Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. The study of the book of Colossians continues today with a powerful reminder of our position in Christ. Haven't you heard people say, you know, I'm not sure this Christian life is always cracked up to be because somehow it just isn't working with me. Or someone may say, I know that I'm saved, but why is it that I keep on suffering one defeat after the other? Somehow the Christian life just doesn't seem to work. Well, you know, if you don't understand some of the basic principles of Scripture, some things won't appear to work.
It's not that they don't work. Oftentimes it is a matter of our ignorance of the truth. Sometimes it is a matter of our believing the truth that we do understand.
And sometimes we just don't really want what God wants as much as what he wants. So I want us to look in just a moment in the book of Colossians. We've been in this book for quite some time. But to remind you in the first two chapters that almost all of this has been doctrinal. In chapters three and four, it begins to be very applicable to our daily life. Application is Paul's emphasis in this second section of the book of Colossians.
So I want you to turn, if you will, to chapter three. And the title of this message is Our Position in Christ. That is, what is our relationship to him the way he sees it? Now, in the first two chapters, we find, as the theme of this book is, all the way through the sufficiency of Christ. In the first two chapters, we find that Jesus Christ is the object of the believer's faith.
In the thirty fourth chapters, he is the source of the believer's life. If you really want to understand the Christian life, you must understand the basic principles. When I understand the truth of the Christian life, then there is within me not only the desire, but the realization that I am equipped to live the life that God has called us to live. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Colossians chapter three. Paul begins, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind, he says, on things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, or when he appears, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. What I want to share with you today is the basic foundation of the whole Christian life. If you understand what we are about to talk about, you will understand not only your position with the Lord Jesus Christ, but you'll understand your privileges and you'll understand the power that is within you and available to you. And you're also going to understand, I believe, why God has so prepared you to live victoriously. But on the other hand, why we are so often defeated in our Christian life.
Now, I want you to jot down this word. First of all, we're talking about our relationship to him, our position with him. That is our relationship with him. And the first word is crucified. That is, the Bible says, first of all, that you and I have been crucified with him, or as he says in chapter three of Colossians, verse one, that we died with him. And verse two, listen to this, if you will.
If then you've been raised up with Christ, why are we raised up? Because first of all, we died. He says, keep seeking the things above. Now he says in verse three, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Now in this verse, the Bible says that you now have died.
That is, not only are we living, but we've also died. I want you to turn, if you will, to Galatians chapter two. You know this passage by heart, I'm sure. And verse 20, and you recall how Paul says this in another way about himself. He says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ now lives in me in the life which I now live.
I live with the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Then he says in the sixth chapter of Galatians, look there if you will, and in the 14th verse he says, but may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Now there are other verses that relate to the same idea. But what I want you to notice here is how often Paul speaks of the fact that you and I have died. Now the question comes, when did we die if we're still alive? The understanding of this simple truth that is not so simple really, but is so basic to every aspect of the Christian life.
Now listen to what he said. The Bible says that when Jesus Christ died, we died. So let me explain that in this way. The term we use is the term identification. To identify with something means to be closely related to it. The Scripture says that you and I have been identified with Christ. That means that you and I are known as followers of his. We are intimately related to him. We are in the same family with Jesus. We have a spiritual relationship.
But so let me put this in a sequence of events because that's the only way we can explain or understand it. The moment you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, the Bible says the Holy Spirit baptized you or placed you into the person of Christ so that now you and I are living in him and the Bible says that Christ is living within us and that you and I have been made complete because of our intimate relationship with him. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, he was crucified. He died on the cross for your sin and mine. On the other side of that cross was every single believer. While Jesus was dying for sin, every single one of us was dying to sin. What is it we were dying to?
We were dying to our old way of life. Now, if the Christian life only provided for Christ's death on the cross for my sin, where would that leave me in this life in dealing with my old sin nature? Therefore, if all the salvation God provided was the salvation for the forgiveness of my sins on the cross, what about my life after I have asked God to forgive me, how am I going to live it? So the Bible says and Paul said, when he died, he says, I died. He died for sin. He says, I died to sin. So that every single believer in the mind of God has been identified, related to, placed into the crucifixion of Jesus Christ so that in the mind of God, when he died, every single believer's life was put on that cross and the old sin nature of every single believer, past, present and future, was placed on the cross. Therefore, Paul can say, when he died, every single one of us was crucified. Inside of you, that ruling principle, that is that old sinful nature which was in you, God had to deal with not only your sins, but your sin nature. Therefore, it wasn't enough for him to take your sin. He had to take your old life so that on the cross, not only were your S-I-N-S, but your old sinful nature, your life was there on the cross with him. And therefore, he says, when he died, we died. What is it that died? Our old sin nature.
Why did it die? In order that you and I would no longer be bound by, imprisoned by, governed by, dictated by, destroyed by an old sinful nature. God destroyed that and that's why he says he gave us a new spirit. He gave us a new heart. And that's why the Bible says you and I were born again into a new life. He says, therefore, if any person be in Christ, on the cross with him, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.
What's passed away? The old sin nature. And now you and I are brand new persons. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. That's why the Bible says that Jesus Christ is indwelling us. We are in him.
He is in us and you are not what you used to be. Once you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can't ever be what you were because what you were was nailed to the cross inseparably in the death of Jesus Christ. Now that is the witness of Scripture. That is the testimony of the Word of God and that is the truth. Now, if you don't understand that truth and do not apply that truth and do not live out of that truth, here's what you're going to do.
You're going to say, I know God has forgiven me. Man, do I have a difficult time living the Christian life. I just struggle and struggle and struggle and I'm defeated one time after the other and just when I think I've learned, I'm defeated again and up and down, off and on, in and out, just like the rollercoaster somehow, I just can't get it together.
The reason you can't get it together is because you are trying to live a new life, listen, in your own strength. Remember this, what you were died. God never intends for you to live this new life out of the old life because that's dead and gone. So therefore, when he said that we died, that is not some theological euphoric term floating out there in space that nobody can comprehend. It is an actual truth of Scripture that when Jesus Christ died, on the one side of the cross is Christ dying for sin, on the other side of the cross is the believer dying to the sin that is his old sin nature. Now my friend, that is the heart, that is the foundation of understanding how you and I are to operate and to live in victory and joy and contentment in the Christian life. We no longer have to yield to the reign of sin because what we were died to that and we are new creations in Christ Jesus indwelt by the very life of God himself.
That's what we've been saying in two chapters of the first two chapters of the book of Colossians. So when he says in this passage that you and I have died, he says in verse 20 of chapter 2, If you have died with him, and that word if here is the same as the word if in chapter 3, the indicative in a conditional clause indicating reality, not if possible, maybe it could be, but since, this is a reality, since you died, and since now he says you have risen with him. Now, when something's dead, it is what? Lifeless. It is dead.
It has no response. The Bible says what you were before you were saved is dead. If you reach back because you choose to, in the sin, it is because you are now acting out of character. It is no longer your character to sin. It is no longer your nature to sin. And it should never be your desire to sin once you receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior because you're going back to the elementary things which God has freed you from. He says when he died, you died. That freed you from the power and the reign of sin in your life so that you and I, in our position toward him, he says we're identified with him in his death.
There's an expectation for a new way of conduct because we are not what we used to be, brand new persons. What happened 2,000 years ago in the mind of God, which he saw in one event, what happened 2,000 years ago becomes effective in your life the moment you receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and becomes reality in your life and mind the moment you and I understand what we're talking about and then you begin to say, well, if Christ is my life, which he is, and sin's power has been broken, I don't have to yield to that. I don't have to give in to that.
I don't have to surrender to that. Christ in me makes me sufficient in him for all things. Therefore, now I am freed and liberated to be the person God wants me to be. And my old sin nature has been crucified. I have a brand new life, a brand new nature, brand new home, brand new destiny, brand new spirit, brand new heart. Everything about me is brand new. Hallelujah. Things are going to be different because you cannot ever be what you were. Now, not only did he identify me with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Bible says he identified us with his burial.
Now, look at this. Chapter three, verse one. Since then, you've been raised up. Well, how are you going to get raised? You can't get raised till you get buried.
So look, if you will, back to chapter two. We discussed this before in verse 12. Having then been buried with him in baptism in which you also were raised up with him. So he says you and I were baptized.
I'm going to explain that in just a moment. Go back to Romans six for a moment and notice again, he speaks of the same thing. He says in verse three, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we've been buried with him through baptism into death. And all that is Christ was raised from the dead, he says, through the glory of the Father. So we too might walk in newness of life.
Now watch this. What God did in identifying us with his burial, not only crucifying us through our old sinful nature, but now placing us into the person of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says, when we were resurrected from the grave with him, we came out, the Bible says, in newness of life.
Remember, we're putting these in the sequence of events of something that happened faster than you can bat your eye. He says, first of all, we're identified with his death. Secondly, we're identified with his burial. Thirdly, we're identified with his resurrection. Look, if you will, in verse one of chapter three. Since then, you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated, the right hand of God. Go back again to chapter two and notice, if you will, in verse 12 again. Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised up with him, how? Raised up with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So that all through Paul's epistles, he keeps referring to and reminding us that all of us have been raised up with him. Go back to Ephesians chapter two, the very important passage and the second chapter of Ephesians. And notice, if you will, in this chapter, the first part begins with our being dead in trespasses and sins. Then we were saved by the grace of God.
So what did he do? He took us out of Adam, placed us into Christ, the old life of death, now into the new life, which is the life of Jesus Christ. And he says in verse six, and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, why did he do this? Why does God identify us with the death, the burial, the resurrection, all the rest that I'm going to share?
Why? Look, if you will, in verse seven, in order that in the ages to come, that he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. He says the reason that Jesus Christ is identified with us and we with him is that for ages and eons to come, God is going to present us. God is going to view us.
The angels in heaven are going to view, listen, us and see the great grace that God has expressed towards sinful man in expressing his kindness toward us and saving us. But what I want you to see in this passage is that he says he raised us up. So not only have you and I been identified with his death and his burial, but the scripture says you and I have been identified with his resurrection now raised up to what?
That is, he says identified his resurrection, raised up to what? Raised up, my friend, to a brand new life. He says you and I have been resurrected to walk in newness of life. What we were before we were placed in the grave, no longer. Now we've risen to walk in newness of life. We have been born again. We are new creations, new spirit, new heart, new life, new destiny, new plans, new ambitions, new goals because we have a new somebody living on the inside of us and that person is Jesus Christ. Resurrected to a brand new life.
Now, he says, your citizenship is in heaven. We need to think like where we're going to spend eternity. We need to think on the things of God.
Why? Because we were resurrected to a new life and to a new heavenly home. We're just pilgrims walking through this life learning and being built up and God building character into our life. But our home is not here, but it is in heaven. He says our citizenship is in heaven, according to Philippians chapter three. So therefore, we are risen to a new power, a new heavenly life. Now, it is understandable that Paul would begin in verse five of chapter three when he says look at that fifth verse. Therefore, consider. Now, why would he say therefore? Because based on everything he said in the first two chapters and based on our position in Christ, based on our relationship to him, our identification with him, therefore, this is the way we live. That's why a doctrinal foundation is absolutely essential to victorious living. Thank you for listening to our position in Christ. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
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