Annotations of Gospel Centrality: Colossians 3:1-4

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4

God intends for the gospel to be the mental dial that tunes us into the frequency of heaven and the fuel which empowers us to get there.  The two imperatives in Colossians 3:1-4 are sandwiched with gospel realities.  As a Christian, you have died with Christ (v.3a), you have been raised with Christ (v. 1), you are hidden with Christ (v.3b), and you will appear with Christ (v.4).  All of this speaks to how our union with Christ directs our lives in perspective and pursuits.

There is no more glorious pursuit than seeking to know Christ. We are to “press on toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12) because God has sought us out in the gospel. Or to use the language here, we are seek the things above because we have been raised from death to life with Christ. Fittingly so, the power of the resurrection in our lives should set the trajectory of our lives that will ultimately end in glory when we appear with Christ.

Living a gospel-centered life safeguards the Christian from trivial pursuits. We are not to seek “the things that are on the earth” and yet, when our hearts and minds are not fixed on Christ, covetousness sets in, and the idol factory of our hearts kicks in high gear. Where covetousness or trivial pursuits are characteristic of our lives, it is a clear indication that we have failed to realize that our lives are hidden with Christ in God.  When our mind is on earthly things, it is a clear indication of besetting preoccupations in opposition to the proper fixation on Jesus (Heb. 12:2).

Christ is your life.

Christ IS your life. Now, currently, perpetually.  And Christ is your LIFE. Not a footnote to the story, not a slice of the cake, not a door the house, not a time slot in your schedule.  He is your LIFE. Comprehensively. Essentially. Indivisibly. Should our lives be pressed under the crucible of adversity, what should be revealed in that moment is Christ is us, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26). And the only way we get there is by knowing (objectively and subjectively) we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.

Set your minds on things about because God has set His affection on you through the gospel.  Seek the things that are above because through the gospel you have an upward call of God in Christ Jesus. We who are hidden with Christ in God will appear with Christ in glory. And that glory is what we are to experience in greater degrees as we behold Jesus, becoming like him from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18).