Colossians 3:1 Raised with Christ?

Colossians 1:1 "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God." (NKJV)

Whenever I come across Paul talking about being raised with Christ, or dying with Christ, or baptized with Christ, I immediately become distracted trying to figure out if I've missed something. My thought is, "Am I really saved? I haven't died and I sure wasn't resurrected. I was baptized but it was so long ago, did I really understand what I was doing?" All these doubts creep into my head making me wonder if I'm really saved at all. Have you ever been there?
Let's put that doubt to rest.

After contemplating Paul's writing, and Paul uses this speech quite often, I realized he's not talking literal, it's purely figurative. (By the way the bible is full of figurative speech.) I'm sure this can be confusing to many. Just as an example how much it's used take the next verse, "Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth." (NKJV) Now does this mean we are to take our brains out of our skulls and place them on the top shelf. No, this is figurative speech. Leave your brain in your skull, but think about things that have to do with heaven and Jesus, not on material things of this earth which pass away.

Now that we know verse 1 is figurative we understand that at the moment we believed and trusted in Christ for our salvation, we were figuratively baptized, the old you went under the water and died (or you could say you were nailed to the cross like Jesus) and then you were raised from the water (or you could say you were resurrected from the grave like Jesus) a new person in Christ. If you keep in mind the figurative language set forth in the bible it's not so intimidating, it's really a beautiful thing.

Grace, MB