17 Colossians: The Mystery of Christ - How to Get Away with Murder

Date: August 31, 2025 Lord’s Day: 35 Series: Colossians the Mystery of Christ Title: How To Get Away with Murder Text: Colossians 3:1-5a    If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your[a] life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you Introduction:  What “used” to be.   Point: Our minds can be so tied to the past that we forget the present reality. It can be SO CLOUDED from the past to the point that it can CLOUD THE PRESENT. The focus of the mind can be ROOTED in the past and in what ONCE WAS that we fail to see the present.   Last week we opened our study of this third chapter of Colossians and the main thoughts surrounded the change in pattern here. The teaching of Paul in chapter 1 and 2 is the work of Christ, the work done outside of the believer.  But now, the focus turns: now that we are in Christ, what CAN we do?   What does Paul expect here?  We should kill sin! “Put to death what is earthly in you.”   Before we begin, let us seek a blessing for this message. Textual Observation: As we open up the text this morning I would like to bring your attention to the repetition.  There is a thought process applied here where essentially the same emphasis is mentioned four times.   1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.   2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth   v.3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God   4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory   Notice the direction of our thinking! Seek the things . . . . . .ABOVE Set minds on things. . . ABOVE Life hidden with Christ . . . . . (in God) ABOVE Christ appears you will be . . .ABOVE   THEREFORE: An Imperative is used here.  This means, Paul is not making a suggestion.  As a result of this, because of this put to death what is earthly in you.    In Plain words KILL YOUR SIN.   I would like to build on a thought from last week.  We are in one of two camps, one of two realities:   Dead to Christ but Alive in the world.   Dead to the world but alive in Christ.   Those in Christ are DEAD . . . to the world.  How is this a reality?  IN what ways have we died to the world?  When it says in our text that we are raised in Christ what does that mean?   Raised with Christ I have here with me two certificates.  I was around for both events but only remember one of them.  I have a birth certificate.  It lists where I was born, what time I was born, my parents and my weight and height.  This is a certification that I was born.  If there is any doubt that I had a birth, I was given a piece of paper that documented that my birth was an actual event. This is an event that I have kept secret for a long time.  My first week here there was a Q and A and one of the first questions was when is your birthday? I was hesitant to give that information and one may wonder why. In previous years of my life I was associated with the world that likes to overindulge in alcohol.  Of my shortcomings, this was not, is not one of them.  I can’t stand the overindulgence of alcohol.  Yet at the same time, it is seen as very rude and insulting to refuse if someone wants to buy you a drink. The fix for this situation is no one ever knew when my birthday was.  I kept it to myself. Upon leaving that world, it was a habit that I never let go. So Tina QUICKLY answered in my place. It made me feel a bit awkward.  I was not offended; it is just that I have kept that information very private and right out of the gate, no one asked what my view of the Millennium was, or my theological stance on Melchizedek, or my view of transubstantiation or con substantiation. But have no doubt, I was born.  I have a second piece of paper here of another event in my life.  It is my baptismal certificate. It was given to me decades ago and it states when I was baptized, who did it and where it was done.  There are a lot of metaphors and analogies being used throughout Scripture that speaks of death and life.  It is said of the believer that they have been “BORN AGAIN”.  “New BIRTH” another term to describe Christ followers. Our text here it says that you have been raised with Christ which is certainly an allusion of death to life. Does this refer to these documents that I have right here? My brith = real, my baptism = real, is this text referring to ONE or BOTH of these?  Then you read down a little further it says that we have died, and our life is hidden with Christ in God.  How can we have death and life in the same sentence.  In one regard we are dead and in another we are alive.  This is an odd thing, isn’t it? I do not want you to forget the context we have here.  This is one issue with chapters and verses.  These are very helpful when we are all trying to get to the same place in our Bibles.  But they are are hindrance, often, to context.    Chapters and verses were added later to help with the ease of audience reading of texts.  What happens in many instances is we when we are reading Scripture and want to take a break from the text we get to a chapter and stop.    Even in as I have been preaching through Colossians, we had a hard break at the end of chapter 2 and beginning of chapter 3.  Yet there is still a context here.  Chapter 3 does start an ADDED THOUGHT, but the thought comes within the context.   The emphasis in chapter 2 was the new birth.  That our, “whole self was ruled by the flesh,” and that it was, “put off when we were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also RAISED with him through your faith in the world of God who raised him from the dead.” (2:11-12)   Is this referring to a literal baptism or figurative baptism? Not always in Scripture, when baptism is taught or referenced, is it a literal, being buried in the water.   Examples of figurative baptism: “And this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God.” 1 Peter 3:21. (This references baptism symbolically. It states that this is not about the literal water that removes dirt but a clear conscience.  This is a thing of the mind.)   “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.  He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Titus 3:4-6 (Again, a washing that is figurative.  It was done to us, this passage gives a hard glance at Ezekiel 36.  But this washing was a metaphor of work done by God through His Spirit)   Is this what is being referred to here in Colossians?  When Paul states, “if you have been raised with Christ,” he is continuing the context from Colossians 2 about burial and raising of baptism. Is this literal or figurative?   ODG: Commentators and theologian are mixed. I think it can be both. There is a figurative reference to a circumcision done to our hearts.  A work done BY GOD.  This is not literal.  It is a reality. But it is not a surgery done on our hearts by God. It marks a moment we are forever changed.   The fact is, I have two papers here that signify that I was born.  I was born once in Adam and once in Christ.  I did nothing both times. I participated in neither birth other than just being. My baptism in water represented something already done in me.   It was God who raised Christ from the dead, the working of God.  It was God who raised me from the dead, the working from God.   “Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also RAISED WITH HIM THROUGH FAIHT IN THE WORKING OF GOD WHO RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD” (Colossians 2:12)   This is our context.  “IF THEN you have been raised with Christ seek the things that are above.”   Mortify Sin We find the statement in v.5 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you” in another place in Paul’s writings.  It appears in Romans 8:13. In English it sounds identical.  “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” Don’t those appear to say the same thing?  They do say the same thing but they are to be interpreted differently.  How so? Last week we revisited sanctification.  This passage that we are currently studying is a sanctification passage.  Sanctification means, being set apart.  In relation so Scripture, we are set apart by God for holy use.  We are set apart to be holy. The reason Colossians 3:1-5 is a sanctification passage is, now that we born again, set your minds on things above.  Think on things above.  Here is how we are to think.  Here is how we are to proceed. Regarding sanctification, it is a one time event in the believers life: “You were washed, you were justified, you were sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Corinthians 6:11 It is also a continuing activity. “We are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” 2 Corinthians 3:16 The action in those passages, the verbs are easier to see in English.  The verb in 1 Corinthians 6:11 is aorist which means it is a completed action done in the past.  It was an event. The verb in 2 Corinthians 3:16 is present tense.  Which in Greek means a present reality but also going on into the future.  It is a continuing thing. We find that same situation here regarding killing our sin: In our passage of Colossians 3:5 the verb is Aorist.  Means it was done in the past.  It was a single event.  Because you have been raised with Christ, because you life is hidden with Christ in God . . . put to death. . . One time deal. But in Romans 8:13, just like Sanctification is a ONE TIME and ONGOING thing, the verb tense there is present tense.  This is an act that you are presently doing and will continue to do.  IS this not a beautiful thing.  Don’t you just love God’s word?  We are going to come back to this next week and continue past verse 5.  But I want this to be an encouragement to you. How is this encouraging.  In both instances (Colossians 3:5 and Romans 8:13) these verbs are in passive tense.  What this means is the Spirit, within us, Is helping us bring this about.  We are bringing it about, but we are being helped to bring it about.  Oh how this makes me love Jesus more. I have had to put a lot of sin to death.  I say this not bragging.  I say this because I am like you.  I look back on my years past and I weep.  I hate what I once did.  I hate who I use to be.  I genuinely hate it. We are celebrating Labor Day this weekend.  Long weekend of work that has been done.  Let’s take a day off and smoke some ribs or fry some hot dogs or hamburgers and celebrate that we have worked. This passage in Colossians is a work passage.  The work of Christ FOR us.  The work of God in us.  The work we are to do in Christ.  Mortifying our sin.