Colossians 3:2-3

Colossians 3:4 (ESV)

[4] When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In this chapter the motivation to holiness is who we are in Christ and who we will be. Lest we think that this is somehow purely an idea of Paul's, 1 John says the same thing.

1 John 3:2-3 (ESV)

[2] Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. [3] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Notice that in1 John it is not the one who purifies himself who has hope. Rather, it is the one who has hope who purifies himself. Likewise, in Colossians 3:1, it is not the person who seeks God that will be raised with Christ. It is the one who has been raised with Christ who is to then seek God. We sometimes talk and act as though "finding God" is some great mystery or task. The reality is that God has done everything to find us. It is in his finding us that we can then find him. It is in dying with Christ and being raised to new life that we are then able to seek God, to set our minds on things above, to purify ourselves and to anticipate our future glory with Christ in the presence of the Father. It is by God's grace through faith in the substitutionary death and resurrection of Christ that we enter into new life with Christ. Because we have been made new we are then called to think, live and hope differently. It all starts with him.

 

Father, thank you for the life and hope I have in Christ. Today may I reflect his purity to the world around me.

 

By His grace,

Rick Weinert