Living the new life in Christ
When we come to Jesus Christ for our salvation we receive a new life
with many blessings. We receive forgiveness for our sins, we come into
relationship with Jesus and we receive eternal life. However, it is not
a destination, but the beginning of a new life and journey with Christ.
If we have a look at the New Testament book of Colossians, we find a
passage that talks about living the new life in Christ. When we look
through chapter three we see that it gives us some pointers to help us
live effectively for Jesus. Today I want to share some of those points.
But first let’s have a look at the text…
Colossians 3:1-17 (NIV)
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on
things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your
minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your
life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:
sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is
idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.7You used to
walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid
yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander,
and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you
have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the
new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its
Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe
yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have
against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all
these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect
unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one
body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all
wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude
in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed,
do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father
through him”.
Message Points
As you can see the text naturally breaks into four sections. I have
pulled out four points to help us live more effectively for Christ.
1. Focus on heavenly things (v1-4)
Verses 1-4 talk about things like setting our hearts and minds on things
above. Verse 1 uses the term focus our hearts on things above. We are
drawn towards things we love. We do nice things for those we love. Verse
2 uses the term setting our minds on things above. It is a deliberate
focussing of our thoughts towards God and His Kingdom. There is a
separation of heart and mind in this passage. Why? Because with our
minds we work things out, with our heart we love things. It is the core
of our love centre.
When we focus our hearts and minds on heavenly things we see God’s
bigger picture. We still may have problems and struggles along our
journey, but if our focus is on heaven, our lives take on an eternal
perspective. We are able to be lifted above the current struggles that
face us today. Much like I can see further if I go and stand on Merredin
Peak, than if I look Westward from Barrack street. Viewing our lives
through an eternal perspective gives us peace and comfort and a sense of
purpose. It reminds is that we have a destiny and that we are part of
God’s grand plan.
As I have shared before, I love the line from that great hymn Amazing
Grace – when we have been there 10,000 years, we have only just begun.
After 10,000 years we have only just scratched the surface of eternity.
We need to remember death is not the full stop at the end of the book,
it is the full stop at the end of the first chapter. Our lives must
therefore have an eternal perspective. We must focus on heavenly things
if we are to live out this new life in Christ.
2. Put off your old earthly nature (v5-11)
It is interesting that at the start of this passage it says in verse 1
that “Since then you have been raised with Christ…” As Christians the
Bible tells us that we have died with Christ when we asked Him into our
hearts and lives. We are identified in His death. We are also
indentified in His resurrection. We are given a new life in Him.
At the moment we received Jesus into our hearts and life the Holy Spirit
washes us clean and gives us a new nature. Titus 3:5 says, “He saved us
because of his mercy, and not because of any good things that we have
done. God washed us by the power of the Holy Spirit. He gave us new
birth and a fresh beginning.” This is known as the Doctrine of
Regeneration. It is a work of God that the Holy Spirit does in our lives
when we come to Christ. This work includes receiving the Holy Spirit to
indwell us and empower us. Romans 8:11 tells us that it is the same
Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. We have resurrection power
living inside us. It is this power that helps us to live this new life
in Christ and put off some things and put on some things.
Putting on the new nature also means we need to get rid of some of our
old habits and behaviours that belong to the old nature. These include
“having nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil
desires”. It also says we need to throw off anger, rage, malicious
behaviour, slander, and dirty language. If you look carefully at this
passage you see there are five things of the flesh and five things of
the mouth that we need to get rid of. Flesh = sexual immorality,
impurity, lust, and evil desires. Mouth = rage, malicious behaviour,
slander, and dirty language.
Getting rid of these things may take time, but if we feed the new nature
and allow God to work in our lives, they will slowly drop away. We need
to feed our new nature by reading the Bible, by spending time alone with
God praying and spending time with others who follow Christ. In many
ways it is like buying some new gym equipment. If you set it up and do a
workout, you are now a weight trainer. But it takes time and regular
workouts to look like someone who does weights. However if you persist
and work out for about five years you will look fit and like someone who
does weights. Consistent and persistent training brings results. It is
the same with spiritual growth and putting off the old nature. If we
work with the Spirit and do the right things, we will see growth and the
old nature’s habits fall away. This is the second part of living our new
life in Christ.
3. Clothe yourselves with heavenly attitudes (v12-15)
Verse 12 says, “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you
must clothe yourselves with tender hearted mercy, kindness, humility,
gentleness, and patience”. As we saw in the last point there was five
things of the flesh and mouth we need to put off. In this section we see
five things we need to put on. They are compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience.
It is interesting to note that these are the things called the fruit of
the Spirit that Galatians 5:22-23 talks about – But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. There
is also the Words of God from “Be Holy for I am Holy” (1 Peter 1:16).
I love the analogy of clothing ourselves. It says we need to put on
these attitudes and behaviours on like getting dressed. In the same way
we have to out off our old fleshly behaviours, it is a conscious
decision to put these things on. I remember when I first came to Christ
I read an analogy of our nature of being like two dogs – a black dog and
a white dog. The black dog is our old nature with all its habits. The
while dog is our new heavenly nature that we received. It really
stressed the importance of feeding the white dog to make it strong and
healthy. As we grow in our faith in Christ by feeding the new nature, we
will see these heavenly attitudes of compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience start to happen automatically.
4. Be Christ’s heavenly representative (v16-17)
The Bible tells us that we are no longer citizens of this world, but are
citizens of heaven and of God’s Kingdom (Ephesians 2:19, Philippians
3:20). We are to act like members of God’s Kingdom and be his
ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20). It is our new role in this life. Verse
16 says the best way to be Christ’s representative is to “Let the
message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives”. When we let
the message of Christ’s love, Christ’s teachings and Christ’s death on
the cross for us fills our lives, we want to live for Him and let other
know about Him. When we are full of Christ’s love it has no choice but
to outflow on to those around us. Like Jesus said in John 7:38 “Whoever
believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will
flow from within him.” Streams of living water are a natural outworking
of faith in Jesus and the new nature that we are given. As we have seen
we need to do the right things to let this new nature flourish and flow
out.
This section finishes off with verse 17. It reminds us that whatever we
do or say we need to be conscious that we are Christ’s representative.
We need to remember that we are the only Bible many people will read.
How will people know we are Christ’s ambassadors? We will let Christ’s
word dwell in us, we will be people of peace, we will be thankful people
who sing songs of praise and gratitude, we will teach and encourage each
other, and we will do everything we do in Jesus’ name. In short all of
the things found in verses 15-17!
Summary
I really like how this passage starts and ends. It has bookends – Set
you hearts and minds of things of heaven (v1-2), at the end it says to
remember that we are Christ’s representative in this world. In the
middle it talks about putting off your old nature and putting on your
new heavenly nature. It is all about living the new life in Christ.
1. Focus your heart and mind on heavenly things
2. Put off your old fleshly nature
3. Put on your new heavenly nature
4. Be Christ’s heavenly representative in all you do.
Prayer
Dear God, please help me to live my new life in Christ in a way that
honours You. Please help to focus on heavenly things and spend time
doing things that feed my new nature. I pray that You will help me to
clothe myself with mercy and kindness and to be a worthy representative
of Christ to those around me. We ask in Jesus name, Amen.
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