– There’s an interesting now/not yet eschatology going on in Colossians 3:4 – ‘…when Christ, who is our life, appears, we will appear.’ There is then a sense in which we have not appeared.
– Our righteousness (and justification) are also hid as we are hid – hidden, and not yet, but also real.
– We die with Christ, and are thus not fully visible in our justification, and when we are raised to new life when Christ appears, we will fully appear.
– Christ is raised – this does not equal Christ being visible or not hid. He is present directly to God, indirectly.
– Thus, our full reality before God, though hidden to us, is visible and present to God.
– Thus again, we see our justification not by looking at ourselves – since our status as justified is hid with Christ as we are hid – but by looking to Christ in faith.
Theologians, Inc. 