A sermon preached at Covenant Presbyterian Church of Fort Smith, Arkansas on June 1, 2025.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:1-4).[1]
In the version of the Lord’s Prayer, taken from Matthew’s Gospel, we pray, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12 KJV). The word translated “debts” implies that we have an obligation due God that requires forgiveness. Of course, Jesus uses this financial term figuratively for sin, an offense against the holiness of God that imputes an insurmountable debt, a debt we cannot pay.
In explaining this to the church, the apostle Paul reminds us, “you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross (Col. 2:13-14). The “record of debt” that Paul says is cancelled for us in Christ is the note of sin indebtedness for every son and daughter of Adam, due upon penalty of death. It is this debt-burdened bad news that makes the gospel such good news: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:17). In becoming sin for us, our sin debt has been forgiven, nailed to the cross, as it were, and in its place we are given the righteousness of Christ through faith.
That cross, to which our record of sin was nailed, is empty, as is the tomb where our Lord was buried. For, he who died for our sin also resurrected from the dead, conquering not only sin but also death, that we might live together with him, which has implications not only eternally but daily. How do we who have been saved from death to life live out our lives in Christ? If we have been raised with Christ, how shall we then live? To start with, Paul says, when Christ is your life, “seek the things that are above” (Col. 3:1).
Seek Things Above
This first imperative is conditional, predicated upon having “been raised with Christ.” To be raised with Christ is to be brought to life spiritually, or what Jesus called, “born again” (John 3:3). Apart from being born again, we do not, we will not, seek things above. Apart from God’s saving grace, there are no seekers: “no one seeks for God” (Rom. 3:11b). But, all who “have been raised with Christ” can and should “seek the things that are above.”
But what does it mean to seek things above? To “seek” in this sense is to set our hearts upon heavenly things. What we love, we seek, so love these things. What these “things” are is defined by where they are, “above.” “To seek the things above,” Dick Lucas says, “takes us to the very summit of Christian experience in this life. It is daily to hold fast to Christ as the centre and source of all our joys. It is to enter his gates with praise and come into his courts with thanksgiving.” Or, as Jesus said, “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:21). To “seek” then is to set our hearts in heaven.
For, that is where Christ is, “seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1b). As Christ “was crucified, died, and was buried” and as “he rose again from the dead” on the third day, so “He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.”[2] Paul directs us “above,” because Christ is literally there. And there, he has been given the place of honor, prominence, and assigned sovereign authority, as God the Father has exalted and bestowed on him “the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11). As such, he has authority over all powers and principalities, having conquered what would keep us from him.
In Romans, Paul explains, “Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:2). To say that “we stand” connotes our relationship with God, not as terrified servants but beloved children. In Christ, we seek things above not simply because he commanded us but because he loves us, and we love him. And in Christ, we love what he loves.
This is no sacrifice, as the world would have us think, because setting our affections in heaven is to embrace what God has for us, and what he has for us is best. To set our affections elsewhere is to forget the goodness of God. C.S. Lewis put it this way, “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”[3] Indeed, we are; let us seek the things above.
Set Your Mind
In his book, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, Richard Hofstadter describes the erosion of intellectualism not only in our culture but in our churches over the last several centuries. He writes,
The Puritan ideal of the minister as an intellectual and educational leader was steadily weakened in the face of the evangelical ideal of the minister as a popular crusader and exhorter. Theological education itself became more instrumental. Simple dogmatic formulations were considered sufficient. . . . By 1853 an outstanding clergyman complained that there was “an impression, somewhat general, that an intellectual clergyman is deficient in piety, and that an eminently pious minister is deficient in intellect.”[4]
Fast-forward to the 21st century, and we hear the result of this erosion through Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes, when he refers to God and Christian ministry as “a ludicrous fantasy designed to provide a career opportunity for the family idiot.”[5] While I should perhaps take offense, as “the family idiot,” given the state of western Christianity, he’s not far off. But culture does not define our faith, and our anti-intellectual age is not indicative of true Christianity, as sad as our state may be.
As we have been endowed by our Creator with the ability to understand, the Holy Spirit takes our innate understanding and enlightens us to the eternal knowledge of God. Our mind and its “renewing,” as Paul calls it, is essential to our sanctification, that we “may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). And so, just as “seek the things that are above,” directs our affections, “Set your minds on things that are above” directs our intellect. We set our minds where we set our hearts. It is the “fear” of the Lord that is “the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7a) and “wisdom” (9:10a). A right mind follows a heart right with God.
To explain “the things that are above,” Paul distinguishes them from the “things that are on earth,” but what does he mean by “things that are on earth.” Is Paul advocating a neo-Gnostic lifestyle in which we divorce ourselves from the physical, from our bodies, from everyday life? I once heard it said of a man who struggled at his trade because of constant interruptions from Christian volunteer work that he was “too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good.” Is that how Paul is teaching us to live? The confusion comes with the Paul’s expression “things that are on earth,” which Paul uses figuratively here to describe everything pertaining to our sinful flesh. We see this clearly in verse five, where Paul says we are put to death everything that is “earthly” in us, which he begins to describe with examples, such as sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry,” and adds, “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth,” along with every other sin deserving of God’s wrath (Col. 3:5-8). In other words, we must never set our minds on sin, and sin abides not in heaven but here on earth.
But when Christ is your life, you set your mind on him. What does this mean? Broadly speaking, such an imperative includes Paul’s list from Philippians, of “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable,” along with “any excellence” and “anything worthy of praise.” We are to “think about these things” (Phil 4:8). But what defines true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellence, and worthy of praise, is not earthly but God’s Word. Therefore, to set our minds on Christ is to be informed by the Word of Christ. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16), Paul says, for the Word directs our hearts and informs our minds.
Trust in Christ
Seeking and setting our minds on things above, is indicative of the death of our old life and birth of our new life. We are to meet this reality with the active obedience of what Paul calls putting “off the old self” and putting “on the new self” (Col. 3:9-10). Such active obedience reveals true faith in Christ, which encourages and edifies, as we see the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work within us, as well as encouragement to actively mortify our sinful flesh. Through the Spirit’s indwelling presence and active work, we are conformed more and more to the image of Christ.
And yet, while the evidence of our sanctification is apparent to us and others, the Spirit’s creation of this new life, with its new self, is not. It is, Paul says, “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3b). Just as we cannot see Christ “seated at the right hand of God,” we cannot see the Holy Spirit’s regenerating work in our hearts or the gift of faith given. It is, as Paul explains to the Ephesians, not our own doing, “not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph. 2:8-9), but the supernatural act is hidden from plain sight.
As strange as it may sound to some, the world will not find Christ in you, or me, or in Christ’s church. If you are here today and looking for Christ, do not look within yourself, or at me, or at us. While called by his name, we are but sinners saved by grace. If you are looking for Christ in any other place than the Word of God, you will be disappointed and likely grow disillusioned. Through the Word, and especially the preaching of the Word, the Holy Spirit works effectually, convincing and converting sinners, and building us up in holiness and assurance, through faith unto salvation.[6]
This of course sounds odd to the world, because it cannot be tangibly observed or understood apart from the grace of the Holy Spirit. “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,” Paul writes to the Corinthians, “but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Cor. 1:18). He goes on to explain,
For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:21-24).
And through such folly, using “the family idiot” like me, the Holy Spirit works, not tangibly exhibited but hidden from our sight but known in the heart and mind of all who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But what is “with Christ in God” will not always be hidden. On the last day, he who ascended and is seated at God’s right hand will return. And when he appears, we who were dead in our sins, we who have been made alive together with Christ, we who have been saved by grace,[7] “will appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:4b). And everything that has been hidden shall be revealed, and we will not need to seek or set our minds on things above, because we, whose record of debt has been nailed to the cross, will be with our Savior forever.
Until that last day, let us praise the Lord with our lips and with our lives. Let us pray the Lord will help us to seek and set our minds on Christ, praying,
May I seek your face
above all that you have given,
above the bounty of your common grace.
Lord, set my heart in heaven.
Let it sing with the host above,
of the grace that you have given,
of your mercy and your steadfast love.
Lord, set my heart in heaven.
[1] Unless referenced otherwise, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2001).
[2] “The Apostles’ Creed,” Trinity Hymnal, Rev. Ed. (Suwanee: Great Commission Publications, 1990), 845.
[3] https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/resources/reflections-november-2008/
[4] Richard Hofstatder, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (New York: Vintage Books, 1963).
[5] https://chrisgehrz.substack.com/p/the-religious-history-of-sherlock
[6] “The Shorter Catechism” Q. 89, The Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms (Lawrenceville: PCA Christian Education and Publications, 2007), 396.
[7] Eph. 2:4-5
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