Grace Fellowship    08/09/09    Putting Your Old Man to Death    Colossians 3:5-11

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We want to continue today in our study of Colossians, so turn with me once again to chapter 3.  Last week, we looked at the first four verses of that chapter and found ourselves thinking heavenly thoughts about our heavenly position in Christ.  Every true believer, or as Paul states it in chapter 2, all those who are in Christ, finds himself in Christ in the heavenly realms.  This is his description of this mysterious union the Christian has with his Savior.  Look at verses 1 through 3:

1 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 life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

When we set our minds on things above, it causes us to have a different perspective on this life.  A view from Heaven, from the perspective of the Lord Jesus at the right hand of the Father, is vastly different from our typically horizontal view of our lives and our circumstances.  But Paul encourages us to look at life from that perspective.  We are to continually consider:
- who we are in Christ,
- what has been done on our behalf by Christ,
- the death we have experienced with Christ, and the new life we have been given in Christ,
- our heavenly citizenship,
- our adoption into the family of God as His beloved children,
- the forgiveness of ALL our sins,
- the imputation of ALL of Christ’s righteousness,
- the exchange of our guilt for His holiness,
- the eradication of the record of debt that stood against us when God Himself nailed it to the cross of Christ.

This is the mindset we must have.  We are exhorted to set our minds on these things as Christians, and NOT upon the things of the world, not on things that are on earth.  This is what Paul means in Romans 12 as being transformed by the renewing of our minds.  We died and are hidden in Christ where He is above.  As a consequence of that, we read Paul’s instruction in Romans 12 to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.  Here in Colossians 3:5 he says it slightly differently but with the same intent: “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.”  John MacArthur calls this “spiritual suicide.”  The Puritans called it the mortification of the flesh.  Since we have been raised with Christ, since we are to set our minds on things that are above, then we must be about the business of killing what is still earthly in us.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave,  free; but Christ is all, and in all.

I have heard it said that teaching doctrine has little practical benefit for the Christian life.  All it does is create division and strife, and new denominations we don’t need.  What we supposedly really need is practical, “how-to” teaching for everyday living.  That kind of thinking has driven American Evangelicalism for 50 years.  So now we have so-called Christian seminars on every topic imaginable with virtually zero legitimate biblical content.  

The apostle Paul, as usual, has spent the first part of this letter to the Colossians addressing doctrine: Who God is, who Jesus is, and what has taken place by means of the cross and the resurrection.  He has spoken in detail about our union with Christ, a deeper and more mysterious concept you will not find in the pages of the Bible.  Having done that, he writes this fifth verse of chapter three on the doctrinal foundation of the preceding chapters by saying, THEREFORE put to death what is earthly in you.  It is because of who we are in Christ that we mortify the flesh.  Look at Romans 8 for a moment.

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 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.

How we live is dependent upon who we are in Christ.  How we live is driven, motivated, and empowered by who we are in Christ.  If you don’t know who you are, if you don’t have the doctrinal foundation, the truth as it is according to Christ, then you can have all the how-to, self-help, motivational seminars you want, but they will be of no real spiritual value.  “These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh” (Col 2:23).  They are worthless.

But, for those who are in Christ Jesus, they have been set free from the law, or the principle of sin and death.  The Spirit of life dwells in the believer.  Christ is in us.  We are in Him.  So then, brothers, we are debtors.  We owe the Lord Jesus the mortification of the sinful deeds of our bodies.  We OWE Him that.  Those that have eternal life, put to death the deeds of the flesh.  They live, not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  Godly living is motivated by an understanding of right doctrine.  A holy life is the result of a heavenly perspective.  The mind that is set on things above, will put to death the sinful deeds of an earthly body.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24).

What kinds of passions and desires is Paul talking about.  Let’s look again at Colossians 3.

5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

He begins his list with a generic term that is sometimes translated “fornication.”  It is from the Greek word from which we get the English word “pornography”.  Literally, it means “illicit sexual intercourse:  adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, . . . etc.”  The ESV translates the word as “sexual immorality”, which obviously is the opposite of sexual morality.  The sanctity or sinfulness of a sexual act is dependent upon its context.  In other words, sexual activity is moral and holy and good only within the confines of heterosexual marriage.  The Bible teaches this very clearly.  Paul lists this first because it seems to be the most prevalent and most powerful and most destructive of sinful behaviors.
 
The second item in Paul’s list of things that must be put to death is “impurity”.  This word isn’t restricted to sexual matters, but can refer to anything that would be unclean or unholy.  Anything sinful, anything contrary to godliness.  Maybe the best way to explain impurity is by stating what it is not: “. . . whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Php 4:8)  And then act accordingly.  

Number three is translated “passion”.  We often associate passion with sexual sin, and that seems to be the case here, although it would apply to many things.  The KJV may have the best translation: “inordinate affection” or uncontrolled desire.  The word is only used two other places in the NT and both occasions are in the context of sexual relationships.  If you’ve ever seen the cover of a cheap romance novel, you’ve seen this kind of passion in action.  It is a safe assumption that the people on the covers are not happily married to each other or anyone else.  As believers, we’re to put that kind of passion to death.

Item number four is “evil desire.”  Paul does not say we must put desire to death.  There is such a thing as good desire.  Certainly, it is our desire to be pleasing to the Lord, we desire to love the brethren and our neighbors as our selves.  But here, Paul instructs us to kill evil desires.  Hateful, spiteful, vengeful, bitter, jealous, envious desires.  Any desire that is troublesome, injurious, destructive, wrong, or wicked.

Number five: “Covetousness, which is idolatry”  At least he gives us a bit of a definition here by equating covetousness with idolatry.  A better word might be “greediness”.  An excessive desire, especially for money or material possessions, to the point of worshipping the thing sought.  Jesus said if a man looks upon a woman and lusts for her, he has committed adultery in his heart.  I believe Paul may be saying something similar.  If a person covets something strongly, he has committed idolatry in his heart.  Love for stuff, particularly other people’s stuff, is a kind of idolatry that competes for our love for God.

Unfortunately, we are familiar with these things and they don’t require a lot of explanation.  Paul is speaking of uncontrolled longings, yearnings, cravings; inordinate desires and lusts and appetites.  It all has to do with the will.  And Paul does not say, “bring them under control.”  He says, “Kill them.”  Put them to death.  Exercise capitol punishment.  Commit spiritual suicide.  If you have been raised with Christ, set your mind on things above and put to death what is earthly.

"Mortify them, that is, subdue the vicious habits of mind which prevailed in your Gentile state. Kill them, suppress them, as you do weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them, or as you kill an enemy who fights against you and wounds you." - Matthew Henry

Someone will say, “This seems like very extreme language.  This is quite intolerant.  Isn’t there another alternative?  Can’t I ever indulge these thoughts and emotions?  Aren’t these normal and natural desires that everyone has?  Aren’t these the very things that make us human?”  Well, yes, they are the things that characterize us as fallen humans, as sinful humans, as morally depraved humans, as unregenerate humans.  These are the things that characterize the enemies of God.  Verse 6 says, “On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

The Scriptures are filled with such warnings to Christians.  In one commentary, it was stated that the entire Bible continuously concerns itself with the topic of holiness, especially the holiness of God’s people.  Every page of the Scriptures is devoted to righteousness and sinfulness, obedience and rebellion, life and death, Heaven and Hell.

Matt 5:29  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.
 
Rom  6:13 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. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Eph 5:3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

But be sure to notice that these commands from the Apostle Paul are written to the followers of Jesus Christ.  If we belong to Him, we have been enabled by the Spirit of God, to put to death the remaining sinfulness in our bodies that He put to death in His body on the cross.  He bore OUR sins in His body on the tree.  We must be about the daily business as His disciples of mortifying those sinful earthly things that remain in our bodies.

The person who does not believe in the Lord Jesus need not be concerned about these matters, per se.  In fact, the unregenerate person really has no power to do anything about his own sinfulness.  He is a slave to sin.  To tell the unrepentant person he must stop being sinful is like telling water to stop running downhill.  Sin is his nature.  That is exactly why the sins Paul lists here and elsewhere really do characterize us all, universally, prior to salvation.  Lack of control over sinful passions and desires is THE characteristic attribute of fallen man.  His willing enslavement to his own sinfulness is irrefutable proof of God’s curse pronounced upon us all in the Garden.  And even worse, “on account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

There is one thing which the unbeliever must concern himself with when he hears the message of the Gospel: repentance.  By that, I do not mean repentance of any particular sin, but repentance from ALL sin.  A categorical repudiation of all sin, and a cry for mercy and forgiveness from the One against whom we have all sinned.  That is the primary concern the unbeliever must address:  His own guilt before a holy Judge.

 Now look at our text again:

7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Boy, isn’t it great that we Christians are morally superior to the rest of the human race?  No.  The curse which the unbeliever is still under is the same curse under which we once lived.  The Christian isn’t saved because he doesn’t sin.  The Christian is saved by the grace of God in spite of his sin.  He is delivered from his sin by the work of God on his behalf.  So there is no room in the life of a believer for some moral superiority complex.  We were there.  And now that we’ve been delivered, transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of Christ, we must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.  Do not lie to one another . . .”

You say, “But Christians don’t act that way!”  No, the fact of the matter is Christians DO act that way.  Thus the command.  If Christians weren’t guilty of sin after becoming believers, then Paul could have saved a lot of time, energy, and ink writing the New Testament.  Repeatedly, Paul presents doctrine then life, doctrine then holy living, doctrine and practical sanctification.  

The book of Galatians was written to Christians and has 6 chapters.  Four and a half chapters are given to doctrine.  Then, beginning in chapter 5, verse 16, we read:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

Ephesians was written to Christians and has six chapters.   Three and a half chapters are given to doctrine.  In chapter 4, verse 17, Paul says:

17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

 
1 Thessalonians is about Paul’s ministry among the Gentiles, and his instruction about the coming of the Lord and the Resurrection.  But in chapter 4, he says:

1 Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. 3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

That is just a sampling of what the New Testament teaches regarding the life of believers.  He has given us His Holy Spirit.  We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms.  We have been granted a righteousness that is not our own.  We have been set free from the dominion of sin.  

Therefore, it is inconsistent at best and hypocritical, for one who possesses the holy Spirit of God to live a lifestyle that the Spirit of God condemns.  That kind of lifestyle is evidence that the person does not yet belong to Christ.  The sin that remains in the life of a believer must be perpetually put to death.  The “old self” is to be continually put off, and the “new self” put on daily, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.  The new person which we have become in Christ is being renewed, in knowledge, after the image of its Creator.  Or, we might say, “he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

May the Lord continue to work in us to will and to act according to His good pleasure.  Set your minds on things above; Put to death what is earthly within you.