Christ our Life

Q: What does the Bible say about Christ being our life?

The Bible teaches that Christ is our life, as stated in Colossians 3:4, meaning that true life is found in Him alone. In Colossians 3:4, we learn that Christ is our life, emphasizing that without Him, we may exist but do not truly live. This statement encapsulates the essence of a joyous, purposeful, and fulfilled existence that is rooted in a relationship with Christ. Life is described in various forms in the world—some may lead lives filled with debauchery, others with self-righteousness or despair. However, authentic life is defined by having Christ at the center, who offers us a life free of condemnation and guilt, filled with joy and peace through the certainty of eternal life. Therefore, the statement 'Christ our life' reflects that our existence, aspirations, and ultimate purpose are found only in Him.

Q: How do we know that Christ is the source of our life?

We know Christ is the source of our life through His own words in John 14:6, where He declares, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' Scripture unequivocally establishes Christ as the source of our life. In John 10:10, Jesus states, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.' This promise assures us that any true life we possess flows from Him. According to Colossians 1:16-17, all things were created by Him and for Him, asserting that He holds all creation together. Thus, He is not only our spiritual sustenance but also the origin of all life. The proclamation of Christ as our life stresses the necessity of being joined to Him—the vine—wherein we find our true essence and vitality. Without Him, we are spiritually lifeless, but through Him, we are given an abundant and fulfilling life.

Q: Why is security in Christ important for Christians?

Security in Christ is vital for Christians as it provides assurance that we cannot lose our salvation, as stated in John 10:28. The security we find in Christ offers profound assurance for believers. Jesus stated in John 10:28 that 'I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.' This divine promise highlights the permanence of our salvation, emphasizing that once redeemed, we are held securely in the hands of Christ and the Father. The assurance of our security in Christ liberates us from fear and enables us to live boldly in our walk of faith. Our confidence is not based on our ability to maintain salvation but on Christ’s complete work and His faithfulness. Paul reinforces this assurance, teaching that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39). Ultimately, our security in Christ is foundational for the Christian life, allowing believers to rest in grace and carry out their spiritual calling without fear of losing their status before God.

Q: What does it mean that Christ is the sustenance of our life?

Christ being the sustenance of our life means He provides everything necessary for our spiritual growth and nourishment. Describing Christ as the sustenance of our life points to His role in providing us with all that we need for our spiritual well-being. Just as physical bodies require food and water to survive, our spirits require the nourishment found only in Christ. In John 6:35, Jesus identifies Himself as 'the bread of life,' asserting that those who come to Him will never hunger or thirst again. This metaphor illustrates that in Christ, we find all spiritual sustenance: satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth. Moreover, as believers partake in the Word of God and respond to the gospel, they are spiritually nourished and cleansed. Therefore, understanding Christ as our sustenance encourages us to continually rely on Him for our spiritual vitality, reminding us that all we need is found in our relationship with Him.

Chapter 3, we'll look at this
together. These folks got stuck in traffic. Glad you made it though. Let me show you what my text
is here in verse 4. When Christ, our life, shall
appear, Then shall ye also appear with him in glory." I want to
talk about Christ our life. Christ our life. You know, life
is relative. Life is relative. Now, when you
say, what do you mean, preacher, what do you mean life is relative?
Well, there are some people who have life, technically speaking,
but they aren't living. Machines keep them alive. Keep
them breathing. Keep their bodies functioning. And then, you know, there are
people who, through this sickness, they have no quality of life,
none whatsoever. Just laying there in a machine
doing everything for them. And how about people in nursing
homes? You go in nursing homes and there's people who've been
there for years who have no idea who they are. or anybody else,
and they lay there for years and years. Would you call that
life? Would you call that life? And then some people live a life
of debauchery, perversion. I don't want to live a life like
that. Some live a life of pride and
self-righteousness, trusting in themselves. God saved me from
that. and have enough, but I certainly
don't want to live that life. God saved me from self-righteousness
and pride. And some live a life of partying,
righteous living, and call it really living. Let me show you
something over in 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3. Some live a life of what they
call party and righteous living. That's all they live for, you
know. Friday night, Saturday night, boy, we're going to... They even got a song called,
I'm going to get my drink on. I heard somebody talk about that
the other day. Going to just really, really live it up. They
think that's really living. But look what Simon Peter said
here in 1 Peter chapter 3 and chapter 4 and verse 3. Chapter 4 and verse 3, For the
time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of
the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lust, excess
of wine, revelings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. And
they think it strange that you don't run with them anymore,
that you don't live the same life. And they speak evil of
you. You used to do it. What's the
matter with you now? You're self-righteous? No. God gave me a new heart.
I'm not a hog anymore. I don't want to run that life.
And then some live a life of hatred and misery. I mean, they're
hating and hateful and hating everybody and everything. They
live a life of hatred and misery. That's why Paul said, hating
and hating one another. Never satisfied with anyone or
anything. There's some people that way.
And then there are those who live a life no different than
a man. They just get up, they eat, they sleep, they go through
life unconscious of anything besides their life, and just
eat, sleep, and drink, and go on about their life. No concept
of God ever enters their soul, nothing at all, except they think
this is the only life that they are. And then lastly, some lead
a very religious life, like the Pharisees, deceiving and being
deceived. Now do you understand what I
mean that life is relative? So many different types of life,
so many different types of life. But Paul gives us the definition
of life here in Colossians 3. We have the very definition of
life, real life, living, living life with joy and purpose and
fullness. He says there in verse 4, when
Christ, who is our life, life, with the capital letters, L-I-F-E,
a life full, a life free of condemnation and guilt and sin, a life full
of joy, a life full of peace, a life of the greatest quality
A life that you can really live and really enjoy, the life of
the greatest quality. And what that quality of life
is, is Christ and eternal life that's found in Him. And this
is defined by God Himself and defined in the blessed book of
God. Christ is our life. Christ is not our life, but we
got it. Sin's not our life, but we got
it. Christ is our life. Now, that's life. That's real
life. And that's what we're talking
about, Christ out of life. And if you don't have Christ,
you may be living, but you don't have life. You may be doing a
lot of things, but you don't have life. And let me tell you
how He's our life. First of all, He's the source
of our life. He's the source of our life. Look, you teach
Colossians, and look over here in John, chapter 10. John's Gospel,
chapter 10. You know, our Lord said, because
I live, you shall live also. That's all He said, because I
live, you shall live also. And look what our Master said
here. You see, not only is He the source of our life, He gave
us this life. He gave us the very life. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. And He's the source of all life.
I mean, if there's any life in this world, Christ is the source
of it. You know, by Him all things are created, and by Him all things
live, move, and have their being. And He's before all things, and
by Him all things consist. And Him, beloved, God made all
things by Him and for Him and to His glory. So everything on
this earth that you see, hear, touch, taste, and handle, animate
or inanimate, was made by the Lord Jesus Christ. Every animal,
every vegetable, Every inanimate object, everything in the sea,
everything, there's all these worlds. There's the heavenly
world, there's the earthly world, the world of the ocean, lots
of worlds in this world. And Christ made them all. So
if you have life today, just natural life, and if you have
blessings today, if you have things that you enjoy, and family
that you enjoy, it's Christ that gave it to you. You had nothing
to contribute to anything. You didn't do anything in your
life to live, and you didn't do anything to have anything
you got if Christ didn't give it to you. You could be naked
in Africa, or naked in Papua New Guinea with a bone through
your nose, worshiping sticks, stones, and idols, if it wasn't
for Christ. It's He that gives us life. He's
the source of it. And I'll tell you, that's why
we bless His holy name. And that's why he said here in
John 10, look what he says, the thief cometh not. What does he come for? To steal,
to kill, and to destroy. Now who is this thief? That's
the devil, of course. But he said, listen, this is
what I come to do. Our Master said, I am come that
they might have life. Life! And listen to this, that
they might have it more abundantly. Did you ever think before you
knew Christ that you could have the life that you have? Did you
think you could enjoy so much? Did you think that you could
attribute everything in your life to Him? Did you ever think
that you could have such joy, such peace, such assurance, such
comfort, and such an abundant life and have so many friends
and brothers and sisters all over the United States and world?
That He gave you that much life to know all these people and
to enjoy the life that you have in Christ? Oh, what an abundant
life He's given us. And also, He's the source of
our life. And now look over at John 17 just a moment. Oh, everything that we have,
especially our spiritual life, that comes from Christ. That
comes from Him. Look what He said here in John
17 and 1. These words. spake Jesus, lifting up his eyes
to heaven, and said, Father, thou hast come, glorify thy Son,
that thy Son also may glorify thee. Now listen to this, as
thou hast given him power, authority, the ability to do for people
over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Now what is this life he's talking
about? And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. Now our Lord right there told
us what life is. He said, I'm coming, I've got
power to give eternal life. I'm the only one that can do
it. There ain't no place else to go, nobody else to talk to,
nobody else that can do it. I've come that they might have
this life, and I give you eternal life. And what is this eternal
life? That first of all, you might know God. Not a God you've
met. God, who is here, absolutely
sovereign, who's got all power, who can save whom He will or
pass by whom He will. He's the potter, and we're the
clay. He makes some vessels of honor,
some vessels of dishonor. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion on whom I'll have
compassion. So salvation is to know God,
not a God who you can manipulate, not a God who is bound by your
power, not a God who can't do anything unless you let Him,
not a God who has to wait on you to allow Him to come into
your heart or allow Him to bless you or allow Him to do anything
for you, but God who does all things after the counsel of His
own will, that you might know Him. And then, Jesus Christ whom
God has sent. See, you can't know God unless
you know Christ. He says, no man comes unto the
Father but by name. You want to come to God, you're
going to have to go through Christ. You want to talk to God, you're
going to have to go through Christ. You want to call on God, you're
going to have to do it through Christ. You want to worship God,
we can only worship you through Christ. That's what I'm talking
about. He's our life. He's the life
that I got from God, that God gave me through Jesus Christ. Bless his name. Oh my. You see, it's not I, Paul said,
it's not I, but Christ that liveth in me. He said, I'm crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I that live, but it's
Christ that liveth in me, and the life I now live in this body. He said, I live by the faith
of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I
live by Christ. You see, beloved, we were dead
in sins, and it's He that quickened us. We died with Him, we live
with Him, we're joined with Him, just like the vine that's joined
to the branches. The moment it's severed from
the branch, the vine, it dies, and we only have life as we're
joined to Christ. Got to be joined to Christ. Now
I'll tell you something else, not only is He the source of
our life, but He's the security of our life. It's one thing for
Him to give us life and to have us as our life, but how in the
world are we going to keep this life? What if He gave it to us
and left us up to keeping it? What if He saved us from our
sin and left us up to keep up from sinning? Oh, see, he's a security of it. Our Lord Jesus said, I give unto
them eternal life. And what else did He say? They
shall never perish. And not only shall they never
perish, but He said this, no man will ever pluck them out
of my Father's hand. And I was talking to fellows, I've talked
to several fellows over the years, and they always say, well, you
can take yourself out of your hand. Why in the world would
you want to do that? You mean to tell me you can open the hand
of Christ? And he says, and the Father,
nobody's able to pluck Him out of my Father's hand, for the
Father which gave Him me is greater than all. So we're in the hand
of Christ, we're in the hand of the Father. Now how more secure
can you be than that? I'm in His hand. They say, well,
listen, Lord, please hold my hand. No, don't hold my hand.
Hold me in your hands. Me holding His hand and Him holding
mine is not enough. He's got to hold me in His hands. I don't want to walk along hand
in hand with him, I want him to hold me in his hands. And
every time you find him with his sheep, you know where he
finds them at? You find them on his shoulder, or you find
them in his arms. You never find a sheep walking
by himself unless it's lost. And when he finds it when it's
lost, what does he do? He picks it up and puts it on
his shoulder. You never find, only time you
ever find a sheep walking by himself is when it's long. And
when Christ finds him, he puts it on his shoulder. That's the kind of Savior we
need. One that can save us, and keep us safe, and carry us all
the way. And this is how glorious he is,
that he'd carry all of his sheep at one time in his blessed arm,
in his blessed shoulder, because that's how glorious and gracious
and mighty he is. He's got sheep all over the world
today. You know how many of God's people are worshiping this morning?
And He's got every single one of them in His hands. And He's never lost one for whom
He died. And let me show you something
in John chapter 6. Look, I tell you, I should have just preached
from John, I guess, today. We're going over there so much.
But let me show you something. That's why our Lord said, up,
you know, He said, Father, of all that thou hast given me,
I've not lost a one of them. Not lost a one of them. You know, there's people that
think you can be saved and be lost again. There's folks that
say, well, I got saved again. Oh, my. Oh, my. If Christ ever saves you, if
Christ ever saves you, He'll only save you one time.
That's enough. See, it's who saves you. It's
who saves you. Look here in John 6.37 with me
just a moment. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me, I'll
in no wise cast out. Now what in the world you reckon
that means? Let me take just a moment and say just a thing
or two about that. David looked out one day and
saw a woman named Bathsheba, took her, got her pregnant, lost a child,
and then had Solomon by her, had her husband murdered. And
you know what his last words were? Do you know what his last
words were? Now, if anybody's being cast
out, you think a murderer? And an adulterer would have been
cast out. But you know what David says? The Lord hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered that all things ensure. And this
is all my salvation, all my desire. And old Simon Peter said, I'll
die with you, Lord, I'll die with you. And he said before
the rooster crow in the morning, you'll deny me three times. If
anybody had been cast out, Peter would have been cast out. When
Noah got drunk and laid naked in his tent, if anybody had been
cast out, God would have cast him out. And I'll tell you something,
and if you knew me and my thoughts and the things that I've done
since I've been a believer, you'd say God cast him out too. But
God, Christ, don't cast His people away. You know why? Because He
put away all their sins. He knew what they was when He
saved them. He knew what they'd do after
He saved them. And beloved, He don't... We may
do things to surprise us, but He ain't never been surprised
by anything we ever done. And ain't you grateful that you
got Him to go to, in the blood of Jesus, Christ cleanses us
from all sin? Now, I'm not telling you to go
out here and do these things. Those things are written there
for our learning, our admonition. Don't do those things. My little
children, I write unto you that you sin not. Oh, don't sin. But if any man does, we have
an advocate, we have a lawyer, we have one take our case before
God. And who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous. That's what he says when he says,
I'll never cast them out. And that's why folks say, well,
you know, you can be lost and saved, but Christ never saves
you. No, no. That's why we need to hear the
gospel. That's why the gospel will give you assurance. That's
why the gospel will tell you the truth about the way you are
and what Christ actually did. We won't make no excuses for
ourselves. We won't justify ourselves. For
Christ justifies, and we'll come to Him as we are. And then he
said in verse 38, For I came down from heaven not to do mine
own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And listen to it
now, And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, of all
which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. Oh, the Old Testament saints
were preserved by Him, forgiven by Him, justified by Him, and
all because of Him. And Paul said, I'm persuaded,
I'm persuaded, that nothing, nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. He started
naming all the things that maybe could. He says, I'm persuaded
that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which
is in Christ. He gained over everything, tribulation,
naked, the pearl, the sword, don't make any difference. Ain't
nothing going to separate Christ from His people. Is that not
right? It's God which began a good work
in you. He shall perform it unto the
day of Jesus Christ. And Colossians 3.3 says this,
for your death And your life is hid with Christ's breath in
God. Can you be hid in a better place? All right. He's the security
of it, not only the source of it, the security of it, but He's
the sustenance of it. He's the sustenance of it. The
sustenance of it. And what I mean by that, I mean,
beloved, you know, like in our natural life, we have to have
food. People eat breakfast, eat lunch,
eat dinner. And everything else in between.
And then you have to have so much water. You've got to have
water. Then you've got to have sunshine. You've got to have
rain. You've got to keep your body clean. You've got all these
things. And Christ does. He's ever been
in that for us. You know what our Lord Jesus
said? He said, I'm that mass. I'm that true bread which came
down from heaven. Your fathers didn't eat men and
wilderness and are dead. But I'm that true man. I'm that
heavenly bread which came down from heaven, and a man eateth
of this bread, he shall never die, and shall never hunger again.
Once you taste Christ, you ain't want nothing else. You're not
looking for nothing else. And then our Lord Jesus said,
I'm that water of life. He told that woman in the well,
said, give me the drink. She said, oh my, said, you a
Jew asking me? He said, if you knew the gift
of God, you would have asked of Him, and He would have given
you a drink of living water. And not only is He the water
of life, but He's the light, the light that keeps us out of
darkness. And I tell you, beloved, He's that true man, and He's
our bread, He's our water, and we've got to keep our bodies
clean. It's His blood that cleanses us from all sins. It's His Word
that washes us and sanctifies us throughout this life. And
let me tell you something, we didn't give ourselves spiritual
life. Did anybody here give themselves spiritual life? If you didn't give it to yourself,
how in the world are you going to keep it? How are you going
to sustain it? As we do naturally, we have all
these things in all of our life, our food, our rest. Christ is
all this stuff. Christ is our all and end all.
And to our souls, everything that we need, we get from Him. Everything necessary to our spiritual
life. One of the dear sisters wrote
me this morning. She said, Boy, I need to be fed
this morning. This last Sunday, I need to be
fed. Now, I don't want to be one thinking
fetal child of God. What if I got up here and told
you how y'all ought to live, and if I told you all the work
you need to do, and how obedient y'all ought to be, and how y'all
ought to go out and start business, and do all this? If I gave you
certain dress codes today, and gave you dietary codes to keep
up with, what good would that do you? Huh? That Christ is everything that's...
I need rest. Christ is my rest. I need food. Christ is my bread. He said,
he that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, how do we eat his flesh
and drink his blood? Every time we hear the gospel,
we partake of Christ. We partake of his blood. We partake
of his water. We partake of the rest that's
in him. And oh my, when we talk about resting, we're talking
about ceasing from our own labors. We're talking about not trying
to work to get God to bless us anymore. Not trying to get God
to do anything for us, or us to do anything to get God to
do something for us. Christ done already did that.
Huh? Let me tell you something else
Christ gives to us is our life. He's the object of our life. Philippians, back over one book,
Philippians 121. He's the object of our life.
He's the object of it. Look what Paul said here. He's the object of our life. You know, a lot of people have
a lot of objects in life, a lot of objects. A lot of things they
look at, you know. Catholics have Mary. Chinese have Buddha. Vietnamese have Buddha. Cambodians
have Buddha. Muslims got Allah. Everybody's
got some kind of object. Something that they worship.
And they walk and show you their house. Boy, look at this, man.
Look what I've done. A woman one time showed me her
bank book. Said, looky there. Boy, you think
I ain't got something. It's a pitiful object, ain't
it? She's dead and gone now. Left that bank book and all the
money behind. Somebody else had to borrow that
headstone. That's awful. But as objects,
people have objects. But look what Paul said here
at first Philippians 121. For me to live is Christ. Oh, for me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain. You see, we see Jesus, who is
made a little lower than angels. We see Him. How do we see Him?
We see Him by faith. I can see Christ as vivid now.
Can you see Christ? I can see the Lord Jesus vivid.
I can see Him in His Word. I can see Him by the eye of faith.
I don't see a physical person. I don't see somebody with blond
hair and blue eyes and a heart, big red heart in him. I don't
see that. I don't see somebody bowing and praying, the light
shining down on his head. I see a person that's not a physical
person, but a spiritual person, a glorious person who has power,
who has grace, who has love, who has mercy, who has pity,
who has kindness, who has compassion, who has forgiveness, who has
justification, who has righteousness. I see a person who has everything
that I need in this world and the world to come. You ask most people to describe
Jesus, and they'll start describing the physical person. But, oh,
listen, when we ask somebody to describe Christ to me, oh,
there's such a beauty about it, but I don't know how I know where
to start. You know, I believe I start with
this righteousness. Because that's what makes me
righteous. I believe I start with this power. He had power
to come down and bust into my heart and give me a new heart,
give me a new will. He had the power to come into
my soul and give life to me. He had the power to come and
take me and take out that old stony heart and put in a heart
of flesh. He had the power to come and
take out that old darkened mind and put in a mind that know God. He had the power to come and
take me out of darkness and put me into light. He had the power
to come and put away all of my sin. And he had the power to
come and put me in the kingdom of God. And he has grace. And the power to keep me all
day, every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and all these
years. And He's going to have the power
to come and change His foul body and fashion it like unto His
glorious body by the work whereby He's able to do all things unto
Himself. Oh, I'll talk about it. We're
talking about, we're not talking about, we're talking about a
person who can say and keep saying and forgive and justify. Oh, we're talking about a person
that you can't see. And I'll tell you something else,
if you ever see, you can come to him just like that. How do
I get to him? From here to there. You get to
Him without moving a muscle. Some of you are going to Him
right now. Some of you are rejoicing in Him right now. Some of you
see Him when I talk about Him that way. You see Him right before
your eyes and say, Oh, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus, my Lord. Oh
my, but we see Him by faith and we are seeing Him by faith. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And one of these
days we're going to see Him as He is. And when we see Him as
He is, we shall be just like Him," he said. Now, I'll tell
you something. The Scripture says, I know that
in me, that in my flesh, dwells no good thing. So when we start
looking to ourselves, or anything of this flesh, looking to ourselves,
what are you going to find? Despair, discouragement, depression,
doubt. in living by Christ, looking
to Him, oh, what joy, what peace, what assurance. We find life
with purpose, life with definiteness. And that's why the disciples,
when all they turned away from Him, multitude turned away from
Him. He looked at his twelve and said,
we also go away. Lord, we're in the world we're
going to go. You're the one who's got the words that gives us life
and keeps us living. You're the one who does that.
And let me show you this quickly, over in 1 Peter 2.21. 1 Peter 2.21. He's not only the source of our
life, the substance of it, the object
of it, he's our example of it. He's our example. Verse 21, For even hereunto were ye called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that ye should follow in his steps, who did no sin, neither
was guile found in his mouth, who when he reviled, he reviled
not again. This is the examples he sent.
When somebody reviles you, don't turn around and revile them again.
When he suffered, he didn't threaten anybody. But he committed himself
to God, to his own self, by our sins, and his own body on the
tree, that we, being dead to sins, should what? Live under
righteousness, by whose stripes you are healed. For you were
as sheep going astray, but are now turned unto the shepherd,
the bishop of your souls." You see, he's the example. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is a perfect man. The only man who ever lived on
this life, perfect. He was perfect, sinless, holy
heart. From the moment he was brought
into this world through the womb of his mother Mary until the
day he hung on that cross and went to that tomb as a man, he
never had one sin his whole life. He obeyed his mother and his
father perfectly. He kept the law of God perfectly. He obeyed his father in heaven
perfectly. He loves sinners perfectly. Everything about Him was sinless
and perfect. So when do we talk about His
example, being a perfect man, living this perfect life? Well,
in the world, what does that mean to us? Well, He's our example,
first of all, in submission. Father, not my will, but Thine
be done. And He calls us to... He said,
Father, it's your cousin. Shall I not drink it? If God
gives us a bitter cup to drink, shall we not drink it? Instead,
it's from our Father's hands. He's our example in obedience,
or to obey the Father. He's our example in humility.
He bowed down and washed His disciples' feet. As I've done,
you should do also. He's our example in giving. How
did He give? Everything. What should we give
to Him? All that we have. All that we
are. He's our example in prayer. Oh, he prayed. God help us to
pray. He's our example in love. Oh,
to love is Christ loved? To love just a smidgen of He
says He loves. He's our example in forgiveness.
Oh, to be able to forgive, even as God, for Christ's sake, forgave
us. He was a servant. So, should we be servants? Oh,
in so many ways. You see, it's His image we're
going to be conformed to. It's His image that God's going
to conform us to. And that conformity starts right
here on this earth. And let me tell you lastly, and
I love this right here. He's not only our source, our
sustenance, our security, our object of our life, example of
our life, He's the crown of our life. He's the crown of our life. Now James, that's back before
you get to 1 Peter. Just go back to James here a
minute. Let me show you something. James, chapter 1, verse 12. When
we talk about crown, everybody's worried about getting their crowns
in glory. Well, Paul said, I'll press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And that's
why Paul said, I want to know Him. I want to win Him. I want
to be found in Him. And if I have Him, that's all
I've got set on His head are many crowns. And then He gives
us some crowns, and this crown has to do with this life here,
not a life to come, this life right here, right now. And I'll
show you that. Look what He said in James chapter
1, verse 12. Blessed is the man that endureth
the temptation, for it is tried, he shall receive the crown of
life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Do we
have life? Crown us with it. We wear it
as a crown. We rejoice in it. We say, this
is what Christ gave us, this life. And, oh, beloved, there's
the crown of life. And look what Paul says over
in 2 Timothy 4. Just a moment. Oh, my. I tell you, this Crown, crown of life, crown of
glory. He glorified us with himself.
Crown of righteousness. He gave us righteousness in this
world. And we have an incorruptible crown that Christ gave us because
it won't corrupt, because we can't even mess it up. That's
why Paul said to be absent from the bodies, to be present with
the Lord. We have an incorruptible crown. But look what he said
here in 2 Timothy 4, verse 6. For I am now ready to be altered,
and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight,
I finished my course, I've kept the faith. Henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but
unto also them that love his appearing." So a crown of righteousness. And we appear there, we say,
who are these? Where do they come from? These are they that
came out of great tribulation. And they've washed their robes
white in blood of the Lamb. And that white linen that they're
wearing, that's their righteousness that He gave them. What about you? Can you say Christ
is your life? Can you say for me to live as
Christ and die as game? Can you say that and really mean
it? And then back over in our text, and I'm done. Colossians. Back over in Colossians three. It says this, in verse four again, when Christ,
our life. Christ, our life. Thank You, Lord. Oh, bless His
name for the life that we have. Christ our life shall appear,
and He's going to come. He's going to appear for us one
at a time, or one of these days He's going to appear for all
of us at one time. But He's going to appear. And when He appears,
look what it says, then you're going to appear with Him too. When He appears before God, you're
going to appear before God with Him. When He appears to change
our bodies, you're going to appear in that changed body with Him. When He appears to take us to
glory, you're going to appear with Him in glory. Huh? And then look what He says.
Then you're going to appear with Him. And how are you going to
appear with Him? In glory. In glory. Whatever that glory
is that He has, that's what He said. He said in John 17, 24,
He said, Father, I will, that they whom Thou gavest Me be with
Me where I am, that they shall behold My glory that Thou gavest
Me before the foundation of the world. Oh my! You know, you don't
look very glorious now, but He ain't done with me yet. He ain't
through. He ain't through with you either. But I'll tell you what, That's what's so wonderful about
when Christ comes to give His people. You know the minute He
comes to give them, then glory, just like that. Then glory, just like that. Just
like that. He shall appear, and guess what? Immediately you'll appear with
Him, and you'll appear with Him in glory. Just like that. I see Him. I see Him now. Oh,
I see Him." God help you to see. God give you eyes to see.

Christ our Life

What does the Bible say about Christ being our life?

How do we know that Christ is the source of our life?

Why is security in Christ important for Christians?

What does it mean that Christ is the sustenance of our life?

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Christ our Life

What does the Bible say about Christ being our life?

How do we know that Christ is the source of our life?

Why is security in Christ important for Christians?

What does it mean that Christ is the sustenance of our life?

Sermon Transcript

About Donnie Bell

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