The Christian Call to Kill

Colossians 3:1-17

A new man

Your old self has died

You have been raised with Christ

Your life is hidden with Christ

This happened by the grace of God through faith alone

The old man

The old man is earthly

There is no genuine heavenly-mindedness or godliness in him

The sin of the earthly man

Two lists:

Sexual sins

Sexual Immorality

Sinful sexual acts

Impurity

The contamination of the heart, mind, and affections due to sinfulness

Passion

Lust

Evil desire

Desires for that which is sinful

Coveteousness

Which is idolatry

Relational sin

Anger

Wrath

Malice

Evil intentions

Slander

Obscene talk

Lying to one another

On account of these, the wrath of God is coming

Romans 1:18-31- Bible

This is describing the old man and his rebellion in sin

Put to death what remains

Part of this old man remains

Becoming a Christian doen;t make us perfect people

We still have remnants of worldiness in us (the greater or lesser degrees)

Regenerate men don’t live like degenerate men

Romans 6:1-4- What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

This is not an optional part of the Christian life

This is an imperative (verbal mood)- a command

Literally- “put to death, therefore your earthly members”

Matthew 5:27-30- “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Romans 8:13-14- For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

You are being renewed, so strive to be renewed

You have been bought with a price

1 Corinthians 6:15-20- Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Christ is in all

He has made us all one people by adopting us as sons and daughters

He has given us all His Spirit to dwell in us

He has promised to help us

Being renewed in knowledge

This is a passive verb

He is doing the renewing

He does this by His Spirit working through His Word

Our Plea: O God, help us

Search us and reveal our hidden faults

Convict us of indwelling sin

Help us to put sin to death by your Spirit’s power

Make us holy

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What is your view on sin? By this I am not asking how you would define sin or if sin is rebellion against God. I mean how do you think about your sin. Not your neighbors sin or your spouse’s sin or your children’s sin or parent’s sin. Your sin. Over the next 40 minutes or so I want you each to try really hard with me to let this passage look you right in the face and ask for the Holy Spirit to convict you. And me for, the temptation is to preach this passage to others while never letting it confront me.

O God, may your wield Your holy and powerful Word in our lives now by You Spirit for the sake of our sanctification and growth. Amen.

A new man

I simply want to begin by way of refreshing ourselves on last week’s passage. This is essential to understanding the part of the passage that we look at this morning. We saw that, for the Christian, there are two selves: the old self and the new self. Your old self has died and has been buried with Christ, as Paul says in Romans 6. You have been crucified with Christ on the tree that you might no longer walk in the old ways of the old self. But you didn’t merely experience a death of the old self. You have also been raised with Christ in newness of life. It is no longer we who life but Christ who lives in you. Now, your life is hidden with Christ. It is kept in heaven and will not be stolen or lost or destroyed. Your truest life is found in Him and He will reveal its fullness when He comes again. For all of you who are included in these things, this happened by the grace of God through faith alone. It wasn’t because you cleaned up your act enough or because you got baptized and participated in communion or because you did enough good. It is on the basis of the free grace given by Christ to all who put their faith in Him. What all of this does in your life is nothing short of staggering in its practical effects. That’s what we are confronted with this week and the next number of weeks.

The old man

Speaking of what this means for the believer’s life, says a few things about the old man. The old man is the earthly natural man. This is why he can say to put off the old man and also say to put to death what is earthly. They are of the same oldness. It is in this old earthly man that there is no genuine heavenly-mindedness or godliness in him. The old man is a rebellious man and the earthly way is a rebellious way. Paul doesn’t leave us to wonder about what he is talking about. He lists some of the sins of the earthly man. These sins epitomize the way of life of unbelievers. There are two separate lists, which are organized broadly by sin type. The first list is that of sexual sins. 1) Sexual Immorality. This is any sinful sexual act.The Greek word is pornea, which is the general Greek word for sexual sin. To make this simple, this is any sexual act that takes place outside of the confines of the marriage covenant. 2) Impurity. This is the contamination of the heart, mind, and affections due to sinful sexual acts, thoughts, and desires. 3) Passion. Simply put, passion here is basically lust. 4) Evil desire. This is any desire for that which is sinful. 5) Coveteousness. To covet simply means to desire. This word can actually be used in positive sense, such as “I covet your prayers.” However, this is referring back to the law, which was a greedy and selfish desire. In this context it almost certainly means to sexually covet sexually. To desire an illicit sexual relationship with another. Paul tells us that this coveting is idolatry. It is, at its heart, trying to find the satisfaction that can only be found in God in other things. This can certainly include a vast array of sin as well.

The second list filled with relational sins. 1) Anger. We all know what this is more than we would like to admit. 2) Wrath. This is the outpouring of anger in words and physical action. 3) Malice. This is simply to have evil intention, or intention for ill towards another. 4) Slander. This is putting malice into action by words. 5) Obscene talk. This can be an array of crude, harsh, and impure speech. 6) Lying to one another. This almost goes without explanation. However, I simply want to say that this includes all those “little fibs” that we often doen’t think is a big deal. When God says do not lie, He doesn’t leave any lie, no matter how seemingly insignificant, untouched.

Sandwiched between these lists in a terrifying statement. Paul says “on account of these, the wrath of God is coming”. I think that for us to really understand what he means here, we have to look at a parelleling passage that uses much of the same wording. Romans 1:18-31 says: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Sin is not a joke. It is not to be taken lightly. It is rebellion against God which will incur the wrath of God. This passage is describing the old man walking in the way of the old man. For those who do not repent, who do not cast themselves on Christ in faith, and who are not transformed into the new man by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Day of the Lord will be a day of indescribable wrath. And for those of you who are made new in Christ, this indescribable wrath was poured out on Jesus as He hung on the cross.

Put to death what remains

But for you, Christian, part of this old man remains. Becoming a Christian doen’t make us perfect people We still have remnants of worldiness in us (the greater or lesser degrees). However, this doesn’t give us a license to sin. Regenerate men don’t live like degenerate men. This is exactly what Paul means in Romans 6:1-4- What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Therefore brothers and sisters, walk in newness of life! If you have been made new, don’t act as if you are still the old self. If you have been made alive, don’t live as if you were still dead!

This is not an optional part of the Christian life. I want to say this as graciously and yet sternly as I know how. Paul is not giving a suggestion, and therefore God is not just giving a suggestion. He is not saying “I think it best for you to live as new people.” He is saying “You must live as new men in Christ, because Christ has made you new.” There is something in Greek grammar called “mood”, which indicate how the word to be be understood. Most verbs are in the indicative mood, which means that it is just telling you a matter of fact. It is indicating something that is true. However, the word in this passage for “put to death” is in the imperative mood, which means that it is a command. The Greek is literally- “put to death, therefore your earthly members.” This is important because is shows us that Paul is drawing from Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:27-30- “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Jesus was as clear as day. You must be so violent toward sin in killing it that it is as if you remove parts of your body which are causing you to sin.

Paul says something similar in Romans 8:13-14- For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. This may fall on your ears as unnecessarily harsh or legalistic, but this does not need to be so. The point is not some self-improvement scheme. It is that you have been made into a completely new person by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, and if the Spirit lives in you as a new man, then you mut not live as though nothing has happened. The fruits of our lives reveal the reality of our hearts.

You are being renewed, so strive to be renewed

So where does this leave us? Where do we go from here? First, I want to state so clearly an essential truth if you are live live this out as God would have you to. You have been bought with a price. It was the greatest price imaginable. 1 Corinthians 6:15-20 tells us - Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

I want to begin to wrap up where Paul wraps up this paragraph. He says that “Christ is all in all.” He has made us all one people by adopting us as sons and daughters. He has given each of us His Spirit to dwell in us. Not different sprits but the Holy Spirit. In this we ought to be unified and bound together in love. We ought to help one another to seek for godliness and put sin to death. And by His Spirit, He has promised to help us and empower us to do what He has commanded. We are being renewed in knowledge. This is a passive verb which means that He is doing the renewing. He does this by His Spirit working through His Word.

This is our prayer: “O God, help us.” Search us and reveal our hidden faults that we may see where we have sinned against You. Convict us of indwelling sin and bring us to repentance.

Help us to put sin to death by Your Spirit’s power. Make us people who are dripping with your Word, which is the Sword of the Spirit, which You use to do spiritual surgery in our lives. Make us holy for our eternal joy and your eternal glory. Amen.