Colossians Message 1:
Scripture
Verses: Col 3:1-25; John 3:3; Phil 3:13-14, 20; Gal 3:27; 6:15;Matt 16:24-25; 1 Pet 1:9; Phil 2:5; 2Cor 5:17
Although we are covering the second half of
Colossians 3 this week, but in order to bring out my burden this morning, I
feel I need to have the context of the whole chapter. The reason is that there are two verbs in Colossians 3
that stand out. One is 'put' and the other is 'let'. I can only share more with
you on the significance of the verb 'put' today.
The word 'put' is used 6 times in this
chapter:
Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; (Col 3:5)
But now do ye also put them all away:
anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: (Col 3:8)
Lie not one to another; seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his doings (deeds, Darby), (Col 3:9)
And have put on the new man,
that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created
him: (Col 3:10)
Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved,
a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; (Col 3:12)
And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. (Col 3:14)
In
Colossians 3:14, although the 'put' is italicized, which means it is not in the
original, it is clearly implied. Of the 6 'put' (5 + 1 implied), if you look at
the original text for the 5 mentioned, they are all different Greek words. But
they are all 'very active'. It means it requires our active participation and
our initiative. Whether you 'put to death', 'put on' or 'put off', it requires
initiative on our part. This is the first verb 'put'
The second verb is the word 'let'. Although
this word 'let' is passive it is very emphatic. Whether it is "let
the peace of Christ rule in your hearts" or it is "let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly", it requires our exercise and
cooperation. So on the one hand the verb 'put' requires our initiative, on the other, the word 'let' requires our exercise and cooperation.
I can only share this much on the verb 'let'.
I want to share with you this morning a pair
of expressions related to the first verb 'put'. It is the "putting off the
old man" and the "putting on the new man".
Put Off & Put On
I was touched by these 2 expressions this
week. Although they are very familiar to us I thought to myself how do I
understand it and how much do I know how to experience it? I was not the only
one touched by it this week. In the Wednesday morning seniors' meeting, we do
not usually gather together to reminisce the good old times, but rather we have
a very refreshing, encouraging and forward looking time; and some saints have
quite a burden to pray for the gospel.
There was a couple who
recently believed in the Lord Jesus and was baptized. They both have been
coming regularly to the seniors' meeting. Although he is a new believer, he's
not a young man. This week he shared and said that he enjoyed this portion of
the Word and was very touched by the expression "putting off the old
man" and "putting on the new man". He said
"The Bible is so vivid in its description of our experience. It is like
something we can take off in the morning like our pajamas, and then go to the
closet and pick out another an article of clothing to put on". He
continued, "It sounds so simple, but this week I found that in experience it
was not so simple".
The reason you think it is simple is because you
associate the putting off the old man and putting on the new man with something
physical like taking off and putting on an article of clothing. In the physical
taking off and putting on, it is done sequentially. You put off first and then
you put on, then you are all set, at least for the day. This brother, however, realized
that what the Bible here is saying is not a sequential thing nor is it once for
all. Although he had no answer for this but he realized it's not so simple.
This triggered something in me. Then I thought to myself, how much do I really
understand and how do I go about fellowshipping to someone new regarding this? Do
I just tell a new believer that according to Colossians 3, Paul exhorts a Christian that
he needs to take the initiative to put off, put to death, put away, etc., and
then he also needs to take the initiative to put on?
The Old & The New
Before
we can talk about how to put off and how to put on, we need to see what is the
old man and what is the new man. Paul here uses the expression 'old' versus
'new'. Paul mentioned all the evil deeds in Colossians 3:5-8 and then said, "seeing
that you have put off the old man and his deeds" (Col 3:9). Why did
Paul not compare 'evil' and 'good'? Why did he use the
expression 'old' versus 'new'?
Although
the Bible sounds simple but it is not so simple. So I spent some time thinking
about this. The term 'old man' and new man' is not like dressing a mannequin in
a department store. It's not something physical. This is why some of the more
recent translations like the NIV and NASV translate Col 3:9 as "having
taken off (laid aside, NASV) your (the, NASV) the old self"; and in Col
3:10 as
"have put on the new self". I'm not here to suggest which translation
is better, but we must not assume that others have not spent time thinking
about the Word of God. We must realize that Bible translators do consider what
is the best translation to convey the original meaning of the word.
The
NIV has a footnote regarding the word 'self' is because "... the Christian
is called upon to renounce his evil ways...".
This means whether it is the 'old man' or the 'old self', it is something very
close to the person. It is not renouncing something outward but something very
close to himself. Because of this, I am reminded of
Matthew 16:23-25 when the Lord spoke to Peter and His disciples:
But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee
behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me:
for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. (Matt 16:23)
Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man
would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
(Matt 16:24)
For whosoever would save his life (literally
'soul' in Greek) shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life (literally
'soul' in Greek) for My sake shall find it. (Matt
16:25)
There are 3
things the Lord mentioned here. The mind, the self and the
soul.
In
the Old Testament, the word 'soul' is used interchangeably for the word 'man'
or 'person'. For example when it says '70 souls' it means 70 persons. In other
words, what represents the person is his soul. The leading part of the soul is
the mind. Then in Matthew 16:24-25 the Lord continued, "If any man would
come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross..." and
"whoever wants to save his soul shall lose it". This means whoever
does not want to deny himself will lose his soul.
The Old Man - The
Unsaved Soul
The
soul, the unsaved soul, is very close to the person. You almost cannot
separate. Only the Word of God can separate it. We find in Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is living, and active, and
sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and
spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and
intents of the heart. (Heb 4:12 )
The soul and the
spirit are very close and it takes the Word of God to separate it. So now we
can understand what the Lord Jesus was saying to His disciples in Matthew 16:24.
So
the putting off the old man is to put off something that is very close to the
person. That which is very close to him is his soul. The same is true for the
new man. The new man is also something that is very close to the person. But in
Colossians, of course this new man is Christ. How do we apply this to
ourselves? The old man is the unsaved soul with all its evil deeds. That's
understandable. But the new man is Christ. Does this refer to a 'corporate' man
or an 'individual' man? If the new man is corporate,
then how do we put on the corporate new man?
Both
the old man and the new man is very close to the
person. As believers, what is closest to us is both
our unsaved soul and our regenerated spirit. I want you to see this is from
Matthew 16 and Hebrews 4. When we put off the old man with his deeds, you
actually renounce the pre-eminent place the unsaved soul occupies. This is what
is to put off the old man. You do not give your soul the first place to decide,
to dictate what you will do. To live by the unsaved soul is
not only evil, it is old. It is old because in
our experience it is not once for all.
The New Man - The
Regenerated Spirit and Christ & the Church
To put on the new man is just to turn to your regenerated spirit and
it is also the body of Christ. The context here is when you are with others. It
is difficult to be envious of others when you are by yourself, and it is not easy
to be proud when you are alone. It is only when you compare with someone else
that you become envious. This comes from the unsaved soul. How can we have a
proper relationship with others? It is when we are in our regenerated spirit.
It is when you are in your regenerated spirit that you cease to compare your
ethnic difference, your cultural difference, your social standing, and you
realize Christ is all and in all.
The salvation that God has provided us is a complete and full
salvation. In John chapter 3, when person is saved, he is regenerated, born
again, or born anew. In John 3:3 when Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus,
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. (John 3:3)
This word 'anew'
actually means 'from above'.
In
other words, when a person is born anew, he received another life into his
spirit. His spirit is regenerated. The regeneration of our spirit is only the
beginning of our experience of the full salvation. We know from the Bible that
one day our fallen body will be redeemed in resurrection and we will receive a
new body. So
the regeneration of our spirit is the beginning of our salvation, and the
redemption of our body when the Lord returns is the
final step of our salvation. In between is the lifelong experience of the
salvation of our soul.
So every time you realize that you are falling back to your former
position, you need to exercise to put off again. The old man is the unsaved
soul but it is not to say, "I renounce this, and I renounce that". Because you can never completely renounce everything. The
only way to put off the old man is for us to choose to live by our regenerated
spirit at that moment.
For every believer, there is both the old man
and the new man. Do not ask how long does that process of putting off and
putting on take. 1Peter 1:9 says:
Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. (1Pet 1:9)
Peter
says it is to the end of our faith. This means it is lifelong.
This also means there is hope for our soul. We can always put it off. It sounds
simple but it requires our exercise. Your old man will not just 'slip off'. You
need to take the initiative because you can never 'slide' into your spirit. You
have to exercise
to put off the old man, at the same time you are putting on.
Do
not try to analyze whether you are putting off the old man or not. You will be
confused. Just turn to your spirit by calling on the Lord or by praying, you
will find the new man is 'on' and the old man is 'off'. It is so easy for us to fall back under
the influence of the old man, so we need to keep exercising even throughout the
day. Maybe even now, you find that the concentration of your mind is slipping;
you need to call it back.
How To Put Off The Old
Man, Put On The New Man
Colossians 3 is on how to put off the old man and how to put on the
new man. The reason we read the whole chapter this morning is because the
beginning of the chapter mentions 4W's and these 4W's are very much related to
how to put off the old man and how to put on the new man. It caught my
attention this week, like it jumped out of the page at me:
If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek
the things that (which, KJV) are above, where Christ is, seated on the right
hand of God. (Col 3:1)
Set your mind on the things that are above, not
on the things that are upon the earth. (Col 3:2 )
For ye died, and your life is
hid with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him
be manifested in glory. (Col 3:4)
The first 'W' is
'which' (Col 3:1). They are the things above. The second 'W' is 'where' (Col
3:1); "where Christ is sitting at the right hand
of God". The third 'W' is implied; it is 'who', Christ. Col 3:2-3 just
confirms the first three 'Ws'. You need to set your mind on the things above (Which), not on the things
which are on the earth (Where).
For ye died and your life is hid with Christ (Who) in God". The fourth 'W' is 'when' (Col 3:4); "when Christ our life shall appear". I would
like to say something about each 'W'.
When
"When Christ, who
is our life shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in
glory" (Col 3:4). In the past whenever I came to this verse, I always
thought this to be exclusively about the future. Although this verse does refer
to the Lord's return, but if you continue reading the other verses, you will realize
that 'when' does not refer exclusively to the future but also to the
present.
Put to death therefore your members
which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil
desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; (Col 3:5)
For which things' sake cometh the wrath of God
upon the sons of disobedience: (Col 3:6 )
Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness are
not things to be 'put to death' in the future. Furthermore, it says "put to death your members which are on the
earth". When are your members on the earth? In the future?
No, it is now! Paul further reiterated
in Col 3:8, "But now do ye also
put them all away".
This
is not by just repeating some slogans you hear today and think that in the
future you will be 'overcomers'. No. What Paul said was for the present. Not
only is putting off the old man and the putting on of
the new man concurrent and not sequential, it is also for the present. You also
cannot pick and chose one without the other. You cannot say, "I want to
put on the new man". But unless you put off the old man you cannot put on
the new. Although there is the future aspect when Christ will be manifested,
the putting off and the putting on is concurrent,
simultaneous and the future starts now.
The
putting off the old man and the putting on the new man is our experience of the
salvation of the soul today. That is, we need to experience the salvation of
our unsaved soul today. Our mind needs to be saved, our emotions need to be
saved, our will needs to be saved. How? It is by
turning to our regenerated spirit, by enjoying Christ as our life.
Where & Which
But where is "Christ our life"? He is in the heavens. Our
life is "hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). In John 3:3 we mentioned that
"born anew" means to be born from above. In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul
said:
Brethren, I count not myself
yet to have laid hold: but one thing I
do, forgetting the things which are behind, and
stretching forward to the things which are before, (Phil 3:13)
I press on toward the goal
unto the prize of the high calling (upward call, NASV) of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil
3:14)
The word 'upward' in NASV is also the same word as 'from above' in
John 3:3. This is also the same word in Col 3:1, "the things which are
above where Christ is".
By the time Paul wrote the Epistle to the
Philippians, he was in prison in Rome and very near to the end of his ministry.
Even in his advanced age and late in his life, he still could say, "But
one thing I do, forgetting the
things which are behind". What are the things which
are behind? The
old man. Everything that is behind is old. Then he continued,
"stretching forward to the things which are before". And what are the
things which are before? The new
man.
The
forgetting and stretching are not 2 steps. They are not consecutive.
It is not first you forget, then you stretch. Rather,
while you are stretching you forget. Then Paul continued in Phil 3:20:
For our citizenship (commonwealth, Darby;
conversation, KJV) is in heaven; whence also we wait
for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: (Phil 3:20)
There is a footnote in Darby's translation regarding the word
'citizenship' or 'commonwealth' or 'conversation' which I like to read to you:.
'Commonwealth' does not satisfy me, but 'citizenship' gives a different
idea. 'Conversation' is wrong, though it be a
practical consequence. It is 'associations of life' as, 'I am born an
Englishman".
In other words, this word is not easy to translate into English.
'Commonwealth' is not quite the meaning, 'citizenship' connotes a different
idea or understanding, and 'conversation' is really the result and not the
meaning of the word. So Darby was at a loss as how to translate this word. So
he came up with the definition of this word as 'associations of life' just like
being born an Englishman, he possessed everything that identified him as being
English.
This
morning, based on Philippians 3:20, we as Christians should all say we were
born from above. This is our association of life. This morning we may be from
different backgrounds like what we sang in Hymn 181, stanza 2, "Every
kindred, tongue and nation, join to sing the great salvation'. Yes, we may be from very
different backgrounds, different educational levels, differences
in age; in every aspect we may be different. But we have a common association which is from above; and it is our common
association based on life.
Who
Because we can seek the things
which are above, and because we can set our mind on the things above
where Christ is, we automatically put off the old man and put on the new man.
To seek the things which are above is our birthright
and to set our mind on the things above where Christ is, is our inalienable
right. Don't say how long do I have to come to the meetings, how much I have to
exercise, how long do I have to be a Christian, before I can experience the
putting off the old man and putting on the new man? This is the birthright of
every believer.
The salvation of the soul is a lifelong
process and the renouncing of our unsaved soul to make the decisions and to
turn to our regenerated spirit is a process that takes place at the same time.
We put on the new, the old is automatically put off. For this to happen, we
need a heavenly view, an uplifted view, not a view from the earth
which is a pedestrian view. Our perspective must be from above.
We were not born to be 'crawling' on the earth
to be controlled by a pedestrian view. The "things on the earth" are
the pedestrian view, 'the things that are above" is the uplifted, heavenly
view. Once our perspective is uplifted, automatically the old has been
put away, the new has been put on. In
Philippians 2:5, Paul said:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus: (Phil 2:5)
And
in Matthew 16 when the Lord told Peter and His disciples that He was going to
Jerusalem to suffer, and then die, and be raised on the 3rd day, Peter said,
"Lord: this shall never be unto Thee" (Matt
16:22). The Lord replied in Matt 16:23-25 (see above). He rebuked Peter saying
that he was setting his mind on the things of man and not of God, and if any
man wanted to come after Him, let him deny himself, take up his cross and
follow Him. In other words, if we want to have the mind which
was also in Christ Jesus, we have to follow Him. And for us to follow Him is to
deny ourselves, i.e. to put off the old man. So whenever we follow the Lord, we
are putting off the old man and putting on the new.
I also want to call your attention to Galatians
3:27-28 and 6:15 we had for Morning Watch this week:
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ
did put on Christ. (Gal 3:27)
There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be
neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female;
for ye all are one man in
Christ Jesus. (Gal 3:28)
For neither is circumcision
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (creation, Darby). (Gal 6:15)
Now in Col 3:10-11
we have:
And have put on the new man,
that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that created
him: (Col 3:10)
Where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision
and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman;
but Christ is all, and in all. (Col
3:11)
You will notice
that Gal 3:27-28 is very similar to Col 3:10-11. You will find that to put on
the new man is actually to put on Christ. Furthermore, Col 3:11 says,
"Christ is all and in all". So who is the new man? So far as
individuals are concerned, the new man is our regenerated spirit, and as far as
the larger picture is concerned, the new man is 'corporate', is
Christ and the Church. And we are all part of it!
When we
are in our regenerated spirit we are in the new man individually. Everyone who
believes in the Lord Jesus, including those who believed in the Lord last
night, and those who were baptized in our meeting last night, and even those
who called on the name of the Lord this morning and believed in Him, we are all
part of the body of Christ, we are in the new man corporately. This is our
story, this is our song; we have been born of the Spirit and washed in His
blood!
The 4Ws - Which, Where, Who and When
To put off the old man and put on the new man,
we need to see the 'which' - 'which is above' where we are born; the 'where' -
in the heavens with an uplifted view; the 'who' - that is we are all in Christ; and
the 'when' - that is now.
In the past, I have never seen Gal 6:15 in the
context of putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
For neither is circumcision
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (creation, Darby). (Gal 6:15)
Circumcision
means to cut off the flesh. So you may think that in order to put off the old
man, you have to cut off the flesh. But in Colossians 3, it is clear that to
put off the old man is not to cut off the flesh but to put on Christ; to be in Christ, to be in our regenerated spirit. We do
not need the effort to cut off the flesh because we are in the new creation. In
2 Corinthians 5:17, it says:
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (creation,
Darby): the old things are passed away; behold, they
are become new. (2Cor 5:17)
We don't need our effort to cut off the flesh because we are a new
creation and "old things have passed away, behold they are become
new". In other words, every time we are in Christ, we put off the old man
and put on the new. We are all qualified and positioned to do this. The point
is we need to exercise to turn to our spirit, take the initiative, not be
passive to slip back into our 'default mode' which is
our unsaved soul.
There are many things related to our unsaved
soul. If we try to deal with them one by one, if one is dealt with another will
pop up. We could never deal with them all at the same time. The safest way is
to turn to our regenerated spirit. The same time the new man is being put on,
the old man is put off.
Put On Love
From Colossians 3:17-25, Paul brings up the
human relationships. All the human relationships prove that to experience the
putting off the old man and putting on the new man starts now. In Col 3:14,
Paul mentioned:
And above all these things put on love, which is the bond of
perfectness. (Col 3:14)
1
Corinthians 13:4-8a is generally known as the verses for the definition of
love. Sometimes when couples are going to be married choose these verses as a
testimony of what their relationship is going to be like. I usually point out
to them that the portion they chose is not just being romantic. In fact, out of
the 15 items listed, the majority mentions what love is 'not'. 7 items list
what love 'is' and 8 items list what love is 'not'. That is to say, if you
really love your wife, sometimes you have to 'keep your mouth shut'.
Colossians
3:13 says, "above all these things put on love", that is the love
defined in 1Corinthians 13. So based on this, put on love is more often putting
off the old (8 out of 15 times) than putting on the new (7 out of 15 times).
When you put off the old, you will even help your spouse put on the new. sometimes just a word or an attitude or even a frown can
elicit something much worse. So Col 3:17 onwards is
the practice of putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
Colossians 3:14 and 16 says, "Let the
peace of Christ rule (or 'preside' in Darby) in your hearts" and
"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly". If you are putting on
the new, Christ will preside or rule in your hearts. And this morning we have
spent some time in the Word and I hope it will touch us all. Then whatever we
do, whether in word or in deed, we can do "all in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him".
Then Colossians
3:18 onwards is just a record of putting off the old
and putting on the new today.
· Col 3:18 "Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting
in the Lord"
is putting on the new.
· Col 3:19 "Husbands, ... do not be bitter against them" is
putting off the old.· Col 3:20 "Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing in the Lord" is putting on the new.
· Col 3:21 "Fathers, provoke not your children, that they be not discouraged" is putting off the old..
· Col 3:22 "Servants, obey in all things them that are your masters according to the flesh; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing the Lord" is putting off the old.
· Col 3:23 "Whatsoever ye do, work heartily (from the soul, Greek),
as unto the Lord, and not unto men" is putting on the new.
So when we choose to deny our self, to put off
the unsaved soul by turning to the Lord, we are experiencing the salvation of
the soul. May the Lord be gracious to us to help us to know how to put off the
old man and put on the new man.
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