Created Anew Pt2

Do not lie to one another. We were initially alarmed by
that admonition from Paul, and that command still stuns us.
At first, we might have been inclined to think that the Colossians
must have been a rather dishonest lot, that they alone needed such
a pointed reminder, do not lie, But we quickly learned that there
was nearly an identical command in Ephesians, where Paul said,
laying aside falsehood, lying, speak truth. And that told us that the problem
was more widespread than just Colossae, didn’t it? And we soon
realized that truthfulness is a universally human problem.
Not one limited to a city or to one people or one locale or
a period of time even. As I said last week, the problem
is so rooted in our nature that we are never more human than
when we lie. That doesn’t make it right. It just exposes the depth and
the breadth of the problem. If the Lord’s people would take
their Bibles and turn back once again to Colossians 3, we are
in the midst of a lengthy practical section here in Colossians. a section that runs from 3.1
all the way to 4.6. And we are in Paul’s third application. It’s a practical section of applications
of everything that Paul has taught up to chapter three. And this
third exhortation is an exhortation to what I identified as truth
grounded living. Let’s review this portion that
we began last Sunday, chapter 3, verses 9 through 11. Do not lie to one another, since
you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have
put on the new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according
to the image of the one who created him, a renewal in which there
is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised,
barbarian and Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all
and in all. Right away, if we could, while
you’re there in Colossians, if you would just flip back to Ephesians
chapter four, keep a finger in Colossians. I just want to review
the passage that we considered last week. It’s a parallel passage
to what we have here. And if you, when you get there,
if you go to chapter four and scroll down to verse 20, Ephesians
4, verse 20, and listen for all of the parallels to our Colossians
passage. Verse 20, but you did not learn
Christ in this way. If indeed you have heard him
and have been taught in him, just as truth is in Jesus, that
in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old
self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts
of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and
put on the new self. which in the likeness of God
has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Therefore,
laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with
his neighbor, for we are members of one another. So this admonition,
do not lie, as stark and sharp as it is, is exactly as it sounds. There’s no softening it by digging
deeper into maybe the words that Paul used. Paul is speaking to
both churches about falsehoods, lies, a willful attempt to deceive
others with our words. Do not lie. And as we began our
study of that section with those three words, we did so under
the heading of the speech of the new person. And that that
speech that Paul mentions is not fitting for those that are
in Christ. Paul is leading these churches,
Colossae and Ephesus, believers, really all believers, in an effort
to learn to speak the truth. And it is a process. And they,
those believers, and we need this training. We are, as so
many, Pinocchios. running about uttering everything
from white lies to absolute falsehoods. Such speech, really such a mindset,
we learned is part of our individual nature and, as a result, part
of our greater culture. And in our sinful lying, falling,
pardon me, in our fallen sinful condition, lying comes almost
naturally to us. And it’s received very naturally. We lie about things we have done,
but shouldn’t. We lie about things that we should
have done, but haven’t. And we lie because these are
not accidents. They are designed to mislead
others, either to protect or to enhance our personal reputation. Well, no wonder we saw that the
social sin warranted special treatment by Paul and he provides
it. He well might have included the sin of lying in those social
sins of the previous section, but he breaks it out in order
to address this sin all by itself. Paul issues a special alarm for
this sin. He isolates this one sin apart
from the rest of that previous list. The previous list included
these, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech. Lying
would have fit right in. But Paul issues a fresh command
here in verse nine. And he says that lying too should
be put aside along with all those other sins, but he does so by
issuing a fresh and strong command. Do not lie. The whole section
in 9 through 11 is built around that one command. We drew something
very important from the parallel passage in Ephesians. The opening
sentence of Colossians makes it very clear that this is a
social sin. Do not lie to one another. But Paul goes further still in
Ephesians 4. In Ephesians 4, near the end
of that section that we just read, Paul says, laying aside
falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor. And then he issues a reason,
for we are members of one another. That is to tear the fabric of
our relationship if we lie. Further, we saw that the sin
of lying was an active concern for Paul. He speaks of this problem
in the present tense to both the church in Colossae and the
church in Ephesus, essentially calling people from doing what
they already were actively doing. Stop lying. We saw finally that
this problem was not isolated to Colossae. wasn’t isolated even to Colossian
Ephesus. The problem of lying extends
down to our day even to us, doesn’t it? Both as a church and as individuals. The only thing that will begin
to purify our speech to lead us to truthfulness is transformation. We need to be changed. And this
is what Paul addresses in verses 9 and 10. This is where we left
off last week, where Paul urges there that we lay aside the old
self with its evil practices, among which is lying. We lay
aside the old self and we put on, like a garment, the new self. That old self, with its evil
practices, Colossians 3, 9, we have, by God’s grace, laid aside. And by faith, we have taken up
and put on the new self. We don’t have to lie anymore. That practice was part of our
old nature. It fit the old self. It was appropriate
to the old self. It doesn’t fit the new. It isn’t
fitting for a believer to lie. It is unbecoming of a Christian.
We noted that the laying aside of the old self and putting on
of the new was not a two-step process. We thought of it as
the idea of faith and repentance, two sides of the same coin. You
can’t repent without placing your faith in Christ, and you
can’t exercise faith without repenting. Well, likewise, when
we lay aside the old self, we axiomatically put on the new
self. It’s a single-step process. both
laying aside and putting on are done simultaneously, just like
faith and repentance, two sides of the same coin. Well, we’re
thankful for this transformation, and it’s only by God’s grace
that we are able to lay aside the old self and put on the new.
But there’s one final observation that Paul makes of those who
are reborn, created anew, as we saw last week. We saw the
speech of a new person, the transformation of a new person, and thirdly
here, Paul gives to us the features of a new person. What does the
transformed man or woman look like? In another fascinating
turn, we have to acknowledge that Paul uses the word renew
in both passages. Not only have we been transformed,
the old self, the new self, as believers, but we are also renewed. And Paul rounds out this section
by giving us the features of this renewal, the features of
a new person. So if the old and the new selves
Paul speaks of as a process completed, laid aside, past tense, having
put on, past tense, yet renewal of which Paul speaks in verse
10 of Colossians 3, it is presented as a process. Would you glance down there at
verse 10? Here in the middle of verse 10,
Paul speaks of being renewed, a developing that is ongoing
process. Both things are true. When we
come to Christ in repentance, we are very much laying aside
the old self and putting on the new, but we are also entering
into a process of being renewed. Yet, it’s only the beginning
of a long, lifelong process of renewal. Surely you notice that
Paul also speaks of renewal in our passage in Ephesians, and
there he says that if you are a believer, You are being renewed
in the spirit of your mind. We’ll talk more about that in
a moment. He just mentions there that it’s a spiritual process.
It’s a spiritual transformation that is taking place, and it
touches our affections, it touches our thought processes, it touches
our convictions, everything. Paul uses the same language of
renewal here in Colossians. referring to that new self who
is being renewed. This new person that we as believers
have already put on, Paul says, is itself being renewed. And
that speaks of an incremental process. Paul describes this
process in slightly different terms here in Colossae. Here
in Colossians, or in Colossians rather, here in Colossians, Paul
provides a detailed description of what this process of spiritual
renewal looks like. And in both passages, Paul speaks
of renewal in the present tense, an ongoing process in which the
new self is continually refined, made new, perfected. The agent
of this work can be no other than the Holy Spirit, who is
always at work in the believer’s life, making them more and more
like Christ. It’s interesting that the word
for renewal is different than that in Ephesians, and I’m talking
about the Greek word behind it. Here, the word is anakino. In Ephesians 4, 23, it’s ananeao. Both are compound words, and
you may have heard, both employ that preposition ana, which both
words suggest restoration to a previous state. It is the other components of
those compound words, kaina’o and ne’o that are different. Both words basically mean new
with very subtle differences. In Ephesians 4.23, Paul uses
on a ne’ao a word that simply means new or young, the word
from which we get our English word neophyte. We don’t get any
ancillary help here because that’s the only place in the Bible that
the word is used. Paul uses it here to refer to
an ongoing process of making new. It’s a kind of an echo of
that beautiful verse in Isaiah. Isaiah 40, 31, those who wait
for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings
like eagles. They will run and not get tired.
They will walk and not become weary. It’s a daily renewal by
God in the believer’s life. In Colossians, the word is kinao,
which means to make new, to refresh something. Unlike the word there
in Ephesians 4.23, the word that Paul uses here in Colossians
is used again. It’s used only one other time,
and that is in 2 Corinthians 4.16. It’s one verse. I’m not
going to have you turn, but there Paul declares that because the
grace of God was abounding to the glory of God in his ministry,
He could not be discouraged. Listen to this. Therefore, we
do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, and
what child of God doesn’t feel that even this morning, though
our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed
day by day. He’s talking about the same exact
process. He says that every day, day by
day, the inner man was being renewed. That’s the same thought
that he’s communicating here in Colossians 3. And so in both
places, this new person of which Paul speaks is constantly being
restored, made new. And in all three places, Colossians,
Ephesians, and 2nd Corinthians, Paul is speaking of a process,
an ongoing perpetual process of renewal. So, though the words
are different, when all is said and done, the thought is exactly
the same. The two words are essentially
synonyms, which enhances the richness of Paul’s thought, continually
being renewed, made new. He’s referring to a moral renovation,
or better yet, a moral restoration. It’s the state in which mankind
was supposed to be all along. It’s the state in which mankind
was designed to be by Almighty God. It’s the original holiness
that man was designed to exhibit. And little by little, we are,
as believers in Christ, more and more being renewed to that
condition. Each individual believer indeed
possesses a new self. He’s already put it on, and yet
that new self is constantly being refined by God’s Spirit. Let
me give you a brief illustration. Have you ever been to a car show?
And I’m not talking about new cars, but an old car show. where the
cars have all been restored. You know what I’m talking about?
It’s a funny thing. Here are all of these old classic
cars into which their respective owners have spent thousands and
thousands of dollars restoring them, taking them all apart,
sanding every inch of the surface, priming, repainting, redoing
the chrome, everything. And then finally, the car is
ready to show. Except the car show isn’t until
next year. And so the car goes into the
garage, cover placed over the car. 363 days later, it’s pulled out
of the garage, the cover pulled off, delivered to the car show,
brought to the grounds and presented to the world. And yet every car owner in this
car show has a necessary piece of equipment that he employs.
It’s a rag. It’s a rag with which he uses
to go around buffing each speck and every drop of water, polishing,
constantly making fresh. this restored automobile. That’s
the same thing that God’s doing in the lives of believers. We’ve
been transformed. That’s already done. We’ve laid
aside the old self, put on the new, and yet God is constantly
renewing us, buffing out our imperfections, What Paul is teaching us here
in this section is the idea of that progressive sanctification
where God is constantly, even as we drew near to confession
this morning, God is constantly bringing to mind things that
we need to confess and things for which we need to cry out
for God’s grace to remove from our lives. But this is not just a general
undefined renewal of which Paul speaks. He describes it here
very thoroughly. In the remainder of verse 10
and all of verse 11, Paul tells us what God’s work of renewal
looks like in the believer. Paul speaks of four elements
in a life that is in the process of being transformed, renewed. The Christian, Paul says, is
renewed, first of all, to a godly wisdom, and to God’s likeness,
to spiritual equality, and then finally to Christ’s likeness.
Let’s look at each of these, if we might. If you’re in verse
10, just glance down there, where Paul says, we have put on the
new self, who is being renewed to a true knowledge. Wherever
we hear the, or rather, whenever we hear the word knowledge, we
instinctively think of academic learning, head knowledge. Paul
has in mind something much greater here. Some have defined it as
a complete knowledge, or even as our translation has it, a
true knowledge. But in the original, there are
no adjectives appended to this word. It’s only the word knowledge. This knowledge, as Paul has already
suggested, is the fruit of renewal. We are being renewed to knowledge. So this is a spiritual knowledge. It’s a moral knowledge. It’s
an ethical knowledge. Knowledge of the highest and
most practical kind. Remember, part of Paul’s purpose
in this letter is to equip the saints of Colossae to stand against
the false teaching that was so prevalent there. There were those
who touted a higher knowledge, a secret knowledge, a superior
knowledge, allegedly, that only they and their cult could impart. In the opening verses of this
letter, chapter 1, verse 9, Paul made his desire known that these
believers would be filled with the knowledge of his will in
spiritual wisdom and understanding. They didn’t need second-rate
human wisdom. Or as he puts it in chapter 2,
that they would come to a full assurance of understanding resulting
in a true knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself. This knowledge, it wasn’t hard
to find. It didn’t take decades of learning
to grasp. A child could hear the gospel
and understand that Jesus Christ had paid for sin with his life
on the cross, and that simply by placing our faith in that
finished work, we can be saved. A child can understand that.
It wouldn’t be unlocked by membership dues or initiation rituals. It was a simple understanding
of the gospel truth about salvation in Jesus Christ. In one sentence,
Paul brushes aside all other learning and wisdom and points
instead to a genuine knowledge, a knowledge of God and of his
redemption of sinners. Paul speaks of this same thing
when he urges the Roman Christians, Romans chapter 12, verse two,
that they be transformed by the renewing of their mind. Understand
what it is you’ve come to. You don’t need anything else
when you understand Christ. This is why Paul, writing about
these same things to the Ephesians, which passage we just read, he
pleaded that they would be renewed in the spirit of their mind.
that they, by God’s grace, would come to a deep and life-changing
knowledge of God and of His plan of redemption. The greatest knowledge
in all time and in all the world is a knowledge of God and His
ways. So the believer, first of all,
is renewed to godly wisdom, but secondly, the believer is renewed
to God’s likeness. This is an amazing passage. put
on the new self which is being renewed to a true knowledge according
to the image of the one who created him. This is incredible. The second thing that Paul tells
us about God’s ongoing work of renewal in the believer’s life
is that it is according to the image of the one who created
him. That’s the pattern. What Paul does there is point
to the image, the pattern, after all of us are being renewed. It’s the image after which the
Christian is being restored. And this image can simply be
traced all the way back to the very first days of creation. Go ahead and turn. Genesis chapter
one. It’s an incredible passage. We
don’t go there often enough. Genesis chapter one. You won’t get lost. It’s the
first book of the Bible and go to chapter one and scroll down
to verse 26. What is recorded there by Moses
is God’s intentions with the creation of mankind. Would you
look at verse 26, then God said, let us make man in our image,
God’s image, according to our likeness and let them rule over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over
the cattle and over the earth and over every creeping thing
that creeps on the earth. God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him, male and female he created
them. In other words, Adam and Eve
were made and all humanity with them to resemble, take on the
image of their creator, God. Back to Colossians 3. This is
Paul’s reference here in Colossians 3. The original image of God,
and Paul uses the Greek word icon. You can hear it there. The pronunciation of that Greek
word is much like our English word and it means nearly the
same thing. Image, likeness, resemblance,
appearance. Now we’ve seen In that passage
in Genesis, it tells us that every person ever created is
created in God’s image and likeness. That’s a reminder to us as we
entertain thoughts of racism and hatred towards others. Every
single person is being created in God’s image. God was the pattern
there, and that remains true. But because of the fall of Adam
and Eve, that divine image has been horribly marred by sin. And Paul’s point here in Colossians
3 is that a restoration or a renewal to that divine image, as he says
here, the image of the one that is God who created him, that
is the believer, the Christian, God is the image, and he’s slowly
renewing the believer to the image of God. In our parallel
passage, Paul emphasizes this point by saying that the new
self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness
and holiness of truth. He just puts specifics to that
image there in Ephesians. That’s who God is. He is righteous.
He is holy. He is truth itself. This is the
pattern that God is using to renew us. God’s own image. And so the Christian is being
renewed to godly wisdom, to God’s own likeness. And thirdly, if
you would glance now at verse 11, put on the new self, verse
10, who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image
of the one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction
between Greek and Jews, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian,
Scythian, slave, and free man. The third thing that Paul informs
us here, not only are we renewed to a godly wisdom and God’s likeness,
we’re renewed to a spiritual equality. The playing field is
leveled. This is the most wordy and most
involved of the four points, but if we pick our way through
it slowly, we can easily understand what Paul’s saying here. First,
he says simply that our transformation is a renewal without what he
calls distinctions. There is no pecking order in
heaven. There is no caste system in glory. Now, the New American Standard
here, that entire first line of verse 11, is interpretational.
I’m just going to tell you that. It’s the portion that says, a
renewal in which there is no distinction. A very wordy interpretation. The ESV does capture the point
much more succinctly. It just says here. Some translations say, where?
No matter how it’s translated, verse 11 is all hearkening back
to the idea of renewal. And Paul literally proceeds his
list with, where not there is. That’s literally what he says,
followed by four sets of references. We’ll look at each. If we follow
Paul carefully here, bear with me. If we follow Paul carefully
here, he just says that these four sets of things are not going
to be found in renewed Christians. The list that Paul produces here,
he presents, as I said, four sets of things that can be points
of contention. Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave, freeman. These are divisive elements.
And they will not be found among those who are renewed. That’s
what Paul is saying. Now, most of this is very clear,
but let’s take each of these sets individually. First, the
opposing nationalities of Greek and Jew. The Jewish nation, let’s
put it mildly, they had not endeared themselves to the heathen world. They really did believe they
were better than everyone else. It was not God’s design or intention,
but that’s where things were. And as such, Gentiles mirrored
the hatred that they felt from the Jews. Such ungodly hatred,
Paul says, will be done away in the renewed person. There
will be no national hierarchy, no racial division, no tables
set aside for a particular people group at which no other person
can sit. There will be no simmering friction,
no racial division. Paul echoes the same thought
in Galatians 3.28. Galatians 3.28 says, there is
neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, nor male nor female,
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. There will simply be no
ugly racial division in heaven. Neither, Paul says, secondly,
will there be circumcised and uncircumcised. This, of course,
was the great dividing feature of the Jewish people, a religious
right that separated them apart and, in their minds, above the
rest of the people of the world. It is this very religious ritual
that Paul disavows as being part of the gospel of Christ in the
book of Galatians. A renewed person will not be
divided from his fellow Christians over some religious ritual. The third set, it almost goes
without saying. The third set, Paul mentions
barbarian and the Scythian. These two references do not necessarily
establish a contrasting pair. A barbarian referred to a foreigner
who was perceived as ignorant because of the barrier of language. The greater population viewed
them as ignorant and uncivilized because of it. The Scythians
were not necessarily at odds with barbarians. Rather, they
were just the furthest extreme of what a barbarian was. They
were violent, warring, lawless, filthy people. They were considered
to be uncouth savages, wild, gypsy-like nomads. Paul’s point is simple here.
God will take and renew such men and women so that they will
no longer even resemble such low examples of humanity. You
need an example? Think of the Gerasene demoniac,
that when Jesus cast out the demons, the beautiful image there
at the end is that he was clothed and sitting at Jesus’ feet in
his right mind. What a beautiful image. The fourth
and final pair presents the opposing ends of a social spectrum, the
slave and the freeman. Slavery has always been practiced
throughout the world. It was prevalent in Paul’s day.
It was a scourge upon our own country. But Paul says definitively
that among those renewed by God and his grace, that inhuman arrangement
will not stand. There are no slaves in heaven. Slavery too will be abolished
forever. Paul says instead that Christians
will be renewed to a spiritual equity. There’s a fourth and final point. The Christian is being renewed
to godly wisdom, to God’s likeness, to spiritual equality, and fourthly,
to Christ’s likeness. Would you listen to the passage
in its entirety? He put on the new self who is
being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the
one who created him, a renewal in which there is no distinction
between Greek and Jew, circumcised, uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian,
slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all. The contrast that Paul establishes
with that little word, but, is with the previous statement of
verse 11. He’s setting forth a contrast
here between what renewal is not and here what renewal is. God’s spiritual renewal of our
new persons, that is as Christians, is not divided upon nationality
or religion or culture or social factors at all. Rather, it is
united, that is, one, aligned in Christ. Christ is in, pardon
me, Christ is all and in all. That sentence immediately reminds
us, does it not, of Paul’s personal conviction that he expresses
in Philippians 1, to me, to live is Christ. There is nothing else. This is a clear, unmistakable,
overwhelming prominence given to the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is as it should be. We observed this several weeks
ago, but it’s worth noting again in the Ephesians passage, Paul
emphasizes our Lord Jesus by putting him first in the passage.
Ephesians 4.20, you did not learn Christ in this way. But here
in Colossians 3, Paul emphasizes the same Savior by placing Him
as a cap to this discussion. Christ is all and in all. As one scholar paraphrased it,
Christ is everything and in everything. The Lord Jesus is not a way,
as we’ve talked about in the past. He is the way. He does
not merely make life better. He is life. He’s not just something, he’s
everything. No matter what the false teachers
of the region had to offer, they couldn’t begin to match what
these believers had in Jesus Christ. And the believer, Paul
informs, is little by little being renewed, being made one
with their Savior and aligned with all who believe in him.
Ultimately, How unpleasant to taste the bitter flavors of false
teaching. And how inappropriate to embrace
those divisive things. In Christ, all causes of division
are removed by our oneness in Him. No such differences can
even exist. Jesus Christ is not only supreme,
He is everything. As Paul says here, he dwells
in all, he is in all, immediately bonding and binding all believers
to himself for all eternity. No more will the passionate convictions
that we have here thrive and separate. Instead, Christ will
gather believers together as one. Think of it. Not only will there be neither
Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female, there will be
no racial divisions of any kind. Riches and poverty will not divide. There will be no social classes,
nor will there be division over religious practices. There will
be no bickering over the mode of baptism. There will be no
more arguments between cessationists and non-cessationists. Armenians
will be seated peaceably at the same table with Calvinists. Congregationalists
and those who believe in elder rule will fellowship together.
There will be no more squabbling between covenantalists and dispensationalists. Those who believe in high church
liturgy will worship right alongside those who believe in contemporary
worship. There will be no more battle
between those who read the King James exclusively and those who
read more modern versions. Why, heaven sounds like a wonderful
place. Would you pray? our merciful
King.