Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Colossians 3:1-11
The Rising of Jesus was only the first rising of the Kingdom of God coming on earth as it is in heaven. The truth is, that since then, there have been billions of risings. “How?,” you might say, “I’ve never seen one.” Well, actually, according to Scripture, the moment you put your faith in Jesus (which is putting your faith in the fact that He actually did rise from the dead), you experience a rising all of your own.
Let me explain…
Spiritually speaking, sin doesn’t make you bad, it makes you dead. The good news of the Gospel isn’t that Jesus makes you good, it’s that He makes you ALIVE! How? Not by you trying hard or following all the rules perfectly. No, the Gospel brings life when you trust the central promise that Jesus died in your place to give you eternal life with Him.
That faith changes you. I mean think about it, dead people and living people don’t engage in the same activities. That would be weird. No, when you’ve been made alive in Jesus, you begin to live differently. As Paul writes here in Colossians, you put off old ways and put on new ways because you aren’t dead anymore, you’re alive. And yet so often, we find ourselves doing what we used to do and being where we used to be before our rising. We take naps in our old coffins.
But Jesus’ Rising calls us to wake up and live! One way we can begin is simply by doing what you’re doing right now. Meditating on the profound simplicity of the Gospel. If the Rising is just an event that you occasionally look back on, you’ll never find the power to walk it out. But when the Rising becomes so real that it’s not behind you, but in front of you, and inside of you, that’s where the power lies to really live! Look up! After all, we’re rising.
Has your faith in Jesus resulted in changes in your life? If so, what? As a new creation in Christ, What are some things you need to “put off’? What are some things you need to “put on”?
