I love being in two places at once! I don’t mean an absent-in-body-but-with-you-in-spirit thing which we sometimes say when declining an invitation. I mean something quite different, but it is still a mystery to me as to how exactly this can be true. There is, of course, the place I now am physically. So, where else am I?
For most International Church (IC) people, it usually is more than two. Expatriates and foreigners also have another place they call ‘home’. They may hardly ever be there but in their hearts, they are still there. It is home. IC leaders have the job of helping people be ‘at home’ in the cities to which God has brought them. We know their psychological and spiritual well-being depends partly on making their home where they actually are.
So what is this other place, not where I am or where I have come from, but somewhere else, my other home. Consider these extraordinary statements from the Apostle Paul.
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And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:6) - 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 3:1–4) - For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a
resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5)
Somehow, through faith in Jesus, we all have been integrated into Christ. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. Sometimes this is referred to as the ‘mystical union’. This union between us and Jesus is so thorough that Paul says that when Christ died on the cross, we died with Him. When Christ rose in the resurrection, we were raised up with Him. When Christ ascended into heaven, we went with Him. The union between us and Christ is such that wherever He is, we are!
So, I am in two places at once. Here at my desk looking out across to where the last afternoon sun brightens the trunks of the trees. At the same time I am present in heaven at the right hand of God. So strange!
Paul, doesn’t try to explain this as much as we would like except that it is the result of our being in Christ through faith. It is a mystery! However, there is some explanation. The Holy Spirit who lives in Christ is the same Holy Spirit who lives in us. The Spirit joins us together as one with Christ.
But what Paul does talk about is what this means for us in how we live now on earth; including in times of major pandemics. The life we have through faith in Jesus is His Resurrection life; He is life. This Resurrection life will be fully ours when Jesus returns. Yet, through the Spirit living already within us, this life is already within us. So how might this change my life?
Check out Colossians 3:1-17. The passage has three inter-locking sections.
Paul’s opening statement (verses 1-4) is that as we are in Christ, therefore we are already with Him in heaven. So, think about everything in ways that would be appropriate in the presence of God. While he urges us to be heavenly minded rather than earth oriented, note that all that follows is about how we live now on earth. Two consequences follow.
First, there is a bunch of stuff that is inappropriate, so get rid of it (verses 5-10), replace the rotten things with the new self. Note verse 11 where he says we are all the same regardless of our backgrounds.
Secondly, there are a range of good practices to take up, with which to clothe ourselves (verses 12-17). These are about living now on earth in ways that are consistent with being with Christ at the right hand of God.
Here is an important observation about all this. Woven into the practical instructions are several reassurances about how God is our hope (I leave you to identify the relevant verses).
- We are in Christ and have been raised with Christ.
- God is the one who is at work renewing us, all of us, to that we might be increasingly like Him.
- Christ is in all of us.
- We are loved by God, and so holy and chosen people.
- The peace and word of Christ live within us.
Take note how much the good behaviours and the bad behaviours are mostly about how we relate to others; how we care for them, love them, serve them. There is a major corporate/social reality about being in Christ at the right hand of God.
To put it simply, Paul is saying, “Be what you already are, live here and now as citizens of heaven.”
As IC leaders, pastors, preachers, elders, and others, how will you build up the church to be a church in your city which is so heavenly minded that love, care, compassion, and justice abound in all the ways others are served in the church and in the city? How will you enable them to be at home wherever they are?
Resurrection life today, when at its best, reveals the life to come when New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and fills the earth.
Of course, there are many passages which speak of the Resurrection life we already have in Christ. This one in Colossians 3 perhaps goes into more detail. While there are some heavy instructions here, the overall message is one of confident hope. A new life in Christ that bonds us to one another with new ways of beingtogether in the unity of the body of Christ. Worthy of much rejoicing!
Graham Chipps
