Colossians 3:3

For The heavenward, Christward, "affection" of the Christian is reasonable, when his spiritual relation to Christ is seen.

ye are dead Lit. and better, ye died; in Christ's death for and to sin. See above on Colossians 2:11-12; Colossians 2:20.

your life assumed to be actually theirs, because He who died, and to whom they were united by faith, rose again. See above on Colossians 2:12, for the nature and import of this wonderful life, which implies the remission of a death-sentence, but also far transcends it. It is in fact, in its full and inmost sense, the life of the glorified Head made present and powerful in His members by the Holy Spirit. Cp. 1 Corinthians 6:17; Galatians 2:20.

is hid The Greek tense is the perfect. The life was, and is, "hid"; continuously, from its first gift. "You died," on the other hand, is given in the aorist (in the Greek). The "death" is fact accomplished, the resulting "life" is fact continuing.

" Hid" :with the double suggestion of safetyand concealment. He "with" Whom it is hidden is there "where no thief approacheth," and also where "the world seeth Him no more." The main emphasis is on the latter fact. And the Apostle's practical aim is to direct the Christian away from the visible, mechanical, routine of Pharisaic or Essenic observance to the secrets of holiness which are as invisible to natural sight as is Christ Himself, in Whom they reside. We do not think, as Lightfoot, that there is any reference just here to baptismal burial, in which the baptized person was significantly hiddenbeneath the water. For the baptismal rite instantly went on to an emersion, signifying a life in some sense manifest.

with Christ Again the mystical Union is in view; the vital secret of the whole matter.

in God the Father. The word God is here, as very often (see e.g. Philippians 2:6), used of the Father with a certain distinctiveness. See above, Colossians 1:3, and note there. What is "with" the glorified Christ is "in God," inasmuch as the Son is "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18). Cp. John 17:21; John 17:23.