Clothed in Christ

Introduction

For any athlete, one of the most thrilling days for them is when they receive their team jersey or their team uniform. When professional athletes are drafted or signed by a team one of the first photo ops taken is them with the team owner or manager or coach holding up their jersey with their name on it.

Even for me when I played in high school I always loved when we would first get our team jerseys. I’d take them home, try them on and all of a sudden it would become more real that you were part of a team and that the jersey identified you with that team.

When a team steps onto the court or onto the field they wear those jerseys or those uniforms with pride because belonging to that team means something.

When that athlete becomes part of that team, that organization, they receive a new identity or position and to some degree it affects how they respond and live; they now represent that team.

On a much grander scale, the apostle Paul is instructing the Colossian believers of their new position, of who they belong to which in turn affects and changes how they now live in the world.

What I love about Paul’s writings is that he typically begins his letters to the churches by laying out deep doctrinal teachings of who Christ is and what he has done.

For example:

Galatians 1:6-8, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Ephesians 1:3-8, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.

Philippians 1:6, And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

In these examples and so many more, Paul’s appeal to the church is to first believe and rest in the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s in Christ that we find our belonging, our identity, our position, our acceptance. It’s only after we receive this new life in Christ, this new heart to believe and behold our God that he then turns to how we live.

His letter to the Colossians is no different. The first two chapters are filled with deep, substantive, doctrinal truths of Christ and his gospel.

Colossians 1:12-14, Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:15-17, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:21-22, And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

Colossians 2:13-15, 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, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

The pattern of Paul’s letters then is, once a gospel foundation has been laid, he then turns to how we now live in light of these glorious truths.

It’s what we saw last week at the beginning of chapter 3.

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.

And it’s what we’re seeing here in verse 12 of our text this morning.

Colossians 3:12, Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.

And so, I want us to see three things from our text this morning regarding who we are (identity) and how we live (response).

Number one:

Our position.

Looking at verse 12 again, Paul calls this little Gentile church in Colossae, “God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved.”

Now, truth be told, we could camp out here for the morning because this simple statement is remarkable in so many ways and there’s a lot being said in those six words.

If you’ve got church background and are familiar with Old Testament teaching, then what Paul is saying may sound familiar to how God spoke of the nation of Israel. But to try and bring us all on the same page so we can understand the weightiness of Paul’s statement it will help for us to understand God’s choosing, calling and blessing of Israel as his chosen people to be a light among the nations.

All the way back in Genesis 12 you see God come to a man named Abram at the time, but we’re most likely familiar with his name that was changed to Abraham, which means the father of a multitude of nations. God comes to Abram in Genesis 12 and gives him a promise that from him, he is going make of him a great nation, which we’ll later find out is the nation of Israel. And it’s going to be from Israel that the Messiah will come that was promised all the way back in Genesis 3 at the fall. He’s going to bless Abram and make his name great among all the other nations.

It’s a few chapters later in Genesis 15 that God comes to Abram again and makes a covenant with him. He promises Abram his presence, he promises many offspring and he promises him a land that they’ll dwell in.

The rest of the book of Genesis is the unfolding of this promise. Abraham and his wife Sarah, have a son named Isaac. Isaac grows up and marries Rebekah, they have two sons, twins actually, Jacob and Esau. In Genesis 25, God chooses Jacob to be the line which the nation of Israel will come from, and the line of the future Messiah.

Genesis 25:23, And the LORD said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.”

Esau is born first, but he will be the servant of Jacob his younger brother. It’s going to be from Jacob, whose name is changed by God in Genesis 35 to Israel that twelve sons are born which become the twelve tribes of Israel. (Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin)

And really the rest of the Old Testament is God’s working through the nation of Israel to be a light to the surrounding nations of what it looks like to live under the reign and rule of God. They fail miserably time and time again and yet, God pursues them, loves them and cares for them. But it shows the necessity and need of a Savior who will one day come from Israel, God’s people.

I say all of this because in Deuteronomy 7, right before the Israelites are about to enter the promised land (remember that God promised Abraham land for his people to dwell in), they are reminded, by Moses who is leading the people of who they are and God’s love for them which sounds very much like what Paul is saying Colossians 3.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8a, “For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you…”

So, why is what Paul is saying to the Colossian church so remarkable? It’s because up until the coming of Christ, his life, death and resurrection, the gentiles were outsiders. God was working through Israel, Israel was God’s chosen people, holy and loved. But now, through the death of Jesus, the gentiles have been brought into that covenant relationship with God.

And so, when Paul says that this little church which is filled with gentiles is chosen by God, holy and beloved, he’s using language that God had been using only of Israel. They were no longer on the outside looking in but were now brought near by the blood of Christ.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he refers to what God has done through Christ as the mystery of the gospel revealed.

Ephesians 3:6, This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Church, we gather here today no longer outsiders but because of Christ, we have been brought near to God and we have been brought near to him through no work of our own. Just as Moses told the Israelites before they entered the promised land that God chose them not because they had it all together or were this large, powerhouse of a nation but solely out of his love, grace and mercy, we have been redeemed by God not because we had it all together, but only because of his love, grace and mercy.

I’ll try and prove that point right now. Is anyone in here willing to stand up in front of everyone right now because you truly are, in your actions holy and blameless? Anyone willing to stand up right now because you have everything together in your life and don’t wrestle with sin, with anger, with bitterness, with lust, with gossip, with slander, with greed? Anyone?

So, why don’t we stand up? Because we know our hearts. We know that so often our actions, our thoughts are not holy and blameless. But what’s Paul say, “you are holy, you are blameless, you are God’s chosen ones, you are dearly loved.”

How can he say it? Christ. It’s what he’s unpacked for the last two chapters. And so, our position, our identity is held secure in Christ alone.

And so, stop looking to the things of this world for hope, for your identity, for purpose and meaning. All that we long for, all that we desire is found fully in the person of Jesus Christ.

And it’s from this glorious truth that we then seek, by God’s grace to live differently. Which takes us to our second point.

Number two:

Our clothing.

And so, out of who we are comes how we live. Paul says to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.

He goes on. Verse 13,

Colossians 3:13-14, Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatian church, he refers to many of these characteristics as the “fruit of the Spirit.”

Galatians 5:22-23, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

What he’s saying is that if our life is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ and our hearts have been changed by him, then the natural response is going to be a life that resembles and models Christ-likeness. Now, don’t take the word “natural” to think that this Christ-like living will come easily. The journey of sanctification is hard and difficult. We’re still sinners but what changes in that because of God’s grace, he has given us a new heart which now desires and delights in walking in obedience.

And as we, on a daily basis, take up our cross, die to ourselves, abide in Christ and his word, what begins to sprout forth is the fruit of love, joy and peace. Compassion, meekness, kindness and humility.

We really should take an honest look at ourselves both individually and in community with others to see if this is the fruit of our lives.

We need to ask honest questions to ourselves such as, “When things don’t go the way I want or desire, how do I respond?” Is your response characterized by love, joy, peace and patience or anger, frustration, slander, and divisiveness?

Ask yourself, “When someone hurts me or offends me, how do I treat them moving forward?” Are you eager to forgive, just as God has forgiven you or do you hold onto resentment and bitterness?

When someone is difficult to work with, engage with, talk with, do you look for easy ways to escape or do you bear with them, just as Christ bears with you in your difficulty? To bear with means to endure, to be patient with, to persevere with. Christians should not run from one another.

All these things that Paul pushes the church toward are what the church should clothe itself in. And just as we get dressed every single morning, we need to dress ourselves daily in these attributes rooting ourselves in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul closes this section with what I just titled as,

Our mandate.

Let’s finish out the text, verse 15,

Colossians 3:15-17, And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts 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.

I see three mandates here.

Number 1 – We are to be ruled by the peace of Christ.

What is this peace?

Jesus said in John 14, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you.” He’s saying the peace he gives his followers is different than any peace the world could give. Which means it isn’t a peace that is just free from conflict. That’s ultimately how the world sees peace. But Jesus’ peace is much more. It’s a sense of wholeness and well-being. Of completeness. In fact, it’s even more than that. It’s Jesus himself, his presence.

Nowhere in Scripture are we promised an escape from suffering and difficulty in this life. What we are promised is Christ’s presence and his peace.

Charles Spurgeon, who battled deep discouragement and depression throughout his life once said to his church,

“I find myself frequently depressed – perhaps more so than any other person here. And I find no better cure for that depression than to trust in the Lord with all my heart, and seek to realize afresh the power of the peace-speaking blood of Jesus, and His infinite love in dying upon the cross to put away all my transgressions.”

That’s what it looks like to let the peace of Christ rule your hearts. We abide in the peacefulness of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection and his presence which he promises to his children.

Number 2 – We are to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly.

How do we begin? We begin by reading the Scriptures. I’m not trying to oversimplify this, but it at the very least begins there. Now, we must guard against a legalistic or religious view of this. Just simply reading God’s Word is not sufficient, but rather meditating upon the words of Christ and drinking deeply of them by the power of the Spirit.

We go to God’s Word because we desire him. We desire to be changed and molded by his words.

How many of us can resonate with Mark Twain’s statement, “Most people are bothered by those passages of Scripture which they cannot understand; but as for me, I have always noticed that the passages in Scripture which trouble me most are those which I do understand.”[1]

Meaning, God’s word confronts us in our sin. We don’t go to God’s Word to affirm what we already want to do. We go to God’s word to be changed by it. Paul says, let it dwell in you richly and then you see the communal aspect of it. We teach it to others, we encourage and admonish one another in it because God’s word leads to life.

We’re moved by it. It stirs us to worship and adore Christ as we see who he is, who we are and what he has accomplished for us in his death.

Lastly.

Number 3 – We live to the glory of God.

It’s what we see in verse 17. Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Every aspect of our life is to reflect his greatness. It’s to point back at him and proclaim to the world that he is glorious. And so, how we work, how we lead our families, how we live as good neighbors, how we interact with people, how we handle suffering, how we handle conflict, how we handle disagreement, how we handle discouragement, everything should be done through the lens of making much of Christ.

Paul says we’re doing everything in his name, which means as followers of Christ, everything we does reflects back on his name? How often do we fail to reflect his glory?

Herein lies our hope – the gospel.

[1]Hughes, R. K. (1989). Colossians and Philemon: the supremacy of Christ (p. 111). Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.