Honey From The Rock

www.poeministries.org

Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE HIDDEN LIFE

This entry was posted on 08-15-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

Part of the Risen Life is the Hidden Life. "What do you mean?" you may be thinking. Simply this. "For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3 NIV).

William Barclay notes, "The early Christians regarded baptism as a dying and a rising again. When a man was dead and buried, the Greeks very commonly spoke of him as being hidden in the earth; but the Christian had died a spiritual death in baptism and he is not hidden in the earth, but hidden in Christ. It was the experience of the early Christians that the very act of baptism wrapped a man round with Christ."

Isn't that a wonderful way to think of your "security blanket" in baptism? You are now wrapped around with Christ. Your life is now hidden in Christ. Your intimate fellowship with Christ is "invisible to spectators" (The Message). I like the Amplified Version here. "For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hid with Christ in God." What better place could it possibly be? No matter where you go, no matter what circumstances you find your self in, your life is now hidden with Christ in God!

I like this spiritual progression:
Dying with Christ
Buried with Christ
Risen with Christ
Hidden with Christ

Your life companion is Jesus Christ. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God! Talk about a secure feeling. What a good place to be! For in Christ "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. 2:3). No wonder Paul wrote, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?...nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 8:35, 39).

Hymn: "I've found a Friend, O such a Friend! He loved me ere I knew Him; He drew me with the cords of love, and thus He bound me to Him. And round my heart still closely twine those ties which naught can severs, for I am His, and He is mine, for ever and for ever" (J. G. Small).