Jesus is Greater Than Our Old Selves

You’ve probably heard a story like this or even fantasized it about your own life...

Imagine… You are an orphan living on a shabby NYC side street. Your life is consumed with just trying to get by. Its a good day if you can scrounge a couple of piece of rotten fruit and some moldy bread. Your clothes are two sizes too small and threadbare - you practically freeze during the winter. Life is hard and you’re on your own.

Then one day a man in a fancy suit tracks you down. You discover you have a wealthy uncle in England - an Earl - and that you are his only remaining heir. He wants you to inherit his title and estate. Just like that you go from orphan to being a Lord or Lady of the realm.

Pretty cool! I fantasize about this all the time!

But imagine how difficult that change of status might be. For years you’ve lived a certain way. You answered to nobody. Now you have an uncle who is your authority figure. You’re expected to learn how to be an aristocrat, how to dress, which fork to use for which course, how to speak properly and conduct yourself properly during official functions. I can imagine that it might be difficult to break away from the old way of life you once had and try to life in accordance with your new one.

This story highlights what theologians call the difference between your standing and your state. Your standing is your legal position. Your state is your present condition. Position vs. condition. In my make believe story, there is a gap between your position - now a Lord or Lady - and your condition - still living as if you are still a street orphan.

I think this story is something like what Paul is explaining in our passage in Colossians this morning. Through faith in Jesus, we have become daughters and sons of the King. Our standing has truly changed. The problem is that the old life keeps inserting itself in our behaviors and speech. We have access to a mansion, but we can still act like we’re on the streets.

Our problem is that our condition is not always in agreement with our position.

If we’re honest, we probably don’t have to look far to see examples in our life. We’ve come to Christ, but we find ourselves still being judgmental toward others. We struggle to forgive when people offend us. We know God is good but we find it so hard to trust him with our money. We know it’s wrong but we still entertain sexual fantasies. We lie sometimes to avoid confrontation. We look at the opposite sex too long and with wrong intentions. We use “consumer therapy” - i.e. we buy stuff we don’t really need - when we’re sad. I could go on but you get the point. We may have put our trust in Jesus, but we are still in this long process of being formed to his image. A new life has begun, but the old one still hangs on.

Paul’s instructions in this passage is all about how we get our current state - which still struggles with sin - in line with our actual standing - little Lords and Ladies in the kingdom of God. If you have ever felt like you can’t seem to get victory over your old life, the good news for us this morning is that Jesus is greater than our old selves.

Pray

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Colossians 3:1–4 “So if 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 is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.”

Paul tells us what reality now is for those who are in Christ with two key phrases - “you have been raised with Christ” and “you have died”. When did that happen?!

In your baptism! Paul is still banging on from the last chapter. Your baptism into Christ was the sign of your change in standing. Whatever your were, that died when you went under the water of baptism. What rose out of the water was a new creation. You have a new legal standing before God - you are declared righteous. This is how God sees you now. He sees the finished product that you will be in the future.

This is your position - your standing. It’s important before we go on to stress the importance of receiving this truth. Here is a fact: you can never consistently live above how you view yourself. If you see yourself as a failure - you will live like a failure. If you see yourself as worthless and unlovable - you will see yourself that way and allow others to treat you that way. If you see yourself as a loser - you get the picture. You will always fulfill the prophecy you say over yourself.

Paul isn’t telling us then to think more positively. He’s telling us to accept into the core of our being this fact of what God has done. It doesn’t matter whether or not you feel like you are a daughter or son of the king - it is a settled fact. God’s truth about you is greater than your truth about you. Jesus is greater than your old self.

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Colossians 3:5–11 “Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!”

Now that Paul has settled the issue of your position in Christ - your standing - he now turns to your condition - or state. He acknowledges that there is a gap between the two. Right off the bat that should assure you that you aren’t a defective Christian. This is normal. But the goal of our Christian walk is to become increasingly like Jesus - closing the gap between our position and condition.

So Paul compares this to changing our clothes. Before we knew Jesus we wore one set of clothes. He describes them in two broad categories that are still our major issues today - sins of the flesh and sins of the heart.

We used to wear sexual sin - sex with those we aren’t married to, impure thoughts and passions, evil desires. Greed here is probably still a reference to unrestrained sexual desire.

We also used to wear sins of the heart - anger, wrath, slander, etc. I call it sins of the heart because Jesus said what comes from our mouth reveals what’s in our hearts.

These were the clothes we wore in our old life. But now, in Christ, we have stripped off these old clothes and put on new ones. In the early church, baptism dramatically demonstrated this reality. Before you stepped into the water of baptism, you would take off your clothing. You would renounce satan and the world. Then you would go into the water and confess Christ as your new Lord. When you came out the other side of the pool, you would be given new clothes to wear - often white - to demonstrate your new standing. We don’t get naked anymore - thankfully - but this is still the reality that our baptism demonstrates.

But it’s not enough to simply take off the old clothing - we must replace it with new ones.

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Colossians 3:12–17 “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with 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 the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs 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.”

Twice Paul tells us to clothe ourselves. Our new clothes look like compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and love. It looks like living in unity with your other brothers and sisters. It looks like being so full of Jesus that what comes out of your mouth is godly wisdom, encouragement, and gratitude. In a word, the new clothes we put on are not based on any old identity - social status, ethnicity, or gender. Now our identity is fully found in Jesus. Jesus is greater than your old self.

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Which sounds amazing. So how are you doing? If you’re like me, you can probably still see a pretty big gap between your position and your condition. You’ve started taking off the old clothes - but some of them are so comfortable and familiar it hard to let them go. And you’ve started trying to put on the new clothes - but sometimes you forget and they don’t come naturally. So practically speaking, what does Paul’s teaching mean for us? Here are my takeaways.

First, Turn around. Look back at where you came from, not just where you’re going. Following Jesus can sometimes feel like traveling to a distance mountain range. No matter how long you drive, it sometimes feels like they aren’t any closer. As you keep your eyes on Jesus, it may not seem like you’re making any improvement in living our your new position. In this life, there’s always going to be some gap between where you are and where you want to be. So it’s important to sometimes look backward. Not wistfully, like you miss the old life, but to get a vision for just how far you are already come. I bet that if you spent a couple of minutes thinking about it you could come up will all kinds of things that used to characterize or control your life that no longer do. So I think the first thing you need to hear is that God is proud of your progress. Be encouraged in how far you’ve already come!

Second, Makes God’s truth your highest truth. I like to use the analogy of getting a new landlord. You’ve probably had the experience of renting a place to live and then moving to a new place - maybe it was nicer or you just outgrew the old one. What would you do if your old landlord showed up at your new place demanding a rent payment? I’m sure you would tell him - very nicely - that you no longer live in his place and so don’t own him any rent. This analogy is true for the spiritual life as well. When you said ‘yes’ to Jesus, you got a new landlord. The Bible describes it as being transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son. You don’t owe any allegiance to the old life. It has nothing for you but enslavement and death. Remind yourself daily of who now you are in Christ - your position trumps your condition.

Third, It’s not all up to you. What I mean is that your progress in becoming Christlike isn’t merely up to your effort. I’ve quoted Dallas Willard before who said “Grace isn’t opposed to effort; it’s opposed to earning.” He means that growing in grace requires some effort from us. We yield and participate in what the Spirit is doing. But the Spirit does the heavy lifting. As we surrender ourselves to him, we can trust that he is slowly but surely transforming us from the inside out. Back to my first takeaway, that’s why it’s important to occasionally turn around and give thanks to God for the changes you can see. Paul wrote this in another letter, Philippians 1:6 “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” So work on putting on the new clothes, but trust that the Spirit will make it a reality.

Finally, Begin today. This whole message has been about the new life we can begin to experience as daughters and sons of God. Lords and Ladies of the Kingdom. Are you in? Do you know of a time when you surrendered your life to Jesus, asking him to forgive your sins and give you this new life? Why not right now? If you’re tired of living on the streets and are ready to come into God’s kingdom, I’d like to lead you in a prayer of commitment. If everyone would bow their heads, you can pray this between you and God.

Heavenly Father, I know I have done wrong. I know I deserve the suffer the consequences of my actions. But I believe Jesus died to take my place, and that he suffered death for me so that I won’t have to. I am making the decision today to surrender myself to you and making Jesus my Lord. Please forgive my sin and make me your child forever. Amen.

If you prayed this for the first time this morning - welcome to God’s family. I’d like you to compete a Connect Card and drop it in the offering box at the back of the sanctuary. I will reach out to you to talk about what this means and how to take some next steps in this journey.

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Invite people to stand. Ask for worship, ministry, and Communion team to come down.

Every Sunday we close our time by receiving Communion together. This symbolic meal that reminds us of Jesus’ sacrifice. That he has died, he has risen, that he will come again for us, and that he is the source of our spiritual nourishment. We believe Jesus is present with us as we receive his body and blood.

We think Jesus invites everyone to this table. If it’s your first time, or you’re not even sure yet where you stand with Jesus, we think he would welcome you here. If you would like to participate, after I pray step into the nearest aisle. Someone at the front will take a piece of bread dipped in wine and offer it to you as the body and blood of Jesus. If you prefer not to have wine, close your hands together and that will be the sign for them to give you a sealed container with grape juice and a wafer.

What does God want us to minister to this morning?

Let’s rejoice together with all God’s people in the words of Psalm 51:

Psalm 51:15–17 NRSV

O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Thank him for our adoption into his family. That he is faithfully at work in us to make us like Jesus. That we are no longer beholding to our old life. Ask him to complete in us what he began in our conversion.

Thank him that through the blood of his cross he has washed our sins away. Through his victorious resurrection he has guaranteed us eternal life. Through his ascension and the outpouring of the Spirit he has made us one with you.

We remember Him who for us and for our salvation, on the night that he was betrayed...

Come Holy Spirit and overshadow these elements. Let them be for us your body and blood so that we can participate in your redemptive work for us. May we find mercy, healing and salvation through the finished work of the cross. Amen.