"If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:1-4)
Our life is in Christ, and outside of Him we have no life. "He that has the Son has life, and he that has not the Son of God has not life." (1 John 5:12) "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23)
Death is the loss of life. Adam sinned, and the result was the loss of life to the human family. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Romans 5:12)
But through Christ life is again brought within their reach. For: "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 6:23) "As by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." (Romans 5:18)
By the provisions of the plan of salvation, Adam and his posterity obtained a stay of execution of the judgment which God's law pronounces against the sinner, with the opportunity, meanwhile, to escape from it altogether. For although all men die in this world, both the righteous and the wicked, that death is not the wages of sin, but only a consequence of the moral nature that man has while upon probation.
Adam was placed upon probation with a different nature, and given access to the tree of life, of which he could eat and live for ever. His posterity are upon probation with a fallen nature and without access to the tree of life. They are, for the present, without the means of maintaining life, and death is the natural result.
But this death is not taken account of in the reckoning which is finally to be made. The wages of sin is eternal death, and the gift of God is eternal life. The eternal death will be found in the lake of fire.
It was necessary, in order that this reckoning should be made with those placed upon probation, that all men should have a resurrection from the death that comes through Adam. Neither the gift of God nor the wages of sin could be bestowed were men to be left in the graves into which they sink at the close of their earthly lives.
The gift of God comes by accepting Christ, and the wages of sin, by rejecting Him. The sacrifice on the cross of Calvary determines what shall be given to every man--whether the gift of God, or the wages of sin. And therefore by the sacrifice of Christ comes the resurrection of all the dead, both those that awake to life, and those that awake to condemnation.
In the eye of the law, the criminal is dead the moment that sentence has been pronounced upon him, although some time may elapse before the sentence is executed. So the sinner out of Christ is accounted dead by the law of God, although the sentence of death is not immediately executed. He lives and moves here as though there were no wages of sin, and so far as life is concerned there is no apparent difference between him and one who is righteous. But he is dead. God gives him a space of time to repent; but the judgment for sin is hanging over him, and unless he turns to Christ, there is no possible escape from his doom. "He that has the Son of God has life; and he that has not the Son of God has not life." (1 John 5:12)
The righteous man has the Son of God and therefore has life; for righteousness comes alone through Christ. He seems to have no more life than the wicked and ungodly, but this is a truth that is known by faith and not by sight.
Like the sinner, he lives his allotted space here, and dies, and is laid away in the grave. But now is seen the mystery of the life through Christ; for the hand that is still and cold and lies motionless across the breast, has as strong a hold upon life as when it was animated by warm and flowing blood.
We see no life as we gaze upon the motionless form; and yet it is there. Amid the chill and gloom and shrouds that attend the entrance to the tomb, come again with all their power these words, "He that has the Son of God has life." (1 John 5:12)
Death cannot take from us the Son of God. "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me." (Psalm 23:4)
Christ has been through the tomb, and robbed it of its dark terrors. When He came, it had an entrance; when He left, it had an entrance and an exit! And now the Christian, as he comes to the dark passage before which earth's journey ends, beholds an opening through it which shows a light beyond. He enters it with his hand in the hand of Christ. We do not see His hand; but it is there. The Saviour never lets go the hand that is placed in His.
In the purposes of God, His sleeping saints still live. In His purposes those things that be not are counted as though they were. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years one day. (2 Peter 3:8) He calls himself "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." (Acts 3:13)
And Jesus declared, "God is not the God of the dead but of the living." (Matthew 22:32)
Not that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were then alive, for Christ spoke these words to prove a resurrection to come. But God counts them alive; for eternal life is theirs. In His eternal purposes, the lapse of time is not taken into account. The
Christian here is dead, and his life is "hid with Christ in God." (Colossians 3:3)
He lives in the world, but he is not of the world. There is no life in the world but the life of sin; and to that he counts himself dead. By the cross of Christ the world is crucified unto him, and he unto the world. He has life, but it is hid with Christ. It will not be seen or manifested till the day of His appearing.
And this life is obtained through death. Jesus passed through death that He might become the Prince of life to those that believe on Him. And we that believe on Him are crucified with Him. We likewise passed through death. We die to self that we may have life unto God. "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35)
Let us reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto the world, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. (Romans 6:11) "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you." (Romans 8:10-11)
Righteousness and life are inseparable, and if the Spirit of righteousness dwell in us, we shall be quickened by that Spirit unto eternal life at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whether we be living or dead, as Christ himself was quickened from the dead. "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh, you shall die; but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live." (Romans 8:12-13) "It is a faithful saying, For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." (2 Timothy 2:11-12) "[For] when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory." (Colossians 3:4)--Present Truth, October 12, 1893.