Colossians 3:3 – “For you died, and your new life is hidden with Christ in God”
Some of you might be old enough to remember the 1964 TV series, The Addams Family, about a rather different, shall we say, type of family. Characters such as Morticia, the mom, and the father, Gomez, Uncle Fester, Cousin It, and of course, the butler Lurch, became household names, and are still referred to today by certain generations. It might have been strange, but try and find one family around at that time that doesn’t remember watching the show as a kid, including me, who never missed an episode.
Why am I talking about the Adams Family? Because 90 percent of Christians today are still living as heirs of the first Adam, embracing the old, unrenewed life and the old covenant, ignorant of the miracle of the cross of Jesus Christ, the last Adam.
Why? I believe there are two reasons. First, they do properly value what Christ accomplished on the cross. Second, they do not know what happened to them on the cross. Every believer knows that Jesus died on the cross for their sins, but not every believer knows they died too.
Paul says so, again and again, to the Christians in Colossae, “you died with Christ”. To the believers in Rome, “we died with Christ”, to the Corinthians, “we all died”. You may say, “How did this happen? I don’t remember the nails.” Well, you were included in Christ when you were baptized into His death. His death became your death. The old Adam, and that old sin nature died. That’s good news!
You must see your old life, your old man, as crucified with Christ, and live the new life in Christ, as a new creation, a new being that never existed before. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me”. Your baptism into His death is just about the most important thing that ever happened to you. Yet, many Christians still see themselves as a new and improved version of their old self. No!
Again, Jesus is called the last Adam, He came to restore back to us the dominion and authority that God originally gave Adam in the Garden of Eden. Knowing this, why would anyone want to remain and live as a member of “Adam’s Family”? “For if we died with him, we shall also live with Him also” (2 Tim 2:11). If you don’t really know that you died, then you can’t really live. Instead, you will spend your life trying to die, dying to self, dying daily, and crucifying the flesh.
Today, if you’re saved, you are no longer a member of the LAST Adam’s family, that old man died, you are now living in Christ, it’s time to start living like it!