The Hidden Life
“Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3) As the solemn chimes of the village curfew bell reverberate among the hills, announcing to all the close of another day and the bringing in of another night; so from out of this text comes pealing the deep and sacred sound, “Death—life; death—life,” which, reverberating along the corridors of time, announces to every Christian heart the close of a life of sin and the beginning of a life with God. Here is a mystery, O ye saints. Ye are both dead and alive. This inspired writer in another place says, “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” (1 Timothy 5:6)
These two texts include the whole human family. Those in one division are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) and alive to the world, to the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life. Those in the second division are “dead… to sin, but alive unto God.” (Romans 6:11) It is this class that the apostle addresses in our first-quoted text.
In the life of a Christian there are four points we wish to consider—
- They are dead.
- They have life.
- Their life is a hidden life.
- Their life is hid with Christ in God.
1. The Christian is dead.
Life comes only through death. “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” (John 12:25) From these words of the Savior’s we understand plainly that he who will not die shall not live, but that he who dies shall live. To die is to give up the world, sin, and self, and to yield all to God. Then you shall live. He will give you life. “I am come that [you] might have life.” (John 10:10) But you cannot have that life unless you die. The sinner is alive to sin and the world, but he is dead to God and eternal life. The Christian is dead to sin and the world, but he is alive unto God.
There is a wide separation between the Christian and the sinner. Both have physical life, but it is not in this that they differ. The physical life of a sinner and that of a saint are the same in nature. A heart of flesh is in the physical body of each one which propels the blood through the body. The circulation, the respiration, and the digestion are the same in both. They both need to eat, drink, sleep, and breathe. The oxygen of the air is taken into the blood through the lungs of the one the same as with the other. The food is digested in each just alike and answers the same end. The five physical senses are the same in the life of the sinner as they are in the saint. The one has sight the same as the other. They both hear sound alike. Sugar tastes as sweet to one as to the other. The rose is fragrant to both. Both feel heat and cold. The great gulf of separation between saint and sinner is not found in the physical life. Nevertheless there is a vast difference between them, for the one is alive and the other is dead. But the difference is not in the physical life: for in this they both live, and this life in its nature is the same in both.
Man has a higher life than the physical life. He possesses a moral, or spiritual, being; and this spiritual being has life. It is in the life of this spiritual being that we find the difference between saint and sinner. The sinner is alive in sin but dead to God; while the saint is dead to sin and alive to God. The nature of their moral being is directly opposite. There is no communion nor affinity between them in a spiritual sense.
You see two men driving by in a carriage. They look very much the same to you. They look the same because you see only the physical being, and in this way are flesh and blood alike; but in their moral being they may be as unlike as day is unlike the night. The condition of the moral being has some effect on the physical features, but it makes no change in the nature of the physical life. But spiritually speaking, one is dead; the other alive. One is sinful in his nature; the other righteous. The one walks in sin; the other walks with God in holiness. The one has eternal death in his soul; the other has eternal life. If the physical life of these two men should suddenly come to an end, the spirit being of one would be carried by the angels into the sweet paradise of God, while the spirit being of the other would be borne down to the regions of torment. Why is this? Because one has eternal life and the other eternal death. The one is a sinner and the other a saint.
Spiritually speaking, correspondence between saint and sinner is as completely cut off as is the correspondence between the creatures of earth and those that may be on another planet. No instrument has yet been invented whereby man can receive any intelligence from beings on other worlds. Neither is there any communion between saint and sinner except in the physical realm. The Christian is raised up to a heavenly plane. He has been resurrected to a higher life. In the physical life the Christian and the sinner dwell together; but in the spiritual life the Christian is as high above the sinner as Jupiter is higher than earth.
There is correspondence between them in a physical sense. They converse together and do business together. They can talk about the beauty and the grandeur of the landscape because they can both see it. They can talk together about the sweet warbling of the birds, because they can hear both. They converse together concerning the pleasantness of the evening breeze, because they both can feel it. They comment together upon the delicious flavor of the peach, because they can both taste it. They speak together of the fragrance of the rose and comprehend each other, because they can both smell it. But when the saint begins to talk of the sweet tastes of the love of God and says the word of God is sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, the sinner is silent. He knows nothing about this. These things are found in a higher life than sinners possess. If they will but die, they can then be resurrected to a life where they can have sweet tastes of God. Oh! thank God for the high and blessed life of a Christian!
To have your life hid with Christ in God is a sweet and safe and blessed experience. My soul adores God and tears of gratitude unbidden start at the remembrance of His goodness in elevating us above this world and in bringing our souls into correspondence with heavenly things. Oh, that we can be raised up so near to the golden gates of glory that we can hear celestial strains of music; that we can have sweet visions of God, can taste His love, and feel its warmth in our soul! Blessed experience! One little thrill of heavenly rapture rippled over the soul by the Spirit of God is worth more than years of the pleasures of this world.
There is a death fixed between the wicked and the righteous. If the unrighteous would get into communion with the righteous, he must die. We find in the natural world that life is gained only through death. “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.” (John 12:24) This same law is found to exist in the spiritual world. “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 16:25) Except ye die, ye cannot live.
Let me give you a panoramic view of the natural, sinful life of a human race. See a company of dancers in the brilliantly-lighted ballroom. See the gamblers at their crafty work. See the inebriate at the saloon counter drinking down the fiery liquid. That horrid scene yonder is a young woman of lost virtue seeking to wreck the lives of young men. That yonder is a secret-order hall, where heart-apalling oaths are taken, where men practice abominations, and where God is blasphemed. Take a look at the pride and the revelry of the world; the cold, proud formalism of sectarian worship. See the sect professors in their church fair, their festival bazaar, and their many moneymaking and pleasure-affording amusements. See the spectators at the prize fight; at the wrestling match; at the horse race; at the football, baseball, and basketball games. See the cursers and the swearers, the chewers and the smokers, the jesters, and the jokers. Hear the vulgar, ungodly stories, the slang, the idle words. See the cheating and the stealing, the false vows and the broken promises. See the young lady dressing in her profusion of laces and ribbons and jewels. See the jealousies, the envyings, the strife, the confusion, the hatred, and the malice. See the young in their misguided courtship. See the abomination of the theatre. See the women of the world, decked with jewels and finery and paints and powders and bound by corsets. Look at the quarreling, the fighting, the murders, the divorces, the illegal marriages, the adulteries, etc.
Look this picture over carefully from top to bottom and from side to side, and include every sin that is not mentioned herein. See every heart-beat of a worldly, sensual life. To such a life the saint is dead, dead, dead. This is what the apostle meant when he said, “Ye are dead.” (Colossians 3:3)
2. A Christian has life.
I have already brought in some points respecting the Christian life, but I will say further that this life is the Christ-life. It is gained by resurrection. Those Colossians were risen with Christ. They had passed from a state of death in sin to a life in Christ. They were new creatures. In Christ the Christian lives and moves and has his being. The miser loves to be near his gold. Its jingle is music in his ear. His life is tied up in the bags with his treasures; and when he is compelled to be separated from them for a time, how eagerly, when opportunity affords, does he return to them and commune with them! So the saint loves to be near Christ. There is music in his sweet whispers of love. When called apart by the secular things of life, the Christian returns with eagerness, when opportunity affords, to commune with Him who is his life.
Whatever is the life of a man, that is what he loves and that is what he would ever be near. That is what he feeds upon and what gives him delight. It nourishes him, and his life grows stronger. He would have more of that which feeds him and delights him. That is why Christians seek after God. They seek Him in prayer: they seek Him in the Bible; they seek Him in nature; they seek Him first of all in everything and in every place. They flee away from that which would hinder them in their pursuit. They lay aside every weight and everything that would come in between them and the object of their heart’s love. A spirit-filled soul pants after God. It pursues His presence with as fervent desire as the miser seeks for gold. “My soul followeth hard after thee,” (Psalm 63:8) says the saint.
Some professors of religion can be satisfied and contented when absent from God; they can satisfy themselves with empty forms and cold ceremonies, because God is not their life. But the saint must often be admitted into the presence of God, must commune with Him. His soul reaches forth for more of the divine life as the physical being does for air and food. As the physical man must breathe, or he will die, so the Christian’s soul must feed upon God, or it will die. As man will sacrifice everything for food and breath, so the saint sacrifices everything for God. He forsakes all and he watches and prays lest something alienate his heart from God. The life that makes a man a Christian brings him into fellowship with God. It separates him from the world even as Jesus was separated from the world. This is life eternal. If he maintains his Christian integrity, he will die no more. The physical part will come to dissolution; it will lose correspondence with the world; but he (the man) will live on and on forever; he will never see death. Oh, wonderful and glorious life!
It may be that some reader who once had this life, did not guard it as he should and today is lifeless. He has lost his first love. Sad, indeed! But there is hope. The river of life is still flowing in all its crystal pureness and revivifying power fresh from the throne of God. Fly to the Savior this moment. He will give you life. Commit your soul anew unto Him; throw yourself upon His mercy. In humility and repentance seek His face. Knock as one who knows that heaven and immortal glory depend upon the door’s being opened now. Someday it will be too late. Knock now, seek now, and Christ will give you the Spirit of life.
The Christian’s life on earth is a life with God; it is a life of holiness and peace, a life of faith and rest; it is heaven on earth, heaven begun below. Wonderful life! Oh, how blessed! God is in the soul; His love and peace fill the entire being and lift man above the material things of earth and bring Him near heaven. Jesus did not say only, “I am come that they might have life,” but also, “that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
This abundant life brings us near heaven. Earth is lost sight of. Crucified to the world and the world unto us, we realize that we are only strangers and pilgrims here. This is not our home. We are not in our element here. We stay here for the sake of Him who died for us and for the souls He died to save. Our home is in heaven, and we are here waiting for the angels to come and carry us home.
This life which Christians have is the life of God. It binds us to heaven. It transports us far above this world. We are here in this world as physical beings, but our hearts are not here. Our affections are on heavenly things. The more abundant the life, the nearer we are to God and heaven and the farther we are from the world. O beloved pilgrim, seek those things which will strengthen the life of Christ in the soul. Seek God until every fiber of your spiritual being is quivering with life. So live with God that heaven daily opens more and more to your view and the world fades away. Mount up higher in the realms of joy and love; and drink in of that abundant life until your soul is a gushing well-spring of life.
The word of God is the chief means by which this divine life is wrought and supported in the soul. Man does not live by bread alone. Bread is needful to the physical life; but the Christ-life in the soul needs the word of God. The Christian feeds upon the blessed Scriptures, and they nourish him in the divine life. In the sacred page he beholds heaven’s purity. Grace and glory shine forth resplendent, and his soul bows in holy awe and adoration before the eternal word of life. Sweet walks with God are maintained, and the hidden life of a Christian is supported, only by daily feeding upon the Scriptures.
The Christian has life. Not to have the life of Christ is not to be a Christian. This life does not consist in external acts alone. Men eat, drink, sleep; this is natural life. Men hold converse, or communion, with each other; this is social life. They buy, sell, and carry on their business industries; this is civil life. They attend church services and take an active interest in the external duties, this is the outward form of a religious life. But the true Christian life is more than all this. While the Christian has the natural, the social, the civil, and the external religious life, he has more. He has down in the depths of his inner being a well-spring of living water.
Some of the ocean currents, I am told, have a double flow. They have a surface current flowing in one direction and an under current flowing an opposite direction. This well of living water in the soul has a double flow. It flows out to God and men and flows in from God. There must be a constant flowing in from God, or there can be no outward flow. A well that is flowing out, but that has no inward flow, will soon become empty. And a well that has neither flow will soon contain only stagnant water. This inward flow from God is maintained by prayer and meditation. This well of water in the soul is a well of living water; it is a well springing up into everlasting life. It is fittingly represented by an artesian well, which needs no surface pump. The outward flow is maintained by the pressure of the inward flow. If you have and use a surface pump, you have not a well-spring of living water. If your religious life consists in external duties, and if it costs considerable effort to pray, to witness for God, and to talk to men of God and heavenly things, yours is a surface pump.
The force that produces the outward flow from an artesian well is down in the depths below. It is the pressure of the inward flow. Open the check-valve at any time and the water flows. The force that produces the inward flow of the water of life in the Christian heart is the exercise of the soul in prayer. The more the soul is thus exercised the stronger is the inward pressure. Without the soul’s being exercised in converse with God; without its being deeply concerned about the affairs of eternity; without examination of the heart: or without secret reading, meditation, inquiries, and seekings—the inward flow from God will not be maintained.
The outward flow is necessary. The pressure of the inward flow raises the water so high, and if there is no outward flow, the inward flow ceases, and all will become stagnant. The exercise of the child only increases the demand for food. The food eaten by the child produces a force which must be spent, or else the demand for the food will diminish. Life in the soul will manifest itself in the eager performance of Christian duties. He who neglects the external duties belonging to the Christian life, will diminish the demand for spiritual food and interrupt the inward flow of the life from God.
3. The life of a Christian is a hidden life.
The men of this world wonder how the Christian can enjoy life as he does. “The hours he spends in his closet—what can he be doing there?” wonders the worldly man. “How can he be so indifferent to the gay things of the world? What strange business can he be in? He is not in the political strife, not in the contest for fame, nor in the rush for money. He is very peculiar. We do not understand him.” His life is hidden from the world. The Christian does not desire rich and gay clothing, fine carriages and the pomp and show of the world. His heart pants not after these things. The saint envies no man his gold or name. He does not live in these things. His life is hid with Christ in God, and, oh, how he loves to meet God in secret! This is his life. How sweet to get an hour from the duties of life to hold communion with Him who is his life! It is in the closet this secret, hidden life receives strength. Neglect the secret chamber, and the spiritual life will weaken. How true! But as I write I weep because so few will be benefited by these truths. Many people acknowledge that they do not pray enough, but after making the acknowledgement they go on the same as before.
Too many people are too greatly interested in the forms of godliness and not enough in the power. They admire the shining formalities, the empty show of religion. These things are ruinous to the hidden life of a saint. If he values this secret life, he will guard it from the attacks of the world. If the company he is in, if the occupation he is engaged in, alienates his heart from God, then let him free himself. Be watchful and careful that the things of sense do not call your thoughts out and away from God.
Allow me now to give you a panoramic view of the secret, hidden life that Christians live. You see a woman retire to the quiet of her closet. She engages in prayer to God. She tells Him of her trials and burdens of life. He comforts her by His grace and sheds over her soul a peace and joy that make the place seem like the gateway to heaven. She there receives food and strength for the divine life in her soul.
Yonder under a tree is a man in prayer. He has come to the fountain of life to drink. This is foolishness to the man of the world, but there the Christian drinks. He feels life fresh from the throne of God reanimating his spirit, and he says, “I know my Redeemer lives.” Oh, the blessedness of communion with God! The soul tastes the sweets of heaven. Nothing on earth can equal it. The pleasures of the world fade away; heaven draws nearer. The eye of faith is looking into the glory-world, and that glittering crown of life and unfading inheritance is brought distinctly to view. The rapturous songs of angels can almost be heard, and wondrous delight ravishes the soul as the glory of the immortal One is beheld.
The man of the world knows not the tastes of heavenly glories that the Christian has while in secret prayer. As his soul is wafted upward on the spirit of inspiration, he beholds the wondrous majesty of the Creator, the myriads of shining angels, the unfading crowns, and harps of gold, and he longs for the day when he shall fly away to the bright, beautiful land. What becomes of this old world, do you suppose, when one gets such a view of heaven? Does it any longer fill the mind or draw upon the affections? As glow-worms and stars and moon grow dim and fade away before the light of the sun; so this world with its pleasures fades away as heaven’s bright glories dawn upon our soul.
In another place you see a family gathered around the fireside reading the Bible and conversing about heavenly things. The father is telling the children of the crucified One, that He loves us and died for us and went into heaven to prepare a bright mansion for us to live in forever. See the expression of hope on their faces. Look at the light of their countenances. Ah! do not tell me that any pleasure of earth can be compared to the joys and the blessings of the family worship.
There you see a plainly-dressed young lady going with a message of love and encouragement to a sick-chamber. That group of saintly young people you see yonder are talking of the excellencies of Christian virtue and the blessedness of saving grace. They are conversing about the glories of heaven and what will be their joy when they pass through the gates into that sweet land of rest. They do not know just what they shall be in that eternal home, but they know that they shall be like Jesus.
In an upper room is a company of saints washing each other’s feet, as Jesus told them, and partaking of the bread and wine in remembrance of Him whom they love. Down yonder peaceful stream is a man being buried in baptism, thus testifying to the world of his death to sin and of his resurrection to a new life.
All this is a beautiful picture. Look it over. There is nothing in it that the sinner loves. It is a hidden life to him. He has no existence in it. It is life from above. It is life eternal. O blessed, wonderful life!
4. The life of a Christian is hid with Christ in God.
Oh, that my pen could picture to your mind the glory and the strength of these words! Christ is hid in God, and there with Him our life is hid. We have no need of fear. Nothing can touch the Christian’s life. When Jesus was here He said, “He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39) Everyone that comes to Christ must give up his life to Him. What does He do with it? He hides it in God. Is it any wonder the Christian’s soul pants after God? Is it any wonder his heart yearns and longs for Him and reaches forth to Him? His life is there. Does not the miser long for the presence of his gold? It is his life.
Some have thought it a reproach or a disgrace to be a Christian. On the contrary, the poorest and most illiterate Christian on earth is a much more glorious person than the most learned and refined sinner in the world. The Christian has communion with God. He has the life of God; and where the life of God is, there is moral excellence.
The Christian does not live upon the things of the world; he lives upon God. The creatures of earth were not intended to be his life and his joy. They are too mean and coarse a food for a Christian. He has a high and noble life that cannot be supported by the coarse things of earth. He eats angels’ food. The food of his best life is infinite and immortal. The man of the world is in hot pursuit for the things of the world because they are his portion and his life. It is different with a Christian. He has a higher life, a nobler origin, and he sustains a higher character. His life is divine and must have divine food to support it.
Oh, the wonderful condescension of divine grace! What great honors are bestowed upon a humble saint! His lowly home is graced with heaven’s glories. God and Christ come to dwell with him. While the king on his throne is attended by servants, the humble backwoods Christian is attended by angels. But God and Christ and the angels are unseen. The Christian’s company is unseen by the world. His life is hid—hid with Christ in God.
Why does a lively Christian love to be so often and so much where Christ and God are? It is because they are his life. His soul pants after God; it cries out for the living God. Oh, to be in His presence continually, to revel in His love, to dwell in the light of His countenance and see more and more of Him!—these are the cravings of the Christian’s heart.
These men whose soul and life are wrapped up in the things of this world are ever seeking, searching, striving after them. The covetous man loves to be near his gold. He ties up his life in his bags of silver. He is very unwilling to be long absent from them. The politician is ever seeking the society of his political friends and pushing his political claims. What a man lives upon, that is what he longs after and would be ever near, so that he may have the high pleasure of feeding upon it and by it being nourished and sustained.
What things of the world are to sensual men, God and Christ are to the Christian. Christ is his life. He is crucified with Christ. He lives, and yet he does not live. His life is hid with Christ in God. He has tasted the sweet waters of divine life and he would ever have his soul invigorated by them. When he is near God he feels secure; he feels that he lives. He is satisfied because he is near the spring of his life. He has nothing to fear. The name of the Lord is his strong tower, where he is ever safe. When the arrows of death are flying thick around and pestilence is walking abroad everywhere; when thousands are falling at his side and ten thousand at his right hand—he experiences no terror, for he has made the Lord his refuge and the Most High his habitation. In God only does he feel safe. The Lord is the only refuge for his life. No other place is secure. When dangers threaten, he feels secure because his life is hid with Christ in God.
Is it any wonder that the Christian seeks after God? Is it any wonder the apostle tells him to “seek those things which are above” (Colossians 3:1)? They go often into the closet, because God is there. They go to the family worship with delight, because God is there. They go to the Bible with a keen relish, because it is life to their soul. They go to the place of public worship, because God is there. They are ever seeking to be where God is and do not go where God is not. A Spirit-filled soul seeks after God with fervency. It flees to His presence. It is only there the soul is satisfied, because only there is it safe.
O pilgrim to that land of rest, you need have no fear! It may sometimes seem that the storms of life are going to wrench you out of the hands of God, but fear not; trust in Him; He will never let you fall. The vine clings to the oak in the wildest storm. Storms may uproot the oak, but the vine still clings to it. Notice why this is. If the vine is on the opposite side of the tree from the storm, the tree is its protection; and if the vine is on the exposed side, the storms only press it closer to the tree. In some of the storms of life God intervenes and protects us, and in others He exposes us for the purpose of having us pressed more closely to Him. Nothing can separate us from Him. Christian, go on your way. Remember where your life is and go rejoicing. Trials may come, the storms may blow, you may be scoffed at, you may be persecuted and threatened; but go hopefully, trustingly on, and someday, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:4)