What is an indicative? What is an imperative? What are you to do with what God has done, and is doing in you?
Let us Lay Aside Sin as We Consider Ourselves to be Dead to it, and Alive to Christ
Colossians 3:1-11
(Children's Sheet for Sermon Interaction is at bottom. Notes are throughout sermon)
Pastor Kerry Kinchen, Bridgeway Bible Church
Please turn to Colossians 3:1-11. Colossians 3:1-11 is our text under study this morning. As you are turning there I want to share some claims that were made by a man who is revered by people all over the world for his political impact. The man was Mahatma Gandhi. He led millions in India in the struggle for independence from British rule. Secular academicians, politicians, and poets sing Gandhi's praises as if he was some sort of modern day prophet. Gandhi was no prophet. He was an antichrist who remained lost and blinded in sin. I am wanting to bring our attention to some statements Gandhi made because his claims reflect the darkened minds of lost people all over the world. Gandhi was a Hindu. This is an interesting fact because Gandhi would often selectively quote little phrases from the teachings of Christ in his speeches. There was a missionary in India by the name of E. Stanley Jones. He knew Ghandhi personally. One day he asked Gandhi;
"Though you quote the words of Christ often, why is it that you appear to so adamantly reject becoming his follower?"
Gandhi answered,
"Oh, I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ [sic]. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Ghandi recounted some of his experience that supposedly led to his conclusion. Early in his life, Ghandi practiced law in South Africa. While there, he decided to attend a church service. According to Gandhi, as he went up the steps of the place of the church meeting, a Caucasian elder barred him from entering. The man said,
"Where do you think you're going, kaffir?"
Kaffir is a derogatory slur word. Gandhi answered,
"I'd like to attend worship here."
According to Gandhi, the man replied,
"There's no room for Kaffirs in this church. Get out of here or I'll have my assistants throw you down the steps."
Gandhi claimed that from that moment on, he decided to adopt what good he found in Christianity, but would not consider becoming a Christian if it meant being part of the church. Later in his life, Gandhi is quoted as saying,
"Christianity is the best religion. I would have become a Christian myself [sic] but I have not found one true Christian [sic]."
What are we to make of Gandhi's statements which reflect more of his Christ hating heart than of his experiences with others? Well first of all, Gandhi was wrong. He had met true, and wonderful, Christian men and women throughout his whole life. History records that on numerous occasions, he visited with, and befriended, sound, stable, Christians who consistently manifested self sacrificial love for others, such as E. Stanley Jones. So, when Gandhi was giving his excuse to Jones, Gandhi just maligned the very man who demonstrated that what Ghandi said was a lie and a sinfully contrived excuse for rejecting the King of kings and Lord of lords. Gandhi's main problem (the real problem) was that he had not met the one true Christ. Gandhi did not love Christ like he claimed. To truly love the true Christ is to be a true Christian Biblically. Gandhi claimed to be a Hindu, up to his death. You can not love the authentic Jesus Christ and be a worshipper of over a million false god's as Hinduism suggests. Also, Christianity is not the "best" religion. Christianity is the truth. All other religions are lies. Further, the only "good" to adopt in Christianity is everything that Christ adopted. Additionally, people do not adopt Christ. God adopts the elect in Christ. God recreates "the bad" into good as a miracle where they become the righteousness of Himself in Christ. Finally, Gandhi's worldly mind, like so many lost souls, used other people as his excuse to hate Christ. Sinful Gandhi claimed he did not prefer Christians. Gandhi was void of the love of Christ. He was a law unto Himself. He was outside the law of Christ. Void of the Spirit, He could not love Christ or Christ's people. He was an autonomian. An autonomian is someone who lives by their own law that they invent. Autonomians are anti-nomian when it comes to Christ's New Covenant law. They reject Christ's law. Like the serpent in the garden, all autonomians are sinfully selfish in unloving rebellion against the one true God of the universe. Ironically, Gandhi was filled to the brim in sin. He was immersed in sin, loved his sin, and practiced sin, as an affinity of his dark mind, as everyone is full of sin when born into this world in the image of fallen Adam, Romans 5:12-14, 1 Corinthians 15. Gandhi's hypocritical sin-filled mind cleverly sought to excuse himself because of the sin he saw from the saved, but Gandhi failed to focus upon the sinless Christ as the Savior that Gandhi rejected as His Lord. It is only in embracing Christ as one's Savior in miraculous rebirth, that Christianity is understood. So, when we think about this statement;
"It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ,"
we must understand that when it comes from the lost, it is a clever statement, but it is a false statement at the spiritual level. But there is something else that the statement motivates us to consider. Certainly we realize that we are like Christ spiritually in Him. But the fact remains that we look at our own selves, and in a probing apparentness that we can not deny, we recognize, that in many ways, we manifest traits that are unlike our spotless Christ. Paul, in this Colossians Epistle, is going to touch upon this. His goal has been to ground the Colossians in important truths concerning rebirth which makes us like Christ spiritually, and then from there (where we are in the grace place of being in the Son, who is our all in all of us) to go on and walk the walk that manifests our Christ-likeness. It is the walk we were made for. Paul has moved through truths of the riches of the mystery of Christ in us, and us in Christ. In Christ, we have been made complete. He is the Head ruler. In Him, we were circumcised in the removal of the body of the sinful flesh of Adam by the circumcision of Christ. Paul goes on; We have been buried with Him, and raised up with Him, through faith in God's work. When we were dead in our sins and our uncircumcised selves, He made us alive together with Christ, having forgiven us. He canceled out the debt-note against us, nailing it to the cross, v 14. We died to the elementary principles of the world, so we do not need to submit ourselves to religious sounding rules, like, "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" Colossians 2:21. Coming into our passage, Paul explains that those things appear to be wisdom in self-made religion and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value against fleshly indulgences. These are all truths of the riches of the mystery of Christ in us, and us in Christ. Now Paul urges us to live exuberantly in our wealth by living out our Christlikeness. Please read with me now, starting in 3:1,
"1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old man with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-- 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all." Colossians 3:1-11
Please prepare your heart, to learn along with me in the preaching of God's word in this sermon titled
"Let us Lay Aside Sin as We Consider Ourselves to be Dead to it, and Alive to Christ"
[pray]
This morning I want us to glean three principles from our text in respect to laying aside our sin as we consider ourselves to be dead to it and alive to Christ.
/1/
The first principle is that there are three tenses to our one salvation. It is vital that we recognize that there is a past, present, and future, aspect of our everlasting salvation. If you do not differentiate between the three tenses of salvation, then you will not understand certain New Covenant scriptures. I guarantee you that you will be confused concerning what you read. Further, though the indictment can come from people who are dead in their sins, there will be confusion when we consider that there is an apparent element that we can relate to in statements like,
"It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ,"
(1a)
So, I want to touch on the first tense of our eternal salvation. When you were saved in the past on that day that you heard the gospel, or days later after hearing, when the Holy Spirit worked in you in such a way that you embraced Christ by His grace through faith, then you were saved. It was a done deal. The Spirit miraculously changed you, and in that change, you were saved spiritually. The Spirit's work in you is called the "indicative." Keep that word in mind. The indicative is a theological word that simply means:
What God has done, and is doing, both in, and with, you.
So, in the first tense, when you obeyed the gospel call, you obeyed God's command to repent from your old sinful God rejecting self, to receive Christ as your Lord and Savior. The gospel urging itself, which is like a command that you were effectually enabled to obey indicatively by God's Spirit in the effectual call, is called an imperative. In other words, the imperative is what you were commanded to do, and you freely, and gladly did so from a heart that was changed by God to do so. You obeyed the imperative (the outwork) because of the indicative (God's inner work). One way to put this is that you did what God did in you. When He effectually called you out, you effectually called out to Him. This is the first tense: the moment you get saved, you are saved. One microsecond later after God's miracle of changing you, you could point to what just happened as being, in a sequential sense, the past-tense of your one salvation that goes on forever. So, your salvation goes on forever, but it was actuated in the past by God indicatively. It is Ephesians 2,
"... when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been [in the past] saved), ... For by grace you have been saved [already] through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is [now continually] the gift of God;" Ephesians 2:5 and 8
@1 God makes us alive spiritually together with Christ by grace through __________________. This is salvation. Ephesians 2:5 and 8
So, positionally and spiritually, you are like Christ. You have been saved, and are still saved now.
(1b)
This leads us to consider the present tense of salvation. The present tense also has the Holy Spirit's continual inner work in us indicatively, plus the outworking of the Spirit, where we obey God's imperative urgings from His word. The present tense living out the life of Christ in you has a lot to do with the daily, moment to moment, "doing" aspect of Christianity. In this tense, a general focus can be primarily with how you act as a flow out of the Holy Spirit that is within you causing you to obey.
What does it mean that the Holy Spirit "causes" you to do something?
This does not mean that the Spirit keeps you from sinning. What it means is that what the Spirit has done in you already, which is indicative, enables you to do what the Spirit wants you to do in the second hand, which is the imperative, like for example, a command. The Spirit empowers, convicts, and leads. In the present tense, you either follow His leading and act more like the Christ that lives in you as your hope of glory in the moment, or you don't. But, either way, you are saved every moment, and this is your current condition. The present tense is seen where Paul urges to
"... work out your salvation with fear and trembling, [Then he says why] because God is at work in you to will and to work for His own good pleasure," Philippians 2:12-13
Working out your salvation each moment, is working out your saved life that you already have. Our present tense is where we practice self control, which is self that is empowered, and controlled, by the Spirit, where "God is at work in you." We are urged;
"... let us be self-controlled, having put on [already] the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation." 1 Thessalonians 5:8
The Spirit urges us imperatively to practice "self" control now, having already put on the "helmet of salvation" in the past indicatively, Ephesians 6:17. All of this is your daily living in Christ, where we manifest the life, and work, of Christ throughout our lives.
(1c)
Then there is that future aspect of our one eternal salvation. It is your glorious afterlife. It is where your whole existence gets better,
"... while we were enemies we were reconciled to God [in actual salvation] through the death of His Son, [that's past tense continual. Now the rest of the verse] much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5:10
Truly saved people were reconciled already indicatively. That would be the past tense. Our future glorious life is how we ultimately shall be saved from this earthly existence to a glorious resurrection existence in the after life, which is the future tense of our eternal expectation. The past tense with the future tense in the same passage is seen in Romans 8,
"23 ... we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved,
We wait eagerly for that amazing state in the future, where we will be adopted into that afterlife existence. But then, when Paul says, "For in hope we have been saved," he is referring to the past tense, and of course it continues on in its various tenses of experience. Paul continues,
but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." Romans 8:23-25
@2 In hope, we wait ________________________ for the redemption of our body, where we will be with the Lord forever in a better place, with better bodies forever. (Romans 8:23-25)
What we don't see is what we are waiting for. It is that future glory of everlasting pristine life that we are looking to up above. We have been saved spiritually, and we will be saved in a redeemed glorified body. Each tense is also important to understand because they explain our relationship to sin in a unique way that keeps us from believing weird stuff like, for example, Christianity is wrong, or Christians are not really saved, because
"... so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ."
This brings us back to our text again. I want us to notice that all three tenses are used in Colossian 3;
"1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory." Colossian 3:1-4
@3 In our salvation, God wants us to set our minds on the __________________above. (Colossian 3:1-4)
Notice that Paul speaks of already being raised up with Christ. In the previous verse, Paul says that we have already died with Christ. That co-crucifixion, and co-resurrection, with Christ, spiritually happened to you already indicatively--right? And it is your continual salvation in Christ too. We have been crucified with Christ, Galatians 2:20, nevertheless we live right now, yet it is not us, but Christ living in us, and the life we now live, we live by faith in the Son of God in receiving the faith of the Son of God. We are the body of Christ. Now this is where the present tense of your Christianity has to do with what you do with what Christ has done, and is doing in you. It is the much more walk of following God's imperatives from the indicative in God's high standard of fulfilling the great royal law of love. You already love Christians. You must, because the Spirit causes you indicatively to do so. To fulfill that love comprehensively in the various ways that God wants you to means checking your actions with His imperatives that He recorded through His apostles and prophets. Christ's high standard, which is the love standard, is so high that it is called "supernomianism." It is the great Law of the New Covenant. This is where God tells you and me to reach up to the higher heights of the heavenly goal through the indwelling Spirit according to His word. In other words, in your present tense daily life right now, what the Spirit wants you to do is hold your head up high. Whenever someone urges you to "hold your head up" they are usually encouraging you to have a positive attitude in the midst of the crud and junk of this cursed world of sin that you are passing through as a pilgrim. The daily pressures of life, which are really the chipping paint of the deception of sin that covers all the junk in the present cursed world, is crud. Paul's encouragement is that we hold our heads up and fix our gaze somewhere else--out of the crud. In the present tense of our continuous salvation, we are not supposed to be staring down here at the cursed crud and junk. We are supposed to be looking through it, in a sense, or over it; but all of us need to be looking up there where Christ is seated in God's pristine place of purity, peace, and perfection. Why? Because you are looking upward to your heavenly citizenship. As you look there, what happens? Your mind down here becomes heavenly minded. What you are doing, (at home, at work, on the Internet, at school, in your car--wherever the world is) is bringing the thinking of your home down here into focus of the big picture. This is why the doctrines of your present tense of salvation are so important. It is where you and I are to constantly be considering our differentness from the below-world all around us that is trying to capture our attention with their "little picture" distractions. And it really does try to capture your attention, doesn't it? This magnetism of the world is called the "seductive." We have God's indicative work in us, and we have God's imperatives that we obey through Christ's work in us, and then there is the enemy, which is the seductive. The seductive is the work of the domain of darkness that is opposed to Christ in us and His commands. It's everywhere. Material things will try to capture your attention. The goals of your neighbors, and the goals of advertising campaigns will try to capture your attention. The attitudes of the world are seductive. Sensually dressed females will try to capture the attention of males. Males who have immorality on their agendas will try to capture the attention of females for this kind of stuff. The temptation to be unequally yoked together with people who are not saved is something that relentlessly tries to capture the attention of God's children. I'm not just talking about spiritually unequal marriages. I'm talking about in anything. Money is always trying to capture your attention. Luke warm, blend with the world Christianity, is trying to capture your attention. The false belief of acceptance, and tolerance, where people think stupid stuff like Gandhi was alright spiritually, or where Christians think that people who sing empty philosophical poems in secular songs have something to say to the body of Christ, is all junk and crud of a little picture world that is amibitiously fighting to capture your attention. But, we have died spiritually and positionally to the world of fallen Adam. Now our lives are hidden with Christ in God, which is an amazing statement to ponder. Our lives are hidden with Christ in God, and so in our daily salvation, we practice out our heavenly citizenship as we await its fullness. We want heaven on earth right here and right now, but we want it to come out of us from Christ. This is the big picture thinking that Paul is talking about, and you and I need to be thinking it as a matter of faith.
Notice that Paul says Christ is coming back again someday. Also notice that Paul says that Christ is our life. Christ is the living indicative. He is the life-source of His church-body. To be a seeker of heaven is to be heavenly minded where you are being life minded. It is to be so heavenly minded that you are nothing but earthly good in the present tense. This life is what makes you shine the glory of Christ in the midst of a world that mixes the death of Sodom and Gomorrah into everything. Paul says, "set your mind." Keep on thinking on, dwelling on, meditating on, the things up there. When you and I as Christ's body members down here are looking up there, what we are looking at is who we are in Christ according to Ephesians 2:6 with Colossians 3:1, but we are also looking at something else. We are looking at Christ sitting at the right hand of God who is the Head over us, Colossian 1:18 with Ephesians 1:20. Christ is the Heavenly director who is telling us from the throne, through His word, the right things to think and do on this groaning planet. This is all present tense; and then Paul touches on that future aspect; when Messiah who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. This is experience, peace, and beauty forever and ever, beyond our imaginations. Our future is important. We can not diminish our blessed hope. Nevertheless, Paul's immediate point is to bring us back to the now of our salvation experience. The now is what we are operating in today. Basically, Paul is crystal clear in his meaning. He is essentially saying,
"Let's quit sinning now that we are in Christ. Now that we are in Christ, seated in the heavenlies, let's live like heavenly beings."
Notice the second tense urging. It is where you are mindful of the indicative, so that you can get on with obeying the imperatives right now;
"5 Put to death therefore ..."
When Paul says "therefore," he is pointing back to the indicative to what God has done already. It is from there, that Paul says,
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: ..." Colossians 3:5
The New King James brings out the essence well, with;
"Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth:" NKJV
Present tense urging for living out our salvation, which is manifesting Christ that is already in us, is for you and me to be putting to death whatever it is that is reminiscent of the cursed earthly domain that we already died to spiritually. The cursed you, in Adam, died, so now put to death the deeds of the flesh that want to try and go back and resurrect Adamness and try to look like him all over again. I like how Dr. Wallace in the New English Translation footnotes this with,
"put to death whatever in you is worldly."
This is the point. There is the worldly, and there is the heavenly. The contrast is easy to understand. The Spirit urges us to put to death,
"sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
None of these things are heavenly things. All of them are transgressions of the New Covenant Law of Christ (which is Supernomianism) because they are not manifestations of God's love shed abroad already in our hearts. Sometimes these things are done in secret, but often they are not. The lost world does not understand these things like Christians do. The world may try to act alarmed, or concerned, about some manifestations of some of these things, but the world is not consistent. People in the world will allow many of these things, but at the same time, they will try to act like those things are not preferable just because they decide they don't like them at the moment. Yet, within their preferences, such things are tolerated, or condoned whenever they feel like it serves their own best interests. They have a dead standard. It is just more of the junk and crud of a lost world that is blind. Activists even seek to make all of these things acceptable within false parameters politically. Mark my words, the next political wave to flow in our country will be to promote that everyone everywhere accept various forms of sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, as "preferable" across the board, not just tolerated. Yes, it will be the agenda of idolatry.
Notice that these are sins of the flesh that have to do with desire. Sexual immorality is more than just sleeping around. It is also fulfilling a sinful desire by fantasizing about sleeping around. I'm not talking about taking a nap either. The sinful desire is to have any kind of purposeful sexual experience outside of marriage. It involves the ever growing trend in our nation of viewing pornography for entertainment as if it is as normal as watching a documentary about the ocean; or a cooking show. Viewing pornography to augment one's sexual desire for gratification, is to seek sexual desire outside of the marriage bond, but God has ordained the marriage for the fulfillment of sexual desire. Paul is talking about sexual experiences that are impure--meaning outside of God's established way. It is evil. It is not love, and he puts it in the same category of covetousness, which is to selfishly want something to the point of jealous obsession. Evil desire and greed plagues the world. The desire is for anything sinful, and the world will even try to justify the desire. Greed is the same way. Greed has two primary symptoms. The first is,
"I want."
The second is,
"I don't like."
"I want," and "I don't like" concerning anything in carnality, are the symptoms of greed traced all the way back to Eve in the garden. The greed of I want, and I don't like, are bed partners that are never satisfied. God is telling us to fight this with the contentment of the big picture we see above, and applying it here below. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to these things, but alive to God because that is what they are indicatively as a true spiritual reality that is working in you right now as a miracle of God.
Paul sums all this sinful activity of this list as amounting essentially into idolatry. This is an amazing statement. What this means is that self is treated and appeased as self's god. It is where any desire is a legitimate reason to bring the offering of fulfillment to one's self-temple to bring glory to one's self. This is how the world manifests being false-gods unto themselves, where every day they say, "I don't like," and "I want," in the face of the One true God of the universe, and so they eat from the tree in deception thinking that they are god. "Pitiful," you say. Get real, because a similar kind of temptation, though not exactly the same, can touch Christians too, and this is Paul's point. Don't put yourself on your own sensual throne, like the world tries to do. Looking above, is not looking into a mirror. The bottom line in respect to these things in this principle, is that we must recognize the three tenses of salvation, and then we operate in our saved life each present day by recognizing that we have died with Christ, and so right now, each moment, we should be considering our members of our earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to skin-worshipping idolatry--because our members really are already dead to those things in Christ. Let us live what we are. It is the overarching principle behind what Paul says next,
/2/
which is the second principle to glean in respect to laying aside our sin as we consider ourselves to be dead to it and alive to Christ.
"6 For it is because of these things, the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them." Colossians 2:6-7
The parallel is Ephesians 5:1-6,
"1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among those set apart [in Christ]; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, [in other words, an unsaved person] has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Ephesians 5:1-6
@4 God wants us, who are His children in Christ, to walk in ___________________. Ephesians 5:2
This principle is that because of the disobedience of sin in the world, and these things being manifestations of the disobedient lost, God's wrath is coming on them all. Paul's point in Colossians is the same as in Ephesians. This is why some later Greek manuscripts have the same phrase here in Colossians, "the sons of disobedience." In respect to the context, such a phrase fits perfectly, because the sons of disobedience refers to people who are not born again into the image of the last Adam--Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15:45. Sons and daughters of disobedience are all who are still in the image of fallen first Adam, who is under the jurisdiction of the Domain of darkness. Before we were saved, this is the way we all were. Before we were born again, immersion in sin was how we walked and thought. You were living in sin like Gandhi and everyone else. You were sin incarnate. Paul says you were there, but now things have changed. We are not children of wrath anymore. We died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. We are in the world, but we are not of the world. We are living in the new man of the body of Christ, so let's make it our ambition to live like what we are. So this second principle is that we are to be laying aside our sin, and Paul gives more for doing so,
"But now you must put them all aside [put off]: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk [abusive speech] from your mouth. Don't lie to one another seeing that you have laid aside the old man."
This list is a bit different from the one Paul gave directly before it. These next things have to do with spiteful actions toward others, which are also things that characterize the affinities of the lost children of disobedience of the domain of darkness. They are transgressions of Christ's Law of Love. So, when people see these things coming from Christians, what do you suppose they think?
"There's not much difference between him and most everyone else in the world."
But we are different because we were made that way. So, the way the Spirit is telling us to deal with these things in our current every day state of salvation is that we are to cast them off now in each moment, in the same manner as the old man was cast off in the past by Christ. You see this is not works for salvation. This is working out the salvation that you already have in the Spirit, with awe and reverence for what you see, in the Spirit, in the heavenlies. Again, you, and me, and all Christians have been designed, and empowered to cast all those sin things off now in each moment, by the Spirit, through applying the word, in the same manner as the old man was cast off by Christ in the past. Paul's consistent point in all his epistles is the same thing: You and I are to act like what God already made us into because this is how we were made to be.
The word Paul uses for cast them off, is a Greek word that is used for taking off dirty clothes and throwing them aside. The NAS puts we have already cast "off the old self," but the context is indicating that we have already put off the "old man," verse 9. "Old man," is a better rendering. Stay with me, because this is why understanding the three tenses of your one salvation is so important. In other words, Paul's point is that we are in the new man of the last Adam, which is Christ. We have already put off the old man, which of course is the old self, which represents the body of the first fallen Adam. In salvation, we are in the one new man which is the body of Christ that Christ established in Himself. In the parallel epistle, Paul explains that Christ "in Himself" makes all groups of people whom He saves,
"... into one new man," Ephesians 2:15
Now think about this: There is no need for a new man, if there is no old man. This is exactly what Paul is talking about when he says
"you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you [in the fullness of your new man] also will be revealed with Him in glory.
This is Paul's point. He goes on,
"... since you laid aside
[already in initial salvation]
the old man with its [sin-filled] practices,
and then verse 10,
"10 and have put on the new man
[already in salvation]
who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him"
This is the great exchange. The "new man," is classically Paul's revelation of how we identify ourselves with Christ in salvation as His body. Think about the flow again:
You are seated in the heavenlies in Christ who is the sacrifice that triumphed over sin and death. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. We look up there, because we are the body of Christ, spiritually--both in respect to there, and down here. You are a new self, in the one new man, which is the body of Christ, who He Himself, is the God-man, where your life is hidden with Christ in God, 3:3.
This right here is the huge indicative foundation for Paul's urging to quit sinning. This is important because Paul is not telling the Colossians to quit sinning because they are covered with a new and improved you. He is saying quit sinning now that you are in Christ which makes you into the one new man where you can quit sinning by God's power at work within you according to His Spirit, and word--In context, the words Paul wrote. Quit sinning, (imperative) but only because you have put on your new identification (indicative). You are going to be more like Christ in the resurrection, but reflect your identification right now in resurrected life-living. You are alive, but it is not you, according to Galatians 2:20; it is Christ in you, and you are in the body of Christ, and as a new creation, your new man in eternal spiritual salvation, is being renewed in your daily salvation in knowledge after the image of the One who created "him."
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5:17
This leads us to consider the last principle to glean in respect to laying aside our sin as we consider ourselves to be dead to it and alive to Christ,
"10 and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him--"
/3/
The third principle is the important foundation of being renewed to a true knowledge. The true knowledge is in respect to true New Covenant Biblical Doctrinal things in every area that God has preserved for us in His word. We put on the new man, but notice what Paul says about the new man's origin. He was created, and God is the one who created him. This is you as the new creation of 2 Corinthians 5:17. Now, what I am wanting to bring our attention to is the fact that our renewal takes place in our saved minds. We are new creations created in Him, but we are renewed according to to true knowledge from solid discipleship in God's word recorded in the canon of Scripture. The goal of our discipleship is for our new man in Christ to reflect the image of Christ who is God. Paul's reference to knowledge here could be an intentional put-down on the false spirituality of proto-gnosticism. After all, they claimed to have the true knowledge. But Paul presses this issue of renewing according to knowledge, in all his writings. Paul says in Romans;
"do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind," Romans 12:2
The battle of the new man, which is you and me in Christ, is in our minds. It is the same battlefield for all Christians. That is why your mind must be renewed in the full knowledge of the New Covenant in Christ. As we renew our minds with God's revealed knowledge, we hold our heads up high and dwell on heavenly things, and we look like Christ in us;
"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things." Philippians 4:8
Do you see what this is? It is big picture stuff--not little picture stuff.
@5 The Lord wants our minds to ___________________ on whatever is honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, is excellent and anything worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8
It is transformation through the renewing of our minds. All this knowledge, and all this mind renewal in accordance with truth is meant for one thing. Its meant for us to reflect, act out, and be the mind of Christ as we abide in the one new man. Acting and thinking like Christ is not sin while in Him. It is how we know how to properly minister. It is how we know what to believe. Paul goes on to complete his point concerning the positional spiritual aspect of the body of Christ, by saying that in the new man who is being renewed in knowledge; verse 11--
"11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all."
The renewing riches of Christ are available to all people of the world that God saves. In Christ is the grace place. It is all that everyone anywhere needs for life, and for godliness. Christ is all our life in all of everyone who is in the one new man. He is in every member of the body. Think about how Christ sees us all the same way. In the culture that Paul is speaking--the Greeks hated Jews. Jews hated Greeks. Barbarians were usually foreigners that spoke another language, other than Greek. Scythians were hated by both Greeks, and Jews, as some of the most savage and cruel people to ever live. A slave was considered to be an instrument to be used. Anyone who was free was considered to have a higher status than a slave. Romans were considered to have a higher status than Israelites. Israelites, who bolstered their importance because of the Old Covenant, thought they were superior to everyone. But what God recognizes is that in the body of Adam--though separated, all these categories of people are together lost. But, in the one new man of Christ's body-church, all categories of people, by faith, are saved. All kinds of people have put on the new man, and in this state, each of us is being transformed. We are being renewed to the true knowledge according to the image of Christ who is the creator of the new man in Himself. "Here" in the new man, there is a renewal according to knowledge for all of us from all walks of life where we have learned lies from the world of sin. The bottom line is that Christ is all for us, in all of us.
As we wrap up this morning with this teaching on laying aside sin as we consider ourselves to be dead to it, and alive to Christ, I want to share one final story that relates to the one about Gandhi that I opened with. It has to do with the substance of this sermon. Ruth Bell Graham, the late wife of Billy Graham, once wrote of her encounter with a young student from India. She spoke with him about Christ. In response, he gave her the Gandhi reply. He said;
"I would like to believe in Christ, and many in India would like to believe, but we have never seen a Christian who was like Christ."
This Gandhi-esque cop-out is silly when one considers that no Hindu is like Shiva, or like Kalli the goddess of destruction, or like Ganesh with a grotesque elephant head. But of course the young man was still in the old man. His mind was not renewed to true knowledge. Anyway, a friend of Mrs. Graham told her to tell the guy,
"I'm not offering you Christians. I am offering you Christ."
This is the point. Everything in your Christianity, though involving you, ultimately goes back to Christ who is your life--who is our all in all of us. amen.
@1 God makes us alive spiritually together with Christ by grace through __________________. This is salvation. Ephesians 2:5 and 8
@2 In hope, we wait ________________________ for the redemption of our body, where we will be with the Lord forever in a better place, with better bodies forever. Romans 8:23-25
@3 In our salvation, God wants us to set our minds on the __________________above. Colossian 3:1-4
@4 God wants us, who are His children in Christ, to walk in ___________________. Ephesians 5:2
@5 The Lord wants our minds to ___________________ on whatever is honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, is excellent and anything worthy of praise. Philippians 4:8
