Out with the Old, In with the New: The Biblical Prescription for “Putting Off the Old Self” Colossians 3:1-11
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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.
Central Idea: Because we have been raised with Christ, Christians should put to death our old sinful ways and put on holiness.
Introduction:
Context:
Paul has waded through one chapter plus of a passionate plea to be mature as believers. And the foundation of that maturity(Col. 1:9-10; 29) is only found in Christ — the Christ who is Lord and creator of all things visible and invisible; Lord of Redemption and Reconciliation, that brought us from death to life. (Col. 1:12-2:15). HE turns then in Col. 2:16-23 to the theological equipping of the believers here in Colossae. And last week we talked about Paul’s address and response to these three False Teachings that were being taught by certain leaders in the church. The foundation, the core of each of these three false teachings (the main point, we discussed last week) is that they teach that you need to do these things in order to have a more full Christian experience and Paul is teaching NO NO! As Christians, we have fullness of life in Christ!
Remember 2 Peter 1:3
2 Peter 1:3a (ESV)
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…
You can see the Holy Spirit’s consistency through scripture because Paul is giving the expanded version of 2 Peter 1:3 in Colossians. He spent two chapters showing that Jesus in his divine power has given us all we need for fullness of life (Jesus has granted us all things that pertain to life)
and
Now, all of 3:1-4:6 is an encouragement from Paul to the Christians in Colossae to live a life that reflects their salvation; their new life. (Jesus has granted to us all things that pertain to Godliness)
We are only going to tackle the first 11 verses tonight because Paul begins this encouragement by reminding the Colossians that their identity is not found in who they were before salvation but who they are in Christ and we see this in 3:9-10. This pivot point in the text is the basis for all that Paul says about the Christian life.
Proposition: We should no longer be characterized by the practices of the “old self” but rather should strive to “put on the new self”.
We are New Creations v. 1-4
Paul tells us in v. 1 that we have been raised with Christ. Colossians 3:1 “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
This is not the first mention of this, Paul is calling their attention back to Colossians 2:12–13“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,”
having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,
That makes us new creations. Romans 6:1-5 may bring some light to this truth.
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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Because we are new creations, our identity is no longer rooted in the sin we used to live in. So we don’t have the ability now to fight against that sin because of Christ working in us. The guilt of our sin may still haunt us from time to time but it no longer defines us because Christ has redeemed us.
So, because we have been raised with Christ and are now New Creations, we can find our identity in Him.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Our identity, we focus our minds on the things that are above. Not what is on earth.
We are sin killers v. 5-8
Colossians 3:5–8 “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.”
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.
Paul says very clearly PUT TO DEATH
This is not a passive aggressive statement. This is an aggressive aggressive statement. Paul is not suggesting that we take the diet route where you casually cut back from eating sugar until your body gets adjusted to less sugar. No this is quitting sugar immediately and completely.
Of These sins that he lists all but 1 have some varying degree of sexual sin stated or implied. That speaks to the importance that Paul sees in KILLING any sexual sin in our lives.
He also mention covetousness or greed and again we see the severity with this statement tacked on that it is like idolatry. I was talking to Bro. Bradley about this and he made the comment that “what we want is what we worship.”
This harsh language of killing any sin in our lives is applicable to all sin. Later in Colossians 3:8 “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” What does he say? Put them all away. The language softens but the mindset is the same.
But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
Those things that characterize the world, should not characterize us as Christians, as New Creations.
This does not mean that we will never struggle with sin but rather that sin should not characterize us. Before we are raised to life we don’t have the ability to not sin. No matter how good we may have thought we were, our life was still characterized by sin because we were living for ourselves and did not have faith in Jesus.
When you grow a garden, you have to pull weeds. I always wondered why you have to pull weeds.. well when you let those weeds grow, they take away from the nourishment of the plants and vegetables. So you pull those weeds up and get them out of there so the plants and vegetables get the majority of the nutrients in the soil and water. The weeds in the garden is the sin in our life. If you leave the weeds(sin) alone and let it grow, you will not produce good fruit (spiritual or physical).
How do we weed the garden? V. 1b and v. 2 tell us it starts in the mind. set your mind on thing above not on things of the earth. Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” is a good filter for controlling your thoughts.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
We are changed v. 9-11
Colossians 3:9–11 “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.”
If you have been raised with Christ, it’s off with the old on with the new. v.1-8 Paul tells us how to get rid of the old.
How do I put off the old?
Understand your identity:
v. 1b Seek the things above
v. 2 Set your mind on things that are above
Take action against the sin in your life.
v. 5 Put to death what is earthly in you.
v. 8 Put them all away…
The good and gracious God clothes us in righteousness and holiness by the divine power of Jesus.
This really is for those around us. We are called to live a holy life so that we can point others to Jesus. So they can be raised with Christ.
And guess what, there is no favoritism or special standing based on race, religion, economic status or other. The grace of God is available to all who repent of their sin and trust in Christ.
Conclusion:
We are New Creations. We are Sin Killers. We are changed.. that is who we are in Christ by the Grace of God through the work of Christ.
Our identity is found in Christ which fuels our ability to kill sin so that others can see the change in our lives.
Stinky clothes illustration.