The Blueprint for New Life

Colossians 3:12-17

Colossians 3:12–17 CSB

Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Illustration

I've always been fascinated by the concept of witness protection.

Imagine waking up one day and leaving behind everything you've ever known—your name, your hometown, your job, even your closest relationships. The government gives you a new identity, relocates you to a new city, and hands you a completely new life. But there's one condition: you can't keep living like the person you used to be.

You can't introduce yourself by your old name. You can't call your old friends. You can't go back to your old neighborhood. If you were wise, you wouldn’t even act like your old self. If you continue living as your former self, you not only defeat the purpose of your new identity—you put your new life in jeopardy.

The success of witness protection entirely depends on you fully embracing the new identity you've been given. This program is designed so that the government can help to protect you, but your success in the program really depends on your ability to step into and commit to the new life you’ve been given. If you’re not committed to your life, what’s the point of taking on the new identity in the first place?

In many ways, that's the picture Paul paints in Colossians 3. The moment we were called to Christ, we were given something far greater than a new name or a new address—we were given a completely new SELF. We died to our old life, and we've been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. Yet many Christians continue trying to live with one foot in the old life and one foot in the new. And that’s really exactly what Paul is addressing with the Colossians, and with us, here.

Context

The members of the church at Colossae were being influenced by false teachers who were encouraging them to look beyond Christ for answers and fulfillment through human philosophy, religious rituals, and mystical experiences. Paul spends the first two chapters greeting them and reminding them that Christ is not merely part of the Christian life—He is supreme over all things and completely sufficient for salvation and sanctification.

In chapter 3, Paul shifts from teaching them doctrine to teaching them application. He declares “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1–2

Note the wording there. “if you have been raised with Christ” in other words, the words here and therefore in our text today are specifically prescriptive to those who know Jesus. People who are a part of the body Christ.

It’s not lost on me that there are certainly people in the room this morning that do not know Christ. Here me when I say — the message and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus is for you.

But the words of this text are for those who know Jesus and follow him. Listen to the words, but be reminded, your primary concern this morning is not heeding the words of this text —

rather, you ought to first heed the call from the Lord to repent of your sins and follow him. Only then will you have access to the New Life that Paul teaches here and across so many of his letters.

The new life taught in

2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!”

or

Ephesians 4:24

“…put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.”

So, we’ve been given new life, but what exactly is that new life supposed to look like?

Our passage today serves as a blueprint for the new life of the believer, showing us how following Jesus shapes literally everything about us —

our identity, our look, our perspective, our actions, and the entire purpose of our life as a whole.

To be clear, Paul is not calling us to strive to earn God's favor by accomplishing a list of works but rather, he is calling us to live out the reality of what God has already accomplished in us through Jesus Christ.

A reality that begins first and foremost with understanding our new identity.

New Identity

Paul is going to spend the majority of this text giving us instruction on what to do…but before we can know WHAT to DO we most know WHO we ARE.

It is not possible to know what to do without knowing who you are…

There was a movie that recently came out called Project Hail Mary. At the beginning of the movie, (and no one panic, I’m not going to spoil it) the main character wakes up with a bad case of Amnesia in space by himself and needs to figure out why he’s there. But before he can figure that out, what does he do?? He works on remembering WHO HE IS— and that helps him understand what he’s there to do.

Or here’s another example — if you’re playing on a football team, your role on the team relies HEAVILY on who you are - your position on the team. Don’t believe me?? Ask an offensive tackle to throw a pass on 4th and 3 and report back to me later.

Identity matters.

So, who are we? What is our new identity?

Paul addresses this right at the top of our text—

Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved…

He describes us simply yet powerfully in three ways-

First and foremost Church, we are chosen —

This word in the original greek is, “Eklektos”, which you can probably deduce can also be translated, “Elect”. It is a word that is utilized repeatedly throughout the New Testament to describe outsiders that have been chosen and grafted into the family of God — it’s used to describe those who are saved — it’s used to describe us.

Now, to quote Pastor Shane the last time he taught this text, “this word “chosen or elect” is a word that can really give people heartburn.”

In truth, it’s tough to wrap our heads around. What does it mean exactly? Why use this word regarding our identity? Why not use another word? But we can’t ignore it. It’s written right there. If we have questions about it we need to email Paul, not pastor Shane, and definitely not me. I don’t even work here.

When addressing this mystery, Warren Wiersbe describes it well when he says, “It is all done through God’s grace that it might all bring glory to God.”

To put it plainly — believer, this is not an identity you chose for yourself. Christ called you to this new life by the work of His blood and by the will of His father.

2 Timothy 1:9 says “He has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”

We haven’t just been chosen, we’re also holy

This is the word hagios (Ha-gi-os) which means set apart or consecrated.

Finally, and I’d argue most importantly, we are loved.

And not just loved, DEARLY loved. This is the word agapao (Ah-ga-pa-oh) which is the verb form of the word agape.

It is the same word used to describe the Father’s love for the Son. Just think about that for a minute. When the Father looks at us in our new identity, he sees his son…and loves us according to his affection for him. There is no greater love than that. And he doesn’t just say He loves us…he proved it by dying for us.

Romans 5:8 “But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

He loves us so much that when He saved us, He didn’t just leave us where we were, He gave us a new life. And after Paul affirms our new identity, he begins to give us a picture of what that new life ought to look like.

Starting with what we wear. Did you know that as a part of the new life, you get new clothes?

New Clothes

Let’s look at the rest of verse 12 through verse 14

Colossians 3:12–14 …put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.”

Such an interesting choice of words. “Put on”

The greek word here endyo means literally “to put clothing on oneself”

In other words, “clothe yourself in compassion, kindness….” and so on.

This list Paul gives us contrasts the passage before this one.

There, Paul lists all of the worldly things we ought to put off

Colossians 3:5 “Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry.”

And Colossians 3:8–10 “But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self.

Church, our new life requires that we take off our old clothes and put on new ones

As I was digging into this text, I’ve gotta be honest, I struggled a bit with this idea of “clothing yourself in compassion, kindness, etc.”

I struggled be cause the choice of words insinuates an ACTIVE response. As in we need to ACTIVELY take off our old clothes and ACTIVELY put on our new ones.

But, when I first read those words I was immediately reminded of the fruit of the Spirit. And fittingly Paul’s list here does include several attributes of the fruit of the Spirit.

Regarding bearing fruit, John 15:4–5 says “Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.”

So what does that mean? How can it be both? How can it be true that we cannot produce fruit on our own but we can actively choose to put on these new clothes of righteousness?

Well, the answer is simple really — do you wear clothes that you make yourself? Every morning you wake up, and you dress yourself. Do you put on clothes you created or do you put on clothes that were stitched together by someone else’s hands? I feel pretty confident I know the answer to this

Church, much like He did in the garden with Adam and Eve, God is asking us to “put off” the clothes that we have crudely fashioned by our own hands, in guilt and shame and actively “put on” the clothes that He has fashioned for us out of the righteousness of His son Jesus.

Just as an animal was sacrificed in order for God to craft Adam and Eve’s clothes, a sacrifice was made for these clothes as well…the sacrifice of God’s son.

Put on the clothes of Christ’s compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and most importantly, put on Christ’s love.

In addition to looking different as you clothe your new self, you’re also called look at things from a new perspective as well.

New Perspective

Let’s keep moving through the text- Colossians 3:15–16 “And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you —”

Here we see two primary things that shape the new perspective of the follower of Jesus — The Peace of Christ and The Word of Christ

First up is the peace of Christ. There’s really two main questions here.

First starters, what exactly IS the peace of Christ?

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Regarding this peace, John MacArthur says, “Objectively, believers are at peace with God…the war between the believer and God is over, and the treaty was paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ…Here Paul calls it the peace of Christ because it is the peace that Christ brings.”

We can wrap our heads around peace. But the second question here is, what does it mean for this peace to “rule your hearts” as Paul says?

There is a temptation to assume that “rule” might be used here in a domineering sense, as a king over his kingdom. But that is actually not the case.

In the original Greek, this specific word “rule” is only utilized in this exact verse, and is more related to an athletic judge deciding the outcome of a game than it is to royalty.

In other words, the peace of Christ sits as the umpire of our hearts — helping us to make judgements, helping us to make decisions. And this umpire is not like MLB umpires who constantly make questionable calls. No, this umpire is not even like the automated systems they use for reviews which is unable to consider nuance or subtlety. No, THIS umpire is a perfect ruler of our hearts, moment by moment granting us the peace we need.

If the peace of Christ is one lens in the glasses of our new perspective, the word of Christ is the other.

He says in verse 15 that we ought to Let the word of Christ dwell richly among us

In other words, the word of Christ must have a home among the body of Christ. And not just have a home, but also the word richly insinuates an abundance of the word. It ought not be something we’re just comfortable discussing, it ought to be the only thing we want to talk about. We ought to obsess over it.

I talk a lot……. (Story)

But what word of Christ? Perhaps the word of Christ here is meant to refer to the Word of God, the scriptures. That would make sense. It’s good for the holy scriptures to be on our lips. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”

But also, what if it by the word of Christ, Paul means, the word ABOUT Christ, in other words the Gospel, the good news. Mark 16:15 says “Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”

But perhaps even another possibility is that Paul was referring to Jesus Christ himself when he says the Word of Christ. After all, John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

I think the answer is all of the above. Our new perspective ought to lead us to want to meditate, speak on, and obsess over the scriptures, the message of the Gospel, and Jesus himself. After all, the entirety of scripture, from start to finish IS the message of the Gospel, and the message of the Gospel IS Jesus Himself. All of these things can be true and are true all at once.

Understanding our identity in Jesus, putting on the clothes of righteousness woven by His hand, and looking at our new life through the new perspectives of peace and the indwelling word will inevitably come with yet another facet of our new life — new actions.

New Actions

Church I am here to tell you this morning, part of being a new creation in Christ is acting different. Different than you used to act. Different than the world acts.

This passage is perhaps the greatest support of that truth. Look at Paul’s words here:

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell richly among you, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another through psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.”

Just take a moment and think about that wording. Think about how strange that sounds. Think about just how unlike any other worldly thing that sounds. What else besides being an entirely new creation in Christ would cause you to not just teach and admonish, or lovingly correct, one another—but to do it via the means of SINGING.

Folks that’s not just an example that Paul is giving—it’s a command!

Paul could have said anything here. Literally anything at all. And what he chooses is to instruct us to sing.

I don’t think we have any problem at all with the idea of singing to God. I think for most of us it’s easy to walk into a dark room, hoping the music is loud enough that no one around can hear us, and have our private moment with God.

But church, there is something more at stake here. Paul is saying that having that moment with God, singing TO Him, has a trickle down effect of teaching and admonishing the people around us.

If your goal in a congregational worship setting is to avoid being seen and avoid being heard I must beg you to see that you’re doing it wrong.

You ought to want the opposite. You ought to WANT people to see you cry out to Him. You ought to WANT people to hear you shout out your praise. Not so they can see YOU, but so they can be edified, reminded just how good their God is, and encouraged to do the same with you.

Can I prove to you how powerful it is to hear voices cry out to God with no regard for whether or not the people around them can hear them? No fear of judgement? No fear of being “weird”.

(Play audio)

Isn’t that amazing? It’s powerful.

But I can practically hear what you’re saying, “Collin, those are kids. They haven’t seen enough life yet. They do EVERYTHING without fear of judgement. It’s not the same.

You want to hear what it sounds like when that same reckless abandon is translated to full-grown adults?

(Play Audio)

Again, it’s powerful. And note how many of those voices were obviously male…..but I don’t have time to go there. That’s a whole different sermon.

Church our actions ought to reflect the reality of our new life in Christ.

New Purpose

As we begin to wrap up, let’s take a look at the final verse of our passage-

Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Church, a new identity, new clothes of righteousness, new perspectives, and new actions are all for nothing- all vanity, if we don’t address the motor that drives all of that change — our new purpose.

Pauls final word for us in this text is really as it simple as it sounds — we ought to do every single thing that we do, today, tomorrow, and for eternity, in the name of Jesus, with gratitude in our hearts.

He is our purpose. He is our everything.

Taking a breath? Jesus. Singing a song? Jesus. Parenting your child? Jesus. Loving your spouse? Jesus. Going to work? Jesus.

Like Paul says in the verse before our passage Colossians 3:11 “… Christ is all and in all.”

More than anything else we’ve talked about today, our new purpose changes everything about our lives. He has to be our main — our only — priority. Sifted through him, the rest of our live tends to fall into place.

It’s to HIM we sing as we teach and admonish one another, it’s HIS peace that rules our hearts and HIS word that dwells among us.

It’s HIS compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness that clothe us. HIS love that covers us.

It’s HE who has chosen us and set us apart. HE who loves us.

He is all and in all. He is our purpose — He is our everything.

As we make our way to the invitation, I’ve got news for you…The call this morning is simple —

The invitation is Jesus. It is an invitation to sit at His feet.

If you are among those today who do not know Christ. Maybe you’ve heard His voice but never answered the call, the invitation today is, not to follow this list of commands and assume that it will save you. The invitation today is, answer the call of Jesus on your life. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to begin your new life in him. That is your priority.

We’ll have people down front waiting to talk with you about what new life in Christ looks like.

If you are among those who have responded to His call, then today is yet another day to deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow after him. Today is a day to put on Jesus. Let his peace rule your heart and his word dwell among you. Today is a day for us all to lift our voices and sing to him. I asked Mr. Randy if it would be possible to sing something extremely familiar so that every single voice would be able to cry out and sing to him!