We are dead!

   For you have died. Col. 3:3

   How can it be said about us that we have died - that we are dead! That you actually sits there now, and read this devotion, proves the opposite - does it not?
   Nor do you speak to the dead! - But this actually applies to those who are dead.
   Paul also says it in a peculiar way earlier in the same letter: «If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world -.» (Col. 2:20).
   But is not that exactly what I do - living in the world?
   The answer on that question is a blessed answer. The apostle had to remind this congregation on this reality, and maybe you too need that today - the answer explains to us how the whole thing appears in Gods eyes! Just notice how our text continues: «- your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.» (Col. 3:3-4).
   So we have died with Christ. - When He died, you died - your old self with all the sin and misery you see! So He is our life, now that we have come to faith in Him. And this is what God sees! «He sees you in Christ, and then you are clean!»
   Therefore, also today, the apostles exhortation to you is: «Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.» (Rom. 6:11).
   «Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.» (Rom. 8,1).

E.K.

Holy Bible New American Standard Version
Translator: E.K.