Opening Thought
Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. This grant us, O God. (Psa 73:25)
Text: Colossians 3:1–6
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience.
Devotion
Everything depends on being united with Christ. The fellowship of the heart with Him—that is living Christianity. Then we died with Him, and then we are raised with Him. Christ is the true life of the believer. Whoever does not live in Christ is not a Christian. What kind of Christianity is that which is not life? But what kind of life would Christianity be without the life of Jesus Christ? No one wants a dead hope in Christ! For Christ has conquered death. He is a living God who makes all His people alive and gives them a living hope.
Since Christ is in heaven, the heart of the believer who lives in Him must be in heaven. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mat 6:21). “God raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:6). Attitude and desire are made free and heavenly. The soul’s longing reaches beyond this life, and its goal is eternal communion with God in perfect holiness. Since we are dead to the world, we are dead to its glory and joy, its treasure and goods, its poverty and trouble, dead to its sentences and rules, to its teaching and yoke. And the world considers us dead and lost. The life we live is Christ’s life, and it is hidden with Christ in God. Just as Christ is invisible to the world, so also His life is in the believers. Their faith in the Lord, their hope and peace and joy in Him, their love, their holy desire for heaven, their zeal for purity, their self-denial and struggle against the devil, their prayer in holiness of heart, in short: their life in God, it is completely hidden to the world. They do not see it, they do not know it, they regard it as a dream and nothing. The Christian’s glory is covered over with trouble and poverty and pain and tears, yes with sin and much weakness. – But Christ shall be revealed, and you shall be revealed with Him in glory. Rejoice in this hope, and do not be perplexed by your troubled condition here in the world. Your earthly limbs must surely be mortified, and the Lord will help you with the cross. The wicked desires are the limbs of the old Adam which by your conversion to the Lord have received their deathblow, but are not yet completely destroyed. They want to draw you back to earth – suppress them with the cross of Christ, mortify them for the sake of Jesus Christ!
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, do You know me that I live in You and You in me? Grant this, merciful Savior. “O take my heart, and soul and might, And fill them with Your heav’nly light.” Amen.
Hymn
I will not let Thee go –
In Jesus I am living;
From faith’s beginning, He
New life to me was giving;
The life He gave to me
He will uphold for aye
Until the end of time
When earth shall pass away.
I will not let Thee go –
With Jesus I will suffer;
He lightens ev’ry cross
And comfort sure doth offer;
He turns it all for good,
For He abides with me
And grants me strength to bear
My cross most patiently.
I will not let Thee go –
With Jesus I will fight on
Against all Satan’s pow’rs
And death no more shall frighten;
When enemies assail
And put on me their blame,
My Jesus fights for me
And puts them all to shame.
I will not let Thee go –
With Jesus I am ready
To die; for He’s with me;
My heart He sure doth steady.
Without Him I would die,
But with Him I am free
To walk on heaven’s way,
To live eternally.
German: Jeg slipper Jesum ei L 370:1-4 tr. DeGarmeaux;
tune: Nun danket alle Gott (ELH 63); alternate hymn: Jesus I will never leave ELH 362:2-3