Our Lives Hidden With Christ

How should we respond to the redemption we've received in Christ?

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Answer

When we look at the epistles of the apostle Paul, what we see are writings that are literally filled with the sense that, possibly even tomorrow, the Lord Jesus Christ might return. And what this produced in Paul's life, and what it should produce in our lives, is a sense of a desire to constantly live our lives pleasing to God. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 5, where he speaks about that he lives in both fear, knowing that he will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, but also that the love of Christ constrains him and calls him to live out his life before God in a very effective manner. And so, there is an anticipation. There is also a sense of purification. 1 John 3 talks about the need to purify ourselves because we are children of God, that Christ will appear, and we will be like him, and anyone who sets his hope on this purifies himself. And so, both the anticipation, the purification, and the willingness of the believer to constantly be pulled, as it were, toward eternity. Our life is not here truly; it is hidden with Christ, as Paul says in Colossians 3.

Answer by Dr. Jeff Lowman

Dr. Jeff Lowman is Professor of Homiletics and Systematic Theology at Birmingham Theological Seminary and pastor at Evangel Presbyterian Church in Helena, Alabama