Behaving (Part 1 of 2)

We've all heard that actions speak louder than words. So, what we do communicates more than what we say, and what we say should influence what we do. Today on Truth for Life Weekend, Alistair Begg continues our series Christian Basics by addressing the behavior of those who profess their belief in Christ.

He's titled this message, Behaving. Father, help us now as we study the Bible, as we think about our behavior as Christian people. May we hear your voice and obey it. For Jesus' sake.

Amen. Well, here we are in Colossians chapter 3. We began looking at the question of what it means to become a Christian, and what it means—something of our beliefs as Christians.

And now we come to this matter of behavior. To be a Christian is to declare that Jesus is Lord. To declare that Jesus is Lord is not so much an affirmation or an expression of personal devotion as it is a statement of fact. Jesus is Lord, and his lordship not only affects our minds, teaching us what it is we are to believe, but it also affects our morals, changing the way in which we behave. And the real test of our submission to the lordship of Jesus is not the devotion of our singing—although it is good to sing in a devoted way—not the exuberance of our expressions in relationship to that.

They differ very much with background and personality and so on, and they can so easily be a smokescreen for what's going on underneath, either whether they are quiet or profoundly loud. The real test is not either of those things. The real test of our submission to the Lord Jesus Christ is our obedience. Is our obedience.

Pure and simply our obedience. Jesus, in John 14, remember, said to his disciples, If you love me, you will keep my commandments. So the great test of our love for Jesus is to be found in our obedience to what Jesus has said and taught. And since he is Lord, we have no right to believe anything other than that which he has taught us.

And since he is Lord, we have no right to behave in any other fashion than that which he demands of us. Now, of course, we could have gone to a whole host of passages in order to drive home this very important principle. We could, for example, have gone to Titus, a book that we've studied in the past, and have dealt with verses 11 and following of chapter 2, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed and glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. We could have gone there. We could equally well have gone to Hebrews chapter 13, where in these final exhortations he hits many of the practical areas of life, the great importance of loving one another, of caring practically for the needs of those whose lives are different from our own fellow prisoners and prisoners and so on, then the importance of marriage and the purity that is involved in that, the issues of sexual immorality, the great pressing issue of consumerism and money and how it seeps into our souls and draws us away and so on.

We could have gone there too. But here we are in Colossians chapter 3. You can go back and backfill, if you like, by making reference to some of those other areas. A good concordance will get you all the way through the Bible. But there are three paragraphs as we have them in the NIV, and I think most of us were reading from the NIV, first of all in verses 1–4, then in 5–11, and then once again a briefer section in 12–14. We'll look at each of them in turn, and somewhat selectively we cannot do it exhaustively, but hopefully with enough of a consideration that we don't miss the central aspects that Paul is teaching. Verses 1–4 can be looked at under the heading of living the risen life. Living the risen life.

Because you will see that that is what he's referencing here. Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Now, in a sentence or two, the context for these Colossian Christians is this. There were people around the Colossae Valley who—and we can determine this from the way in which Paul addresses things without hanging the problems up on the wall, as it were, for all to consider—but there were people in the Colossae Valley who were apparently insinuating themselves amongst the genuine believers and suggesting to them that their Christian lives were pretty good as they had them. But if they wanted to know the true dimension of fullness, the fullness of God, then they would need to pay attention to what these Colossian teachers had on offer. And Paul addresses that. He says, The fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in our Lord Jesus Christ, and you are complete in him.

Nothing that God will ever do for you, after he saves you, will ever, ever be in the same league as that which he does in bringing you to himself. He addresses the issue of fullness. And at the same time, these individuals were proffering to the fledgling Christians the prospect of freedom and liberty. And they were holding out to them the idea that liberty and freedom in Christian living could be found down certain avenues. And so, it really was a powerful concoction, a bad virus that was embedding itself, potentially, in the Colossian church. It combined doctrinal confusion with moral carelessness. And of course, there's no surprise in that, in that doctrinal confusion and moral carelessness inevitably go hand in hand. But it was a daunting combination, and they were facing the danger of succumbing to some of these things—for example, embracing, at the end of chapter 2, a form of externalism, a man-made religiosity, what Paul refers to as the basic principles of this world. He says, Why would you submit to the rules that these people are bringing around?

Don't handle, don't taste, don't touch. He said, These are all destined to perish with use, because they're based on human commands and teachings. And he goes on to say, These regulations have an appearance of wisdom with their self-imposed worship, their false humility, their harsh treatment of the body. But notice the crucial phrase at the end of chapter 2, They lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence. Now, we could point, if we had time—and we don't—to areas of church history where formalism and externalism and monasticism and so on have been pervasive in the church. And we would be able to identify, during those periods as well, the very truth that is here at the end of the chapter. These things lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

I've got to know a few from the Amish community, people whose company I enjoy, who I admire in many, many aspects of their life. But in making journeys with them and having the opportunity to ask questions, I hope in a courteous manner, what has struck me is the fact that many of the things, at least as reported to me, fall within the category of these external features, which of course cannot address the indulgence and sensuality of the human heart. Because you can deal with a television and lock yourself in a box, and your own filthy imagination is enough to bring you down to hell. You can remove yourself from all kinds of things, and yet you deal with the fact of your own propensity towards that which is impure and unholy and untrue. So Paul is tackling that.

And how does he tackle it? Well, he says, the way to get to grips with how your behavior ought to be is in an understanding of who you are, what you have become in the Lord Jesus Christ. The true foundation he's saying here in this opening paragraph for dealing with sin is found in our union with Christ. It is because we are now in Christ. Since then you have been raised with Christ. You're altogether different.

It's no new thing for Paul. We find it all through his letters. 1 Corinthians 6, remember, he says, as he's urging upon them the importance of purity in their interpersonal relationships, he says, Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You're not your own.

You were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your body. But he posits the necessity of action on the part of the believer—divinely enabled action, but action nevertheless—he posits it, he founds it, on the fact of their union with Christ. And our new nature in Christ is fashioned for obedience.

Now, let's just notice the high points in this paragraph. Look at what he tells them. First of all, he tells them, You have been raised with Christ. You have been raised with Christ.

You may not have thought much about that lately as a Christian, but it is true of you. In the miracle of conversion, a number of things have happened. Our sins have been forgiven. We've been adopted into God's family.

We've been given the status of sons and daughters. We have been given not only a new status, but we have been given a new nature. And we have been relocated.

We have been given a new location. And it is this that he mentions here in this phrase, Set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. There has been, for the Christian, a radical change in our spiritual environment. You are, he says, hidden with Christ. Hidden with Christ. Your life, verse 3, is now hidden with Christ in God.

The union between Christ and the believer is a heavenly union. That is why it is actually hidden from the observation of our friends and neighbors. One day, what is true of us spiritually will actually be true of us physically. But for now, no one's going to come up to you and say, Oh, I see that you are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. If they do, you probably have got reason for alarm. And hopefully they'll come up and say other things. But they shouldn't say that, because it isn't apparent. The natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit.

So if you go back tomorrow and someone says, You know, I've noticed that you haven't been swearing the way you used to do. You probably shouldn't say, Well, you know, I'm seated in the heavenly places with Jesus Christ. Because you've just been given a wonderful opportunity to make some headway, and you're going to take it away, pull the rug out immediately with some great—that you think is classically wonderful, deeply theological—insight that leaves your friend just scratching their head and heading for the coffee machine. No, he says, We're all wrapped up in Christ. We're all wrapped up in Christ.

That's really it. Your life is now hidden with Christ in God. You remember when the children were tiny? Sometimes you would wrap them all up, you know, you would gather them up in a blanket, and they would be all in there somewhere, and their little voice would come out, you know. And they were all hidden with you, all wrapped up with you.

You do it with your grandchildren, many of you. Well, in a far greater and more significant way, the Christian's life is all wrapped up with Jesus. That, you see, incidentally, is what makes our sin so incongruous. That's what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6.

Are you going to go and join Christ to a prostitute? Your life is all wrapped up with Jesus. Jesus is you, and you are Jesus.

You are in him. Raised with him, hidden with him. And the very fact that our lives are hidden with Christ is the basis of our security, so that that is what gives us confidence in the face of our own propensity to do wrong things, but the security that we enjoy is never in relation to our morality. And I hope you noticed that last week, and if you turn back one page, you can see it again this week. The person who says, Oh yes, I'm a Christian, and I've got nothing to worry about, and I'm going to heaven, and, you know, sometimes when I cheat on my tax return, when I sleep with my girlfriend unmarried, and when I shout abuse at people and do all these things, sometimes I just say to myself, It is so wonderful to be secure in Christ.

I got news for you. You're not secure in Christ. Because the security that is ours in Christ is not a security isolated from morality. It is not a justification divorced from sanctification. It is that which sets us into Christ in a life-transforming way. Look what he says. Verse 21 of Colossians 1, Once you were alienated from God and you were enemies in your minds—notice, in your minds—because of your evil behavior, but now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death so that you can go out and do whatever you please.

No! To present you wholly in his sight, without blemish, and free from accusation. That the work of God within the life of the believer is to conform the believer to the image of his Son. Therefore, our behavior will bear testimony or otherwise to the life-transforming power of Jesus.

Now, there is a logic—if you go back to chapter 3—there is a logic in this that I hope we won't miss. It is our place, if you like, in Christ that establishes our priorities. It is because we have been raised with Christ—it is because we are hidden with Christ in God—that we are then to set our hearts on things above. We are to set our minds on things above.

In other words, the very epicenter of our existence has to have a gaze about it, a persevering effort about it that is earnest that isn't casual. I want to know you, Jesus. I want to learn about you, Jesus. I want to be like you, Jesus. Lord, I want to know you, to live my life to show you all the love I owe you. I'm a seeker of your heart. I want to be transformed by the renewing of my mind. I want to, as Peter says, prepare my mind for action. Because you have taken me from where I was, and you have put me in a new place, and you have given me new priorities, and it is this, then, which creates the prospect that is before me.

What is the prospect? Verse 4, Christ. Who's Christ? He's your life.

He's your life. Why is it that you will not die? You go through the valley of the shadow of death. Someone will pronounce us dead. But on that day, as Moody said, we'll be more alive than we have ever been.

What is our confidence? That we will live in eternity, that we will have new bodies. Christ is our life. To me, to live is Christ to die his gain. When Christ, who is your life, appears, you're going to appear with him in glory.

In other words, a day is coming when Jesus will be revealed for what he is to the astonished gaze of all mankind. Second paragraph—and quickly, we've spent too long on that, no surprise—paragraph 2, and you say, Well, if you spend all that time on four verses, what do you think you're gonna do here? Well, I'm about to show you.

Show myself, actually. Paragraph 2. If paragraph 1 is living the risen life, paragraph 2 is dealing with sin, dealing with indwelling sin.

Put to death, therefore. Notice the therefore. What is the therefore there for? Well, it ties you back to the first four verses. Actually, it ties you back to the fourth verse. The prospect of the appearance of Christ creates the incentive to prepare for his appearing. If your girlfriend is coming for the weekend, you try and clean yourself up.

If you're a teenager, you get all that acne stuff out and go at it like a crazy person. Because something about it, if your girlfriend is coming for the weekend, there's no question but on a Friday morning when you're waking up, you're like, Yeah, that's it. There's something about it that happens that way. And so, the whole of Friday, till the train arrives or the bus arrives or whatever other place, you're trying to get it all fixed in preparation for her appearing. Well, he says, Christ is going to come, and you must be prepared. Because Christ is your life, the battleground of verses 5–11 is faced not in our own strength but in his mighty power. Now, it's not an easy section, because the thinking person says, Well, look, in verse 3 it says you died, and in verse 5 it says put to death.

How do we figure this stuff out? Well, in a sentence. We have died to sin in Christ. Sin no longer reigns, no longer operates its tyrannical rule over the life of the Christian. Because, in the words of Wesley, he breaks the power of canceled sin, and he sets the prisoner free. I think there's also Wesley who prays in one of his hymns, Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me from its guilt and power. And in Christ, as we are justified, all of the guilt that attaches to our lives and to our account is dealt with in Jesus.

He becomes sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That sin no longer reigns and rules, but it still remains, and it still rages. And therefore, as the Westminster Confession puts it, the Christian is involved in a continual and irreconcilable war. And that war takes place on three fronts—against the world, against the flesh, our sinful nature, and against the devil. And the devil's strategy is to bring what is appealing to us in the world to tempt and try us with that which appeals to the sinful propensities which remain within our lives. Because although I have died to sin in Christ, sin has not been eradicated from my life. And if it has been eradicated from your life, we should probably talk later on. Because you are in a unique position—an unheard-of position, and an unbiblical position, and certainly a very unpolying position. For if that were the case, why would he waste his breath and his pen and his ink going through here and starting off the fifth verse, put to death, therefore, what belongs to your earthly nature?

Well, you say, I don't have any of that. You're a liar. And if you've embraced a form of externalism that makes you look really good to people on the outside, you may only be concealing the darkness of your own heart on the inside. Because all of us know what the Bible says is true. It's just whether we're prepared to bring our lives honestly into the search and gaze of the Word of God whereby we are exposed and we know ourselves to be as much in need of the instruction of the second paragraph as we are in need of the encouragement of the first paragraph. You're listening to Alistair Begg with a thought-provoking reminder that what we believe should affect how we behave. This is Truth for Life weekend in a series called Christian Basics. Our mission here at Truth for Life is very simple. It's to teach the Bible with clarity and relevance.

We believe that God's Word is unchanging, that it is without error, and that it has the power to transform lives. That's why we teach it every day and why we make Alistair's entire teaching library available for free so that cost is never a barrier for anyone who wants to learn more about Christ. Today's message reminds us that living the Christian life is not easy. In Christ, we've died to sin but we still struggle with it. And more often than we care to admit, we fall short, we mess up, we begin to feel as if maybe God is losing patience with us.

It's so easy to become discouraged. But when we put our faith in Christ, we have no reason to be discouraged. Today, we're recommending to you a book that explores how Jesus really feels about us, even when we sin. The book is called Gentle and Lowly, and it's all about the heart of Christ for sinners and sufferers. In other words, it's a book for every Christian who needs encouragement on the journey. It's one thing to ask what Jesus has done for us, but this book examines who he is. It gives us a wonderfully comprehensive picture of a Savior who is a wellspring of love and kindness and patience. The author of this book combines the scriptures with the teaching of the Puritans to help us consider what we can know about Jesus' compassion for sinners. You'll love what you learn as you come to understand the very heart of Christ. Find out how you can request your copy of the book Gentle and Lowly by clicking the image you see in the mobile app or by visiting our website truthforlife.org. I'm Bob Lapeen. Hope you can join us again next weekend. Alistair will conclude the message we started today and will encourage us to follow Jesus' example as we continue our series called Christian Basics. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.