Sin
Nature: Reality Check, Col. 2:20-3:11, Rom. 6:1-14
Paul
is writing to the Colossians because they have a basic problem that isn’t any
different from the basic problem that manifests itself for most Christians in
the early 21st century; and truly through most Christians throughout
the centuries. And that is the problem of learning how to fulfil the
commandments in the Scripture so that we can experience that life that Jesus
Promised. Jesus said in John chapter ten: “I cam to give life and to give life
abundantly.” Those are two distinct things. The giving of life there is related
to what we normally refer to as salvation but more specifically to
justification or regeneration when a person moves from being spiritually dead
to spiritually alive, when they move from being unrighteous before God to
having a state of righteousness of the declaration of their justification by
faith alone in Christ alone.
But
that is only when we move from being spiritually dead to being spiritually
alive. Unfortunately and sadly there are way too many Christians who are
basically spiritual zombies. They are the walking dead. They have life but they
are not living it. They don’t experience the abundant life that Jesus promised
because they are living just like they did before they were saved. They don’t
understand what was given to them, provided for them, supplied to them at that
instant of salvation and giving them true freedom from the tyranny, dominion
and mastery of the sin nature; and they continue to live under the control of
the sin nature without ever experiencing the rich, joyful abundant life that
Jesus promised. So a lot of the New Testament and the passages addressed to
living the spiritual life are passages that are addressed to believers so that
we can understand what we have in Christ, so that we can apply it in terms of
our day-to-day life.
Every
time Paul gets into this he ends up going back to the transactions that
occurred first at the cross, and second when you and I first believed Jesus
died on the cross for us. There is a spiritual event that occurred there that
is described in Scripture as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, more correctly
translated baptism by means of the Holy Spirit, and it is in the realities that
took place in that transaction that we are set free from the tyranny, the
dominion, the control of the sin nature. But for most people that doesn’t seem
to be much of a reality, and again and again Paul says the same thing in
different words as to how to recognize that and it is basically a reality
check. We have to understand the reality, it is not theological fiction, not
just sort of a confidence in confidence, it is not just a mental attitude
shift; it is a recognition of a reality that shifted, that changed at that
instant that we trusted in Christ as savior. The problem is because a lot of
Christians think that they should be experiencing joy and happiness and the
abundant life that Jesus promised and it is not really theirs that they have
somehow managed to rationalise certain other self-help techniques. Let’s say
for lack of a better term, and baptized those, so to speak, with Christianity.
They bring this foreign material into Christianity, try to redefine it and say
this is really the same thing that the Bible says when in fact it is not.
That
is what was going on in the ancient world, what is usually referred to by the
scholars of Colossians as the Colossians heresy. It was a form of teaching that
had influence from Greek philosophy, early ideas that later became known as
Gnosticism, certain ideas of asceticism from some fringe Jewish groups that may
have been influenced by those who were down in Qumran. But it was the idea that
Jesus isn’t really enough, you also have to do additional things. In other
words, it is the idea that you didn’t get everything at the cross, you needed
to get something afterwards and there needed to be additional revelation,
additional information, additional insight. That manifests itself down through
the ages in different ways in the church.
The
way that Paul addresses this in Colossians 2:19 is that the basic problem was
that they didn’t hold fast to the head. The head is Christ, and we have to hold
fast to the head because only the head is sufficient. This is the theme of
Colossians: Jesus Christ is all-sufficient. When we let go of that absolute
dependence on Christ as the head then we are looking to something other than
the head to supply nourishment and to supply strength and spirituality to the
body. We have seen that the problem basically was that they were seeking help
for life’s problems apart from Christ. Today we do that through various forms
of psychology, various forms of self-help techniques. It is very popular to go
to the mega-churches where the messages is are nothing more than motivational
self-help techniques that have been given a very flimsy veneer of biblical
allusions in order to convince people that somehow they are Christian.
What
happens when we go through this spiritual decapitation where we cut ourselves
off from Christ as the head is that we are rejecting the complete and full
authority of Christ. We cut ourselves off from the nourishment that comes only
from Christ, from spiritual growth that comes only from Christ, from the
strength of Christ (Philippians 4:13); and then this is going to impact our
rewards and blessing in eternity. It doesn’t change our destiny but it changes
the qualitative aspects of that destiny. It also impacts the quality of our
spiritual life today.
The
solution from Paul is that first of all we have to understand our position in
Christ. This isn’t taught a lot today because it is too abstract; people have
to think too much. We have to understand our identification with Christ but
when we fail to apply that we are out of fellowship and we have to understand
how to get back in fellowship through the utilisation of 1 John 1:9. The
solution, according to Paul is to live in light of the reality of what we have
in Christ. That is our new identity. And we have been identified with Christ in
a way where we are united with Him in His death, burial and resurrection, which
is also what Paul describes as the baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. We have
to develop a mental attitude, a mind set, a focus, a revision of the way in
which we think about ourselves in life based on this new reality of who we are
in Christ. That involves actively putting to death sin in our life (Colossians
3:5) and putting off the sins (Colossians 3:8).
Once
again we will go over the general structure. We have to have this sort of
fly-over orientation to understand the flow or the structure of what Paul says
here in chapter two. He gets into the main focus, the main body of this in
Colossians 2:4 and as he focuses on the emphasis on what we have received in
Christ at the instant of salvation—first introduced in 2:6—he
introduces this topic in 2:11, 12 that “in Him [Christ] you were also
circumcised”—spiritual circumcision. That was done by putting off the
sins of the flesh—ekduo. In
3:10, 11 Paul will conclude by making the statement “and have put on the new self.” There he uses the Greek word enduo. It is ekduo,
putting off the body of sin in 2:11, 12 and it is enduo, putting on the new man in 3:10, 11. These are
opposites. What happened at salvation is positionally we put off our old
position; it is removed, like taking off an old suit. As we took that off we
put on something else called the new man. But that is a positional reality and
in between there is an experiential reality where we put off the sins of the
flesh.
In
the middle of that Paul develops this argument by setting down two basic
premises. Each of these begins with an if clause. But it is an if and it is
true, it is a statement of reality. The first premise is in verse 20: “If you have died with Christ.” The second is in 3:1: “if you
have been raised up with Christ.” This phraseology, dying with Christ and being
raised with Christ, is what Paul uses in Romans 6 in relation to describing
what happens in what is called baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. We put off
the body of the sins of the flesh in the identification with Christ in His
death. That is the connection. We put off the body of the sins of the flesh,
Colossians 2:11, i.e. dying with Christ. So he is developing out that idea. We
become alive in Christ. That is equated to being raised with Christ. The death
of Christ is always tied in Scripture to our salvation, our justification,
because it is at the cross that He as the Lamb of God took away the sins of the
world. It is at the cross that He died for sin; it is at the cross that the sin
penalty is paid. Why didn’t He just get down off the cross and walk away? After
He said, “It is finished,” why didn’t He say okay it is all over with and step
down off the cross? Because salvation was done with, justification; the basis
for justification was accomplished.
But that wasn’t everything that was
going to be accomplished in that whole transaction related to His death, burial
and resurrection. He had to be buried, not just for fulfilment of prophecy, but
because His resurrection from the dead is the picture in the New Testament of
the new life that we have in Christ. It is the new life that has experienced
the complete and total break from that which was prior to the death. So at
salvation we are identified with His death, but that is not the end of it. We
are identified with His death, burial and resurrection because of that
identification with His resurrection. That is where we have the foundation for
the new life that we have in Christ. This is why we have the basis for the abundant
life that Jesus did—not just life eternal but qualitative life. When
Jesus came to give eternal life that meant life without end. But there are many
who will have life without end. In fact all will have life without end. Some
will have life without end in heaven; some will have life without end in the
lake of fire. It is not just life without end; it is a quality of life. And to
experience that today means to learn the principles of the spiritual life.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the
foundation for understanding and appropriating and realising in our daily life
all that God has provided for us. So laying down the foundation for these two
basic premises—therefore if you died with Christ, and you did (if you
trusted in Him as savior); if then you were raised with Christ, and you were
(if you trusted in Christ as savior)—if that is true then certain
realities fall out from that. Therefore Paul says in Colossians 3:5 NASB
“consider the members of your earthly body as dead.” Wait a minute; I already
died. Yes, but that is positional and has to do with your eternal position
before God. But you still have this experiential problem with sin, so there is
a commandment to put to death your members which are on the earth. Then in
Colossians 3:8 he says you are to put off all these things, using another Greek
word which is a synonym for the other two Greek words we have looked at which
are all a part of the clothing metaphor that is used many times in the New
Testament related to the spiritual life. NASB “But now you also, put
them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, {and} abusive speech from your
mouth.” Why? Because (vv. 10, 11) you have put on the new man. It is a
different verb tense and he switches a word here because this is something that
already happened. It happened when we trusted Christ. Because that reality is
true that changes how we are to live today. You put on the new man.
Colossians 3:10, 11 NASB
“and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge
according to the image of the One who created him—{a renewal} in which
there is no {distinction between} Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” Is he
still Jewish. Yes, but in Christ that isn’t an issue. Is he still Gentile, male
or female? Of course, but in Christ that wasn’t a factor in their personal
relationship to God. That is what it means to be in the baptism by means of the
Spirit. We see that same terminology in Galatians 3:27, 28 NASB “For
all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” That doesn’t
mean that after we are saved we are no longer ethnically Jewish or ethnically a
Gentile.
There is a ritual in the
church that is designed to teach this. Sadly, when this ritual is observed very
few pastors really teach why people need to be baptised by means of water. The
baptism by means of the Holy Spirit is somewhat abstract; it is hard for people
to get their mental fingers around it, depending on a lot of other factors. But
when we look at water baptism, believer’s baptism,’ it is a concrete image what
is being taught here. In water baptism you take a person and they are immersed
in water it is a picture of cleansing and it is a picture of a break between
what is after the immersion and what is before the immersion. The plunging into
the water is a picture of identification with the death of Christ—which
is our cleansing, justification salvation—and coming out of the water is
a picture of our new life as a result of having been saved, justified, cleansed
at the time we trusted in Christ as savior. So that in that new state after
being cleansed, ritually observed and depicted by the water, there is new life
in Christ. That is a powerful message and a powerful picture but it is so often
reduced to just simply and observance of a ritual.
You have put off the old
man and you have now put on the new man. It is a past tense reality. But we
know that although we have been saved and are a new creature in Christ, and all
things are new, we still sin. We still struggle with temptation, we still
realise that in our experience don’t have the abundant life. Something somehow
isn’t connecting. This is because it wasn’t a magic thing that we got baptized
by means of the Spirit and so experientially we are different. The reality is
we have to now learn what that means and all that it implies and now live on
the basis of that. When we are walking in the light we are walking by the
Spirit, we are being filled by the Spirit, and this is the arena Paul is
talking about when he says because you have put off the old man you need to put
off certain sins. Because you have put on the new man you need to put on
certain characteristics. That isn’t done by bootstrap spirituality, it is done
“by letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you.” We have to know the
Word; it is not apart from knowledge.
The results of letting the
Word of Christ richly dwell within us—which relates to singing hymns and
psalms and spiritual songs, and being thankful to the Lord for all things, and
learning how to be in right relationship with various authority structures and members
of the human race: parents, wives, husbands, employers. All of that is the
result of letting the Word of Christ dwell richly within you. In Ephesians 5
the command is “be filled by means of the Spirit,” and the results from 5:17
down through the middle of chapter six it is the same thing. By being filled by
means of the Spirit and being filled by the Word are two aspects of the same
kind of action. Walking by the Spirit He fills us with His Word. It is that
filling of His Word and implementing it that is letting the Word of Christ
richly dwell within us.
So we have this positional
identification reality that is ours the instant we trust Christ as savior, but
we have to learn what it means and put it into practice. Colossians 3:8
emphasises this. We are to “put off”—apotithemi
which means to put off, take it off like dirty clothes and throw it away. Then
there is a list of sins. That is the application of the Word to do that under
the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Verse 9 NASB
“Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its {evil}
practices.” So there are positive things we are to do and negative things we
are to do because of this positional reality.
The first principle:
Colossians 2:20 NASB “If you have died with Christ to the elementary
principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit
yourself to decrees…” Why are you still living as if you are a spiritually dead
person? You are just the walking dead; you are like a spiritual zombie; you are
not experiencing the life that God gave you. You are alive but you are still
acting and living as though you were dead.
The second principle:
Colossians 3:1 NASB “Therefore if you have been raised up with
Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God.” That is an imperative, a command in the Greek. So you are to do
something. If this is true, that you were raised with Christ then you have to
do something. You have to seek, make a priority of seeking, the things which
are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father. That is
referring to the whole doctrine of the ascension and session of Christ. (How
many times is that actually taught today?)
Colossians 3:2 NASB
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” So
again, it relates to a mental focus. We need to focus on the things
above—not that we are so heavenly-minded we are of no earthly use, but we
need to focus on the eternal truths as defined by God. [3] “For [because] you
have died…” We have died, and it happened at the instant we trusted Christ as
savior. We have died to the old life. It is a break, “…and your life is hidden
with Christ in God.”
Romans chapter six is where
Paul really develops and unpacks for us this whole doctrine related to the
baptism by means of the Holy Spirit. He is not talking about water baptism in
Romans chapter six. He begins using a couple of rhetorical questions. Romans
6:1 NASB “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that
grace may increase?” In the previous section in Romans 5:12-21 Paul has been
explaining what we have now in Christ, that we are now alive in Christ and that
the death penalty has been removed. But unfortunately there are too many people
who are living as though they are still dead because they are not understanding
and appropriating the reality of what happens at salvation. So they continue to
sin and in response to what Paul says at the end of chapter five where he said
[20] “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase [became more
evident]; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. [21] so that,
as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin leads to a death-like
experience. He is talking to believers here. He is not talking about spiritual
death at this point, he is talking about the fact that as believers we can live
in what is called carnal death or temporal death—out of fellowship and
have a death-like life because we are not appropriating the abundant life that
is Christ but living like an unbeliever, walking in darkness and not
experiencing that life. Paul is going to explain how we do it.
Romans 6:3 NASB
“Or do you not know…” implication: you should have been taught; this should have
been very clear to you in the first three months after you were saved. “… that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
[identified] into His death? The word “baptism” is a Greek word which literally
means to immerse, to wash, to dip, to plunge. It talks about taking one object
and immersing it into another object. But there was a figurative meaning to
that. It is a literal reality but there was a figurative significance to it. In
the ancient world a newly trained soldier about to enter an active unit would
plunge his spear into a bucket of pig’s blood. It is a picture of
identification with death. He is now ready to go into war and to kill the
enemy. His spear is identified with death through this identification with
blood, which stands for death. The picture is of identification.
So when we read this
sentence in verse 3 we can catch its significance. There is a real transaction
here in the unseen spiritual realm, not in a seen, felt experiential realm. [4]
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism [identification with
Him] into death [a death of our former existence], so that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness
of life.” The resurrection isn’t tied to justification here; it is tied to
newness of life, a new quality of life. So in the resurrection aspect of
Christ’s work during those days between the crucifixion and the resurrection
each element has different significance. What He did on the cross paid the
penalty for sin and is the basis for our justification; His resurrection is the
basis for our new life that is free from the dominion of the tyranny of the sin
nature.
We are “buried with him
[past tense] through baptism into death.” This occurred at the moment that we
believed that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. But it didn’t stop there.
That is the beginning of something, the new birth we talk about. New birth
means that it should be followed by new growth. A new baby needs to grow to
adulthood. It needs to be fed, nourish so that it can grow [spiritually]; and
it needs to learn how to walk like any infant, to walk in the light and to walk
by means of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 6:5 NASB
“For if [and we were] we have become united with {Him} in the likeness of His
death…” Another way of saying we were baptised into His death; we are
identified with His death. “… certainly we shall also be {in the likeness} of
His resurrection.” It moves from the death related to what happened at the
cross to the new life which is related to what happens afterward at the
resurrection. Then in the next verse he starts off with a causal participle
which should be translated not just simply “Knowing this” but “Because we know
this.” [6] “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,} in order
that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be
slaves to sin.” We can implement this walk in the likeness of His resurrection
because we know something. We know it to be absolutely true.
When we look at the
terminology in verse 5 the Greek word ginomai
means we have become something that we were not before. It is a perfect tense
grammatically and that is very important. When Paul says we have been united
with Christ the perfect tense indicates an action that has been completed in
the past. It is not ongoing, it is completed in the past and we are
experiencing today the results of this past completed action. Some time in the
past a completedness occurred in relation to being united with the likeness of
His death. On the basis of that completed action Paul says, “we shall also be
[future tense of eimi which indicates a state of existence] {in the likeness} of
His resurrection.” It is stated
this way as a future tense but it has an imperatival sense. It probably should
be translated “we should be united in the likeness of His resurrection” because
that is related to realising our new life in Him. And that is based on what we
know. We should live out experientially what we have in Him.
Again, verse 6: “knowing
this, that our old self was crucified with {Him,} in order that our body of sin
might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” The body
of sin is our old sin nature; it is not done away with at the instant we are
saved but its power is gradually eradicated in our life. The sin nature isn’t
eradicated, its dominion over us is broken but the realisation of that
brokenness gradually comes into reality as we apply His Word and as we
grow—but only as we grow and
apply His Word; it is not inevitable, it depends on our volition.
Romans 6:7 NASB
“for he who has died is freed from sin.” The words “he who has died” is an
aorist participle, which means that action of dying has to precede the action
in time of the main verb. The main verb though doesn’t mean “has been freed.”
The word that is translated there is dikaioo
and it is not a word that means to be free. This is a word that means to be
justified; it means to be declared righteous from your sins. The verse says
“for he who has died,” and that occurs when we are identified with Christ in
His death, burial and resurrection; “has been justified from sin”—perfect
tense, and it is completed action. Again Paul is talking about the moment we
trusted in Christ as saviour. We were identified with Christ in His death, we
were declared justified, and there is a complete and total break spiritually
from everything we were before we were saved. So this should be translated, “Because
the one who had died [positionally through the baptism by means of the Holy
Spirit] has been and continues to be declared righteous before God.” That is
our positional reality.
What Paul says in verses 5
& 6 is the same thing as what he says in Colossians 3:9 NASB “Do
not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its {evil}
practices.” Because this happened in the past— we put off the old man at
the cross—that changes what we are to do; it changes our standards, our
ethics, our procedures, our priorities, now that we are saved.
Paul builds on that. Romans
6:8 NASB “Now if we have died with Christ [and we did], we believe
that we shall also live with Him.” What does that mean? [9] “knowing that
Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no
longer is master over Him.” That is the point. Because death no longer has
dominion over Christ Paul then makes this fabulous transition to indicate that
the sin nature, because we died to that, no longer has dominion over us. If it
does it is because we let it, not because we have to. Before we were saved we
didn’t have an option, but now we do. This is why Paul says in verse 11, “Even
so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
This is a mindset. Consider yourselves dead or separated from sin. He draws a
conclusion from that: [12] “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body
so that you obey its lusts.” He doesn’t give a command that can’t be
accomplished. He gives a command that can be accomplished, first because of the
break that occurred at salvation, because of the baptism by means of the Holy
Spirit, identification with Christ in His death; and second, because we are now
given the Holy Spirit who is the one who enables us to do this. [13] “and do
not go on presenting the members of your body to sin {as} instruments of
unrighteousness [don’t participate in sin]; but present yourselves to God as
those alive from the dead, and your members {as} instruments of righteousness
to God.” These are present active imperatives, which means they are to
characterise all of our life after salvation.
Why? Romans 6:14 NASB
“For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under
grace.” Imperative: “You should not let sin have dominion over you,” is the
best translation because the emphasis is on our decision. Every day we have
decisions. Am I going to live in terms of who I am in Christ or who I was
before I was saved? Every time we sin, whether we consciously realise it or not,
we are saying: I am going to live like I was before I was saved; I am going to
live like a dead person. If we choose to live like a dead person we are not
going to experience the abundant life. We are only going to experience that
life that Jesus promised us if we are going to live it on the basis of the
reality that changed at the instant we trusted in Christ. We have to give our
sin nature a reality check, and that come only by realising these foundational
truths that occurred at salvation.