You Are Already Risen in Christ: Living It Out Daily

Introduction

On Easter Sunday, you heard this powerful call: "So live as one who is risen." That wasn't a nice moral image, nor an unreachable spiritual ideal. It was a proclamation of your new reality in Christ.

But today the question gets more concrete. What does that life look like on Monday morning, when you go back to work, when criticism wounds you, when a project falls apart? Pastor H. Wessel, drawing on Colossians 3:1-17, shows us that the resurrection isn't only an outward event that happened 2,000 years ago. It has become an inner reality for those united to Christ.

Picture a tree in the north after a long winter. Its branches are bare, stiff, brittle. It seems doomed to be forgotten. Then spring comes. It isn't a declaration hung on the branches. It's new sap filling every leaf and transforming the whole tree. That's what new life in Christ is: a transformation from the inside.

Sermon outline

1. Since you are risen: the indicative before the imperative

The whole of Colossians 3 rests on a foundational structure in Paul's thinking: first the indicative (what God has done), then the imperative (what we are to live out). God acts first, our life responds after.

In other words: we don't live a certain way in order to become risen. We live that way because we are risen.

Paul opens with a major theological claim: "If then you were raised together with Christ…" The word "if" can be confusing, since it seems to express doubt. But in the Greek, this is what's called a first-class condition: the "if" assumes the reality of what's being said. You could translate it: "Since you were raised together with Christ…"

A Christian is united to Christ. That union is the very heart of the gospel. Salvation isn't only something external, a legal pardon, an erased court case. It's a vital union. The Christian doesn't just follow Christ: he shares in Christ's own life. "Christ lives in me, I live in Christ, Christ in me."

2. Your life is hidden with Christ in God

"Your life is hidden with Christ in God" (v. 3). Hidden doesn't mean concealed like a shameful secret. Here it means protected, rooted in the divine realm, out of reach of hostile spiritual powers.

Picture a French diplomat posted to a faraway country. He lives there, immerses himself in the culture, works with the local authorities, shares the local food. But he never forgets his first allegiance: France.

That's the tension the Christian lives in. You're visible on this earth, but your true home is heavenly. Your real citizenship is to represent Christ here below. The kingdom of God is already in you, and you're already experiencing a taste of what the Lord has in store for you for eternity.

Paul writes: "When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory" (v. 4). We live in what theologians call the eschatological tension: the "already" of your resurrection in Christ, and the "not yet" of your future glorification. You're no longer what you were. You're not yet what you will become in glory.

3. An identity that holds up under criticism and failure

This truth changes your everyday life.

When you're criticized, your real identity is in Christ. You are untouchable at your deepest core. You can hear criticism without being demolished by it, without losing hope, without feeling lost.

When your projects fail, when your business collapses, when illness keeps you from doing what you had dreamed of, those failures don't define you. By definition, you are in the One who is already the victor. You can put things in perspective, endure patiently, while you wait for the restoration of your true life in the glory to come.

Trials aren't final. Your life is rooted in the reality of a future that has already begun, through the Holy Spirit who is transforming you more and more into the image of Christ.

4. Seek the things above: your inner GPS

"Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth" (v. 1-2).

"Seek" doesn't mean fleeting curiosity. The verb suggests a constant orientation, an intentional effort, a shaping desire. It isn't a feeling: it's a direction for life.

"Set your mind" touches your inner disposition. Your thinking examines the things above through faith, and your heart becomes different.

Christ is your inner compass. Today, without him, the compass points to earth: more things, more satisfaction. When life is transformed in Christ, the magnetic pole changes. The things of earth interest you less and less, and if you lose them, you're not devastated.

Be careful: seeking heavenly realities doesn't mean fleeing into abstract mysticism, becoming a monk cut off from the world. The Lord has asked us to live fully engaged in the world, but interpreting every fragment of our reality through Christ.

It's like a GPS. You enter your destination, and the device can reroute you if you drift off course. The gentle voice in the car brings you back onto the right path. Why? Because the destination is fixed. When your destination is fixed on the things above, the Holy Spirit progressively changes your life to lead you there.

5. Putting the earthly nature to death: a surgical act

"Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth" (v. 5). That's radical. There's an incompatibility between your new identity and the old self.

But note the nuance carefully. In Romans 6, Paul says the believer is already dead to sin in Christ. Here's the paradox: you don't kill sin in order to become dead. You kill it because you're already dead. Sanctification means aligning your behavior with your new identity in Christ.

Paul lists the symptoms of the old self: immorality, greed, anger, lying. These aren't just bad habits. They're expressions of the fallen nature. And Paul reminds us that God's wrath comes against these things.

The text specifies in parentheses "on the children of disobedience." That phrase matters: you might think it points to judgment against a few particularly wicked people. In reality, God's wrath comes against the very system of this world. It encompasses everyone. It's a justice God will carry out fully at Christ's return, but which has already begun.

Good news: Christ drank the cup of God's wrath in our place. He accomplished it all. We are set free.

Picture spending a day in a highly toxic zone. When you get home, you don't sit down on the couch or go to bed in your contaminated clothes. You tear them off, you throw them away. Sin is a dirty, contaminated garment, a foreign body on your new self. You don't negotiate with it, you get rid of it.

6. Putting on the new self: a restored humanity

"And have put on the new man, that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator" (v. 10).

Here is a new humanity, not merely better behavior. This points back to Genesis, to the original creation before the fall. Our humanity was contaminated and we inherited that. But in this new humanity, everything is restored in Christ, because Christ is the new Adam.

That's why Paul writes: "There is no Greek or Jew… but Christ is all, and in all" (v. 11). All ethnic, social, and cultural divisions are relativized. The church this morning is a star of reconciliation, a foretaste of the Kingdom, because we are woven together by love for one another.

7. The Christian's clothing: compassion, forgiveness, love

"Put on therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance" (v. 12).

Christian morality always flows out of election, out of God's own choice in his love. It's never a performance to produce in order to earn being loved.

At the heart of it is love and forgiveness. "Even as Christ forgave you, so you also do" (v. 13). Forgiveness becomes impossible if you don't first look at what Christ has done for you. Someone whose debt has been wiped out owes nothing to anyone anymore. He is free. Free of resentment. Ready to forgive. Because Christ paid for him.

And Paul adds: "Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection" (v. 14). Love is the summary of everything Paul has said.

Application for your life this week

Don't just leave this as an abstract analysis. Run what you've just heard through your Monday morning:

• Your work, your career. Are you working to build your own glory, your own wealth? Or do you have a genuine calling to honor God? Then your way of working becomes a form of excellence, and what you earn brings glory to God and makes you generous.
• Your leisure time. When you take a week's vacation, when you go off to recharge, that's good. But is it in order to return to your old nature? Or to be able to keep seeking the kingdom of God with renewed strength?
• Your conversations. Do they carry grace and life, marked by love? Or are they too often filled with criticism and resentment? Actively put away words that destroy, because what you tolerate in how you live ends up defining who you are.
• Your failures and the criticism you face. Remember: you are in the One who is already the victor. Neither criticism, nor failure, nor illness defines you.
• A recurring sin. Stop justifying yourself, minimizing it, telling yourself you're right. Your identity now lets you name the sin without being destroyed by it, and put it to death by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Key takeaways

1. You don't become risen, you already are. The indicative always precedes the imperative: God acts first, your life responds after.
2. Your true life is hidden with Christ in God. You are a "diplomat" of Heaven on earth, protected, rooted in the divine realm.
3. Christ is your inner compass. Seeking the things above isn't fleeing the world, but interpreting every fragment of your reality through Christ.
4. Putting sin to death is a surgical act. You don't kill it in order to become dead: you kill it because you're already dead with Christ.
5. Forgiveness becomes possible when you look at the cross. As Christ forgave you, you in turn can forgive.

Questions to go further

• In what area of your life are you still trying to become risen, instead of living out the resurrection you've already received?
• Where is your inner compass really pointing this week: toward the things above, or toward a purely earthly goal?
• What recent criticism shook you? How does your identity in Christ change the way you receive it?
• Is there a "dirty garment" you're still wearing even though Christ is offering to tear it off?
• Who do you find it hard to forgive? Take another look at the measure of what Christ has wiped away for you.

Scriptures cited

• Colossians 3:1-17 · the central text of the sermon
• Colossians 3:3 · "Your life is hidden with Christ in God"
• Colossians 3:4 · "When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory"
• Colossians 3:11 · "Christ is all, and in all"
• Romans 6 · the believer is dead to sin in Christ
• Psalms 95:1-7 · the service's liturgical reading

FAQ

What does it mean to "be raised with Christ" according to Colossians 3?

It isn't a poetic image. Paul describes a real union with the risen Christ. Your deepest nature has been transformed: you share in his life. The phrase "if you were raised" translates a Greek construction that here means "since." It's a settled reality, not a hypothesis.

How do you put sin to death without falling into legalism?

Sanctification isn't fighting to become dead to sin. You already are, in Christ. You fight from your new identity, not to earn it. The Holy Spirit accomplishes in you what Christ has already secured for you.

Who is God's wrath in Colossians 3:6 aimed at?

The text speaks of God's wrath coming against the expressions of the old self. The phrase "on the children of disobedience" appears in some manuscripts. It isn't a judgment aimed only at a few "wicked" people, but God's judgment against the whole fallen system of this world: a judgment Christ bore on the cross for those who are in him.