Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Colossians 3:1-4 | Date: March 14, 2021 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Our fathers, we come to this wonderful passage in your word which instructs us not only how to live, but instructs us regarding the enablement that you’ve given to us in order to do it. We thank you for your grace. We’re grateful for Christ, what you’ve given to us in him, and we pray that our appreciation of him will increase as a result of this study. Pray that you’ll make us through it better worshipers. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

All right, Colossians chapter 3. If you’d like, put a marker there. We’ll be right back. But I would like to start in the Old Testament. If you would, look at Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 to 34, the new covenant prophecy. Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34. What I’d like to do before we get into Colossians 3 is give a broader theological setting for the chapter and then see how that is relevant to the passage and actually how it’s sustained through the passage as well.

So Jeremiah chapter 31, someone read for us verses 31 to 34. This is the famous new covenant prophecy where God promises a new covenant that he will make. Someone read verses 31 to 34.

“The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law on their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, and remember their sins no more.”

All right, notice, first of all, the broad context. God is promising a new covenant that he will make. The old covenant, referring back to the covenant God made with Israel at Sinai, didn’t do what it commanded the people to do. In other words, it commanded obedience, it commanded that they follow God and all of that, and they didn’t. The old covenant did not provide for the obedience that it demanded.

And so God says, a time is coming, I’ll make a new covenant. And the big word you can write over that new covenant is enablement. I’ll write my law on their hearts. No longer will it be just objectively stated on stone, written on tablets of stone, but it’ll be etched into their hearts. In other words, I’ll change their “want to.” As we saw before, there’s a second broad category of it, and it’s actually foundational to this, and that is verse 34 that he read: “For I will forgive their iniquities and remember their sins no more.” God will work a way to find forgiveness and acceptance to the people despite their sins, and in fact, turn their hearts so that they will obey.

That is the fundamental difference then between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. The Old Covenant said, “Do this or die. Do this or die.” If you don’t do this, this is what’s going to happen. It laid out its commands and it promised judgment for those who disobey. The new covenant, by complete contrast, says, “I’ll forgive them for their sins. I will remember them no more. And in fact, I’ll turn their hearts so that they will obey.” It provides for everything it requires. That’s the fundamental difference then between the old covenant and the new.

Now look at it in terms of Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 25 to 27. Ezekiel 36, 25 to 27. Someone read that for us. Not everyone at once. What was the reference? Ezekiel 36, verses 25 to 27.

“I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and to be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors. You will be my people, and I will be your God.”

All right, notice again, although it’s not called a new covenant here in that terminology, it’s clearly the same thing that God is promising. First of all, verse 25, you have this matter of cleansing, or again, justification. God will wipe out their sins. But then the rest of it speaks in terms of enablement. God will put a new heart in them. He’ll take out that heart of stone. He’ll replace it with a heart of flesh, something that’s pliable and willing to do as God has commanded. He says it again in another way: “I’ll put my spirit within them.” So this is the great theme of the New Testament—of the leading of the Spirit, the Spirit of God coming into the life of every believer as the new dominating factor.

So instead of being under sin, we are under the rule of the Holy Spirit. And he rules and directs us in righteousness. And then he says, “I will cause you.” I think the translation you read was “I will move you to walk in my commandments.” So he says it explicitly: “I will make so that you comply with what I require.” Again, this is the fundamental difference between the old covenant and the new. The old demanded but didn’t provide for an enablement for obedience. The new covenant both provides forgiveness of sins and enablement so that we will comply with God’s requirements.

Now that all comes, of course, to a head when we come to the Gospels where Jesus, on the night before his death, institutes the Lord’s Supper and says, “This cup is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” So here’s the ground of the new covenant. Christ has secured that covenant and all of those covenant blessings in his death on the cross. So that’s then the provision for every believer.

Now there’s a famous line from Augustine, a fifth-century theologian, that ended up sparking a real controversy with a monk by the name of Pelagius. You’ve heard of the Augustine-Pelagian controversy. It was sparked by this prayer of Augustine that was published, and Pelagius heard it and just went nuts over it, said, “This is just awful, this is terrible theology.” But what Augustine said was, “God, grant what you command and command what you will. Grant what you command and command what you will.”

Now, Pelagius didn’t like that. That sounds like you don’t have any responsibility. That sounds like you don’t have any ability. Augustine was right. This is exactly what God has promised us, that he will give us what he requires of us. He has grasped exactly what the New Covenant promises. Give what you command, and then command what you will.

There’s an old hymn. Not sure who wrote it. John Bunyan quotes it. That’s about as far back as I can find it. I don’t know. It’s been attributed to him, but I don’t know that it’s his. But it’s:

“Run, run, and work, the law demands,
but gives me neither feet nor hands.
But sweeter news the gospel brings.
It bids me fly and lends me wings.”

This is exactly the point here in the New Covenant promise. And this is when we come to the New Testament, when we see all of these passages that deal with “do this”—the imperatives—do this, do this, don’t do the other. We need to see them all in this broader New Covenant context: that God will provide for compliance with his demands.

The Leading of the Spirit

As I mentioned, this is what we find when we come to the New Testament, this great theme of the leading of the Spirit. That expression, “led by the Spirit,” occurs twice in the New Testament, both in Paul in Romans and in Galatians. Romans 8 and Galatians chapter 5. Generally today, we have mysticized that statement, “the leading of the Spirit,” and so it generally means something like, “God has led me to…” It’s usually quit doing this or start doing that or something of the other—individual things like that.

The theme that we find in the New Testament, the leading of the Spirit, is just this what we see in terms of the broader New Covenant promise: that God will give enablement. And that enablement comes by, as we saw in Colossians 2, a stripping away of the old man. That circumcision idea. Stripping away of the old man. Or baptized into Christ—the old man is dead, buried. We’ve been raised to new life in Christ. And that new life that we have in Christ comes to us specifically by the enablement of the Spirit of Christ that he has given us. And so now he leads us in that sense. He’s become the new dominant factor in our lives. We are no longer under the domain and the dominion of sin; we’re under the dominion of the Holy Spirit and He is directing us.

Now, there’s a “now” and a “not yet.” It’s not complete yet and all of that, but still we have recognized—every one of us who has come to Christ recognizes—that there’s been a real change. That from our hearts we want to obey. There’s a new direction that has come. And that is the promise of the Holy Spirit. And so, the leading of the Spirit… and in Galatians 5, where Paul picks up that idea of being led by the Spirit, he follows it up with a command. You’re led by the Spirit, and then a few verses later, “therefore, walk in the Spirit.” You’re led by the Spirit, so walk in the Spirit.

And this is part of what Paul says so often: just be what you are. You have been made something in Christ, so behave that way. And there’s always in the New Testament, particularly in Paul, you see in such a prominent way that every imperative, every command, rests on what we call the indicative—the statement of what is true. What has become reality in Christ now becomes our responsibility to do. Be what you are, behave in keeping with what you have been made in Christ.

And so Paul can say, “If you are indwelled by the Spirit…” That’s another big theme in the New Testament. This is picking up on that new covenant promise: “I’ll put my spirit within you.” You’re indwelt by the Spirit. And so Paul can turn that around into a command and say, “Be filled with the Spirit.” Be what you are. Act in a way that is consistent with what you have become in Christ.

Now, none of that is to deny the idea of Christian duty or Christian responsibility. We are still responsible to obey the commands. But what it does emphasize is they are not mere or bare commands. What they are is commands that are given to us along with divine enablement to comply. That’s the New Covenant prophecy, the New Covenant promise. So the New Covenant commands, when we come to them in the New Testament, are always backed up with this idea of enablement.

And that idea of enablement, as I’ve emphasized in chapter two, that idea of enablement is grounded in our union with Christ. We are joined to Christ, and in union with Him, we have died. His crucifixion was ours, and that’s to be understood not only in the objective sense—”my sins have been paid for and God now accepts me”—but there’s an experiential dimension to it. The old life is gone, it’s been stripped away, and I’ve been raised to a new experience. It is the life of the risen Christ that I now experience in my own life. Again, there’s a “now” and a “not yet,” and it’s not perfect yet, but we have experienced that great change. And so we’ve died with Christ, we’ve been raised with Christ, or to put it in other terms, we are no longer under sin, we are under the dominion of the Holy Spirit.

Be What You Are

Now, all of that is just the broader theological context for what we see in Colossians 3. Here we begin what is so common in Paul: the hortatory section of his letter, the part of the letter where he gives exhortations and commands and whatnot. It’s typical in Paul’s letters. It’s not always as clearly defined in one as the other, but it’s typical in Paul that he will begin his letters laying out the gospel, explaining it in some detail, and then he’ll turn the corner somewhere through and say, “therefore,” and then starts issuing commands and telling us our responsibility as to how we should live based on what we are in Christ.

That’s what we find in Colossians now in chapter 3. “If then”—that is, “if therefore,” and that’s pointing us back to all he’s been teaching about what we have in Christ, our sufficiency in Christ and those two broad areas of acceptance and enablement—”If, therefore, you have been raised with Christ,” and then here come the commands: “seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth. For you have died.” Here’s the explanation again. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will appear with him in glory.”

And you’ll see that then throughout the rest of the chapter. You’ll see this heavy emphasis on responsibility. Look at verse 5: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passions, evil desires, covetousness,” and so on. Verse 8: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander,” and so on. Verse 12: “Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility.” So he’s been telling us what not to do; now he’s telling us what to do. Verse 14, we have the same. Verse 14: “Above all these, put on love.” Verse 15: “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,” that is, in the assembly. Let this idea of the peace of Christ be the umpire ruling in your assembly. Verse 16: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” and he’ll explain what that means. Verse 17: “Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” You see it in verse 18 and following with responsibilities in the home and so on and so on. He’s issuing one command after another.

But notice, as is always the case in Paul, all of these commands are specifically framed in a gospel context. That is, we’re united with Christ. These are not just bare commands merely. It’s not just a sheer moralism, but he’s commanding us with regard to what we have become in Christ. So, begin verse one again. You’ve been raised with Christ. You’ve become a new person. There’s a new experience that you have. And so, seek things that are above. Set your mind on things above. You’ve been raised, you’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenlies; live like it. That ought to shape your attitudes.

Verse three, you’ve died with Christ. That is our union with Christ and his death on the cross. Therefore, verse five, put to death sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, and so on. And he’s dealing here with what Puritans have called the doctrine of mortification, the mortification of sin, putting sin to death. How is it we can put sin to death? Answer: we’ve been crucified with Christ. The old man is dead, so we have to behave in a corresponding way. Verses 9 and 10, you’ve put off the old self. That is chapter 2. It’s been stripped away through the work of Christ. You’ve put off the old self, so corresponding responsibility: put on the new self. Behave in keeping with what you are in Christ. Verse 12, here’s the wardrobe that we’re to put on: put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience. And then what you put off through this whole passage, verses nine and following: don’t lie, don’t be angry, don’t be wrathful, don’t have malice or slander and so on.

So it’s very important that we see this as we work through the passage, that Paul has not slipped back into the sheer moralism that he has been condemning in chapter 2. Remember that? “Touch not, taste not, handle not,” as though that’s all the responsibilities are and that’s going to take care of everything. And Paul dug deeper and says Christian living is grounded in something much deeper than that. Grounded in our union with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection. And that’s what he’s doing here. There is responsibility for the Christian. There are duties that are required of us, but with those responsibilities comes enablement. And he pushes that through the whole passage. It’s never really in the background. It’s always there throughout. So there’s something of the theme of chapter three would be something like, “Be what you are.” This is something that’s so common in Paul.

Now let’s see that again in the first four verses. “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Now notice twice in these three verses, he refers us to what we are in Christ and then grounds our responsibilities accordingly. Verse one, we’ve been raised with Christ. And then he tells us we’ve been raised with Christ. There’s the resurrection of Christ. We’ve been raised to new life. But then he takes it immediately to Christ’s ascension. Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That’s an allusion to Psalm 110: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies my footstool.” Christ has gone before. He has died, he’s been raised from the dead, he’s ascended to heaven, he’s taken his place at the right hand of God, and Paul is saying, we are there with him. Again, there’s a “now” and a “not yet,” but in an experiential sense even, we are there with him. We’ve been raised to new life and we’ve been seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

And that’s then the ground of the command. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth. The idea is to live consistently with what you have become in Christ. All right. Seek the things that are above. Set your mind on things above. That is to say, seek the things of Christ. Seek the things that further the cause of Christ. Set your mind on things above, the things of Christ. What things are those? Well, I suppose we could say it’s all things related to Christ and his kingdom and his interests. But I think specifically here, what he’s getting at, judging by the context and what follows, he’s talking here about Kingdom values, kingdom ideals, living for Christ in a way that honors him and promotes the kingdom. That’s the sense of all these commands that follow. It’s the logic of verses 1 and 2: “if, then.” And it’s the sense then of the following passage with all of its commands that are given. So he’s telling us here, seek the things that are above, seek the things of Christ. That is an intentional, determined aim to live in keeping with our new identity in Christ. An intentional, determined aim to live in keeping with our new identity in Christ. That’s the broad statement that really covers then the rest of the chapter.

Verse three. Notice again the connective, the explanatory conjunction “for,” because he’s grounding his argument again. Why should you do this? Because you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. That’s a wonderful expression of our union with Christ and its entailments. Primarily, it has to do with what I’ve already said, that is our heavenly position seated with Christ. It’s not visible. We’re hidden with Christ in God. It doesn’t look to others like we are in heaven. Doesn’t look to us often that we are in heaven. And there is a “now” and a “not yet” to it. But one day that will change, verse 4: “When Christ who is your life appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.”

So you’re hidden with Christ now. That’s your status. That’s your experience. You’re there with Christ now and not yet. It’s a work that’s begun. It will be made complete. And verse four, when Christ comes, it will be made complete. Now that has some wonderful implications with regard to assurance, with regard to the safety of the believer. It’s a reminder, verses three and four together, a reminder that what God has begun in us will be made complete. We’ve been raised with Christ, seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and then verse 4, that will one day be made plain and brought into full experience.

But even this expression, “hidden,” our life is hidden in Christ, hidden with Christ in God… even that terminology itself has the connotations of security and safekeeping. Let me give you a couple of Old Testament verses that might give some background. Isaiah chapter 49 in verse 2, here it says of the servant of the Lord: “In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away.” Psalm 27, verse 5: “He will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent.” Psalm 31, verses 19 and 20: “Oh, how abundant is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you and worked for those who take refuge in you. In the sight of the children of mankind, in the cover of your presence, you hide them from the plots of men. You store them in your shelter from the strife of tongues.”

So this idea of hiding away in Christ has the connotations of security that’s been given to us and what we have because we are already in Christ in the heavenlies. What’s that saying? There’s a black preacher, I think it was, who said it. It’s just a marvelous way to put it: “I have not yet become what I already am.” Something like that captures this. Paul is saying here that we’ve been raised with Christ, seated with him in the heavenlies. Verse four, that will come in full when Christ returns. Therefore, in the meantime, live accordingly. Verse three, because Christ is already there, we also in him are there also. Verse four, when he returns, our presently hidden identity will be revealed.

Now this is interesting in another respect, and that is that Arminians have often charged Calvinists and alleged that this teaching of eternal security becomes inevitably a disincentive to Christian living. You know you’re safe, why would you bother obeying and living faithfully? So the Arminians understand this doctrine of eternal security as a disincentive to Christian living. And what’s interesting is that the biblical writers never seem to worry about that. But in fact, they use this idea of our security as incentive to Christian living. Be what you are in Christ. Be now what you will become fully in Christ later. The biblical writers, and Paul here in particular, seem to be convinced that when you are assured of your position in Christ and what you have in Him, you’ll have a joyful heart that will become a great incentive for living for Christ.

Now note in all of this, verses one to four, we’re still hammering away at the theme that Paul has begun earlier in the book, and that is the theme of our sufficiency in Christ. What God requires of you, he gives you in Christ. Verse 1, we’ve been raised with Christ in the past. Verse 3, we’re hidden with Christ in the present. Verse 4, we will be revealed with Christ in the future. Christ is all we need. And He’s all we need today, He’s all we need tomorrow, He’s all we need forever, and He’s all we need in particular now for Christian living. Christ is all we need. He’s provided for everything that He commands.

Now when we go through the rest of the chapter here, beginning with verse five, we’re going to encounter one command after another. But I want you to be alert to it, and it’d be helpful if you would read ahead this week in chapter 3 and keep an eye open for how Paul grounds all of these commands in what has been done for us and what we have experienced already in Christ. Watch for words like “therefore” or “if, then”—that kind of logic that he gives consistently throughout here. This is not, as Colossians 3 is so often treated, it is not simply a list of commands. It is that, and the responsibility is there to comply. But it is consistently couched in the terms of divine enablement.

All right, any questions so far on this? Yes, Laura.

“Verse three often gives me a lot of… Verse three? I’m sorry, I can’t hear. Verse three, yes. No, pardon me, verse two. I need my glasses. ‘Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’ Can you… I just… as I look at my vast number of Christians that I know, I see kind of a spectrum of people who kind of blissfully just ignore a lot of what seems to me going on in the world and around them and just really focus on their spiritual walk and that kind of thing. And I’m almost sometimes a little envious of that ability to just really set their minds on very little to do with earthly things. The other range of being very involved and very aware of what’s going on in society and changes and things like that. And I struggle with the balance there.”

That’s a great observation. One, I don’t think—Pastor Greg, did you want to speak to it? I think verse five gives us some real insight into the earthliness that Paul is referring to where he says, “Put to death whatever belongs to your earthly nature,” that is, your fallen nature. So “earthly” in this context is referring to the fallenness and the things that would entangle us and bring out or nurture that fallen Adamic nature.

That’s a good observation, too. Paul’s contrast here is not what we would call spiritual versus secular. It’s godly versus ungodly. But at the same time, I think we should remember—and this might be a little more direct to your question—Paul’s not calling us here to monkishness, to hide away in a monastery or a convent or whatever. He speaks of Christian living throughout in terms of our contact with others. Now, what shape that takes with regard to civic affairs, social involvement—that’s going to vary according to individual interests and individual gifts and all of that. But there is certainly a way to be involved in all of those things: civic affairs, social involvement. There is a way to do all of that to the glory of God. And I think that’s what he’s speaking here. Whatever it is you do—and he’ll say that later—do all to the glory of God. The focus is on Christian obedience, living for God and for his glory in whatever specific capacity we have.

Cliff, it is great to see you. Great to have you back. Yeah, that’s great. All right, the next verse begins another section. And I think rather than get into that, I would rather just close early and we’ll pick up with verse five next week, unless there are any other questions. All right, let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for me?

Father in heaven, we thank you for your word and for our time together in Colossians 3. We thank you for the broader sweep of scripture that reminds us what a great work is your work of the new covenant for us. What wisdom and grace is ours to be located at a point in time in history in which we are the benefactors of that new covenant and can look back and understand so much, and so we pray that we would indeed be what we are, and that you would enable us in this hour to be true worshipers of our Lord and Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.