ame time clearer and stronger: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. if>QovEtv is a stronger term than seek, stronger also than the translation in our Bible. It means to set not only one's affection but one's entire heart and soul on a matter, to let one's whole mind, every thought and desire and consideration, be occupied with, and directed toward, the things above, not toward things on the earth. The apostle himself enumerates a number of the matters pertaining to this earth, vv. 5-8. The Old Adam is only too willing to run with the world into the same excess of riot, 1 Pet. 4: 4; yet the new man will always direct his mind and thoughts toward that Christlike conversation described in vv.10-17. In the chapter preceding our text the apostle had warned against some of the more subtle forms of seeking and minding earthly things. He had cautioned his readers against will worship, iih,,,oitQf)C1xLa, 2: 23, a self-willed worship, a form of service chosen by man's own will. An example of such self-chosen service is the Sermon Study on Col. 3: 1-4 369 observance of certain days as a divinely commanded act, the ab- staining from certain meats and drinks, 2: 16, which forms of wor- ship were at best shadows of things to come, earthly types, v.17, rendered unnecessary since the body, the heavenly antitype, Christ, has come. Such a self-chosen worship is the voluntary humility, 2: 18, 23, that sham meekness, which only too frequently is coupled with vain, puffed-up haughtiness, manifesting itself as soon as one contradicts their ability to penetrate into those things which they have not seen, on which Scripture is silent, which they claim to know to perfection; cpo 2: 19. Vve think, e. g., of millennialists of almost every type, of Christian Scientists, theosophists, etc. Such self-willed service is false asceticism, neglect of the body and its needs and requirements, vv. 21, 23, practised by so many self-styled saints. The world may regard such self-chosen worship as wisdom supreme, as true holiness. It may appeal to the natural religious feeling of man. Yet all such worship, like all service of sin, is of the earth, earthly, incompatible with the things above. Therefore a Christian will not be deceived and beguiled of his reward by their vain claims, 2: 8, 18. He will not fall victim to their allure- ments, will not set his heart and mind on these things of the earth, but will direct his thoughts upward, heavenward, to the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Seeking justification, occupying his mind with the salvation of his soul, - and a Christian knows of no matter more important,- a Christian will not look to earthly matters for salvation, to a righteousness of his O\V!1 making. He will not trust in his own virtue, nor rely on his own character. He seeks salvation not on this earth but sets his heart and mind on things above, on that righteousness which Christ above has earned for Him; that gar- ment of fine linen, clean and white, which the Lamb gives to all His followers, against which all other garments are as filthy rags; that righteousness which alone is accepted as perfect by God, since it is a righteousness which His own Son has purchased by His obedience and death. Seeking sanctification of life, deliberating on ways and means to serve His God and Savior, again a Christian does not mind earthly things. He looks for information not to the sages of the world; he does not ask his own reason, does not work out a scheme of his own, to worship and serve the Most High. He relies not on his own strength to do the will of God. Nor is he dis- couraged because of the weakness of his own flesh and blood or because of the power and fierceness of the enemies opposing him. All that is of the earth, while his heart and mind is set on that which is above. He lifts up his eyes unto the eternal hills whence cometh his help. There, in heaven, sits Christ, his Savior, on the 24 370 Sermon Study on Col. 3: 1-4 right hand of God, Jesus, the Author and Finisher of his salvation, his Righteousness and Sanctification. Humbly he confesses: Rom. 7: 18; yet more than conqueror through Christ that loved him, he defies all his enemies and exclaims: 1 Cor. 12: 9 b; Phil. 4: 13. The Christian will find joy and satisfaction in the beauty of nature, in God-pleasing arts and sciences, in the happiness of family life, of friendship and Christian fellowship. He will faith- fully perform the duties or his earthly calling and profession. Yet he remembers that, after ali, these pleasures and duties pertain to the things of this earth, and he will never permit them to fill his heart and mind to the exclusion, the neglect, the slighting, of that heaven-born joy, that peace divine, which the redeemed soul has found in Christ Jesus, its heavenly Bridegroom. In Him the Chris- tian is complete. For in Christ dwelleth the fulness of the God- head bodily, Col. 2, 9. Having Christ, can we ask for more? In Him the Christian finds the full satisfaction of every spiritual want. Seek Him! Set your affection, your whole heart and mind and soul, on Him alone! Is it not to be deplored that Christians are still in need of such an admonition? Alas for the weakness of our faith and life! Alas for the strength of the Old Adam in us, who constantly drags us down from the realms on high, from heavenly joy and peace and life, from the throne of God and Christ, into the dust and dirt of this earth, into its vanities, its sins, its self- righteousness, into the pride of flesh and the lust of eyes and the love of the world, which passeth away! Sursum corda! Set your heart and mind on things above! That is not impossible, even if at times it seems a hopeless undertaking. To encourage his Christians, to strengthen them for their struggle against those matters mundane which would fill their heart, the apostle adds another reason for heavenly-mindedness. For ye are dead, Wt8ihJ.V8'tE; for ye have died. Their resurrec- tion with Christ (v. 1; cpo 2: 12,13) implied that they died with Christ. "Death annuls all obligations, breaks all ties, cancels all old scores." (Expositor's Greek Testament on Rom. 6: 7.) Christ, as the apostle states, Rom. 6: 10, died unto sin once, EqJWta;, once for all. While He lived, sin lay upon Him; He was burdened by its guilt, which was imputed to Him by His Father; He suffered the penalties of sin; He was craftily tempted by Satan. This relation to sin, which He had of His own free will assumed from the moment of His conception, ceased with death. He had died unto sin, had no longer any relation to sin. Its guilt was done away with, its penalties fully paid; its power to attack Him in futile efforts to seduce Him was at an end. Together with this Christ, the believers, one with Him in faith, have died unto sin when they united with Him in Baptism. Sin has lost its right to accuse them, Sermon Study on Col. 3:1-4 371 its authority to condemn them, its power to rule over them. They are freed from sin, Rom. 6: 7, freed from its jurisdiction by the judicial sentence of the Supreme Judge. Their old sinful life and the things of this earth can influence them as little as all the riches and pomp and pleasures of this world can influence a man dead and buried. He is blind, deaf, dumb, dead, to all its lures and attractions. Of course, the apostle is speaking here of the Chris- tian as a new-born, spiritual man, of his new nature. It is this new man, which constitutes him a Christian, to which he owes whatever spiritual power he possesses. Paul does not carry out the thought of death to sin and things of the earth but hurries on to tell his readers more about the glorious life which was engendered in them when they became Christians. He had already told them that their life was intimately bound up with the life of the risen Christ. In Christ their spiritual life has its source and well-spring; from Him they daily draw new life and strength. Now he tells them that their life is hidden, the perfect denoting that the state of being hidden still continues. The apostle uses not ~LO!;', the mode or manner of life, but 1;0111, life as existence, as to its true nature. The manner of life, its manifestation, is not hidden, and should not remain hidden, Matt. 5: 16; 1 Pet. 2: 12. But its real nature, its well-spring, is hidden. We see the water gushing forth from the rock and hear it murmur- ing, babbling, as it flows over its stony bed; yet its origin is hidden deep, deep in the rock, invisible to human eye. We see the trees bud, the shrubs put forth their leaves, the flowers burst into glorious bloom. We can tell the difference between a dead plant and a living one; yet the life itself, which is so evident in its effects, is invisible, hidden, a deep mystery. That is true of the physical life of man, of his mental life, and especially of the spiritual life of twice-born men. What is that faith that makes a Christian so different in actions, words, thoughts, desires, from an unbeliever? Just what kind of power is it that enables a Christian to exclaim with Paul: Rom. 8: 28-39; Gal. 6: 14; Phil. 3: 7 ff.; 4: 12, 13? To natural man that seems folly and foolishness, superstition, hypoc- risy, weak-mindedness, bigotry, odium humani generis, etc. And even to the believing child of God it is a mystery, hidden to his understanding, even though he feels the heart-throbs of this life within himself and is aware of the indwelling in him of the Triune God and His Spirit, Rom. 8: 26 ff. As long as we live in this world, our life as children of God is hidden with Christ in God. Christ, who as our Savior came upon this earth a true man, visible to his fellow-men, has now ascended on high, has removed His visible presence from man. He is now in God, the Omnipresent One. In this omnipresent, yet invisible 872 Sermon Study on Col. 3: 1-4 God, Christ now is, has His being. His life is in God, hidden, mysterious, invisible. We see His guiding hand in the history of the world, of the Church, of our own lives, and still His life, what is it? Where is it? What is its nature? What is the secret of its power? We cannot tell, human mind, mortal reason, cannot lift that veil behind which Christ's life in God is hidden. It is a life of a true human being, a spiritual life of perfect righteousness and absolute holiness. It is a life in God, entirely, essentially, inti- mately, united with God, completely absorbed in God and in things divine,· a life that finds its bliss, its sole happiness, its life, in God. With this Christ our life is hidden in God. Christians live in Christ. Though sitting at the right hand of God, He is not removed from His Christians, He is still united with them, dwells in their hearts. Their lives are part of His life, His life their life, Gal. 2: 20. His life shall be in His believing followers a well of water, the sources and hidden springs of which are in Christ, in God, and which already here in this world bubbles forth into a living stream of good works and finally flows into everlasting life. This hidden life coming down from the throne of God brings a bit of heaven into this sinful earth. Christian homes, Christian communities, breathe indeed a spirit of Paradise, are vestibules of the mansions above. How much more like peaceful, happy Eden would this earth be if more homes, more communities, would give evidence of that life outlined by the apostle in his exhortation to manifest Christian heavenly-mindedness, chap. 3: 10 to 4: 6! The aorist futdtaVE1:E had called the attention of Paul's readers to "the accomplished act of dying" (Meyer), the perfect :KEltQu;t'taL to "the continuous subsisting relation in reference to the present up to the parousia." (Meyer). Now he directs their hearts and minds to this future revelation of their hidden life. When Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Note the absence of any connectives. Repentina luce percellit, says Bengel. The abruptness of speech startles by its sudden unexpected light. When, ow.v, at the time that Christ appears, who is our Life (John 14: 11; 6: 33,48-58), with whom our life is now hidden in God; at the time that He fulfils His promise (John 14: 4; Acts 1: 11), then, 't61:(;, at that precise moment, shall ye also appear in glory. Ye, every individual Christian is addressed. Not only will the Church as a body appear in glory, so that our individual existence shall have ceased; no; ye, every single Christian, young or old, man or woman, shall then be manifested in glory. That Christ who is Resurrection and Life, with whom the Christian already in this life has been quickened, with whom every individual believer has been united in that Sermon Study on Col. 3: 1-4 373 strange mystic union, that Christ will manifest Himself as Life, as the Life of His Christians, as our Life, by raising our mortal body, by reuniting the soul with the body, by glorifying us with the likeness of His own glorified body, 1 Cor. 15; John 17. Then it will become manifest to a11- to us, to our feilow-saints, to the world - that our life already in this earth was life indeed, that our Christian assurance of spiritual and eternal life, based on the promise of our Savior, was not an idle fancy, not a man-made theory, doomed finally to die and be buried in that vast graveyard of theories discarded and hopes blasted. On that blessed day our life shall appear in its true nature, life in the fullest sense of the word, a life which is beyond the possibility of our present conception, a life in which we shall participate with Christ, our Life, in that heavenly life into which He entered when He ascended on High to sit on the right hand of God. Our text with its wealth of thoughts suitable for sermons on Ascension Day again proves the mastery of the compilers of the Eisenach series in choosing passages appropriate to the occasion. It directs hearts and minds upward to the ascended Christ. After presenting the story of the ascension in the introduction, the preacher may choose for his theme, Ascension Thoughts jor Ascen- sion Day. Let us direct our minds and hearts to Christ's ascension, to our daily ascension (cp. Hymn 233:5; 236:2), to our final ascension. - The Ascended Christ is All in All. With Him we have died unto sin. With Him we are living in a heavenly life. With Him we shall appear in glory. - Though Christ has withdrawn His visible presence, He is with us and will be with us forever. Manifestations of the Ascended Christ. In the lives of His Chris- tians. In the appearance on that Day. - Though in many respects there seems to be no difference between the lives of Christians and unbelievers, there is an essential difference. The unbeliever's life is of the earth, earthly. The Christian's Life a Life in Christ. 1) In Christ it has its hidden well-spring. 2) In Christ the Chris- tian's life on earth becomes a heavenly life. 3) In Christ his life shall be manifested in glory. - Seek Those Things that Are Above! There is Christ, your Savior. There is the fountain of your strength. There you shall be forever with Christ. - The ascended Christ charged His Church, Matt. 28: 19,20; Acts 1: 9. What has our Church done during the past century? What are we doing? Why do So Many Christians Take So Little Interest in Spreading the Kingdom of Christ? Because we forget our enduring obliga- tion to our King, our ever present strength in Christ, our future glory with Christ. TH. LAETSCH