Last week, we learned that God’s Word is the ultimate catalyst in our spiritual lives.
• The information about God’s Word activates and strengthens the
• What we saw last week was that the process of
• Today, Paul tells us to kill something >> Colossians 3:5 | “Put to death, therefore, what is earthly within you”
What should we be putting to death?
• What is the “therefore” there for? Our
• In the Kingdom of God, the
• Put to death is literally “consider…as dead” >> if you ever hear the word “necrotic” or “necrosis”, that is referring to the process of death unfolding in tissue due to infection or poison (like from a bite), which would ultimately lead to a member of your body being effectively dead. This is the word Paul uses here. Christ has dealt our sin a mortal wound and we must kill it.
• How do we kill sin? When
• FB Meyer >> Reckon that you have died, and whenever sin arises, to menace or allure you, point back to the grave, and argue that since you died in Christ, you have passed altogether beyond its jurisdiction, for you have yielded your members as weapons of righteousness unto God…Let it become your daily habit to place the grave of Jesus between yourself and all allurements of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
• Moule >The plain meaning of this charge (to mortify) is to reduce to the state of death or like death; a state helpless, inoperative. The Christian, in the power of his hidden life in Christ, is thus to deal with his sins; entirely to renounce the thought of compromise or tolerance, and to apply to them the might counter-agent (epipen) of his union with [Christ]…The believer, reminded of his resources and of the will of God, is now, with full purpose, to “give to death” (Conybeare) all his sins, and to carry that purpose out with critical decision at each moment of temptation in the power of his true (new) life.
• In external temptation,
Why should we choose to take up killing sin as part of our daily identity in Christ?
• Because we have
• Because it is a life and death
• Deeds of the body = the product of what we do with our hands and feet (members)
• Our members (eyes, hands, feet, etc) which, in our former fallen state were ruled by the power of sin which brought forth unrighteousness acts, are now to be turned into instruments of righteousness to God. >> Romans 6:13-14 | Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
• Matthew 5:29-30 | If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. >> Jesus is not speaking literally here, but figuratively. However, the attitude and seriousness of the situation is what should be emphasized.
• It is our choice whether or not we follow this command, but the options seem
Conclusion
• John Piper >> Do you hear what Paul is saying? He is saying: If you justify ongoing sin on the basis of abounding grace, if you minimize the seriousness of sin in the life of a Christian, you don’t know what conversion to Christ means. It means death. Death to sin. Conversion means death-not just decision for Jesus, but death with Jesus.
• God’s Word is the perfect tool by which our faith is activated, our union with Christ is brought into focus, and our sin is mortified as we choose to desire Christ as the supreme fulfillment of our wants and needs.