TODAY, I am going to restrict my opening comments and go straight to our text, reserving my observations for next time. I do not want to my words to distract from the important instruction recorded here.
IN our continuing study of The Complete Green Letters, Part 4 – The Realization of Spiritual Growth, we have completed Chapter 50, titled “Reckoning in Philippians 3:10.” Next up in our study is Chapter 51, “Reckoning in Colossians Three.”
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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Chapter 51—Reckoning in Colossians Three
The first valid faith we exercised toward God was by means of reckoning. We counted upon the Lord Jesus as our personal Savior, and were thereby saved. The principle of reckoning isto have faith in a finished work. Nowhere is this principle more explicitly revealed than in Colossians Three.
“If [since] then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory” (Col. 3:1–4, ASV).
“If [since] then ye were raised together with Christ.” Here, as always, Paul sets forth the doctrine before he presents the exhortation. He does likewise in Ephesians, revealing the wonderful fact that God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). This is the truth we need in order to reckon, so that we may abide in Him above and He may be manifested in us here below.
“Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.” Reckoning ourselves alive unto God in Christ amounts to our taking our position in Him. Since the heavenly sphere is now our true position, it follows that we are to seek there the things of Christ—spiritual realities. Everything in heaven is centered in Christ, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him” (Col. 2:9, 10).
Our Father yearns for fellowship with His own. How can His heart-longing be satisfied apart from our feeding on the things of Christ, so that we may enter into oneness of mind and purpose with Him? To this end we have been made partakers of the divine nature.
Although we seek, and learn, from our risen position, yet the revelation comes through the Word. All, all depends upon our knowledge of the scriptural facts. Through our Spirit-taught study of God’s Word, we are given both the revelation of the truth, and its practical reality in our lives.
“Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.” As we “eat of the old corn of the land” (Josh. 5:11), feeding upon the Lord Jesus in heaven by means of the Word, we learn of Him and grow in Him. Our mind is set upon the One in whom we live, not upon self and this world unto which we have died. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). …to be continued
