Justification and sanctification. Big words, huh? In Colossians 3,
Paul talks a bit about becoming more like Christ, a process which is called sanctification. When I first believed that Jesus Christ was my savior, I was in that moment justified. Justification means Jesus died for my sins; he took the punishment I deserved. Also, at the same time, he gave me a gift: his righteousness (his perfection). “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21).” Now, when God looks at me he doesn’t see Jaime with all his sins and failures, he only sees Jesus’ perfection that clothes me. “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ (Galatians 4:6-7).” So now I’m perfect, right? Well, anyone who knows me will quickly tell you I’m not. What are my flaws? I sing in the shower. Sometimes I spend too much time volunteering. Just kidding. The reality is though, I’m pretty messed up. Even though positionally before God I am righteous, in a very real and practical sense I am not. I still sin. Every day. Here’s where sanctification comes into play. To quote thegospelcoalition.org, sanctification is the process of a believer “becoming practically what he already is positionally.” In effect, it’s the process of becoming more Christ-like. It’s a lifelong process. Spoiler alert: in this world you will never completely succeed. Perhaps you are like me, and when you gave your life to Christ, you had a dream of the person you would be when you “grew up” in your spiritual walk. I thought to myself, “after a few years I will reach a certain level of perfection. I’ll be a man who has no vices, never gets angry, never lusts, who MAYBE sins like once a year.” I was aiming for perfection. After a few weeks of “doing good” (even though in reality I was as sinful as ever) I would congratulate myself and feel proud, thinking somehow I had earned a better standing with God in that time. Then, inevitably, I would sin. I would then find myself discouraged and frustrated, afraid I had lost the good standing I had earned. Silly, I know. In Colossians 3, Paul exhorts us to put off our old self and put on the new self. It’s easy to look at it and think “okay, stop doing bad and start doing good.” But it’s deeper than that. It points us to where real power is found. First, there is power in identity. For most of my life I identified myself by my abilities, accomplishments, people’s approval. All these things waivered and failed me. But Paul begins by reminding us that we are united with Christ. This is our new identity and it’s a powerful truth. It’s an identity that is constant and unconditional. We have been “raised with Christ (Colossians 3:1).” We are united with him. To paraphrase theologian Sinclair Ferguson, it’s as if when Christ appears he will say “I’m not going unless you come with me, because you are now part of me.” Paul then proceeds to excruciatingly lists every sin we are to put to death, in order to make us realize just how sinful we are: sexual immorality? Check. Impurity? Check. Lust? Check. The list goes on. The purpose is to not only make us realize the extent of our sinfulness, but also to encourage us to bring all our sins into the light, that we may be healed. “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16).” When I envisioned the perfect man I would one day become, it was a list like this that made me despair. The problem was I was still trying to be my own savior, I didn’t fully grasp the extent of my sinfulness and just how great was God’s love. I was trying to achieve righteousness by my own good works and following rules. I was recreating the law in my heart. But there is no power in that, as Paul said in the previous chapter “such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence (Colossians 2:23).” It’s more powerful to focus on doing something positive than avoiding something negative. There is power in the message of the gospel. Paul transitions from talking about the “old self” into another reminder of our new identity, the “new self.” We are a “chosen people (Colossians 3:12).” God loves and values you so much he chose you. Paul then points us to the power of the gospel. He exhorts us to “let the message of Christ dwell in you richly (Colossians 3:16).” It is a gospel of grace, love, and mercy. The truth is I will never be the man I dreamed of being, because Jesus already is and that is more than enough. I need Jesus. Daily I need to remind myself of the gospel message and meditate on it. As Tim Keller says, “We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” When I mess up, I don’t have to despair, because God still loves me and like a loving father merely wants what is best for me, wants me to return, there is nothing I could do to make him stop calling me his child (Parable of the Lost Son, Luke 15:11-31). I don’t have to reach some level of perfection before God is pleased with me. He already loves me with a perfect love; there’s nothing I can do to make him love me more, there’s nothing I can do to make him love me less. His love is perfect and unconditional. This is not a cop out to say I can go sin and it doesn’t matter. You can tell a tree by its fruit. If you truly love God you will strive to obey his commands (John 14:23). The reason I point to this is that the more I know God and the more I see my identity in him, the more I love him. It is this love and the work of the Holy Spirit that inspire me to obey and sanctify me, not some self-righteous quest to prove my own good works or rule following. This is where there is power.
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In this passage Paul is describing to the Colossians that since you have been made alive in Christ through faith in Jesus, the rules, traditions, holy days that many Jews followed have no value in providing salvation; and that those rules were a shadow of the reality of Christ, and through Christ one is made right with God. In Hebrews 10:1 - 7 states — “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Out of our own sin nature, we desire to earn acceptance, favor, love, and salivation from God, but because of our sin, we can never accomplish God’s favor. The reality is that God already loves and accepts us, but in our sin nature, we turn from God, and don’t desire his free gift of salvation.
However, we can come to God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. Then the Holy Spirit begins to cut away the sin nature allowing us to clearly see God’s true nature — a loving God that desires a relationship with us and wants us to approach him during any circumstance in our lives. This cutting away of our sin nature begins when we first come to faith and continues as we grow in our relationship with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18 describes this process — “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” It is through our relationship with Christ and the work of the Holy Spirt that removes our evil desires, not the following the Gnostic rules such as not handling, tasting, or touching things considered unholy and following human teaching by demonstrating strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. These traditions and rituals did not bring people closer to God at all, but caused them to become prideful in their own accomplishments. In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus states that not everyone who calls him Lord will enter the Kingdom of heaven. He says on judgement day, many people will say that they have done things in his name, such as prophesy, cast out demons, and perform many miracles. But Jesus would say that he never knew any of them, and to depart from Him. Here we can see that salvation is not based on the good things that we do, but by knowing the Lord. The story of king David in the Old Testament provides an example of someone who knew the Lord. David approached the Lord through times of fear, personal sin, and praise. David simply desired to be with the Lord. In Psalms 34:4, David says how he sought the Lord when he was afraid — “I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” When David had sinned against the Lord by sleeping with Bathsheba and then by coving it up by arranging for her husband to be killed in battle, David sometime later realized his sin and came to the Lord asking for forgiveness. In Psalms 51:16 it says — “You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering. The Sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.” Here, in David’s brokenness, when he has nothing to offer God at all, he comes and asks for forgiveness. David approached the Lord in praise as well. In Psalms 34:1-3, David praises the Lord — “I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises. I will boast only in the Lord; let all who are helpless take heart. Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness; let us exalt his name together.” God offers a relationship with him through Jesus that is rooted in faith, trust, and believing in Him. In this relationship, the burdens of following rules, rituals, and traditions is not necessary, and only hinders this relationship. This relationship is available to anyone who believes in Christ. Romans 10:9,10 states — “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.” Be thankful that you don’t have to follow the Old Testament rules in order to by made right with God. Colossians 2:6-15 “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 7 rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. 9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[d] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
When we take that step to receive Christ into our lives that is the beginning of life with Christ. But you must continue to follow his Leadership by being rooted, built up, and strengthened in the faith. Live for Christ by:
Verse 8, Paul is writing against any philosophy of life based only on human ideas and experiences. He is condemning teachings that credits humanity, not Christ. This is where we see false religion. Many man-mad approaches to problems will completely disregard God. Be careful and keep your eyes on Christ and God’s word. Every day you can look around and see people trying to find something to give their lives a boost. People are never truly content with themselves. I know personally I have felt that incompleteness. The feeling that something was missing. The answer is Christ. He is there to make you complete! Christ lived all the fullness of God in a human body. When we have Christ, we have all that we could need for salvation and living right. When united with him, we have personal fulfillment in Him. He is the one who holds the true meaning of life because he is Life. You are a new person, equipped for life and satisfied in God. When Christ was sacrificed, circumcision was no longer necessary. Our commitment to God is written on our Hearts not bodies. He has removed the Old nature and given us a new one. Baptism parallels the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and also portrays the death and burial of our sinful old life. When we know that our past sinful life is buried and dead it gives us a powerful resistance to sin. Our sins have all been paid for on the Cross. This brings so much joy knowing that we have a wonderful new life in Christ. We were once slaves to our sinful nature but now we are free to live for Christ and forever will be with him. With what Christ did for us, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. Evil no longer has any power over believers because Christ disarmed that. Colossian’s 1:13, “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves” What more of a gift could we ask for? He brings life, Hope, Joy and peace. So remember to stay rooted in Christ, abide in Him and Trust in his Goodness. We now have this new life that we do not deserve but Christ loved us that much that He died for you! |
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