The Christ Life in an Alienated World
Colossians 3:5-7 (NKJ)
Bishop H.C.G. Moule calls Colossians 3:1-4 a "golden paragraph (Colossian Studies, p. 189)." There is no question but what the four verses that we reviewed last time lift us into the "heavenlies" with our marching orders: "seek those things which are above . . . Set your mind on things above . . . for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God . . . when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory." These are commands and assurances of divine reality, whether we believe them or not. But for Paul this is the Christian's point of departure by faith. All that follows is a consequence of the "Cross work of Christ." Nothing need be added, nor can anything be subtracted from it. May the Holy Spirit bring us to the point of personal bankruptcy where these riches become ours by faith in His Word.
Paul launches the application of these truths with the full reality of the sinfulness of his readers and our past and present, even while being believers. He does not believe in sinless perfection in this life. But he addresses the very believer with a forthright command. Such a radical point of departure becomes the reason to face the sad reality of our sinful nature, our past. This glorious position in Christ has very real earthly conflicts to face; let there be no doubt. "Therefore – conflict issues from that heavenly reality, conduct must change – put to death (make to die, mortify, do to death) your members which are on the earth" (3:5). This is a present tense aorist command, meaning in effect, a decisive position taken once for all --no exceptions, no temporizing, no rationalizations. It is now the believer's duty to deal with what God dealt with at the Cross ( Romans 6:2; 6, 11-14; Col. 2: 11,12, 20).
This is not a new legalism, our best efforts to deal with our base desires; it is a grasping by faith of what he did. Such a conflict is beyond our powers of our best efforts. "For what the law could not do in that it was weak though the flesh, God did . . . "(Rom. 8:3). This result answers perfectly to the final injunction of Rom.8:13 " . . . but if you through the Spirit put to death - the same concept --you will live." This is the work of the Holy Spirit, but not without our full consent and faith acceptance.
What does the believer face, do to death? Don't be surprised. "Fornication (a root meaning from which we get pornography), uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (3:5)." He is telling us the basest sins of the past are exploited today as never before in our TVs, newspapers, universities, popular culture etc. ad nausea. The fact that Paul names them and gives that decisive command to put them to death means that each of us must face this battle with his/her own heart. The Christian landscape is strewn with casualties in these very areas. "Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. 10:12).
Paul reminds the Colossians and us that "the wrath of God is coming (approaching) upon the sons of disobedience in which you also once walked when you lived in them (6, 7)." There is an immediacy to this warning. Paul is saying: "This was your very life." You must put it to death. But again his command is based on our new and vital position in Christ, dead to sin. From God's point of reference, that old power has been broken once and for all at the Cross (Col. 3:1-4). But it lacks our reckoning (Rom. 6:11-14), our believing, our obedience, empowered by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Little wonder that Paul characterizes the believer as "those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:24, 25). This is a most powerful negative message. Zero tolerance for the sins of the flesh, the old nature. The believer, be he/she old or young, mature or immature, must take this warning to heart. Paul views this as the ABC of Christian victory. He will move on to the positive and present relationships of those in Christ. The best is yet to come (Col. 3: 8-4:1). But there can be no victory without the mastering of the ABC of new life in Christ in an alien world.
Gordon Johnson
March 21, 2006
