A Spiritual Death and a Hidden Life

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"Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." Col. 3:2-4

What a remarkable mercy! What a blessing, as beyond all price, so beyond all conception, and all expression, is it to be a believer in the Son of God! Hundreds, thousands, millions, live and die without any knowledge of Him, any faith in Him, any love towards Him. And what must be their eternal destiny? What but the lake that burns with fire and brimstone? Our reasoning mind, when not subdued by divine teaching, our naturally compassionate feelings, when not softened into acquiescence with the divine will, pause and ponder; and when in imagination we seem to look down into the flames of eternal woe, and think of the thousands and millions that will forever welter there, we instinctively shrink back. If such feelings be indulged, we may soon be drawn aside to pity lost souls; when once we begin to pity lost souls, Satan may draw us on to pity lost devils; and when we begin to pity lost devils we rebel against God, until the mind becomes filled with every base imagination too vile for me even to allude to. We must, therefore, at any cost, hold fast by the Word of God's testimony; for when once we depart from that, we wander into mazes of error and confusion.

Now, if we adhere to God's testimony, we seem, to my mind, to come to these three points—
1. That the soul which lives and dies without knowing the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be a partaker of eternal life; for He Himself says, "This is life eternal, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent." If, then, eternal life consists in the knowledge of Christ, eternal death must be the consequence of not knowing Him.
2. Again—the Lord says, "If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins." "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he who believes not shall be damned." We come, therefore, to this solemn conclusion, that if one lives and dies without a spiritual faith in the Son of God, he is and must be eternally lost.
3. We come to a third conclusion, from the same inspired Word of testimony, that if a man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, and lives and dies without His love being shed abroad in his heart, he falls under the curse of God; for the Apostle Paul, speaking in His name, says, "If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema," that is, let the solemn curse of God rest upon him.

So that if we adhere to the Word of God's testimony we come to this solemn conclusion, though in coming to it we seem to cut off and indeed do cut off millions, that without a saving knowledge of, without a spiritual faith in, and without a divine love to, the Son of God, there is no salvation; and therefore that those who die without that knowledge, without that faith, and without that love, must perish in their sins.

But the point that concerns you and me is, whether we have this saving knowledge of, this living faith in, and this heavenly love toward the Son of God; for we have to stand before His bar, we have souls to be saved or lost, and the grand question with every one whom God has quickened into spiritual life is, "Lord, is it I? How does my soul stand before God? On what ground does it rest for eternity?"

The Epistles, and among them the Epistle to the Colossians, are addressed to the Church of God. When, therefore, the Apostle says, "If you then are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God," he addresses these words to believers—to those who, by virtue of a vital union with the Son of God, and by being made partakers of regenerating grace, have risen with Christ, and having risen with Christ, and sitting with Him in heavenly places, are seeking "those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God." It is, therefore, to believers, and to believers only, in the Son of God, that he addresses the exhortation of our text, "Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth." Why? "For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God." But will it be always so? No! for "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory."

In looking at these words, I hope I shall not confuse your minds, nor complicate my subject, if I arrange my thoughts under five heads. I shall endeavor to show,
1. How Christ is "our life."
2. How the believer is "dead."
3. How his life is hidden with Christ in God.
4. How it springs from this—that he is to "set his affection on things above, not on things on the earth."
5. Lastly, the sweet and blessed promise that puts the crowning blessing upon the whole—"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory."

I. How Christ is "our life." Union with Christ is the grand truth revealed in the Scripture, and the fountain head out of which every blessing springs. But to understand this we must carry our thoughts upward and backward, to look at the foundation of the eternal union that exists between Christ and the Church. The Fall did not break in upon the purposes of God as a river swollen with heavy rains bursts in upon and desolates the smiling plains. It was an event fore-viewed and fore-provided for; and therefore, in the counsels of eternity, a people, "a multitude which no man can number," was given to the Son of God, and united to Him by a union so close, so ineffable, and so indissoluble, that though the Scripture does give us figures to help our conception, yet all earthly figures fall far short of the divine reality. There is no union in nature that approaches in closeness the union between Christ and His people. "I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." What natural oneness can ever approach a union thus set forth by the words of Him who cannot lie?

But to help our conceptions, the Scripture has given us various figures to set forth the eternal union that exists between Christ and His Church. The vine and the branches, the corner-stone and the stones that surround it, the husband and wife, the head and members—all these are Scriptural figures, whereby the eternal union between Christ and His people is set forth. Now, it is by virtue of this eternal union between Christ and His people that when He suffered they, so to speak, suffered with Him; when He died, they died with Him; when He lay in the tomb, they lay with Him; when He rose from the grave, they rose with Him; when He ascended up on high, they ascended with Him; and when He sat Himself down in heavenly places, at the right hand of the Majesty on high, they virtually sat down together with Him. All this was independent of the work of grace upon their soul, whereby they are brought in due time to a living apprehension of it.

There are members of Christ who are not at present in living union, and yet have an eternal union with Him. We may conceive this even in the instance of the human body. Take the case of a frost-bitten hand. That is to all vital movement and feeling fully dead; and would, unless vivified and restored, rot and perish. But by timely aid, and proper appliances, it is restored, and becomes a living, active member of the body. So there are members of the mystical body of Christ still dead in trespasses and sins. No, many are not even in existence, but are still unborn. As the Lord Himself speaks, "In Your book were all My members written, when as yet there was none of them." These, then, have not yet received regenerating grace to give them a vital union; but they have eternal grace stored up in Christ, as their covenant Head, whereby they possess an eternal union. In due time the Spirit of grace will come into them, and quicken them into spiritual life; and then they will be not only one with Him in that eternal union, which is the source of all other, but they will have a living union by faith, whereby being joined to the Lord, they become one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), and so receive out of His fullness grace for grace.

In this sense Christ is "our life." When the blessed Spirit has breathed upon us, quickened us into spiritual existence, communicating the life of God, brought Him near to us and brought us near to Him, and given us a living faith to apprehend Him, then He becomes "our life," our Head, and from Him we derive all supplies of faith, hope, love, and every grace.

II. How the believer is "dead." I pass on to consider how a believer is "dead;" for the text says, "You are dead." Religion, true religion, is full of paradoxes. There is no real contradiction in the work of grace upon the heart. But there are many paradoxes. The apostle, for instance, says, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things." These are not contradictions, but they are paradoxes; that is, they are apparent, not real inconsistencies. So in the text, the believer is not dead in one sense, yet he is dead in another; yes, by a singular paradox, when he is alive he is dead, and when he is dead he is alive. As the apostle says, "I was alive without the law once." He was not really alive, for he was dead in sin; but when the law came and slew him, though there was life in his soul, yet by that law he was killed and slain; as he says, "When the commandment came, sin revived and I died."

Now, a believer, a child of God, is dead in two senses—he is dead as regards the law, and he is dead as regards the gospel; and I shall show you how.

A. First, he is dead by the law; as the apostle says, "I through the law am dead to the law." The law comes home with spirituality to his conscience, and by its condemning sentence it slays him utterly; it kills him as to all legal hope.

But we may say, perhaps, if we examine the subject a little more closely, that the law kills in three senses, and in three ways.

1. First, it kills by its spirituality and curse, when it is opened up in a sinner's conscience, in some such words as, "The soul that sins, it shall die." "Cursed is every one that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." When that killing sentence comes into a man's conscience, it slays him as to salvation by the works of the law; it condemns him, and kills him outright, as to any hope that may spring from his own righteousness.

2. The law kills by stirring up the movements of sin in the carnal mind. As the apostle says, "The motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." Sin lies in our mind at times almost torpid; at least we are unconscious of any vigorous movement. The law comes. What is the consequence? Sin is revived by the condemnation that the law brings. There is something in our nature that resists prohibition, and rises up against it. If there were so many rooms in a house, and there was a strict charge given you that you should not go into one certain room, that would be the first room you would want to enter. If there were so many different kinds of fruit put on the table, and you might have every fruit but one, that one would be the one you would want to eat. There is something, then, in our perverse nature, which prohibition seems to stir up into movement. Thus the law, prohibiting sin, rouses up sin by the very prohibition it gives. "You shall not do this." "Aye, but I will." "You shall do this." "Aye, but I won't." There is thus the vigorous movement of the carnal mind setting itself in opposition against the will of God. And thus the spirituality of God's law kills, not only by cursing us in every thought, word, and deed that does not come up to the required perfection, but by rousing up the very sins that it does condemn; and thus brings us in doubly guilty.

3. And there is a third sense in which the law condemns; which is, by not only slaying once, outright and forever for transgressions past and gone, but by continually passing a fresh sentence of condemnation against every sinful thought, word, or deed, as it springs up into manifestation. Thus it is not only the scythe in the hayfield that mows down the long and strong crop of grass, but the mower on the lawn which cuts down the fresh grass as it springs up.

And thus, first, by its spirituality, secondly, by its stirring up of sin, and thirdly, by its constant sentence of condemnation, the law kills and slays the soul which is under its curse and bondage. In that sense, then, a believer is "dead." When, however, the law has executed its office it is virtually dead also. It has done its worst, and dies in doing it. Like a bee it dies in stinging.

Let us look a little more closely at this point. A man is arrested for a certain crime, for the commission of which the law of the land adjudges six to twelve months imprisonment. The man is found guilty, and the law takes its effect. But with the last stroke of twelve on the last day of his imprisonment, he is as free as his jailer; the prison doors are thrown open, and the law is as dead to him as much as if he had never broken it. So in the case of the condemned murderer. When the law has hanged him, and his body is taken down from the fatal beam, the law is as dead to him as if it had never executed him. This is the apostle's meaning when he says, "I, through the law, am become dead to the law." When the criminal dies by the law, he becomes dead to that law which has killed him. The law is then dead to him, and he dead to it.

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