Quote for the Day
“…put on the new self, which is being renewed…”
Today's Prayer
Father, today I thank you for your son Jesus. I thank you for all He HAS done and will continue to do. I rest in your assurance that you have my life secure in your arms.
Colossians 3:5-11
Colossians 3:5-11 (NIV)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. 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.
Message
The whole concept of Christ as our life now continues to open up to us. Verse 5 states “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…” and lists the litany of sins we must avoid. One way to look at this verse is to start thinking about all the things we need to accomplish, the hard work we have to do to insure that our earthly nature (the flesh, the old man, our Adamic nature) is controlled by our efforts and kept in check by our strength and discipline. Right? Wrong! If this is our response, then we have not read this book. We have only let our eyes drift swiftly through the words. Remember what we have noted since the beginning of the book:• … they (self-efforts) lack any value in restraining…• … struggling with all HIS energy, which so powerfully works within me…• … just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him rooted and built up in him…• … and you have been given the fullness of Christ• … God made you alive with Christ…• … the reality, however, is found in ChristIn verse 20 of chapter 2, we are told we have “died with Christ.” Our need today is to remember both in a positional and practical basis that the old self has been put to death with CHRIST, not by us so we cannot change that. This is a competed task. The “job” of a believer is to remind themselves that they have died with Christ and that because of that and through that, TODAY the old self has no power, and therefore has no power over us. Daily we need to remind ourselves that the old nature is dead and that Christ is alive and working IN, WITH, and THROUGH us. We need to be thankful moment by moment for what Jesus HAS done and IS doing, and entrust our very life and every circumstance to Him alone for its proper conclusion.What is the hardest part for all of us? We are in process. We want to cling to the old and not embrace the new self which is Jesus in us. Look at verse 10 and 11, “and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator…but Christ is all, and is in all.” We have to remind ourselves of the Creator Jesus Christ and what He has promised to do, and then rest in his promise and watch Him do it. That is what will allow us to NOT do all those things listed in earlier verses.
