Word of Salvation – Vol.13 No.05 – February 1967

 

The Believer’s New Life

 

Sermon by Rev. T. E. Tyson on Col.3:1-4

Scripture Reading: Col.3

Psalter Hymnal: 48; 61; 423; 244; 464

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

“This is really living!”  So says the fisherman, when the snapper are fairly jumping into his boat.  So says the surfer, when the surf is ‘up’.  So says the man who has his shoes off, and a good book in his hand with a bowl of peanuts handy.

But what is really living?  What is life, and what makes it worth living?  The Christian knows that his life doesn’t consist in the abundance of things that he possesses, and neither does it consist in purely physical enjoyment.

But, some have gone to the opposite extreme, and have suggested that the real life is getting away from material and physical things.  They suggest that matter is inherently evil.  That it is, by itself, bad.  So spoke the false teachers which Paul had to confront in his letter to the Colossians.  We call them the Gnostics, and their philosophy, Gnosticism.

To combat their false views, Paul had to write the epistle, and in it he points out to the confused Colossian believers that their life is rather tied up with Christ himself, and not with things.  That real living is neither to be found in the use of, or in the non-use of things.  Rather, real living is found in the changed heart and in the new life in Christ.

Let us see, then, in the first place, as we consider the believer’s new life in Christ…

1. The Secret of that New Life.

Paul says, in verse 3, “You died, and your life is hid with Christ in God”.  This life, then, is not apparent.  It is not this life of the flesh rejuvenated, or even re-formed.  It is a completely new life.  The old one died, it ceased to exist, (as the old life of the caterpillar cocoon passes away, and the new life of the butterfly begins).

In our text, beloved in the Lord, we read at the same time our obituary, and our birth notice, as someone has pointed out.  Prior to regeneration, we were dead to God and alive to the world.  Now, the opposite is the case.  Outwardly, the Colossians might still look like the same people, except for a new sparkle and joy apparent on their faces.  But they were new people in Christ.  They had been born again.  Thus, Paul hesitates not in the least to say that they died.  Died as to their former life, died to sin, to the world, to Satan’s domination.  And they rose with Christ to a new life, inwardly, too!

Now, this certainly is a thorough-going change.  But conversion is!  Conversion is as fundamental as was the death and resurrection of Christ.  In fact, conversion is the result of union with Christ in His death and resurrection.  And it is there that we find the secret of our new life.  That it is in Him, it is with Him yes, as Paul states bluntly in verse 4, it is Him.

Now, no one who has not experienced conversion can understand these things.  That is why we call it a secret.  It is a hopeless mystery – in fact it is misunderstood completely, sometimes scorned, and even hated, by the world.  But Paul puts it into simple words: in Christ we died to sin, and rose to righteousness.  Our old man, our old life is dead – it is no more – we are risen to a new life we are new creatures in Christ, nevermore to die.  We think immediately of Paul’s own conversion, and how radically it affected him.  It would be no overstatement to say that Paul was a new man after it happened.

But what about us, raised as we have been, many of us, in Christian homes, and not able to point to a sudden conversion experience?  Does that leave us out?  Have we not received the new life in Christ?  Some would think so!  They would demand that particular recounting of an experience of conversion, or they won’t believe that it took place.  But, what harm this kind of unbiblical demand has wrought in the life of the Church!  No, the Bible knows full well of the Timothy-kind of conversion, as well as the Paul-kind.  In fact, of Timothy, Paul himself writes: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also…. And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”  You see, though the experience may differ, the fact is the same.  God usually brings this new life to people in an unspectacular manner – but it is no less radical.  No man, woman, or child, is alive in Christ apart from conversion.  For conversion is just repentance and faith, and without those, no man can be saved.

Now, which life are we living, congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ?  By birth, by nature, we were servants of unrighteousness and children of wrath.  But are we now children of God by His grace through faith in His Son our Saviour?  Then we have been converted!  Then, although we may not be able to name the date of our conversion, we have no doubt whatever of the fact of it!

All true believers, furthermore, have this new life in Christ, this new direction, new purpose, new perspective.  They cannot serve both God and the flesh.  They must be alive to the one and dead to the other, and there is no middle ground.

However, we see that this new life is hidden from the eyes of the world.  And not only so, it is to a certain extent hidden from ours as well.  “For we are saved by hope,” says Paul in Rom.8:24, “But hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for?”  Part of faith, you see, is believing the promises of God which have as yet been only partially fulfilled.  Some of our salvation is seen now, our gradual sanctification, for instance – but some of our salvation is committed to God.  “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”  Our life is hid with Christ in God.  There are some secrets still unknown to us.  “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”

But thank God for the security of that new life.  It is hid in God, and therefore it is safe.  We know that whatever He purposes for us is for our good.  And we believe that the purpose of our life is bound up in Him with Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Scott Mc Bride, 1964/65 student body president at Stanford University, is reported in Christianity Today as saying: “At the heart of the students’ problem is their lack of meaning for living.”)  This is the real crisis, not only of the campus, but also of the whole world outside of Christ.  There may be goals, but there is no sure purpose.  There may be plans, but there is no assurance or firm conviction as to the rightness of direction.

What is the secret of the believer’s new life in Christ?  Well, it is just that it is in Christ.  He has become our pole star, our alpha and omega, our source and our goal.  Yes, He Himself is our life.  “Because I live, ye shall live also”, he told his disciples.  And Paul understood that to mean far more than simply the gaining of eternal life through Christ’s work, because he said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”  And in another place, “For to me to live is Christ.”  Do you understand these things, brothers and sisters?  Then you know that this is the life: to be risen, alive, in Jesus Christ!

Now, in the second place, let us see…

2. The Exercise of that New Life.

The believer’s new life in Christ may be a secret at heart, but that doesn’t mean that it will have no effects!  In fact, it is on the basis of the possession of that new life that Paul calls upon the Colossians so strongly to let that life be seen.

In verses 1 and 2 he speaks of heavenly ambitions and thoughts.  When these are present, the believer himself will know it and sooner or later, this will have an effect on his actions.  In other words, Paul is saying: You have this new life in Christ – now let us see you exercising it!  For God did not give it to you for tomorrow or for eternity alone.  He gave it to you also for today.

You see, this new life in Christ is not complete at conversion, though it cannot exist without conversion.  We are not suddenly without sin, in actual fact, although all our sins are forgiven.  In a sense we are continually dying and rising every day, as we exercise our new life, in the strength and by the Word and Spirit of our Lord.  We are dying each day to sin, and rising each day to righteousness.  And that is sanctification, growth into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, into holiness.  Conversion is the turning point, but it is only the starting point.  Then, the battle begins!  But don’t fear, Christian, says Paul you are risen with Christ.  And the battle will be won by Him in you!  He will subdue you unto Himself – He will have the absolute victory over Satan.  But, you have a part, and that is to exercise.  To use the means He gives you: His Word, the sacraments, prayer.

Paul goes on to speak of the exercise.  If a man wants to love Christ, then he has to think about Him.  In verse 2 we read, “Set your mind on, (be intent on) things above.” And those things are the things of Christ.  Nay, they are Christ Himself.  For we have no heavenly things apart from Christ.  And this ‘setting of affection’ is with the whole man, not the emotions only.  Also the mind and the will.  Now, the false teachers had exercises for their followers to engage in, too.  But they were earthly, fleshly, human- oriented, exercises, such as circumcision as a continuing rite for Christians, the abstinence from the use of certain food and drink, the paying of homage to so-called angel mediators.  But Paul would direct the gaze of the believers higher than that!  He would have us look upon, and think upon, and set our affections upon, Christ the Lord, seated at God’s own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named.  The Gnostics would take away things.  Paul would take away our sinful hearts!  He would have them replaced with heavenly-minded hearts.  But, not the kind of heavenly-mindedness that is no earthly good, however!  For Paul does not despise things in themselves – what he despises is the love of things.  He would give us a new love, a new aim.  Then, we will exercise our new life not by using the world and things therein for selfish purposes and material gain.  But rather, we will see all things as created good by God, and corrupted only by man’s sin.  Thus, we will set our minds not on them, but on Christ.  We will “seek not our own”, but the “things which are Jesus Christ’s”.  We will seek “first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness”, because we have ascended there in our thoughts, in our emotions, in our wills.  We have our life there.  We are blessed there, in heavenly places.

We must exercise physically to be healthy, as everyone knows.  The same is true in the realm of the spirit.  And it is by proper heavenly-oriented aims in all that we do, by a thought-life saturated with the things of Christ, that we exercise spiritually.  Then we will daily read His Word, and pray without ceasing – that we might be alive!

Thirdly, let us rejoice to know of…

3. The Future of That Life.

If the secret is conversion, and exercise is the battle, what of the outcome of this new life?  Paul leaves us not the least in doubt!  For in verse 4 he tells us that victory is certain!  “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we shall also appear with Him in glory!”

Apart from this promise, our life would forever remain a secret, and over it would then be at last written: vanity.  But the day is coming when all secrets will be revealed… when this secret new life in Christ will be seen by all.  The wonderful day, when we will be able to set our affections on things here, because we will be changed, ‘here’ will be changed!  “Beloved, now we are the Sons of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be.  But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

Congregation of the Lord, this is the life!  Apart from it there is only hopeless frustration, death, and separation forever from God.  What a blessing it is to know that we may be alive today and forever in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Amen.