CHRIST IN VIEW
LIBERTY AND LOVE #82
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:1-2)
When we consider the things about Christianity that establish the preeminence of Christ, there is too much to take in in one lifetime. Everything was created for Christ, and it will be a day of great awakening for the child of God when this becomes clear in his or her mind. Nothing enables us to see as God sees until we look through the window of Christ.
Our access to God comes about as the result of what Christ has done. When God looks at his people, it is through the Lord Jesus. We need to remember that the Father has given Christ’s righteousness to us and therefore we have received the full benefits of his love.
Now it is only a matter of opening our eyes to all that we have in Christ. And we need the assistance of God in understanding this (Eph. 1:17-23; Col. 1:13-29). So ask God to help you rejoice in Christ and keep your focus on him.
The matter of focus is very lost on many Christians, for they do not seem to realize what their calling is. There is too much work, too much busyness, too much thought of an “it” or an “institution” or a “program.” The tragedy in this is that Christ is obscured. The Christian life is an existence of spiritual focus and a matter of having the right priorities. We must see that the primary point that God has made in his word is that Christ is to be in view the entire time that we are in existence.
Everything that we do must be done out of pure love and devotion to him for there to be any merit to it (1 Cor. 13:1-3). The believer’s eye must be a window of Christ. Everywhere we look we should see the one for whom, by whom, and through whom all things exist. We must learn to set our minds on things above, believing that God has “raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6).
The only basis for our acceptance with God is Christ. Period. What Christ has done—in his righteous life, sacrificial death, triumphant resurrection from the dead, and ascension into heaven—is what has set sinners right with God. This is the reason that only Christ should and must be preached by the church. The goal of every disciple of Christ is to be like him and bring others to him. This can only be done by preaching Him to others(Col. 1:28). Our boasting should only be about him. Our love should only be for him. Christian, do not let anything obscure your view of Christ. Keep him in view. Make everything you do a response to what you see in him.
Dewayne Dunaway
