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“Therefore if 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 on the 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, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
“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 freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:1-11 NASB1995)
Here the truth of the gospel of our salvation is being taught. For first, by God-provided and God-persuaded faith in him, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God’s righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).
Therefore, we are to keep our minds set on what we are to be seeking after, which are the things of God and of his righteousness and holiness, and not the things of this sinful world. Why? Because, if our faith in Christ is genuine biblical faith, we have died with Christ to sin, we are daily dying to sin, by the Spirit, and we are walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, by the grace of God, in the power of God, and by His Spirit, which is not of our own doing. And, thus, we are doing the works of God which he has for us to do in living holy lives, pleasing to God, in his service.
Therefore, if this is where we are, we are those who consider our earthly bodies as dead to immorality. We are not those who deliberately and habitually are living in sin, without conscience, and without remorse, particularly in the areas of sexual immorality, all impurity, evil desire, greed, selfishness, idolatry, malice, slander, nasty speech, lying, and cheating, etc. For, if our faith in Jesus is genuine biblical faith, we are to be those who have put off our old sinful self with its evil practices, and we have put on the new self who is being renewed to true knowledge according to the image of God.
Now this is not saying that we are absolutely perfect now in every way or that we will never sin again (1 John 2:1-2), or that we could not fall back into sin for a period of time and need to be renewed in the Spirit in our walks of faith in obedience to the Lord. For we have examples of this in the Scriptures. But the Scriptures teach that if sin is our practice, and not obedience to God, that we do not have eternal life with God, regardless of what our lips might profess regarding Jesus as Lord. For not everyone who says, “Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Only those who obey God.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 1:18-32; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 3:23; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 10:19-39; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]
Nonetheless, we have many “wolves in sheep’s clothing” among us who are teaching the opposite of what Paul taught here in the book of Colossians and in all his other writings. They are predatory and manipulative and cunning and crafty people who spin webs of deceit, and who alter and dilute the gospel of our salvation by teaching Scriptures out of context in order to make them say what they do not say if taught in the correct biblical context. They are evil people who willfully distort the gospel and who teach lies to get people to believe the lies and to reject the truth, and they are successful.
So, they teach that we can just pray a prayer to receive Christ as our Savior or we can make a verbal profession of faith in Jesus and in his death and resurrection and now all our sins are forgiven, and heaven is guaranteed us when we die, and we can do nothing to make any of that go away, no matter if we keep on walking in sin while ignoring our Lord’s commands. But that is a lie from hell based on Scriptures taught out of context. Just read today’s passage and the noted Scriptures above and it should be abundantly clear that genuine salvation requires death to sin and obedience to our Lord.
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
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Keep Seeking the Things Above
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