#5 How Should I Act?
 

This World Is Not My Home
 

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
(Colossians 3:1)
 

    It's one thing for me to believe that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is seated at the Father's right hand. It's an entirely different thing to see how that has an impact on my own life.
    In some way, Paul says, I have been raised with Christ. In other words, my life is inextricably bound up in his life. His life is inextricably bound up in mine. In God's way of looking at things, I am locked into Christ - the same Christ who has ultimate authority and immediate access to the Father. Because I am related to him, I enjoy the same access!
    If this is true, then some phenomenal things have taken place. "Wow!@ I say, "if Christ is seated at the Father's right hand, and I am locked up in him, then heaven is really my home and earth is only my temporary residence!@
  That's the reverse of what we normally think. We tend to think that earth is where the action is and heaven is a dull place way out there somewhere, to be dodged as long as possible. We tend to think that life is all about what we can see, touch, taste, and feel. We think it's earthy.
    But Scripture tells us that if Christ is seated at the Father's right hand and my life is locked up in him, then heaven is my true home and my sojourn here is temporary. That changes my whole orientation to life.
    If Christ is seated at the Father's right hand, and I have been raised with him, then eternity is the ultimate reality and time is merely transient. That, too, is exactly the opposite of what we tend to think. Our natural tendency is to assume that time is where it's at. "You only go around once in life, so grab for all the gusto you can,@ goes the ad slogan.
    We may not drink their beer, but we listen to their commercials and to a large extent go along with them unthinkingly. We don't stop to realize that they wholly oppose Christian truth, which says what really matters is eternity, not time. What you've got here you will leave. Reality is found in eternity and heaven. That's what it means when it says Christ is seated at the Father's right hand and you have been raised with him.
    What do you think of when you read that "you have been raised with Christ"?
 

~Stuart Briscoe~