Sermon Tone Analysis

The other day I was watching a video of a man who was color blind.

He had never seen color correctly for his entire life.

Just recently they came out with these glasses that fixes the way color blind people see color.

The glasses allow them to see color just like you and I see color.

And it is incredible to see a man, who for all of his life has been seeing the world through flawed eyes.

It is emotional to watch him put on those glasses and see the deep dark green of a pine tree for the first time in his life.

He puts on the glasses, he looks at the tree, and he bursts into tears at seeing color the way his eyes were meant to see color for the first time.

This is what Paul is dealing with in our passage in Colossians.

We have been living in sin our whole lives, we have been living a flawed life.

Now that we are IN CHRIST.

Now that the power of sin has been broken in our lives, Paul is concerned that we would live renewed lives, that we would be restored back into the image of God, that we would live our lives they way God intended us to live them all along.

Paul gave two commands to the Colossian believers back in chapter two that he has been expounding ever since.

Paul commanded these believers to be on the look out so that no one takes them captive through empty deceptive philosophy.

Don’t be deceived into trying to attain spiritual growth through anything that is not centered on Christ.

Paul, also positively commanded these believers to instead seek to grow spiritual through the same dependent faith that enabled them to receive Christ as their Lord- with that same kind of faith IN CHRIST walk in Christ- live your life with a faith in Christ is is rooted and built up IN HIM and established in the faith and abounding in thanksgiving.

Two weeks we began a discussion of exactly how we do that.

How do we practically walk in Christ?

How do we grow spiritual through a dependent faith in Christ?

What does that look like in our life?

I.

You must reorient your heart and your mind IN CHRIST (3:1-4)

You must seek after Christ- He must be the treasure of your heart.

You must delight your mind in Christ

You must embrace your identity in Christ

II.

You must kill everything that is mundane and carnal in your being (3:5-9)

This is not an external command- we cannot simply put rules and regulations in place in our lives to do this- this must go all the way deep down to our hearts.

The process of killing carnality means I kill all idolatrous loves in my heart.

I actually stop being an idolater of the heart, how?

Through a relationship with Christ.

I must love the Lord my God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength.

How do we practically walk in Christ?

How do we grow spiritual through a dependent faith in Christ?

What does that look like in our life?

III.

You must constantly grow in your knowledge of Christ (3:9-11)

Why?

Why do we need to constantly grow in knowledge?

A. Because you have put off your old self, and you have put on your new self (3:9b-10a)

Old Man v.s.

New Man?

What is our old man?

What is our new man?

View #1- Old man = old sinful nature; New man = new Christlike nature

In this view, a believer has both and old man nature and a new man nature inside them at the same time.

And these two natures war inside of us.

If we surrender to our old man we sin, if we surrender to our new man we act righteously.

I do not think that is what Paul is teaching here in Col 3.

View #2- Old man = old self, what you were like before Christ, you unregenerate self.

New man = new self, what you are like now that you are in Christ, your regenerate self.

Paul commands- Do not lie to one another, connected to this is the truth that as a believer you have put off the old man.

So the theology behind why you should not lie is that those who are in Christ have put off (like a dirty garment) the old man or the old self.

And it is not just lying that Paul has in view here, both of the lists that we find in v. 5 and 8 are in view.

In other words, kill off sexual immorality, and covetousness, and idolatry, and anger, and filthy communication, and slander, and lying- why?

Because you believer have put off your old self.

The verb “put off” (as we talked about last week) means to take off as in a dirty garment or clothes.

The verb for “put off” is in the aorist tense.

This indicates past action.

This is something that has occured already in the past.

I would argue at the moment of salvation your old self was put off.

If believers still had inside of them an old man / or an old sinful nature- you would expect Paul to use a present tense verb.

Keep on putting off your old man.

But instead He makes a statement of fact- Stop doing all of these sins- why?

Seeing that you have already put off your old self.

The same thing is true in v.10 with the verb “put on.”

This verb also indicates past action- so again Paul is stating a fact- He is stating your position IN CHRIST.

You have already put off your old self, and you have already put on your new self.

I want us to look at two other passages of Scripture this morning that teach us about our old self and our new self.

Turn with me to Eph 4.

The second passage I want us to consider is Rom 6

You say, pastor that sounds great and all, but I have a big problem.

I still sin.

If my old self is dead then why do I still sin?

Members- Bodies c.f. Col 3

Every time Paul talks about the war that wages in us because of sin- Paul makes mention of our flesh, or our members, or our bodies.

Why do we need to constantly grow in knowledge?

B. Because you are in need of renewal (3.10b)

You believer, have already put on your new self (your new position in Christ, you are regenerate, you have been freed from the power of sin in your life), but your new self is in need of something.

Your new self needs to be renewed in knowledge.

Renewed- to become reestablished in a like-new and often improved manner.

This verb is is the present tense which indicates continuous action.

So you need to constantly be renewed.

It is also a passive verb.

So you do not do the renewing, something outside of you is acting upon you to accomplish the renewal.

In this context, God is the one renewing you.

So you have already put on the new self (past action), but your new self is constantly being renewed (by God).

Now what does it mean that our new self is being renewed?

If you understand New Man as New Christlike Nature then I really struggle to understand how our Christlike nature needs to be renewed.

That implies that it is imperfect, but that doesn’t make sense- how can our Christlike nature be imperfect?

How can it be renewed?

If you understand New Man as you new self or your regenerated self, then I think it makes good sense in saying we are in need of renewal.

How is that?

The purpose of God is for us to be conformed back into the image of His Son.

When God created Adam and Eve He created them perfectly in His image.

That image was marred by sin.

And it was deeply marred!

Think about you, humanity was created to be in the very image of God, yet because of sin look at how deeply that image has been destroyed.

Sexual immorality, evil lusts, coveteousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, filthy speech, slander, lying- this is a perversion of God’s image.

God has been working ever since to restore His image in us.

The biggest problem is the problem of sin.