+I. Contemplate the sublime object+--the state of future blessedness
of believers. 1. _The perfection of character they exhibit._ 2. _The
exercises in which they shall be engaged._ 3. _The happiness in which
they participate._ 4. _The friendships they share._
+II. The conduct enjoined upon us.+--"Seek those things." 1. _Implies
belief in their existence._ 2. _That attention is directed much
towards them._ 3. _Set our attachment upon them._ 4. _Use diligent
and persevering exertions to obtain them._
+III. Motives to this conduct.+--1. _A regard to consistency._
2. _The reasonableness of the duty._ 3. _Present advantages._
4. _Because they are the scene in which are displayed Christ's
personal presence and glory._
_Risen with Christ._
+I. Christianity begins where everything else ends: it begins with
death.+
+II. After dying to sin we are to begin to live in good earnest.+
+III. The Christian toils, labours, and tasks his mind for the glory
of God and the good of others.+
+IV. The true Christian seeks the things which are
above.+--1. _Holiness._ 2. _Love._ 3. _Peace._
4. _Truth.--A. W. Hare._
_The New Life._
+I. There is a great difference between the new life and the
old.+--1. _In our feelings._ 2. _Principles._ 3. _Aims._
4. _Methods._ 5. _Conduct._ 6. _Thoughts._ 7. _Company._
8. _Influence._
+II. This difference should lead us to think much of heaven and to
seek after heavenly things.+--1. _To know all we can about heaven._
2. _To prepare all we can for heaven._ 3. _To take all we can with us
to heaven.--Preacher's Magazine._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3, 4.
_The Present Condition and Future Glory of Life in Christ._
The Christian life has a twofold aspect. Outwardly it is shorn of all
splendours, and to the eye of the world appears a life of weakness,
ignominy, and suffering; but inwardly it is radiant with Divine light
and pervaded with a heavenly peace. The believer is often as a
monarch in the disguise of a beggar. The world knows nothing of the
new life of which he has become possessed, and the new life must know
nothing of the world. Its aspirations are directed towards higher
things. The relish for earthly things is gone.
+I. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ
involves a new relation to outward things.+--"For ye are dead" (ver.
3). There was a time when he not only lived in the world, but _to_
the world and _for_ the world. He was wholly captivated and absorbed
in the pursuits and enjoyments of the carnal mind. But now, while
still in the world, he is dead to its charms and to its ordinances.
All the mainsprings of activity are changed. He is risen with Christ
and shares the power of His resurrection life. Man lives where He
loves, and, having experienced so complete a change, his affections
are now fixed on things above, and his life is bound up in the love
and service of Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of God. He is
dead because he is crucified with Christ, and hath put off the old
man--the old fleshly nature--with his deeds. This death involves a
renunciation of all the ceremonial observances against which the
apostle so faithfully warned in the preceding chapter--the Mosaic
ritual, the vain philosophy, the angelolatry, the pride of the
fleshly mind, the traditions and commandments of men, and all the
pernicious doctrines of the false teachers. He is dead to the past
and realising the beating of a new life within him, he enters upon a
brighter and loftier career.
+II. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ is
one of concealment from the outward world.+--1. _It is hid._ "Your
life is hid" (ver. 3). All life is hid. Its origin is a profound
mystery. The botanist fails to discover it as he picks his plant into
microscopic atoms. The scalpel of the anatomist has not pierced its
dark domain and laid bare its hiding-place. Its presence is known
only by its effects. So is it with the new life of the soul. It is
hid from the world. It has a glory and a power of its own; but the
world is incapable of appreciating either. It is not a life of vulgar
display and noisy demonstration. It is gentle, quiet, and retiring,
sometimes obscured by a tempest of persecution and suffering. It is
sometimes partially hidden to the believer himself when assailed by
temptations and oppressed by the weight of heavy chastisements. Yet
that hidden life is the power that shall shake and transform the
world.
2. _It is hid with Christ._--"Your life is hid with Christ" (ver. 3).
Christ Himself was hidden when on earth. To the undiscerning, He was
a root out of a dry ground, possessing neither form nor comeliness.
Even now Christ is hidden to the worldly mind; and the believer's
life is hidden with Him, as a river, concealed for a time in a hidden
channel, flows on beneath and out of sight. This hiding of the
believer's life with Christ indicates (1) _Dependence._ It is not hid
with the believer himself. He derives it from Christ, as the great
fontal source of all life; and on Him he depends for its constant
supply and nourishment. The springs of this life abide when every
other channel of supply is dry and its fount exhausted. We must wait
on Christ for daily supplies of living water. It indicates
(2) _Security._ Our life is safer in Christ's keeping than it could
be in our own. Man was once entrusted with the gift of a glorious
life, and he lost it. But in the hands of Christ our life is out of
all danger. It is secure amid the conflicts of time, the subtle
temptations of the world, and the wild rage of demons.
3. _It is hid in the depths of the Godhead._--"Your life is hid with
Christ in God" (ver. 3). A grand but unfathomable truth! It is not
_lost_ in the abyss of Deity, as the mystic or pantheist would teach;
but it is so hid as to retain its own conscious individuality, while
sharing in the boundless life of God. It is a gift from God, bestowed
through Christ the great Mediator, created by the power and energy of
the Holy Ghost; so that the nature, manner, and destiny of the gift
are hidden in God through the mediation of His Son. "God hath given
unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." The exercise of
faith brings the soul into living union with the glorious Trinity.
+III. That the believer's life in Christ will, in the future, be
manifested in ineffable glory.+--1. _There will be a signal
manifestation of Christ in the future._ "When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear" (ver. 4). Christ is now invisible to His people
and to the world. He withdrew from the scene of His suffering
ministry, entered the serene heights of heaven, and there,
all-potent, is carrying on His high purposes of grace and salvation.
But by-and-by--not at the bidding of the impatient prophets, who dare
to fix the Lord a time, and, in their too realistic interpretation of
His Word, consider His second coming as the grand and only specific
for the world's evils--in His own good time, to the joy of His people
and the dismay of His foes, He will come in overwhelming glory.
2. _The believer will share in the ineffable glory of that
manifestation._--"Then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (ver.
4). (1) This implies _public recognition._ The believer, obscure and
despised on earth, is acknowledged before the universe as related to
Christ by the dearest ties and as deriving his life from Him. All the
ends of secrecy are answered. The hidden is revealed. The baffled,
persecuted, unappreciated, afflicted people of God are for ever
vindicated. (2) This also implies a _personal participation_ in the
splendour of Christ's triumph and in the bliss of His character.
"With Him in glory." Glory is a comprehensive term, and not easily
defined. But whether we regard it as expressive of external and
visible splendour, or as describing a condition of unutterable and
endless felicity, in either sense, or both, the believer shares it
with his exultant Lord. Rapture of raptures! to see Jesus, to be with
Him, and to live in the sunshine of His smile for ever!
+Lessons.+--1. _The believer's life in Christ is a hidden, but a real
life._ 2. _Bear patiently the trials of the present life._ 3. _The
glory of the believer's future life will more than recompense him for
the troubles of the present._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._