Seek
and Set: A Dynamic Duo
In many places, the scriptures set
forth dynamic duos side-by-side, sacred twins, that are inseparable.
Together they represent either attributes of God or ingredients
believers need to traverse this present world on their sojourn toward
heaven. Noteworthy among them are goodness and mercy (Psalm 23:6),
grace and truth (John 1:17), forgetting and reaching forth (Philippians
3:13), forgiving and forbearing (Colossians 3:13). We find yet another
dynamic duo in Colossians 3:1-3 as part of an admonition Paul issued to
the church at Colosse:
“If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the
earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God.”
In the first two chapters of
Colossians, the apostle Paul lays out one of the great theological
masterpieces in the NT. The essence of his dissertation is the
all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ for the believer. In Christ dwells all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily; the believer is therefore complete
in him (2:9-10). The fulness of Jesus Christ is all the fulness a
believer needs! But it goes beyond the NEED FOR his fulness.
The believer is in POSSESSION OF his fulness. One of the greatest
truths a believer can master early on in his Christian walk is the
unfathomable and incomprehensible riches that are now his by virtue of
his relationship with Christ.
Having laid the theological
foundation for the Christian faith in Chapters 1-2, Paul embarks upon
Chapter 3 with this condition: “If
ye then be risen with Christ.” Two
observations are in order. First, the Greek (the condition ει with the
indicative) makes this a first class condition where the condition is
assumed to be true. The force of the condition is: “SINCE you have been
risen with Christ.” Paul often uses this device in his writings
to assure readers he's not doubting them. Secondly, the verb is passive. A believer is the
recipient of resurrection power. He cannot raise himself unto spiritual
life. God the Father imparts the life of his Son TO the believer in
response to his faith IN him. But there are religious cults
that teach
a form of will worship, wherein adherents, by sheer determination, can
bring about spiritual life.
Enter the dynamic duo. Paul
admonishes those who have experienced the
resurrection life of Christ to SEEK the things which are above and SET
their affections upon them. The verb seek (zēteō, “to seek in
order
to find, to crave”) has a built-in expectation. It means to go after
its object with ZEAL. Jesus used seek to
describe the zeal with which HE pursues the lost and the
zeal WE should exhibit for the kingdom of God as the first
priority of life (Luke 19:10; Matthew 6:33). The verb set affections is phroneō,
“to exercise or direct the mind toward a particular object.” It is used
often in contexts that stress like-mindedness. The object of SEEK and
SET is “things above.” It goes without saying the things Paul has in
mind are the things of Christ laid out in Chapters 1-2. Christ is to
have preeminence in ALL things (1:18) with the goal that EVERY thought
is
brought into obedience to him (2 Corinthians 10:5). Both of
these
dynamic-duo verbs are in the imperative. They are not suggestions, but
absolute MUSTS for Christian living.
The protocols for earthly things and
things above work in reverse. On
this earth, death is the FINAL event that spells the END of physical
life. In the spiritual realm, however, death is the FIRST event that
marks the
BEGINNING of spiritual life. Paul writes: “For ye are dead”
(3:3). The
Greek is aorist tense, active voice. The literal translation is: “For
you died.” The use of the active voice is not intended to convey the
cause of death as if the believer had anything to do with it. He's
stating a present reality established in time past—the moment they
believed on Jesus. Before the believer ever comes to live IN
Christ, he dies WITH Christ. The believer cannot crucify himself. In
Galatians 2:20, Paul said: “For
I am crucified with Christ.” The verb
is a perfect passive participle. A literal translation: “I am one
having been crucified with Christ with the result I remain dead.”
Before Paul ever lived in Christ, he died with Christ. The cause of
death is the cross of Christ. The Father does the crucifying of the
believer, and signs the death certificate!
The importance of this truth cannot
be overstated. In Romans 7:4, the
scripture says: “Wherefore,
my brethren, ye also are become DEAD TO THE
LAW by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even
to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit
unto God.” In the context, Paul teaches us that God the
Father, in
order to wed the believer to his Son, had to dissolve the marriage
between the believer and the Law by facilitating one of their deaths.
In salvation's plan, the Father kept the Law alive and made the
believer a participant in the death of his Son. The believer, being
dead to the Law, is free to marry Christ. In Paul's analogy, the Law is
the surviving spouse. Therefore bringing forth fruit unto God cannot
mean obedience to the Law, but rather exhibiting the fruit of the
Spirit as he grows in Christ-likeness.
If one did not understand this
fundamental dynamic, he might get the impression from the average
Baptist church that God saved us so we'd have the
power to follow the Law. There are tens of thousands
of churches across America that unwittingly give this
impression
because their pastors, illiterate in the gospel of grace, properly
teach their
people that justification is by grace through faith, then
erroneously equate
sanctification (discipleship) to behavior modification.
The 'disciple' is taught to develop wholesome habits, attend
church, improve his dress code, stop drinking, smoking and cursing,
begin tithing and live life by the Ten Commandments. There is
nothing inherently wrong with
these standards, but they are not necessarily expressive of the life of
Christ. A lost man can do all these things without Christ. But he
cannot bear fruit apart from the Vine. When a man is filled with
the Spirit and bearing fruit, he will live life on a
loftier level, grow in
Christ-likeness
and exceed the righteousness of the Law by default (see Romans
8:1-4).
The believer DIES before he LIVES,
and is both DEAD and ALIVE as he
sojourns! Paul adds: “Your
life is hid with Christ in God.” The verb is hid is κρύπτω
(kryptō), “to
conceal (by covering).” Our English
words crypt, cryptography and encryption comes from this root. The verb
is perfect passive tense. A literal translation: “Your life has
been hidden (concealed) with Christ in God with the result it
remains covered.” There are other texts that affirm the security of the
believer. But there are NONE that express it in more affirmative
terms.
We're living in an age where hackers
have mastered the art of breaking
encryption on protected databases and stealing information. As a
defensive measure, information technologists are developing and
implementing 'layers' of
encryption to make databases less vulnerable if not hack proof. But no
power in heaven or earth is able to break the encryption God has placed
on the spiritual lives of his children. In fact, God has had his own 'layers' of
encryption for two thousand years—the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit. That pretty much makes the life of the believer
unhackable!
How much more motivation do we as
believers need to SEEK those things
above and SET OUR AFFECTIONS upon them? SEEK and SET are a dynamic duo
for the one who is DEAD to the Law and ALIVE unto God! They are
eminently doable and ultimately determinative of the degree to which
the believer achieves Christ-likeness in this life. If you're a
believer who has strayed, whose heart has grown lukewarm, it's never
too late for a RESET!
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