The Risen Life, Part 2

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Col 3:3-4)

In these two verses, Paul starts by looking back, and a look at the present and then finishes with a glimpse at the future. As Max Anders put it,

The believer’s identification with Christ brings not only a past break with sin and a present security, it also means a glorious future. [1]

Paul is expressing the enormous change that has occurred in all believers. Our union with Christ from an understanding that we are dead in our sins and to our previous life which bound and controlled us, to the impartation of the life of God in and through us, to an understanding of the protection we have in Christ, and finally to a future revealing of us with Jesus at His second coming.

Hidden With Christ

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)

Definition: ‘you have died’ – The Greek word, apothnēskō, { ap-oth-nace'-ko } which means to perish by means of something, the process of dying. In this context, it carries the meaning of ‘having put off all sensibility to worldly things that draw them away from God.’ [2]

Albert Barnes elaborated, “The idea of the apostle is, that as Christ became literally dead in the tomb, so we, in virtue of our [connection] with him, have become [dead] to sin, to worldly influences, pleasures, and ambition. Or, in other words, we are to be to them as if we were dead, and they had no more influence over us than the things of earth had over him in the grave.” [3]

As we saw in the previous blog, Paul refers to the Christian being dead in Christ quite often, and he does so again here. But that death is always used as an image of our symbolic death as compared to Jesus’ real death on the Cross. And Paul uses it to highlight our new relationship with Jesus. Jesus died for mankind’s sins so that we can now overcome the sin that formerly controlled us. Jesus lived a life devoid of worldly influences (in the world but not of it) so that we can do the same. This is also true of worldly pleasures and ambition which never satisfy us.

Our death “in” Christ highlights the understanding that we cannot rise with Christ if we are still alive to the world and its lusts. Death precedes resurrection and there can be no competition with the life we are called to live in Christ. There must be a stake in the heart of our former life.

We are also dead in another sense. Without Christ, we are on ‘death row.’ We were living a life that had no hope, no worth, no reason for existence. Eternity is forever and all we would have had to look forward to was misery and torment. But that is NOT our fate any longer, and that is what Paul is stating here. We were formerly ‘dead’ but we are not any longer.

Definition: ‘is hidden’ – The Greek word, kryptō, { kroop'-to } which means to conceal (properly, by covering):—hide (self), keep secret. In the context of Col 3:3 it carries the meaning of being ‘kept laid up with God in heaven.’ Louw and Nida define it as, “to cause to be safe or protected by hiding, in some contexts with the intent of not being found—‘to keep safe, to cause to be protected, to protect, to hide.’ ” [4]

When Paul says that the believer’s life is ‘hidden with Christ in God,’ his meaning is that it is a mystery to the world; they do not understand it at all, which is why he is saying it's concealed from them. Expanding upon this is 1 Cor 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” (ESV) Unbelievers do not and in fact cannot understand the true nature of the Christian faith. They would never die to themselves, or give up control of their lives to someone other than themselves. Their world is centered around themselves, not around God and His will for their lives.
One commentator sees a relationship between the believer and God’s glory with respect to being hidden with Christ. It is the believer’s true inner life, in communion with Jesus that is hidden with Christ in God. [5] It’s another case of the world not being able to comprehend a believer’s relationship with the God of the Bible. The believer and unbeliever’s worldviews are in complete opposition to one another.

“With Christ because they have been joined with him in his death and resurrection, and in God for Christ himself has his being ‘in God’ and those who belong to Christ have their being there too. Centred in God means that their hidden life is secure, unable to be touched by anyone.” [6]

Warren W. Wiersbe explained it this way,

We are hidden in Christ (v. 3b). We no longer belong to the world, but to Christ; and the sources of life that we enjoy come only from Him. “Hidden in Christ” means security and satisfaction. The eminent Greek scholar, Dr. A.T. Robertson, comments on this: “So here we are in Christ who is in God, and no burglar, not even Satan himself, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:31–39)” (Paul and the Intellectuals, Broadman, p. 98). The Christian life is a “hidden life” as far as the world is concerned, because the world does not know Christ (see 1 John 4:1–6). Our sphere of life is not this earth, but heaven; and the things that attract us and excite us belong to heaven, not to earth. This does not mean that we should ignore our earthly responsibilities. Rather it means that our motives and our strength come from heaven, not earth. [7]

And lastly, being hidden with Christ means we are secure because as we see in John 10:28-29, Jesus, speaking about believers, says that “no one will snatch them out of My hand.” What God holds, no one can take out of His hands. And if that wasn’t enough, He restates the same thing concerning the Father when He states that “no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” The believer’s salvation is eternally secure. That salvation is “an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.” (1 Pet 1:4) That is because Jesus is the believer’s high priest (Heb 7:26) who “is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” (Heb 7:25)

Revealed With Christ

When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (Col 3:4)

‘Christ, who is our life’ – Jesus is our life. “Not only is life shared by identification with Christ; Christ is life itself.” And we see this in both Php 1:21 (to live is Christ and to die is gain) and Gal 2:20 (it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me). “For the believer, life isn’t merely activity, details; life isn’t acquisition or accomplishment. Life is Christ. He is the focus of our aspirations, the reason for our existence.” [8] We also see this in 2 Cor 4:10, “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

Charles Spurgen put it this way, “It is by his life that we live; he is in us, the hope of glory, the spring of our actions, the central thought which moves every other thought. Christ is the sustenance of our life. What can the Christian feed upon but Jesus’ flesh and blood? Christ is the solace of our life. All our true joys come from him; and in times of trouble, his presence is our consolation. There is nothing worth living for but him; and his lovingkindness is better than life. Christ is the object of our life.” [9]

“When Christ … is revealed” – Verse four calls the believer to focus on the heavenly things by focusing their thoughts on the future hope promised for believers, which is a clear reference to Jesus’ second coming for which Charles Spurgeon wrote, “You are hidden now, your life is veiled in him; but, at his second coming he shall shine out in all his glory, and ‘then the righteous shall shine out as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’ Beloved, seek no greatness here; do not ask for any exaltation for yourself among the sons of men; but wait for your true unveiling with Christ in glory.” [10]

Norman Giesler wrote, “... believers will appear with Him and will be glorified. As John put it, ‘We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is’ (i.e., believers will be glorified as He is glorified; 1 John 3:2; cf. 1 Cor. 13:12; Col. 1:27). So Paul added a new direction to the believers’ focus of attention: they should look upward to Christ’s reign over them in heaven and also forward to His return for them in the clouds.” [11]

“We have been ‘raised with Christ’ and ‘seated’ with him (2:13; 3:1). If Christ is your new identity (that is, if you’re a Christian) and heaven is your new location (you’re physically on earth but participating in the spiritual realm), then you’re called to live from that new perspective. Decisions are to be informed by an eternal, heavenly perspective rather than an imperfect, earthly one. We need a Christian view of the world—a kingdom worldview.” [12]

For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory. (Col 3:3-4)

Footnotes

Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), p. 327, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
See: G599 - apothnēskō - Strong's Greek Lexicon (NASB95)
See: Colossians 3:3 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Bible Study & Commentary
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), p. 239, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
David Brown, A. R. Fausset, and Robert Jamieson, A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments: Acts–Revelation, vol. VI (London; Glasgow: William Collins, Sons, & Company, Limited, n.d.), p. 451, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
Peter T. O’Brien, “Colossians,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 1272, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 133–134, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), p. 327, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), p. 680, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), p. 1255, p/o Logos Bible Software, Ver 10, © 2025.

All Scriptures quotes are from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 Revision, unless otherwise noted. Verse links from Blue Letter Bible.

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