Colossians 3:9-11 ESV
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in experiential knowledge according to the image of its creator. [11] a renewal in which there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
In this same chapter of Colossians, in verses 3 and 4, the Holy Spirit, through the pen of the apostle Paul, said that “our life is hidden with Christ in God” and then amplifies that statement by declaring that “Christ is our life.” Christ isn’t your Savior because he died for you; he is your Savior because he is your life. Christ, of course, did die for you, and in his death the old self that you once were died in him, but Christ also was raised from the dead for you, and in his resurrection life, you rose from the dead in him as a totally new self in union with the risen life of Christ. Because you are now hidden in him who is your life, you are saved.
In verse 10 of Colossians 3, Paul says that the new self is being renewed in an experiential knowledge according to the image of its creator. In other words, even though we are born again as new creations in union with Christ, we are continually growing in our experience and manifestation of that union. The new self is being transformed to mirror the very image of its creator, which is Jesus. This transformation has a goal, and that goal spelled out clearly in verse 11, is that the Christ who is in all would be all.
What God is after in our lives, and therefore what must be our great passion is that everything we think, say, and do would be Christ. I didn’t say that everything that we think, say and do would be like Christ; instead, that it would be Christ himself. True Christ likeness is not an imitation of Jesus; it is a manifestation of Jesus. Again, not living for him, but living from him. That is the gospel.