behavior, or idiosyncrasies, or the bad manners, or crude conduct of a brother or sister in Christ, the grace of forgiveness is not required; instead, we are to forbear, or exercise the grace of patience toward this person.

Some people will naturally rub us the wrong way at times. And undoubtedly we do likewise. But if our spiritual gaze stays habitually focused on the Person at God’s right hand, we will experience a renewed capacity to be patient toward all people. This can only happen as we walk day by day and moment by moment under the control of the Holy Spirit. Failing to do so, we become impulsive and impetuous; irritable and short-tempered, even harsh.

God reminds us that since we have been raised up with Christ, we are to always be seeking things above; we are to have our minds set on things above. Where are those things located? They’re found in the person of Jesus Christ, the Man at God’s right hand. What are some of these things we are to be always seeking? They are: a compassionate heart, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Walking in the Spirit

Before finishing with this subject, it might be well to remind ourselves: there is no experience of grace promised to any Christian whereby God implants these graces into the heart at one stroke. It is only as the believer walks moment by moment, submitting to the lordship of Jesus Christ, with eyes fixed on Him that the graces of the risen life will flourish in the hearts of God’s people.

Nietzsche once said of the Christians he knew, “You will have to look more redeemed, if I am to believe in your Redeemer.” The world has a right to expect from Christians a resemblance to their Master. So do fellow Christians.

Thank God, through the blessed sanctifying ministries of the Holy Spirit, with our cooperation, He will shape us more and more into the likeness of the very image of Christ Himself. This being the case, possibly there will be those who will eventually remark to their friends, “Beware, there goes a risen person!”

Hudson Taylor’s Prayer

May Christ be made increasingly real in your life and mine. Let this prayer of Hudson Taylor’s express the deepest desire of our hearts:

Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living bright reality.
More present to faith’s vision keen
Than any outward object seen.
More dear, more intimately nigh
Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie.

– Soli Deo Gloria –

1. From the hymn, Rescue the Perishing
2. William Barclay; Flesh and Spirit, p. 113