Family Resemblance

Would the Lord’s people turn
once again to Colossians and to chapter three as we resume
our study here. As we began more than a month
ago, Paul has his readers in that very lengthy section applying
the truths that he taught them in the first two chapters. He’s
providing practical applications, 10 in all, of the doctrines that
he sets forth there. And while these lessons were
initially for the believers there in the tiny little mountain town
of Colossae, they are no less intended for believers of all
periods of church history, down even to us this morning. In this section, 3, 1 through
4, 6, Paul is giving powerful instruction about the Christian
life. And as we’ve seen so far in verses
1 through 4, he discussed what we called heaven-oriented living. That we are to keep seeking the
things above where Christ is. In verses five through eight,
he discusses sin mortifying living. That we are to consider as dead
the members of our earthly bodies to sin in every form. And then
in verses nine through 11, which passage we concluded last week,
he addressed truth grounded living, that we are not to lie to one
another. And that leads us to this new
couple of verses in verses 12 and 13, where we are brought
to Paul’s fourth application of these biblical doctrines.
And we’ve given these two verses a rather simple title, Christlike
Living. That’s what Paul’s discussing
here in 12 and 13. And we’ll read and consider those
verses momentarily. But in order to kind of set the
stage, I wanted to lay the groundwork of this passage with a simple
illustration of a very common phenomenon. Most often, when
we meet a couple’s new baby, or we even observe their grown
or growing children, we notice a distinctive resemblance. Sometimes
this happens even when we see a child next to his or her grandparent. We can see features that are
familiar. The resemblance may be seen in
a child’s hair color, or the color of their eyes, or their
body type, or even their smile. There are many, many features
in which a child may capture a family likeness, a resemblance
of some physical attribute that immediately identifies them as
being related to someone else, a sibling, a parent, a grandparent. And essentially, that’s what
Paul says here in verses 12 and 13 regarding our spiritual features. There are things, Paul insists,
elements, features, characteristics, in which a child of God will
present a resemblance of God himself. That shouldn’t surprise
us. That resemblance, however, is
not observed in physical characteristics, a person’s hair color, or their
chin, or their nose, or their smile, but rather it will be
seen in spiritual characteristics, as we will see this morning.
Now, there are times, of course, where a child does not physically
resemble other members of the family, neither siblings or parents.
But a child of God will always and inevitably resemble his or
her Heavenly Father. They must. What is more, a child
may possess certain physical characteristics at birth, such
as the color of their hair, And there are other distinctive features
into which they may grow and develop over time. And so it
is in the spiritual realm. There are characteristics that
will be seen early in the life of a child of God, even shortly
after a person’s conversion. And there are other features
that will become more evident over time. Both will be seen
eventually. Well, Paul addresses all of that
here in these two verses. Immediately recognizable spiritual
features, as well as features that will be developed over time.
And so now if you would, if you would glance down at chapter
three, verses 12 and 13, we’ll take just those two verses this
morning. And actually, I’m going to switch
gears here. If you would, go back just a few verses. Go back, if
you would. Now I’ve switched gears. Now
I’ve got to change gears. Go back to verse 5, if you would. Therefore, consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion,
evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is
because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon
the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked
when you were living in them. But now you also put them all
aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from
your mouth. 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, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and
in all. So, as those who have been chosen
of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness,
humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, and
forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone,
just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. It’ll become
clear why I wanted to double back and pick up some of those
earlier verses in just a moment. So the fourth practical application
here in Colossians 3 is Christ-like living, where Paul is addressing
our spiritual family resemblance. Paul’s focus here in these verses
is believers. those who have already placed
their faith in Christ for salvation. And as we were reminded last
week, as believers, we are constantly
being renewed. Just as it is true that we have
laid aside the old self and put on the new, that new self, as
we saw, is under a constant state of renewal. And what Paul is
talking about here in 12 and 13 is the progress of the renewing
Christian. The Christian who is being renewed
is going to show progress, and Paul paints that picture for
us here. The believing individual is saved,
and there is a distinctive and divine characteristic that may
be seen in him or her, But he or she is not yet perfected.
He’s not yet glorified. There are features and characteristics
that can and will be developed. over time. Let me give you a
bit of a roadmap here for this passage where we’re heading for
the next couple of verses. The first thing that Paul tells
us about Christian who is being renewed is that he or she will
have an established identity. Upon conversion to Christ, there
must be certain God-given characteristics that are evident in their life.
And we see this in verse 12, where Paul speaks of those who
have been chosen of God, holy and beloved. These things will
be evident characteristics in the life of the child of God. A person cannot be converted
without them. They must be chosen, they will
be holy, and they certainly have been loved. We’ll come back to
that portion of the verse in just a moment, but let me show
you the layout of the rest of the passage. Immediately after
we learn about our established identity, Paul tells us secondly
about our developing character. I alluded to this reality a moment
ago. We see the characteristics to
be developed in the latter portion of verse 12, where Paul says,
put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, and gentleness. These are the features into which
a child of God will grow. They must. They may be so faint
in some as to be undetectable in a believer’s life for a time. But if the Spirit of God is at
work in the Christian, these qualities will begin to emerge.
As I always say, the same God who saves us is the God who sanctifies
us. He will see it through. And as
these are among the products, the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s
work in the Christian’s life, they will be manifest in time. Now we’ll consider each of those
characteristics soon, but there’s yet another feature to be developed
in the believer’s life. You might’ve thought that I skipped
it. You see at the very end of verse 12, patience. And you might
be thinking that I forgot to read it. I didn’t. You see, this one characteristic
is isolated, in a sense, from the other spiritual features
named there in verse 12. And it seems that this attribute
or characteristic is so important to Paul that he elaborates on
this one point in verse 13. I didn’t forget about it. And
what he discusses there is the expectation of the believer’s
reciprocal graciousness. Ultimately here, Paul defines
patience not only as graciously bearing up with one another,
kind of a sanctified toleration, but also as forgiving one another. And Paul appends a special argument
to this grace of forgiveness. It is to be reciprocal. Since Jesus has forgiven me,
I am called, expected, mandated to forgive others. We all are. Well, that’s the roadmap of where
we’re heading in this passage. But before we get ahead of ourselves, and begin working on characteristics
to be developed, we need to catch a glimpse of ourselves in the
spiritual mirror, as it were, to see what qualities ought to
be evident if we are truly in Christ. What is there already? And for this, I wanna take you
back to verse 12 and begin looking at our real spiritual family
likeness, the progress that a believer is supposed to be making if he
or she is renewed. And the first thing that Paul
presents here is our established identity. We should be able to
look in the mirror and see certain God-given features. Look at the
first portion of verse 12 where Paul says, so as those who have
been chosen of God, holy and beloved. As I mentioned a moment
ago, there are those physical features that may be seen early
in a child’s life. And there are features that develop
over time. And it’s the same in the spiritual
realm. as Paul moves first to discuss those immediately recognizable
characteristics of the child of God. Now, as you recall, in
the immediately preceding sections, the very reason that I wanted
to go back and read from verse 5 forward, Paul employed one
of his favorite metaphors. He did so in speaking of the
Christian life. And you’ll remember his illustration.
You can glance down if you wish. I’ll point you to a few references. You remember his illustration.
Put off, lay aside, and put on. Almost as if a person is putting
on a garment. We saw it in verse 8. put them
all aside, anger, wrath, and the like. We saw it again in
verse nine, where Paul observes that believers have laid aside
the old self. And then in verse 10, he says
that they have put on the new self. Well, Paul really is just
continuing that illustration here in verses 12 and 13, except
that now he begins to really detail what this new self is
supposed to look like. It’s a simple transition. Basically,
he uses the word then. Both the New American and the
ESV translate it the same way, then. But it could appropriately
be translated with the word so, giving us the result, or therefore,
Well, all would be perfectly reasonable translations because
Paul is drawing a conclusion here in verses 12 and 13. Given all that he has said in
those previous verses from 5 to 11, then what? He’s continuing
to put off put on discussion, what are the features of the
new self? And so that’s the connection
to the previous verses. And allow me please to point
out the simple sentence before we get too far from shore into
deep water. The simple sentence is this,
put on compassion, kindness, and the like. And the command
put on is literally the very first part of this entire sentence. It’s one word in the Greek, two
words in the English put on. It’s the very first thing that
Paul says. And once again, put on is an
imperative. It’s a command. And this simple
sentence really communicates the action expected of us. Paul is urging, commanding his
readers to do something. But I have that simple sentence,
according to our outline, is actually serving as point number
two in that outline. You see, there’s a string of
words here, a verbal clause, if you wanna get technical, that
is embedded here, and we need to deal with that first. It actually
establishes the foundation for the simple sentence. It’s that
clause in verse 12 that begins with the little word as. And
it’s that way, it’s translated that way in all of the major
translations. The New American Standard, as
those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved. The ESV,
as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved. the King James or the
new King James, as the elect of God, holy and beloved. And it’s this portion of the
sentence that speaks not about what we are supposed to do, about
what features we are supposed to develop over time, but about
what God has already done in us. First of all, he chose us,
he set us apart, and he loved us. Those are all things God
had to do for us. And Paul says that they are done.
They’re accomplished. They’re already features of our
life if we are believers in Christ. As believers in Christ, there
are things that we are commanded and expected to do, but here,
point number one, Paul is speaking about something certain, something
that we already possess, something that is God-given. It is our
established identity. Now, please bear with me and
glance down at the passage once again, and notice that when Paul
says, as those He is addressing his readers without any doubt
of their spiritual standing. It’s not whether or if they are
God’s people, but since they are God’s people that Paul is
addressing them. And he observes three things
about these believers, three distinguishing features of the
child of God, chosen, holy, and loved. These are the three significant
features that I want to look at this morning. They are not presented as character
qualities to be pursued. We can’t pursue divine election. We can’t pursue the kind of holiness
that Paul is speaking about here. And we can’t really pursue being
loved by God. I’ll explain all of that in a
moment as it unfolds. These three things are set forth
rather as features which God has already blessed the believer
in Christ. Let’s consider each of these
attributes of the child of God. Please bear with me. I want to
do just a little grammar before one three-sentence paragraph. The words chosen and holy are
both adjectives describing the believer. The third word, loved,
is a verb. And so that this little clause
could well be translated like this. Chosen of God, holy, and
who have been loved. All three are describing the
Christian. All three describe the child
of God. These are the distinguishing
features of believers in Christ. When Paul refers explicitly to
those whom God has chosen, he points to the solemn truth that
they are, by a special work of God’s grace, rescued and now
separated out of the world from which they were saved. This,
of course, is an echo of the great doctrine of divine election. There’s no other way to look
at it. We don’t need to be afraid of this truth or shy away from
it. It’s biblical truth. There’s
probably no greater hot button issue among Christians than the
topic of divine election. And it’s important to say that
wherever a person lands on this subject, Whatever opinion they
own, whatever conviction they have over time, it does not affect
one’s salvation. It won’t make you less or more
saved. I love the way the famous preacher
of the gospel, George Whitefield, said it. Let a man go to the
primary school of repentance and faith. before he attends
the university of election and predestination. This is not the
material for determining one’s salvation. But an understanding
of this doctrine, though it’s not a prerequisite for salvation,
it is an important doctrine. It is something that we need
to consider. Election itself is a thoroughly biblical concept. It’s an expression of God’s sovereignty. His sovereignty rules over all,
Psalm 103, 19, and because God is sovereign, he does what he
pleases and when he pleases for his own purposes and glory. God’s pattern of sovereign choice
was established in the Old Testament. Israel was chosen. Moses was
chosen. The tribe of Levi was chosen. King David was chosen. Prophets
were chosen. Apostles in the New Testament
were chosen. And so it is here. Paul is referring
to the gracious act of God’s sovereign choice of believers
for salvation. It’s an exercise of his divine
sovereignty. The verb form of the word here
speaks of the divine action of choosing. The word here in Colossians
3 is the adjective form of the word. It just refers to action
that has already been completed. That’s why we can’t pursue divine
election. We can’t choose to be chosen. It’s the word that is used to
describe someone or something as having been selected or chosen
for some purpose. What Paul is speaking about here
is the divine initiative in salvation, which is accomplished in each
believer’s salvation. Now, I’ve said before, that all
Christians believe in the doctrine of election. They have to. It’s a biblical word. It’s there. They just explained the nature
of it differently. Many will try to argue that God
chose those who chose him. Perhaps you’ve heard that argument.
Or that he saw something so irresistible in you that he was inclined to
move in your direction. It’s absolutely not true. Biblically
speaking, election is unconditional. There was nothing in us that
moved God in our direction. It was purely out of his abundant
mercy that God saved any of us. That means we did not earn it.
We did not deserve it. We cannot repay it. The absolutely clear passage
on this whole subject is Ephesians chapter 1, and it seems that
we turn to Ephesians at least once a week anyway, so if you
would, let’s just do it. Ephesians chapter 1. What I want to do is just read
through briefly this passage, and then I’ll go back and I’ll
show you how unconditional election is. It’s overwhelming. Ephesians, if you’re in chapter
one, look at verses three through six. Blessed be, oh, how very
happy. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual
blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and blameless before him. In love, He predestined
us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory
of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved,
that is, in Christ. Now, what Paul does here, he
uses both of those big, frightening words. He uses the word for election. He chose us in verse four, and
it’s as if he takes a deep breath, dips his pen in the ink, and
comes back with the other word in verse five. In love, he predestined
us. Well, I told you that there were
There’s an overwhelming measure of unconditionality in this passage,
and if you would, look first at verse four. He chose us in
Him, that is, in Christ. Christ was the motivating factor. He’s speaking there of the sphere
of His choosing, that when God looked, He didn’t see each of
us individually. He saw us in Christ. Secondly,
the second mark of his unconditional election is the timing of it. He didn’t wait to see how you
were born and what you would look like and what family you
were in and how much money you might make. He didn’t look at
any of that. He chose you before the foundation
of the world. It’s the timing of his choosing
that marks its unconditionality. He had nothing to go on. Of course,
God and His sovereignty could see into the annals of future,
but He makes His determination in eternity pass. Thirdly, He
chose us. Look at the purpose for which
He chose us. That we should be holy and blameless. Not because we were holy and
blameless. He didn’t pick any good people. He didn’t pick any
that were sinless. Fourthly, the motivation for
this election. Look at verse 5. Now, verse 5
is a classic situation where you have a prepositional phrase
there that the translators didn’t know quite where to put it. And
even in the New American Standard, the translators kind of punt
here. Because what they do is they
put in love as a precursor to verse 5, and that’s entirely
possible in the Greek, but it could just as easily fit with
verse 4. He chose us in love. That was
what motivated God. But here he just says, in love
he predestined us. Either way, the motivation for
God choosing us was just his divine love, not because of anything
in us. Fifth, the application of this
motivation. In love he predestined us to
adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself. God looked
down and he saw this ragtag bunch of vile sinners and he drew some
for himself to adopt into his own family. It’s an absolutely
spectacular truth. Number six, look at the reason
behind that motive. He predestined us according to
the kind intention of his will. It wasn’t because of you. It
wasn’t because of what he saw that you could accomplish. It
wasn’t because of your great faithfulness. It was because
of his will, the kind intention. He wanted to, simply put, seven. I lost count. Seventh feature here of the unconditional
nature of divine election. Look at the purpose, the reason
behind the reason. To the praise of the glory of
his grace. He predestined you for his own glory. He predestined
you, He chose you for His own glory. And what a beautiful thought
that is for the believer. There wasn’t anything in us.
God didn’t get a bargain, a deal, a benefit in drawing you to salvation. It was purely because of His
grace. Now, that said, we can go back
to Colossians if you would. But that unconditional nature
of divine election, it does provide us spiritual benefits. We come away with a right understanding
of election, and it just changes things. First of all, it brings
about humility. It crushes human pride, because
we contribute nothing to our salvation. Secondly, it promotes
evangelism. If we are believers, we know
as long as there’s an earth and we’re on it, we know that there
are unbelievers out there whom God has set his love upon that
we are called to proclaim Christ to. Thirdly, it exemplifies God’s
grace. This just tells us of the unmerited
favor of God. And whenever anybody talks about
grace, that’s one of the easiest definitions to throw out. It’s
unmerited favor. You’re right. It’s absolutely
and completely unmerited. It also gives God all the glory. And it produces joy in the heart
of the believer. We know we didn’t deserve it.
And yet, for his own purposes in grace, God moved first. And finally, it promotes holiness.
We look and we see that if we were chosen for this, then by
God’s grace, we need to grow. And what it does here in Colossians
3, is to immediately call to mind their blessed and present
position. That as God’s elect, they were
marked out from eternity past, and as such, they bear a special
God-given character. And so Paul says, first of all,
that believers in Christ are elect, chosen. And the second
feature that he highlights is very closely related to that.
He notes that they are holy. Now, this familiar word is used
about 250 times in the New Testament. It’s often used of God’s ethical
or moral holiness, his moral purity, his being separated from
all sin. This is the defining term, after
all, that is so often used to identify the third member of
the Trinity, right? The Holy Spirit. Jesus himself
is often spoken of as holy in this sense. He is the holy one
of God. And this word certainly can be
used of believers. Ephesians 1, 4, which verse we
just read, that we would be holy and blameless before him. That
should be the direction, the trajectory of every believer’s
life. Colossians 1.22, which verse
we looked at several weeks ago, in order to present you before
him holy and blameless before him and beyond reproach. 1 Peter 1.15, you know this verse
well, like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all
your behavior, Because it is written, you shall be holy for
I am holy. This is absolutely to be the
direction of the believer’s life. That is the ultimate goal. But
that isn’t the way that Paul is using this word here in Colossians
3. Believers are called to moral
purity. I want you to hear me say that.
We’re called to holiness in that sense. But we’re not perfected
in that. We’re not actually holy yet. So Paul isn’t speaking here of
those who are holy in the sense of being morally pure, purified
of sin. So what then does he mean? There’s
yet another way that Paul uses this word, and plentifully so.
He uses it also in the sense of being separated out from a
common, ordinary use to a special or holy use. The word is often
used in this way of many things in the New Testament. There are
references to a holy place, a holy city. holy prophets, holy scriptures,
and more, but most often it is used with reference to believers
who are set apart, holy in that sense. And in being set apart,
consecrated, they are indeed called and trending towards moral
purity. If a person is set apart, they
will be moving in the direction of personal holiness and one
day perfected in it. Most often, however, the word
is translated as saints, set-apart ones. And in fact, we’ve already
crossed this word in Colossians three times already, and each
of them take this same exact sense. Colossians 1, 2, where
Paul begins his epistle, to the saints and faithful brethren
in Christ who are at Colossae. In Colossians 1, 4, he returns
to this thought, since we heard of your faith in Christ and the
love which you have for all the saints. Let’s set apart ones. Colossians 112, giving thanks
to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance
of the saints in light. So Paul uses this word in this
manner dozens of times in reference to fellow believers. And to a
degree, it’s unfortunate that we’ve allowed others to misappropriate
this term. And we need to take it back.
Roman Catholicism, particularly, has effectively taken this word
away from Christ’s people to make it an unbiblical thing.
To refer to a special supergroup of people who have achieved some
high notoriety in the Catholic Church. Not to Paul. We are God’s holy ones. We are God’s saints. Everyone who names the name of
Christ, everyone who has come to faith in Christ, no matter
how young in the Lord they are, no matter whether they possess
a life of good works, working with lepers, the poor, what have
you, these are the saints of God set apart for his use. This is the sense of holiness
to which Paul is using the word here. It’s not as if he’s referring
those who have come to some pristine level of sinless perfection. Rather, he’s referring to them
even in reference to having been chosen. God chose them and set
them apart for his own glory. They are set apart for a holy
use, saints consecrated to God. They’ve been taken apart from
out of the sinful world from which God finds them and separated
out for a holy use. Well, there’s a third feature
that we need to observe. As we glance in the mirror, not
only have we been chosen and set apart but we’ve been beloved. A third magnificent feature to
observe, not only has God chosen us and set us apart, he’s loved
us. It’s not so much that the Colossian believers here were
beloved by Paul, although that was true. What Paul is talking
about here is they were beloved by God himself. And they were
loved in a very special and practical way. As for the term beloved,
this too is a special word, full of meaning, and it should not
be taken or understood here as what is simply called a nominative,
another name for someone, the beloved. Rather, it’s Paul’s
way of reminding his readers, including us, in the most straightforward
and direct manner, that not only are they God’s chosen, not only
are they set apart, holy saints by God’s calling, but they are
so because God has loved them. It may be hard to comprehend
those first two features, chosen, set apart. We see these truths
clearly taught in scripture, and we may understand those two
concepts clearly enough, but we weren’t there in eternity
past when God chose us, and we certainly don’t deserve it even
now, and we do not fully understand it. But likewise, with the idea
of being set apart to a holy use, we can’t easily see what
God is doing sometimes, or why. But God’s love for us? We get that. It’s nearly impossible
to miss that. One of the clearest and most
understandable truths of Scripture is God’s magnanimous love for
His children. You knew that I would cite this
verse as soon as you probably heard that word. For the world
of sinners, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish,
but have eternal life. And Paul echoes that in his own
writings. Romans 5, 8, God demonstrates
his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us, that’s love. We know that God has loved us,
Titus 3, 4. When the kindness of God our
Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us. And it’s
absolutely clear, once we place our faith in Christ, once we
are believers, it’s absolutely clear to us that God has loved
us. Romans 5.5, the love of God has
been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was
given to us. We know, and it’s not just a
warm fuzzy, we know that God has loved us. Romans 8.39, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. Galatians 2.20, he loved me and
gave himself up for me. We know that Christ loved us
because he died on our behalf. Ephesians 2.4, because of his
great love with which he loved us. 2 Thessalonians 2.16, he
loved us and has given us eternal comfort and good hope by his
grace. And then of course, 1 John 4,
10, he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation of
her. If there’s any truth that we
can lay hold of, that we can grasp and understand and really
comprehend, it’s that God has loved us. That we understand. We understand that God loved
us because he gave us life to begin with. He gives us every
good and perfect gift. He sent his own son to die for
our sins. He draws us to himself through
Christ, what Christ so selflessly accomplished on the cross. He
saved us, he gifted us, he uses us. He continues every day blessing
us. We know that he loves us. We understand that God loves
us. And so when Paul expresses here
to the Colossian believers and us, that we are his beloved,
we get it. We understand that. God has said
his immovable love upon us as believers. This is the wonderful
word used by Paul to remind his people of this truth. 1 Thessalonians 1.4, brethren,
be loved by God. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, brethren,
be loved by the Lord. Simple reminders. And if those
first two terms, chosen and holy, were not enough, Paul urges the
point home that they were as the apple of God’s eye, special
objects of his affection. He loves you. He says that believers,
all believers, including those in the Colossians, they’re object
of God’s generous love, his very special affection. The point
here that Paul is making is that first of all, as believers in
Christ, we bear a family likeness to God himself. He has already
impressed upon every believer these three unmistakable features. having been chosen by Him, having
been set apart by Him, and being undoubtedly those loved by Him. Now literally, as I said at the
outset, Paul’s command to put on stands first in the sentence. It’s one sentence, verse 12 and
13. But before he even tells his
readers what to put on, he issues this undergirding clause, as
those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved. Why? Why does Paul interrupt himself
like this? The reason is, and it’s clear
that when Paul reminds the Colossians and us of our current actual
condition, that we are those who have been rescued from the
domain of darkness by God’s marvelous and saving grace. Because we
are those who have been chosen, set apart, and so obviously loved
by him, we have an established identity. It’s only reasonable
then that if God chose and set apart and loved us, if he has
saved us, calling us out of darkness to light, that he has the right
to make explicit demands of us. This is the basis. This is the
foundation of Paul’s very straightforward command, put on. And we’ll take
it up there next Lord’s Day to consider our developing character. Would you humble yourself in
his glory?