Does anyone here struggle with sin? Did you know that in Colossians Chapter 2, Paul tells us that our sinful nature has been removed from us (Colossians 2:11)? Yet at the end of that same chapter Paul hints at our continuing search for victory over our sensual lusts. Like the rest of the world, we naturally gravitate toward restrictions against fleshly indulgence. “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” (Colossians 2:21). “Do not drink, do not dance, do not smoke.” Burkas and beds of nails; diets of grass and grubs; outlawed ice cream and rock and roll. But Paul tells us that prohibiting the indulgence of our fleshly desires doesn’t eliminate them. In fact, that oftentimes—perversely—fans their flames (Romans 7:5-13)! So what can we do? What does disarm our sensual lusts? It’s certainly not by reclassifying all our sensual indulgences as permissible! He actually has a far more effective weapon against the demanding desires of our flesh. Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV84)
Scripture quotations from the New International Version (NIV) (1984)
Raised with Christ
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
The New International Version is very generous in its translation of this first verse: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ” (emphasis added). It graciously assumes all who hear these words have been raised with Christ. The English Standard Version and the New American Standard, on the other hand, translate that along the lines of “If you have been raised with Christ.” So that begs the question, Have you been raised with Christ? Because that is key to Paul’s solution against the indulgence of the flesh. If you haven’t been raised, you have no hope of victory.
Do you know if you have been raised with Christ? If you have believed the Gospel, then God’s Word says you have been united with Christ in His death and you have been united with Him in His resurrection.
Colossians 2:11-13 (NIV84):
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature [flesh], not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature [flesh], God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
The “If” is not a question about the effectiveness of the Gospel in the life of a believer, but a question about whether or not you have truly believed the Gospel. If you have believed that Jesus is indeed the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully Man, and that He died sinless, in payment of your sins, and rose to life again on the third day, and if you have acknowledged His right to rule and define truth and justice and you have humbled yourself in repentance and received Him as Lord and Savior, then you have been forgiven of all your sins, your sin nature has been circumcised from you, and you have both died and risen to life again with Jesus Christ.
If you have not yet done that, today is a great day to bow the knee and believe.
But if you have already believed and received the Lord Jesus Christ, then you have long since been raised with Christ. So then, for you who have believed, Paul has this instruction: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,” therefore “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
Setting our Hearts
So what does that look like, to “set our hearts on things above”? What does it look like to set our heart on anything?
Have you ever had your heart set on going to Disneyland? Or a Hawaiian vacation? Have you ever had your heart set on going out with a particular guy or girl? Have you ever had your heart set on becoming a doctor or engineer or homemaker or anything else?
Then you already know how to set your heart on things—you just need to set it on things above. That means the things of heaven have a constant place—an overriding place—in your thoughts, your hopes, your dreams. You may zero in on some task at hand and forget all else, but as soon as you have a little free capacity in your brain, here it comes, sneaking in from the side, calling out for your attention, and you’re all too happy to give your attention to it. Because you actually delight to think on those things more than on anything else.
Yes, the things of heaven can and should be a constant distraction in our everyday lives. The things of heaven are to be your life goal, your life dream, your greatest hope. They should be your purpose for living and every decision you make should somehow work to bring you one step closer to gaining those things.
Think about how you shape and structure your life in order to gain what you set your heart on. If you’re saving for that amazing holiday trip, maybe you collect every loose coin and put it in a trip jar. Or maybe you cut back on every possible expense in order to loosen up more of your paycheck to save toward the goal. If you’re trying to win the attention of someone special, you think of ways to get into their orbit. You learn about their likes and dislikes, their hobbies and interests. Maybe you change your clothing style, maybe you take up a new hobby, maybe you just spend lots of time near where they can see you. If you’re intent on a particular profession, you invest your time and energy in studying well to get into the college and program that best suits your needs, wherever that may take you. We make major life-altering choices to gain the things on which we set our hearts.
We so easily set our hearts on all kinds of things, but what about the things of Heaven? Do we rearrange our daily priorities to dwell on the things where Christ is seated? Do we rearrange our life trajectory, big and small choices, in such a way that shows our hearts are set on things above?
Where our hearts are set, what is most important to us, will affect our ability to resist or give way to our fleshly lusts.
On Things Above
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
As believers in Jesus Christ, our hearts should be set on “things above, where Christ is,” that is, heavenly things—as contrasted with verse 2, “earthly things.”
This is Paul’s version of John’s
Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17, NIV84)
These are not suggestions. These are commands to the redeemed, to you and me who have put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. James tells us that the desire for earthly things is what causes quarrels and conflicts even among God’s people (James 4:1-2), so a heart set on earthly things will struggle with all kinds of temptation and ungodly desire. A heart set on earthly things is already crumbling before the lusts of the flesh. It already values the things of earth, even sinless things, more than the things above. James calls this “friendship with the world,” which makes us—speaking to believers—enemies of God (James 4:4).
We are not on the same page with God. We are bound to be in conflict with what matters to Him. We should not be surprised that our fleshly desires seem to have the upper hand against us. We’ve given them that power, even after Christ took it away. We’re working against God’s goal for us in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Can we really say we love God? Does the love of God truly dwell within us?
Paul tells us to set our hearts on things above, not on earthly things. Even marriage, which is God’s idea and design, but something only for this life (Matthew 22:30)—even about marriage, Paul says it’s better not to marry, so as to be wholly devoted to the Lord alone (1 Corinthians 7:1, 27, 32-34). Even about marriage, Paul wants to challenge us to live for the things above rather than merely earthly things.
Every one of us has our heart set on one thing or another. There may be a whole scattering of things we’ve tucked away in our hearts that we long for, but there is usually one big one, an overriding desire or dream or goal that drives the direction and major choices of our life.
What is yours? Is it an earthly thing or a heavenly thing? What even are heavenly things that we can set our hearts and minds on?
What do you understand Heaven to be? Do you think it’s just freedom from the sin and corruption of this world? Do you think it’s freedom from toil and labor? A rest so complete you never have to worry about anything ever again, but can drop any time, any place for the most relaxing and restorative nap ever?
It is all that, but so much more! What is there in Heaven to set our hearts upon?
You should think at least of your eternal inheritance. The place where Christ is seated is not exactly what you will inherit, but it will be part of it. You will ultimately inherit a new heavens and a new earth, and the dwelling of God will come down out of heaven and to remain upon the new earth forever.
Or maybe you think of long lost family and friends. You look forward to being reunited with them. But do you realize what they have been learning and doing since they left earth? Do you still know them? Do you understand who they are now and what they now delight in?
Think of the rich man who entered torment in Hades. He begged Abraham to send Lazarus the beggar back to his brothers to warn them not to come also to that place of torment (Luke 16:19-31). That’s what unbelievers who genuinely care about their family and friends are thinking. But what about the saved who joined Jesus in Paradise? Whether they were saved by the skin of their teeth, or they lived purposefully for the kingdom of God while they walked the earth. What have they discovered in Heaven? Has it affected what they think and hope and even pray for you and me who remain here? Is it, perhaps, that we would stop wasting our time and energy on earthly pursuits? Is it that we would set our hearts on things above and start living for them?
Are you preparing yourself to live among them? Their culture, their customs, their values are described in the verses that follow and throughout the pages of Scripture. They now have a singular focus to all they live and do: the Lord God who sits upon the throne, and His Son, Jesus Christ, who sits beside Him.
Or maybe you think about those angelic beings? There are the human-appearing ones, like Gabriel—or at least that’s how he showed up to Daniel, Zechariah and Mary. There are the six-winged Seraphs flying above the throne of God (Isaiah 6:2,6). Then there are the four-faced, four-winged, eye-covered Cherubim around the throne of God, from Ezekiel’s several visions.
Do you understand you will be dwelling with them for eternity? They are servants of God, just as we are (Hebrews 1:7; Revelation 22:9). They serve God and us who inherit salvation (Hebrews 1:14)! You and I too were created to carry out God’s will on earth (Colossians 1:16) and to proclaim His glory among the nations (1 Peter 2:9). We are made a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8:4-5), yet one day we will judge the world to come and the angels (1 Corinthians 6:2-3)! Does that excite you or scare you? Are you ready to judge the angels? Do you know God at least as well as they do? Are you ready to guide and instruct them? How are you preparing for that?
More important than all that? Heaven is the dwelling place of God! The psalmists spoke of it like this,
How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God…. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. (Psalm 84:1-2, 10, NIV84)
Or,
I long to dwell in your tent forever, and take refuge in the shelter of your wings (Psalm 61:4, NIV84)
Is that the cry of your heart? Zeal for God’s house consumes these people (Psalm 69:9). Not some building down here on earth, but the heavenly throne room of God above! Does longing for that house, where there are many rooms that Jesus is preparing for each of us who believes (John 14:2-3), does longing for that house consume you?
Why would it? Why should it? Because God is there! “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25-26, NIV84). Why does longing for God consume these men?
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. (Psalm 84:11-12, NIV84)
For you have heard my vows, O God; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. (Psalm 61:5, NIV84)
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. (Psalm 73:23-24, NIV84)
Paul understood these things. Paul was undone by the glory and goodness and majesty of Jesus Christ. He wrote to the Philippians,
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:7-11, NIV84)
Nothing mattered more to Paul than knowing Christ now, knowing His power, fellowshiping in His sufferings—becoming like Him in His death in order to attain to the resurrection of the dead—in order to obtain entry into the dwelling place of God, so as to stand in His presence forever—as if he could earn the right, as if to be worthy of Christ’s sacrifice and love. He sounds like a man who has taken up his cross daily to follow Jesus Christ (Luke 14:27)! Because of that, he says, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14, NIV84).
Are you, like these men, in awe of Jesus Christ and His almighty power and blazing glory? Do you stand in awe of the cross of Christ, and have you let it crucify the world to you and you to the world? That’s where victory over sin and sinful lusts lies.
The world and its glories and its riches and its pleasures no longer mean anything to you. The world has been put to death in your eyes—it is dead and gone—and you have died to all those things the world offers to entice you. You have found something far better, far richer, far more glorious in Christ and in His heavenly dwelling place.
If you love Him above all else, if you long for Him above all else, it is an easy thing, a natural thing to delight yourself more in what delights Him than in what delights your flesh.
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:3-5, NIV84)
Faith in Jesus Christ should bring about a love for God that overcomes the world and delights to walk in God’s ways. His commands are no trial at all, no burden, but a joy.
Paul is writing to the Colossians, most of whom he has never met, and he is calling them to want Jesus more than anything else. This is not a suggestion. This is a command. This is not a call only for some special believers to take upon themselves. This is a call for all who believe! “If you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above!”
Have you been raised with Christ? Then you should set your heart and mind “on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
You are wasting your life’s potential if all you settle for is some earthly ambition! You and I are called to set our hearts on Heaven, on Christ Himself and live for His eternal kingdom and purposes. Anything less and you’ve missed the point of Christ’s sacrifice. You’ve missed the redemption He intends to bring you. Anything less and your heart and mind will still be filled with the dreams and stuff of earth, and you’ll know only fleeting victory over the lusts of your flesh.
You Died
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
In Ephesians 2:4-6 (NIV84), Paul wrote:
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
We died. And our lives hidden with Christ in God. Oh, but our lives are not just hidden with Christ, we have been raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realms! Our lives or a deposit or some guarantee isn’t just stored up for us in Heaven—we are already seated with Christ in the presence of God!
We so naturally set our hearts on something down here, like the examples I’ve already given. Because this is where we live. This is what surrounds us. And we need to make a living, provide for a family, and get through the days allotted to us here on earth.
We look around here and see what life purposes are on offer, and we pick the one that suits our wants and wishes best. But as believers, we’re not supposed to take our cue from this place, but from the one above! We should be looking around Heaven, seeing what’s important up there and choosing our path and purpose down here based on what has value up there!
If you have been raised with Christ, you are seated with Christ in the throne room of God! Look around you—what do you see? Probably something like the fourth chapter of Revelation (4:2-11, NIV84). Close your eyes and picture this—this is what you should be seeing:
At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Does this excites you? Have you seen the God who is worthy of constant worship, celebration, glory? Are you consumed with that worship and delight? If not, then I would suggest you spend a little more time each day in the real throne room of God. Come into that room to listen, to learn, and yes, to pray. Spend time daily in God’s Word, seeing who He is, how powerful, how awesome, how good and righteous. Direct your heart there and let it be filled with His glory and goodness!
Exchanged
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
This living down here is not really your life. Christ is! Paul wrote to the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, NIV84). This life I live down here is no longer for my purposes, but for Christ’s goals and glory. We don’t need to surrender control so much as surrender lordship. Who’s in charge? In every letter Paul writes, he talks of our responsibility to put off the old and put on the new (Colossians 3:9-10; Ephesians 4:22-24), to stop submitting the members of our body in slavery to sin and to give them over in slavery to righteousness (Romans 6:12-14). That is so much easier when you and I set our heart on God Himself and the things that matter to Him. “Not my will, but yours be done,” as Jesus prayed in the garden (Luke 22:42, NIV84).
The Apostle John summed it up like this:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (1 John 3:1-6, NIV84)
Something amazing is coming when Jesus returns and we appear with Him. We don’t fully understand what God has planned for us, but if today we are His children, tomorrow can only be better! And we who hold fast this hope—it compels us to change, to purify ourselves, just as He who is our life is pure! In that, we have hope to conquer our sinful desires and practices.
Our victory over sensual lusts, evil desires, worldly temptation comes not from gutting it out or going toe-to-toe with sin. It comes from turning our hearts and our attention fully on Jesus Christ and the glories awaiting us in His presence!
And it’s as simple as letting go of our earthly hopes and dreams—replacing them with the far greater promises of Heaven and our hope of seeing Jesus as clearly as He sees us now (1 Corinthians 13:12). It takes reading this Book again and again to see and know Who our God is and the fullness of His glory and holiness, that the cry, “Holy! Holy! Holy!” would spring just as naturally and freely and frequently from our lips as it does the angels in God’s throne room. The more we know Him, the more we know His plans and purposes, His commands and instructions, the more our lives are shaped by these things. In the everyday things and in the big, life-trajectory things.
And sin? We don’t need the “do-nots” to keep us from doing wrong. Sinful desires lose their appeal! Our hearts are filled with greater things, that strip the lusts of the flesh of all power.
Do you want freedom from sin? You can keep slugging it out with temptation. You’ll win some; you’ll lose lots. Or you can embrace the death Jesus brought you, so that you can live the real life He’s already given you, in full freedom from the power of your flesh. Set your heart on things above, not on earthly things. What will you choose?