The scripture reading this evening is from Colossians chapter 3, that's on page 1169 in the Pew Bible. Colossians chapter 3, we're going to read verses 1 through 17 of Colossians chapter 3. Colossians chapter 3, verse 1: "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them, but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. This is the word of the Lord."
As we heard this morning from Reverend Godfrey, God gives us times and seasons. He gives us weekly Sabbaths to rest. He gives us seed time and harvest. And here at the end of the year, we have a time to reflect and look back on the year gone by, and in the new year to plan ahead in the future and think about what we might change in the new year. This reflection and planning ahead often looks like New Year's resolutions, and most commonly New Year's resolutions end up being diet, exercise, weight loss, maybe financial planning, desiring some sort of promotion at work, maybe learning a new skill or hobby, or even kicking an old bad habit.
The thing that all these have in common is self-will, self-determination, self-discipline, and self-motivation. Oftentimes, when I've seen online recently, the new year comes, people will post something and say, "New year, new me." And they've made some sort of superficial change to their lives, and they declare to everyone, "This is the new me. This is who I am, at least for this whole year." But as you know, with most New Year's resolutions, they often fail. Perhaps January 5th, you already know some New Year's resolutions that have failed. That's because they depend on self-motivation, self-discipline.
In our passage this evening, Paul is telling us about the new self, the new people that we are in Jesus Christ. And this new man is an enduring person. It's a new life that endures and does not fade away as self-will fades, as motivation fades. But God, in his powerful working, sees this work through to the end. So let us look at this passage thinking of the new year and the new man, the new person that we are in Jesus Christ.
This passage can be divided into three sections. I'm going to look at it with pursuing heavenly things, verses 1 to 4 there, and then putting sin to death in verses 5 to 11, and then putting on the new self in verses 12 to 17. Paul, in this passage, lifts our eyes to heaven and gives us these gospel truths just before he brings difficult exhortation and command to us. So let us look in these opening verses about how we ought to pursue heavenly things.
Paul begins, "If you have been raised," and then he tells us to seek the things that are above. Then he kind of restates it: says, "Set your minds on the things that are above," and then he follows it up with, "Because you are dead," or "Before you have died. That's how it is in the ESV here. This kind of gives us a gospel sandwich in which Paul gives us resurrection up front, two commands repeated, and then tells us that the old man is dead.
Let us look at these verses where he says, "If you've been raised." Paul is looking back to chapter 2, where in verse 12 he says that we've been buried with Christ in baptism, in whom we were also raised with Christ through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead. "And you who were dead in your trespasses, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses." So Paul's telling us that in Adam, before Christ, we were all dead men walking. We had the condemnation and the wrath of God hanging over our heads like a guillotine waiting to drop. We were all on the precipice of death because the wages of sin is death. And we were dead in our trespasses and sins. But God made us alive in Christ through faith in Christ by the powerful working of God. The same resurrection power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead, God used to make you alive together with Christ, uniting you with Christ by faith. So that in Christ's resurrection, you too are raised to new life. from spiritual death to spiritual life.
Paul gives us this truth and then tells us, "Seek the things that are above." He wants us to look to heavenly things. That's what is above. And who else is in heaven but Christ Jesus? He says, "Where Christ is." That's where he wants us to look. And he says something interesting: Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father. That's how we confess it in the Apostles' Creed. He tells us that Christ is seated on his throne in heaven. Now, why does Christ sit on his throne? That's because as our perfect high priest, Jesus is seated because his work is completed. Paul is telling us to lift our eyes into heaven to look upon Christ and his finished work. Christ has earned a perfect and complete salvation for his people, and Paul's urging us to look there.
He repeats the command to set our minds, that all of our will, all of our thoughts, all of our emotions and actions are all oriented to Christ in heaven. Here, Paul is telling us that we need to look to heaven and not to earthly concerns. So in this new year, if you have made New Year's resolutions and they only concern diet and exercise and financial planning, then you are concerned with the earthly plane here and not looking to the heavenly plane.
But Paul is also telling us even more. He's telling us that maybe you have made spiritual aspirations in your New Year's planning and you do want to look more like Christ or have made some sort of plans to grow in sanctification. You can't get there by earthly means. The earthly means Paul had discussed in chapter 2, he tells us that the self-made, man-made religion urges you to asceticism, to self-discipline, self-denial, to severity to the body. This looked various ways in the ancient world, but I think today, American Christians often make this self-made religion by setting up rules and self-governing laws to try to keep themselves from sin. So perhaps you say, "In the new year, I want to be less greedy. I want to seek to honor Christ with my mouth, and I want to put to death the sexual immorality that's in my life." So you think, "I'm going to stop watching TV, because on television I see commercials that make me greedy. There's characters in the television and movies that cause me to lust. And then there's all the foul language that leads me to speak." So we might think that the rule would keep us from that sin. But ultimately, it's only from our hearts that we would obey and walk in obedience. And Paul's telling us we need to look to heaven, set our minds on the things that are above to actually walk in obedience. This self-made, earthly, man-made means will not get us there, but only looking to Christ in heaven and understanding the gospel more and a greater love for Jesus Christ will lead us into this obedience.
He's telling us that we need to look to Christ to look like Christ. That's why he tells us to lift our eyes to heaven and he tells us twice. And then, as I said, he completes this gospel sandwich by grounding his reasoning. He says, "For you have died," or "Because you have died." Paul began with the resurrection, the new life that we have, but he also wants to tell us that you've died. The person that you were before Jesus Christ is dead. You are no longer that person because in our union with Christ, his death was the death that we deserved. All the wrath and condemnation was his death, and we are united to him in that death, and the person we were before Christ is dead. We are dead to sin. We are dead to the world. We are dead to the earthly authorities and powers that once had power and control over our lives, we are now set free because the old man was a slave to sin, and we are no longer slaves to sin.
Paul comforts us that this new life that we have in Christ is hidden with Christ in God. I heard one pastor describe it. It's as though this life that Christ has given us, he's clutching it in his hand, and God the Father closes his hand on top, that our life might be doubly secure in heaven where no one can touch it. You could think of it if you had something valuable and you wanted to put it somewhere safe: you bring it to a bank and they show you this impenetrable vault which has thick titanium doors, 10 feet thick concrete walls, a complicated locking mechanism, perfect security around the bank. And they were to open that vault and show you inside, only to see that there is an equally impenetrable vault within. That is what Paul is trying to give us an idea of, that our life is hidden in heaven. No one can touch it. We are in Christ's hand, hidden in Christ with God in heaven, that no one can snatch us out of the hand of Jesus, that we are kept by the power of God for salvation, that neither height nor depth nor angels nor powers nor things present or things to come nothing in all creation could separate us from the love of God and Jesus Christ our Lord.
Paul tells us of this comfort and security and then he says, "When Christ, who is your life, appears." That's kind of an amazing statement hard to even wrap our heads around. He said our life is secure in heaven, but then he says Christ is your life. Paul says in Galatians 3 that "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God." Paul's life and his aspirations and his goals and his thoughts and his words and his deeds the very life-giving principle is all Jesus Christ. Everything is Christ, so that he could say, "To live is Christ." The life I now live, it's no longer Paul, it's just Christ. Christ is all. And he says in Colossians 1 that Christ is the hope of glory. Christ, in you is the hope of glory so in his union with Christ, his whole life is wrapped up to serve Jesus. And he says, "In our union with Christ, we will appear with him in glory." When Christ comes back with the archangels call and the trumpets blast, we will appear with him in glory. He's promised us those imperishable bodies that we might worship him forever and ever.
So Paul in verses one to four heaps on these gospel truths, lays it on thick to say: you have new life. You've been raised with Christ. He says, the old man is dead. He tells us that we have security in Christ. Our life is hidden in heaven with Christ in God. And he tells us of the glory to come. Paul gives us all this gospel truth up front and this little gospel sandwich and these promises because he lays on very difficult exhortations in verse 5.
Looking at the second point, putting sin to death, we get difficult exhortations. And Paul's telling us, "Look to heaven." He wants us looking to Christ in heaven before we hear these words, so that we can hear them rightly and obey. Paul says in verse 5, "Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you." And he lists it out: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. And then he says in verse 8: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Don't lie to one another.
No one can hear this and come out unscathed. Even the most pious and upright Christian can see themselves in this list. Anger? Can anyone say they haven't been angry? That you weren't angry with your wife or your children? Can anyone say that they've never slandered their boss or their co-worker or other parents? Can anyone say that they've never had obscene talk come from their mouth? Perhaps you lied to make yourself look better, to hide your sin. Sexual immorality, evil desire, impurity, passion whether that's pornography, looking upon someone who's not your spouse with lust, maybe adultery or fornication with someone you're not married to no one comes out unscathed hearing these things. Who can say they haven't been covetous? Who hasn't looked upon their neighbor's cars or their house or their spouse? Even Christians are guilty of these sins.
Paul tells us that the wrath of God is coming on account of these things. Men will be sent to hell for these very same sins. They will stand before the judge of all and be condemned for these very sins. Paul wants us to feel the weight of this. Men will be damned for this. These are the most important things to put to death in your life. If you're making a New Year's list about what to change in the new year and these things are not on the list, what are you thinking? These are the most important things, the top of your priorities. Paul says, "Put them to death." When he says put them away, he means rid yourself of them, rip them out by the root, kill these sins. Because this is what is earthly in you. You now live a heavenly life. He says these were the practices these were the things that you walked in but those belong to the old man. You now have a heavenly life, and you need to put these earthly things to death.
God has not promised in this new year to help you lose weight or to balance your checkbook, but God has promised to put to death what is earthly in you. In fact, in verse 9, we get this wonderful truth that we have already put off the old self. This is past tense something that's already happen. When you look to Jesus Christ in faith, the old man dies. He's put to death. So you are no longer enslaved to these sins, even if it may feel that way. We've been freed from the tyranny of the devil. Christ has disarmed the rulers and authorities. In Romans 6, Paul says, "The old man was crucified that the body of sin might be rendered powerless." Sin no longer has the same power over our lives. Now we can refuse sin in Christ. With the power of Christ and Christ in us, we can refuse sin.
And Paul tells us in verse 10: he tells us we've put off the old self and put on the new self. And this is Paul's continuing exhortation that now he wants us to put things on. He tells us to put to death and put off sin, but he wants us to put on righteousness. He tells us that we've already put on the new man. So if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have been raised. And he wants us Christians to reach out and say, "Yes, I believe in Jesus Christ, and I have been raised, and I do have this new life, and I am a new creation, a new man in Jesus Christ."
And then he gives us these exhortations, but he tells us first in verse 11 that "here there's not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave—free, but Christ is all and in all." He says it doesn't matter your background, your people, your ethnicity, your race, your job, your titles, whatever position you are in society. If you look to Christ in faith, Christ is in you, and you have put on the new self. And he gives us this truth that we're being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator. In Adam, before Christ, we had a tarnished image. God created man good and true righteousness and holiness. But in the fall, Adam plunged the entire human race into sin that we are no longer good and truly righteous and holy, but only by faith in Jesus Christ being united to him can we be renewed in that goodness as he makes us increasingly more righteous and holy. We're being renewed in this image of God.
And Paul gives us this truth and then he brings the command in verse 12: "Put on then." But before he could even start bringing the command, he has more gospel truth for you: "As God's chosen ones, The word here is just elect. as God's elect. You've been chosen by God, holy. You are holy. You have been set apart. You are God's workmanship, a citizen of heaven, a part of the new creation. God has set you apart as holy, and he says, you're beloved. God loves you. He loves his children, and he wants the very best things for them. And the very best things for us, brothers and sisters, is to be more like Jesus Christ. God wills our sanctification, and he tells us here what that looks like: "Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another. And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive."
Again, we have the example in Christ. That as he's forgiven us, as Christ is the example of meekness, humility, patience, how he has borne with his obstinate people, we can see the example in Christ. So we look to heaven, to Christ and his person and his work as the motivation and the goal which we strive towards. And Paul says, "Above all these, put on love."
See, the sinful practices the ways in which the world walks that marks their character in their person but in Christ we now hate those sins and fight against them. And now our person ought to be marked by compassion, by humility, by meekness, by patience the fruit of the Spirit that has given us new life.
And then Paul continues on. He says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts." Again, that is by meditating upon the security of our life in heaven. We can have peace knowing our life is secure in this new life we have in Christ. And then he says, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God." Here we can get very practical. How do you let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly? In this new year, what would it look like to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly? Where do we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs except here, brothers and sisters, in this congregation? Here, you can hear God's Word preached to you, and you can have the Word of Christ dwelling in your heart. And if you came to evening service maybe every weekend that you can this next year, you would hear the Word of Christ twice as much as you would otherwise. So I commend you all for being here, for this is where all the one-anothers can happen, where we can forgive one another and bear with one another, sing psalms to one another, hear.
If you notice in these last three verses, Paul says, "Be thankful," "with thankfulness," and "giving thanks." Three times: thankful, thankful, thankful. He wants us to look at Christ and his work in heaven and with gratitude in our hearts meditate upon who Christ is and what he has done for us. And only then, with that gratitude in our hearts, will we walk in obedience to put to death the sin and the earthliness in us and to walk in righteousness and newness of life. As our whole entire new life is wrapped up with union with Christ, that we can say it is Christ who lives and to live is Christ.
So let us lift our eyes to heaven, looking to Christ and the good news of the gospel that we have new life in him, that we might walk according to his ways in this new year.
Let's bow our heads in prayer. Lord, let us hold fast to these beautiful truths of union with Jesus Christ, the comfort of new life by faith in him. Lord, let our hearts be set on these things. Help us, cause us to seek the things that are above and give us all the fruit of the Spirit that we might honor you. We pray this all in Christ's name. Amen.