Morning By Morning #223

Christ…is your life.

Colossians 3:4

From the pen of Charles Spurgeon:

Paul’s beautifully rich words here indicate that Christ is the source of our life. “When you were dead in your sins…God made you alive with Christ” (Col. 2:13). The same Voice who brought Lazarus from the tomb (see John 11:1 – 44) raised us to “live a new life” (Rom. 6:4). He is now the sum and substance of our spiritual life, for it is by His life we live. He is in us, “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27), the power behind our actions, and the central thought that spurs every other thought. Christ is the nourishment for our life, for what can a Christian truly feed upon but Jesus’ flesh and blood? He “is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die” (John 6:50).

Oh, travel-weary pilgrims in this wilderness of sin, you will never find even a morsel to satisfy the hunger of your spirit unless you find it in Christ! He is the source of peace for our life and all true joy come from Him, and in times of trouble His presence is our comfort. There is nothing worth living for but Him, and His loving-kindness is better than life!

Christ is the object of our life, and as a ship speeds toward its port, so the believer wings his way toward the haven of his Savior’s embrace. Just as an arrow hits its target, so the Christian flies toward the perfecting of his fellowship with Christ Jesus. As a soldier fights for his captain and glories in his captain’s victory, so the believer contends for Christ and triumphs from the victories of His Master. “For [the Christian], to live is Christ” (Phil. 1:21). He is the perfect ideal for our life and if His life is within us, there will be, and there must be, evidence of His life exhibiting itself through us to a great extent. If we live in close fellowship with the Lord Jesus, we will grow to be like Him. We will set Him before us as our divine example and will seek to walk in His footsteps until He becomes the crown of our life in glory.

Oh, how secure, how honored, how blessed is the believer, since “Christ…is [our] life!

From the pen of Jim Reimann:

The following verses, showing the context of today’s verse, shed a great deal of light on what it means to be “heavenly minded” while maintaining a godly walk in this life:

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.

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 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.

Colossians 3:1 – 10