Hidden with Christ

This past week Colossians 3:3 was part of my reading. The word hidden caught my attention.

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Hidden stood out because I have been praying every morning for some who are grieving, some impacted by abuse, and others who are fighting cancer or chronic illness. The idea of them being hidden in Jesus’ love, comfort, and protection was encouraging. We know from our study of many of the Psalms that God is a refuge, a shelter, or a fortress where we can safely hide. In Psalm 61:1-5, 8, we specifically studied the shelter of being hidden under God’s wings.

However, Colossians 3:3 has a different meaning for hidden. That hasn’t deterred me, though. I decided that if God caused that verse to stand out to me, then maybe someone needs to hear about a life hidden with Christ in God that Paul wrote about.

Years ago, when I was a youth leader in California, one of our youth families had our group over to their house. They had a woodsy yard with plenty of room to run around especially for Southern California. We decided to play sardines outside. For those who aren’t familiar with this game, one person hides. Everyone else looks for them. If you find the hider, you join them in hiding. Others keep joining the hiders until the last person discovers them.

I don’t remember if I was the original hider or the first to find the hider, but I was hiding in the hollow of a big tree. In the darkness, all the searchers saw was the tree not me. The tree covered the view of me. I was hidden in the tree. This is the idea we have in Colossians 3:3.

Last week we looked at 2 Corinthians 5:17 and being made new creations in Christ. Especially this time of year with New Year’s resolutions, we can focus on how we’ve failed, fallen short, and sinned. We end up finding our identity in our performance instead of as new creations in Christ who have received Jesus’ perfect record of obedience. Let’s face it, even when we are at our best, our righteousness is still like filthy rags before a holy God (Isaiah 64:6), but in Colossians 3:3, Paul encourages us that we have died to that old sin nature. We are now hidden in Christ.

Hidden (in Colossians 3:3) is to conceal by covering. It’s like a kept secret. In that game of sardines, I was hidden in the tree and kept secret from the searchers, but infinitely more beautiful is the picture of Jesus concealing us as our life is with Him in God. Like a hen tucking her chicks under her wing, we are safe and have joy and peace. We are satisfied. Jesus made the way for us to be children of God when He atoned for our sin on the cross. In Christ, there is nothing and no one that can ever separate us from the love of our Father (Romans 8:38-39).

In Romans 4:11 Paul describes the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness Abraham received by faith. R.C. Sproul’s comments connect with the word hidden in our study today.

“We, whose righteousness is as filthy rags, receive a new set of clothes, the clothing of the righteousness of Jesus, which is given to us as a covering. That is the gospel. This was dramatized constantly in the tabernacle and then in the temple of Israel. On the Day of Atonement when the animal was slain and his blood was carried into the Holy of Holies, the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat. The blood was a covering on the throne of God. Habakkuk tells us that God is too righteous to even look at evil (Habakkuk 1:13), so unless we are covered, He will avert His glance from us. He will never make His face to shine upon us. He will never lift up the light of His countenance on us unless we are covered, and the only adequate covering that enables us to stand in His presence is the covering of the righteousness of Christ.”[i]

The evil that our righteous God cannot look at was put to death in Jesus’ atoning death (Colossians 2:12). We have been raised with Jesus to new life, with the new clothes of Jesus’ righteousness covering us. We are hidden with Christ. Every failure, every sin is hidden with Christ in the sense that when God looks at us, He sees Jesus’ perfect righteousness. He doesn’t see our sin. He doesn’t count it against us (Romans 8:1).

This is good news. We aren’t defined by sin. We aren’t defined by our performance. We aren’t defined by our obedience or lack of obedience. We are defined by Jesus’ righteousness. This frees us to walk in obedience out of love and gratitude not out of desperation to earn something we can never attain ourselves.

In this way, Jesus is our refuge. He is our safe place. He is our shelter. Nothing and no one can ever change our hidden standing. Nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of the Father. No one can condemn us. We are hidden in Christ.

Reflection

1. What encourages you about your life being hidden with Christ in God? Consider your permanent positional standing before God clothed in Jesus’ righteousness as well as your ongoing sanctification (day-to-day being conformed to the image of Jesus).

2. On a day-to-day basis, do you define yourself more by being hidden in Christ’s righteousness or by your own performance? Identify at least one way you define yourself by your own performance.

3. Think of specific things in your life that are hidden in Christ. Take time to thank God that they are hidden in Christ’s righteousness.

[i] Sproul, R.C., St. Andrew’s Expositional Commentary on Romans. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway).