«　WEEK 6　DAY 2　»

　　Col. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ 3:3-4 in God. When Christ our life is manifested, then you also will be manifested with Him in glory.

　　In Colossians 3:3 and 4 Paul twice speaks of life, indicating thereby that we have one life with Christ. In verse 3 he says that our life “is hidden with Christ in God.” In verse 4 he goes on to speak of when “Christ our life is manifested.”

　　According to our experience and according to the Word, life here is Christ’s life becoming our life. If it were merely Christ’s life, it could not be called “our life.”...However, the life here is not our natural life, the life inherited from Adam. Such a life could never be that which is hidden with Christ in God. God would never allow the natural life inherited from Adam to be hidden in Him. The only life that can be hidden with Christ in God is the divine life, the very life of Christ. It is this life which has become our life. Paul’s use of the expression our life indicates that we and Christ, and also God Himself, have one life. We should not think that God has one life, that Christ has another life, and that we who believe in Christ have yet another life. Rather, God, Christ, and the believers have one life. The life of God is the life of Christ, and the life of Christ has become our life.

　　We see a sister who is gentle, quiet, and kind, and we think that because she has such characteristics she is full of life. Seeing a brother who is an eloquent and powerful speaker, we may take his power and eloquence as signs of life. However, in both cases what we see may be the natural life, not the life that Christ has, the life hidden with Christ in God. (Life-study of Colossians, pp. 520-521)

　　Colossians 3:4 speaks of “Christ our life.” Christ is God and also life (1 John 5:12). The life which is God, the life that God is, is in Christ (John 1:4). Hence, the Lord Jesus said that He is life (John 14:6; 11:25) and that He came that we may have life (John 10:10). Therefore, he who has Christ has life (1 John 5:12), and He now dwells in the believers as life. Just as life is God Himself, so also life is Christ. Just as having life is having God Himself, so also having life is having Christ. Christ is God becoming life to us. Through Christ God is manifested as life. Therefore, Christ is now our life. Christ must be our life in a practical and experiential way day by day. He should be our life within, and we should have one life and living with Him.

　　For Christ to be our life means that He is subjective to us to the uttermost. Nothing is more subjective to us, or more intimately related to us, than our life. Our life is actually we ourselves. It is impossible to separate a person from the life of that person, for a person’s life is the person himself. If we did not have life, we would cease to be. To say that Christ has become our life means that Christ has become us. Since our life cannot be separated from us and since Christ is our life, He cannot be separated from us. Because our life is our self and because Christ is our life, we may say that, in this sense, Christ has become us.

　　With Christ as the believers’ life there are three characteristics. First, this life is a crucified life. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, He always lived a crucified life. If we truly experience Christ as our life, we also shall live a crucified life. Such a crucified life is a life that has been processed and thoroughly dealt with. The second characteristic of Christ as our life is that this life is a resurrected life. Nothing, including death, can suppress it. Finally, this is a life hidden in God (Col. 3:3). Only the divine life can be hidden in God. If we experience Christ as our life, what we do in the church will not be done in a showy way but rather be done by a life hidden in God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 543-545)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 29, 50