I have died

In Colossians 3 Paul tells his hearers that they have died and their life is hidden with Christ in God. I'm assuming that this message was not just for the first-century believers in Colossae, but is is true for all Christians, including me. I find this incredibly comforting, not just for the part that says that my life is with Christ, but because it says that I have died. My old life is over, not just changed, or put on hold, or moved away from, but over. It is as finished as death. That's it, there is no going back. This is the immense reassurance of this passage. When I am in Christ my previous sins and mistakes, all my bad choices and poor judgements, are gone. They're not put to one side, or kept for ammunition in future disputes. I have died.

But how can the same sentence say that I have died, and that I have a life?
My life now is hidden with Christ in God. Modern Christians talk about "giving your life to Jesus," and there's a similar sense here. My life, my current, actual life, not the old life which has died, belongs to God. Paul tells the Colossians that they have been "raised with Christ". This isn't the resurrection at the end of time, but is a new life, right here and now. If my old, sinful self has died, then from where does my new life come? It comes from the only possible place. It comes from the risen and living Jesus.

This doesn't mean that my life is now perfect (far from it!) But it means that I am putting aside old behaviours, not because I am desperately trying to become a better person, but because I am choosing each day to live as the new person I am, not the person I used to be. How could I live as that former person? That person has died, and I can't live as a dead man. My choice is not between doing the right thing or doing the wrong thing, but between living as someone who is truly alive, or attempting to live as someone who is already dead.

The other great reassurance of this passage is that my life, my new life, is hidden in God. That means that I am totally safe. After all, where would I hide my life so that it is completely secure? Where could be safer, more unassailable, than in God? God is supreme, Lord of Lords, uncreated and indestructible. He existed before the universe and will exist forever. And my life, my new life, my really real life, is hidden in Him. No wonder Paul says elsewhere that nothing can separate us from God's love. I am loved by God, and my life is hidden in Him. I can't be separated from His love because my whole life is wrapped up safe and secure inside it.

My old life is dead and gone, my life now is with Christ, and with Christ it is safely hidden away in the power of God.