New Life (Col. 3:7-17)
7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Introduction
- According to II Corin. 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”.
- Here, the new creature means the new man and the new life. “ Therefore” a conjunction suggests a event before a certain thing happen. What is the event? It is the event that believes the death and the resurrection of Christ. In other words, It means that we experienced the crossroad that divided into two parts in our lives. You stay in the blessing place in your present life.
- In this time we think that the criteria of the new life, the feature of the new life and the method of sustaining the new life.
I. Criteria of new life (7)
1) We should divide between before and after. (7) The criteria is the point to believe Christ as his savior and his Lord. The new life begins with to believe Christ. So “to accept, to commit, to trust “ in John1:12-13 points to believe. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The faith means to commit our whole thing to God. (Acts16:31They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”)
2) Did you believe in Jesus? The beginning of the new life is to believe Jesus and to be saved out of sin. It means to have the remission, to have the eternal life, to become the children of God, and to enter into the kingdom of God. To become the covenant people and to enjoy the blessing of covenant people is the beginning of the covenant. (Jer.31:32-34“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”declares the Lord.“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”) The Lord gives his spirit to plant his law and the fear heart to the Lord in him. Therefore we have the function that can live new life in the world by believing Christ. Just like a fish can live in the water or, the bird can fly in the air, only the new man can live in the spiritual world.
2. The feature of new life (8-10)
1) After we have the new life in our heart, we live in the world in the new life. What are the features of the new life? As a fig tree, a palm tree and a harp tree bring up their fruit gradually, the new man brings up the fruit of new life. What is the new life? In a short word, the new life means that he take off their dirty cloth and take it on in their lives repeatedly. So verse 10 says “take off the old man” but the verse 10 says, “take on the new man.”
(1) First of all, taking off the old man is one feature among them. By the death and the resurrection of Christ God took off all sins and all conviction. Hebrew 10: 8-10 says, “First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law.9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second.10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” So we cannot live toward the past direction but towards the heaven.
– The old man is called for self, flesh, the sinful desire and covet and it is like the factory that products many goods. Ephesian 3:5-6 “5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. “ in the verse 5 means the products those are; sexual morality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed. And verse 8 says “8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. “
– Ephesians treat the word very importantly, Ephesians 5:3-4 says “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. “ The heart begets the thought , the thought the word, the word, the personality, the personality the destiny.
(2) And the new man has to take on some things. According to the verse 10, as we take on the new man and then we can live the new life in the daily life It means to imitate the creator and to restore the image of God. So we have to renew our knowledge, that is, the higher elements than the emotion and the step of volition and control our whole life. We have to study the Scripture in order to transform the intellectual elements. This is the sanctification. We always have to take the burning heart to possess the new things.
Look at the passion of Solomon. His one thousand offerings proves his living sacrifice to God. And also his first supplication title proves this pure heat to God.
And Paul know very well the new life that takes off the old life but take on the new life. (Rom13:11-14 And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.)
Therefore we should try to take off the old life but take on the new life.
3. How shall we do to keep the new life?
1) We have to admit the Lordship of God .(11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.) What does it mean? It points that the Lord of everything is Jesus Christ. Because only he is Lord of all Lords.
For example: the prayer of Jeremiah(Jer 33:3)3 ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’
For example, the prayer of Solomon(IIClon.1:6) 6 Solomon went up to the bronze altar before the Lord in the tent of meeting and offered a thousand burnt offerings on it.
7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you.”
8 Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. 9 Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. 10 Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
2) We have to make sure the Lordship. The life of admitting the Lordship is best safe life in the world. Then we can know true peace and true grace. We can get creative thought towards the some problems. So we have to learn this life in evry day. Just like James confessed in James 4:13-15 “3 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.”14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. “ This is the way to the Gethsemane garden that our Lord entered into. He stayed on the place of Lordship , “ “ Do you have this assurance, Lordship? His is the new life. After that confession we shall meet the wonderful events in our lives.
In our school life we need that points, new life, Lordship life. Unless we have this life, he should repent to God because of his stubborn heart and his hardened heart.
He is not a born again Christian.
* Conclusion:
1) Because you are new man you should reveal the new life in your lives. This is the heavenly blessing that the people of the nation enjoy in the world. Unless we can not enjoy the blessing in the earth, it proves his hypocrite life. Let’s go to the world of abundant new life.