For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
The Greek aorist tense implies, "For ye have died once for all" (Col 2:12; Rom 6:4-7). It is not said, Ye must die practically to the world in order to become dead with Christ; but the latter is assumed as once for all having taken place in the regeneration; what believers are told is, Develop this spiritual life in practice.
For ye are dead,.... Not in a natural or corporeal sense, for they were living in the world; nor in a moral sense, for though they had been dead in sins, they were quickened by the grace of God; nor in a legal sense, for all their trespasses were forgiven them; see Col 2:13; but they were dead to the law, moral, ceremonial, and judicial...
3. For ye are dead. No one can rise again with Christ, if he has not first died with him. Hence he draws an argument from rising again to dying, as from a consequent to an antecedent, “C’est a dire de ce qui suit a ce qui va deuant;” — “That is to say, from what follows to what comes before.” meaning that we must...