Secure in Christ

The Bible tells us some truly wonderful things. One of my favorites is “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3, NIV)

These days we all have passwords that must be used when accessing important information such as financial or health records, or (shudder) our Amazon accounts. The very idea that these could somehow be compromised induces anxiety.

Not so long ago our passwords might have been made up of street names and birthdates. They might have been memorable words or perhaps even simple phrases. Thieves broke in, so we were all advised to use a different password for each account to use longer phrases, or to make them out of random characters so that they could not easily be discovered through brute-force attacks that simply tried every character until the password was decrypted.

These days we use multiple factors such as a sophisticated password coupled with a secret code sent to our phone. Passwords are on the way out. Instead, tokens, generated on the fly from biometrics such as fingerprint or face recognition, hardware passkeys, and ultra-secure authentication apps will provide even greater security.

Chat apps encrypt the text we exchange making the entire message like a giant password. No one can know what we’ve said without the key necessary to decrypt the text. When we visit a website, our browser uses a special encryption protocol to help ensure the validity of the server we’re accessing. Valuables kept at banks are in a thick walled safe. An entire room, the entrance to which is protected by sophisticated combination locks.

It’s all about encryption securely keeping our valuable assets away from would-be enemies.

That’s why I love this verse so much. It tells me that my life is now hidden with Christ in God. The Greek word we translate to English as “hidden” is κρύπτω krypto. It means to keep from being seen, to hide in a safe place.

My life, your life, is safely encrypted in God right along with the Lord Jesus. Let that sink in for a moment. Can anything take the Lord Jesus Christ out of God? The very question is ridiculous. The Lord Jesus IS God right along with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

We are hidden, safely kept, encrypted in God too. 1 Corinthians 6:17 says it like this, “whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.” (NIV)

In Romans 8:37–39 it’s phrased this way, “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NIV)

Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:27–30, NIV)

No enemy, however powerful, has the key needed to decrypt our life out of God.

Okay, so our lives are hidden with Christ in God. That is extremely secure, but even that is not the whole story. You see, the verse began with another statement about us. It said, “you died.” “You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (NIV)

Why is that there? If we died, how can our life be hidden anywhere? How can we even be walking around on planet earth, for that matter?

Let’s read Romans 6:3–11. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”

“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. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

We were crucified with Christ. We were immersed into Christ so that we died with Him and rose with Him to new life. Since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again. He died to sin once for all and now He lives to God. And don’t miss this, “in the same way” we are to understand that we are dead to sin and alive to God.

More than that. We are alive to God “in Christ Jesus.” This is the thing that got Paul so excited that he traveled hundreds of miles and endured great hardship to get the word out. In Colossians 3:4 he says that Christ IS our Life. We are IN Christ.

Now we are beginning to see the ramifications of our original passage that told us that we have died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. It’s like we are encrypted in an encryption. We are encrypted in Christ and Christ is encrypted in God.

We are in Christ, but even that does not go far enough for God. Remember 1 Corinthians 6:17 where we read that those who join themselves to the Lord are one spirit with Him? That is true because while we are comfortably double encrypted with Christ in God, Christ is in us by His Spirit. Paul talked about the, “mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27, NIV) I’m confident that the idea that God could live in people was more mind blowing for him than it is for us.

It shouldn’t really be that surprising though. Father prophesied this in Ezekiel 36:25–27 where He said, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (NIV)

He promised a new spirit, AND He promised to put His Spirit in us. It’s a deeply profound change. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we’re told that “if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (NASB 2020) This change is spoken of as a new creation and a new birth because it is in this way that Christ comes to live in us.

Listen to the way Jesus told Nicodemus about it. “Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:5–7, NIV)

Birth brings with it some important characteristics. When we are born of someone, we inherit traits and attributes from them. Our birth defines who we are. I was born to Art and Dora Eiss, so my identity is that I am a child of Art and Dora Eiss and a member of the Eiss family. What’s more, my hair has grayed in a salt and pepper style like my mom’s hair did. I have a naturally gentle personality like she did. At the same time, I tend to be over responsible and I’m a big reader like my dad. Imperfectly, in a human sense, you could say that my parents live in me.

It is the same way with our spiritual birth. It defines who we are. When we are born of God, we inherit traits and attributes from Him. One of these is righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (NIV)

In the spiritual realm, which is the ultimate reality, God lives in us. That’s why I was careful to point out that the prophesy in Ezekiel 36 not only said that God would give us a new spirit (make us spiritually alive by raising us with Christ as we read in Romans 6) but that He would put His Spirit in us.

It’s important that we understand the truth of this because unless we are truly righteous, we cannot be in Christ and in God, and He cannot be in us.

To really grasp just how central this truth is to our spiritual wellbeing, we need to begin back in Genesis. Genesis 3:8 says that “the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” (NIV) God was in Eden with the people He had made. This was His design and intention for us. He wants to live among His people.

Similarly, we find evidence of God’s plan and desire to live among His people in Exodus 29:42–46. It says, “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory. So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” (NIV)

Do you see that? He brought them out of the land of slavery “so that” He could live with them. That’s the same reason Jesus came and freed us from bondage in the domain of darkness and transferred us to The Kingdom of Light.

Let’s not go through all the other examples we could find. Instead, let’s jump to the other end of the Bible. Revelation 21:2–3 records this part of the vision given to John. “I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (NIV)

Clearly God lives among His people. There is another point to be seen here though. The place where God lives must be completely holy. In the temple, it was the most holy place. In the new Jerusalem (the new heavens and new earth) we’re told the same is true. It is devoid of wickedness and evil of every kind.

Jesus gave Himself up for this reason. Speaking of His relationship with the Church (that’s us), we read that the reason for what He did was, “to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” (Ephesians 5:26–27, NIV)

The Greeks have a word that means holy, sanctified, ἅγιος (hagios). It means set apart for God. Paul uses this word in the introductory verses of nearly all of his letters to the churches. Many translations render it “saints” and that is correct. That Paul addresses the members of the fellowships to which he is writing as holy ones, or saints, is telling. It demonstrates that those who are in Christ are indeed holy. More significant still is the fact that Christ dwells in us. He lives in us. Paul asks, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” (1 Corinthians 3:16, NIV)

If we were not righteous and holy, God could not live in us, yet the Scriptures are clear that the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. Romans 8:11 makes this very clear as it says that, “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” (NIV)

In Romans 5:21 we learn that “just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (NIV) Righteousness is the gift of God. Romans 5:17 and Ephesians 2:8-9 make that clear, and Romans 11:29 says that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

When you believed, He made you righteous, giving you a new spirit. He made you alive and came to live in you through your spiritual rebirth by the seed of God, which remains in you (see 1 John 3:9).

Birth cannot be undone. Our children may live in ways that grieve and concern us very deeply. They may become addicted to substances that steal their potential and even their lives. They may end up in prison or completely wasted by the choices they have made. Our hearts grieve, our emotions run high, we may distance ourselves, leaving them to the consequences of their chosen lifestyle. Nevertheless, they remain our children, and we Love them despite all of it.

That is no less true of our heavenly Father.

1 John 4:16–18 helps us grasp this. It says, “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” (NIV)

Father does all He does because He is who He is. He is Love and all He does is done because of and out of that. He knew that this would be hard for us to understand. We live in a world that teaches us that behavior is what defines us.

That’s one big reason Father gives us guidance in passages like these.

Ephesians 1:13–14 (NIV)

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

We are sealed in Him, just as we saw at the beginning. Safely hidden, encrypted in Him.

Philippians 1:6 (NIV)

“being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

He is the one who makes us qualified to be His homies and He is able to keep us.

John 6:39–40 (NIV)

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Elsewhere He says that He will never leave us, and no one can snatch us out of His hand.

I was raised in a religious tradition that taught that under certain circumstances it was possible for people to lose their salvation. It was said that if one chose to walk away from faith in God they would be lost if they had not repented and come back to Him before they died. I was cautioned that unconfessed sin (wrongly defined as the willful transgression of a known law of God) could also lead to eternal damnation. Another avenue to loss of salvation was the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes suicide, in part because it could not be confessed, was also thought to be unforgivable resulting in eternal death.

I’m familiar with all the verses used to support this idea. I argued vigorously that if you could believe one thing, you could later change your mind and believe another. I still affirm that, but in the case of belief in the Lord Jesus as my only hope of forgiveness and eternal Life, I make an exception.

The reason I do is because of the massive and profound change that takes place when someone puts their faith in Christ. When we put our faith in the Lord Jesus, we are crucified with Christ and raised with Him to a completely new Life. The person we were is gone and a new person has been born. We have the same body and the same personality, but just as Jesus was often unrecognizable to those He encountered after His resurrection, we are strangely different.

He has changed us, and those of us in whom He dwells know it in our hearts. Just as our children cannot change their lineage though they might disavow us in anger and pain, we cannot change our inheritance in Christ.

We did nothing to bring about our spiritual birth, and nothing we can do can undo it. He brought it about, and He absolutely will not undo it. Indeed, He cannot because to do so would nullify the blood of Christ. He would be unjust to do so.

In Christ Jesus you have eternal Life. What is eternal has no end. Once you have entered that Life it can never cease.