THE HIDDEN LIFE.
"For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God"
Col_3:3
The military campaigns of the last two generations have demonstrated to the world the absolute importance of combatants in modern warfare keeping out of sight.
This is a lesson the soldiers of the Cross would do well to take to heart. In fact we cannot become His soldiers if we are not hidden. It is our Captain’s wish that all His followers should be His hidden ones, in the deepest sense of the word.
Israel could boast of being the Lord’s hidden ones (Psa_83:3). Every saved person can to-day lay the same claim to be one of His hidden ones. If Israel’s position was secure, ours is doubly so, for ours is a double rampart: "Hid with Christ in God."
Sir Arthur Blackwood always referred to the words of our text as the means of his conversion. By grace he became an awakened sinner. Yet he hesitated taking the step to Christ owing to the difficulties of his social position.
In this frame of mind he attended Church at Barnet, when Mr. Pennefather, the godly vicar, gave out Newton’s hymn:
"Though many foes beset your road.
And feeble is your arm,
Your life is hid with Christ in God,
Beyond the reach of harm."
The last two lines the Holy Spirit brought home to the seeking heart, and he ventured his all on God.
Said a Pagan ruler to a Christian: "If you do not renounce your faith, I will take away your life." "That you cannot," was his reply, "for my life is hid with Christ in God."
Surely this reveals to us the value God places upon us. In Mat_13:44 we are told of a "find" that was considered of so good a value that it was hidden by the fortunate finder. The fact that we found ones are hidden by God is a proof that we are of great value to Him. Though worthless in our own sight. He thinks the world of us; though counted by the world as fools, we are in His estimation worth the hiding.
The Christian life is the hidden life. Hidden-in what sense? In six.
I. The Hidden Life is the SAFE Life, for we are hidden in Christ for Salvation, as Noah and his family were hidden in the Ark (Isa_32:2; Heb_11:7).
II. The Hidden Life is the JUSTIFIED Life, for we are hidden in Christ for Justification, as the stones of the Temple were hidden by cedar wood (red wood, the emblem of the Atonement), and gold (emblem of Divine Righteousness) (1Ki_6:18). Not a stone of the Temple was seen.
III. The Hidden Life is the JOYFUL Life (Isa_42:11). Walking hurriedly along a country road to catch a train one cold, drab, gloomy morning, a burst of merry singing near the Workhouse arrested my steps. It was a robin hidden safely in a hollow tree, protected from the stormy blast, and pouring out its merry song to the Faithful Creator. Hidden ones can sing for joy.
IV. The Hidden Life is the COMFORTABLE Life, as the believer is hidden in Christ in the sense of the weak chick hidden safely and securely under the warm shelter of the parent bird (Mat_23:37).
V. The Hidden Life is the FRUITFUL Life, for we are hidden in Christ as the corn of wheat is hidden in the earth-for fruitfulness. "How can I die to myself? It is true that it can be said of those in Christ, "Ye are dead." But the question is: How can this doctrine, which is true positionally, become an experimental fact in our individual experience? How does the corn of wheat die, but by fully surrendering to its environment. Our actual salvation began when we first surrendered to the Lord Jesus, but it will progress in proportion to the constancy and completeness of that surrender (Joh_12:24).
VI. The Hidden Life is the INVISIBLE Life, the "I live, yet not I" life, for we are hidden in Christ as the High Priest was hidden from the sight of the worshippers when in the most Holy Place (Psa_91:1). Said a well-known Manchester Christian engineer of a past generation: "The Holy Ghost is the only real power for service. Why have we not got this power? Because we are not willing to be made invisible by the investiture." This is a searching word. Moses could no longer be hidden by his devoted mother, because he had continued to grow. May we never grow so big that we cannot remain hidden. It is when we are little in our own eyes that we are kept out of the sight of men. The only "I’s" in the Bible that wear a crown are the small ones-"i"; at the Reward Seat of Christ will you receive a crown?
Autor: James Smith