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What does it mean to celebrate Easter? How do we participate in Christ’s victory as God intends?
Paul wrote to the Colossians:
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1–4 NIV84, emphasis mine).
What does it mean to die and have our lives hidden with Christ in God?
Using very simple bullet points, this is my understanding:
- God created one human being out of dirt and breathed into that one human being one breath of life—the animating spirit—the motivation of perfect love and trust (Genesis 2:7).
- Adam and Eve corrupted their life, their shared spirit, with fear and selfishness (Genesis 3:10).
- Every other human being shares the same breath of life—which is now corrupted with fear and selfishness (Romans 5:12).
- We are all born with this corrupt spirit, which naturally distrusts God and seeks to run away from Him, severing our connection and causing death (Psalm 51:5; Romans 8::7; James 1:15).
- God loved humanity too much to let us go, so He sent His Son, Jesus, to save us from sin—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; 3:16).
- Jesus was born of Mary and, thereby, partook of the same breath of life, spirit, that Adam corrupted, but the Father to Jesus’ humanity was the Holy Spirit, so in the humanity of Jesus, God breathed a second, new, sinless spirit, or breath of life (Matthew 1:20; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8).
- Jesus lived as a human, using only human abilities, and was tempted in all points like we are but never gave in to fear, lies, and selfishness. He developed a perfect sinless humanity and, at the cross, destroyed, purged, killed the corrupt life, the spirit of fear and selfishness inherited from Adam. He then rose on the third day in a humanity that is perfect, sin-free, and animated only by the spirit He received from the Holy Spirit (John 5:30; Hebrews 2:17; 4:15; 5:9).
- He became the new head of humanity, the second Adam, because He is a real member of this family, having partaken of the life passed down by Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45–47).
- He now offers us the privilege of being saved, healed, renewed, cleansed from sin—how?
- By surrendering in trust to Him the life of fear and selfishness we inherited from Adam and receiving His life. When we trust Him, we open the heart and the Holy Spirit brings us a new life, the life of Christ, and we are reborn with new animating energy and motives (John 3:3). Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches who when attached in trust receiving the life-giving spirit of love and truth (John 15:15).
- As Paul wrote, it was no longer his old self living but Christ living in him (Galatians 2:20).
- As Peter wrote, we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
(For a detailed explanation with references, see our magazine Salvation and You: What It Really Means to Be Saved.)
This is what Paul was describing to the Colossians. Conversion is the moment we surrender the life we inherited from Adam, the life of fear and selfishness, and in trust receive a new life, the life of Christ. That is what it means that we have died with Christ, because Christ is the new head of humanity, having picked up the corrupt life passed on to all of us and purged it, replacing it with His sinless life—not legally in a record book, but in reality, in physiology, in His humanity! And when we are won to trust, we receive His Spirit and are reborn with a new animating life—Christ lives in us!
And then, the moment we are converted, reborn with the life, spirit, of Christ, we enter the daily journey of growing in godliness by choosing to embrace, apply, and live out ever-increasing revelations of God’s love and truth.
We accelerate our healing, our transformation, by ingesting the Word of God, the truth, into our hearts and minds as we internalize God’s Word. This is not mere memorization, but thoughtful, loving appreciation and acceptance of the truth into our hearts. In this process, we are transformed and the old is cut away.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12 NIV84, emphasis mine).
As we embrace and choose God’s Word—accepting it, applying it, saying yes to it—the truth gets encoded into our brains, which causes a real change in us. Our perspectives change, our discernment improves, our understanding of reality becomes ever clearer, and our love and appreciation for God and His methods are strengthened. We grow ever closer to Jesus, and our love and trust in Him deepens, and our souls, our individualities, are slowly freed from the control of the spirit of fear with which we were born. We are being transformed, established, and connected with ever-increasing vitality to the Spirit of love and trust. And love and trust become the dominant, motivating drives that move us to action. As Paul wrote,
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:14–15 NIV84).
This is reality! This is how we are saved—by, in reality, dying to the life of fear and selfishness and receiving the life of Christ. This is not a legal process happening in books; it is a reality-based experience that must happen in every heart and mind in order for them to be saved. It is the reality of how God built us to operate. We are built as living beings who have the freedom to think, to love, and to choose.
We must choose the truth for ourselves; we must choose to trust for ourselves. And when we do, we receive divine power that does the transforming and renewing, but God cannot do the studying for us, cannot do the choosing for us, and cannot do the trusting for us. God provides the truth, the love, the new sinless life in Christ, and the power to succeed, but we must choose what we watch, read, listen to, who we associate with, what we believe, and ultimately who we trust. So,
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things (Philippians 4:8 NIV84).
As you trust Jesus this Easter, go deeper, truly die to the old life; let go of the attachments to this world, and focus on and internalize the things of heaven, for this is how He saves us—it is how we hide our lives with Him!
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