Colossians 2:20

Do you know that you have died with Christ? And the life you now live is not your own but his very life. You died, and your life is hidden in Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

The natural man cannot receive these things because they are the things of the spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14).

The natural man thinks these are unnecessary things.

They are like the people in the time of Jesus that Jesus called out for looking for him because of the food he gave them (John 6:26). But when he started mentioning the fact that he is the bread of life and that without him, they do not have life, they start clutching their pearls, looking for an exit ramp (John 6:35-66).

Understanding that you have died with Christ is important because then it becomes clear who you should live for and what values should undergird your existence. Paul says to set your mind on things above and not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2). He warns against those who want to tie you to things that perish with use (material world (Colossians 2:20-22)), saying what they are looking for is submission.

We should not forget that we died with Christ, which means we are now spiritual people. You are no longer obligated to anyone in a spiritual sense, only to Christ.

Not only did Christ die for you, as a historical event that you get the benefits of, but you died with Christ, which means a new beginning for you. That you died with him means you are also raised with him, far above all principalities and powers (Ephesians 2:4-6). This means you have a new life and have no need to submit to any other spirits or spirits speaking to any man for any purpose. Your reason for living is now derived from Christ himself and the purpose of his kingdom. Paul goes even a step further. He said whether we live or die, we are Christ’s (Romans 14:8).

We were quick to think that the angels Paul referred to in verse 18 were the good ones. But maybe not necessarily. In another place, Paul says that Satan masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

In this focus verse, Paul mentions elemental spirits. Some of the people that Paul directed his letter to may have believed there were some spirits of land, air, etc., which is kind of the Roman way of mapping the spirit world.

They may say the real world is an interplay of the elements; some would say they are four in number (earth, water, air, fire) or five, or look to the moon or stars of heaven for direction or a cult group, spouting special knowledge, or an array of gods that must be appeased.

For example, saying your life is based on the month of birth in astrology, or other forms of cosmic forces, or even heavenly bodies, or the lines of your hand, spirits with various names, some may be the head spirit in some cultures, or ancestral spirits, or family spirits, in some others, or spirits attached to stones, mountains, rivers, trees. Things that people define as having control over lives on earth.

Paul wrote that you have nothing to do with that because you are dead; you died with Christ. Again, they have nothing to do with you. Paul did not argue whether those things are true or not; he just said they have nothing to do with you because you are not who you used to be. Period.

Rather than arguing the details, Paul focuses on Christ and their new relationship with him. He says that this relationship has implications for how they understand the world around them.

The spiritual framing of the world and ways for people to map the spiritual realm are also embedded in different cultures. It is one thing for the Colossians and is different from different cultures. It comes by different names. But one thing they have in common is that they developed apart from Christ, and they have the tendency to replace Christ in our mind or at least put him down from his ultimateness. The truth is in Christ, so whatever has been believed before him was a lie.

Paul is saying that since you died in Christ, you have died to all the other frames of seeing the world that are not Christ-centered. You are not obligated to adopt how the culture that you grew up in framed the unseen world.

That you died with Christ means you will not just be different at a time in the future, but we are different now. That we died in Christ is not some fanciful phrase. We truly died. And the earlier you realize that, the better.

Therefore, Christ’s death is not just a good gesture on the part of Christ displaying the ultimate in love and sacrifice, which it is.

It was necessary to recreate you in Christ's image so we could have a new life. But you say, can’t we have all those without his death? Doesn’t that mean God is not therefore all-powerful?

Let me illustrate: If you are a father and your son, who is 7 years old, wants a car, would you give him one? If you say no, someone might say, “See, you are not really rich.” That response betrays a deep ignorance of the father's heart.

So, God wants something more than a seeming display of raw power. He did that with the way he brought the children of Israel from Egypt. But see what that got him, a people who immediately began complaining, and later went back to idols.

Of course, the unbeliever who is bereaved of God's life would continue to argue because the things of the spirit are spiritually discerned and foolish to the unsaved (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Paul rejects submission to anything that is not Christ, anything that draws our allegiance away from him. He takes it a little further. He says, "You do not live in the world." He is not talking about the globe but the way of understanding life on earth and your place in it. It is now different and reshaped because you died in Christ.

In Christ, you have a restart. The old is done, and everything is new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).