When Christ, who is your life… (Colossians 3:4)
For the believer, the halfway heart is impossible. Christ is your life. That work is whole, infused, complete. In verses 3 and 4, Paul wraps the words around us like a blanket for good measure:
Your life is with Christ (v3)…Christ is your life (v4).
He is the Alpha and Omega — the start and the finish — not just for eternity, but for each of us. In the spiritual world, we are full, and we cannot be separated from who He is — heartbeat to heartbeat, cell to cell.
But we don’t believe Christ is our life. We believe Christ is our lifestyle.
We feel half-hearted because we keep digging for life in our to-do list — looking to a set of principles instead of a Person.
Jesus is not a spiritual health regimen. Jesus is oxygen. Without relying on the breath of His Spirit, we live as dry, lifeless dust — a stone statue of godliness that denies its power (2 Timothy 3:5). It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all (John 6:63).
Our life is Someone, not a system.
System life is halfway life, flesh life. It leads to pride or guilt and shame. When I’m good, I’ve got it together; when I’m bad, I’m falling apart. My days depend on my skill, and my first thoughts are always of me. How do I compare to the system?
Someone life is full life, Spirit life. When I’m good, I give thanks for His life in mine; when I’m bad, I’ve wounded my glorious Friend, and I long to renew our relationship through His grace rather than dwell on my faults. My days depend on His cross, and my first thoughts are of Him — His glory and goodness and His unexplainable love for me.
Christ is our life — this work is accomplished in us. We are fools to settle for a system.
For to set the mind on the flesh — the system — is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit — Someone — is life and peace. Romans 8:6
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