Being a Spiritually Authentic Person - part

Anyone who visits Niagara Falls will notice a famous bridge just downstream from the Falls. It’s called the Rainbow Bridge and it spans not only the Niagara River, but the border between Canada and the United States. That means that it has one support in Canada and the other support, at the other end, in the United States.

In that way, the Rainbow Bridge is a picture of a Christian, because a Christian is someone who has a foot planted in two worlds—one foot is planted in heaven and the other foot is planted here on earth.

Certain spiritual transactions take place when we place our trust in Jesus Christ. We saw some of these last week:

we go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive
we become identified with Christ in his death and resurrection
we have all our sins forgiven by God
our legal guilt for breaking the Law of God is cancelled
we are liberated from captivity under Satan

These are spiritual realities—things which take place in the spiritual realm. We have an enormous stake in these things. We have, as it were, one foot in heaven.

But we are still living here on earth. Do these spiritual realities have any implications for the way we live our lives in the here and now? Do they make any immediate, practical difference in the way I conduct myself as a person…

as a husband or a wife?
as a child or a parent?
as an employer or an employee?

Indeed they do! And that is what Paul turns his attention to in this next section of his letter to the Colossians. Duty follows doctrine. There are certain earthly responsibilities we have as we act on the truth of these spiritual realities.

There is a common pattern in Paul’s epistles. He begins with doctrine and follows with duty. The indicative precedes the imperative. First he teaches us about principles, then he teaches us about practice.

In the first two chapters of Colossians, Paul has told us about the great spiritual realities of the Gospel. In the last two chapters of Colossians, he’s going to go on to say: “How shall we then live? How can we take these great heavenly truths and translate them into visible earthly behaviour?”

Because the Lord wants us to be spiritually authentic Christians. A spiritually authentic Christian is one who practices what he preaches—or perhaps better—one who behaves what he believes.

So let’s delve into the second half of the book of Colossians and see how we can become spiritually authentic people.

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Now remember, a Christian has a foot in two worlds. One foot is in heaven and the other foot is on earth. And Paul tells us here what our orientation ought to be if we’re going to live the Christian life authentically—it ought to be a heavenly orientation. He tells us that we ought to be seeking the heavenly.

If you are a farmer driving a tractor and you want to plow a straight furrow across a field, you have to focus on a target at the other side of the field and keep your eyes on it. You can’t be looking around at the scenery; you can’t be looking behind you at the lovely furrow you’ve just plowed; you can’t be looking over at the farmer who’s plowing in the field next to yours. You’ve got to keep your focus on one thing.

And the same is true in the Christian life. If I want to be authentic as a Christian, I need to be seeking the heavenly. I need to ask myself four questions:

1. Is my heart in the right place?

Is my heart set on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God? The expression here in Greek literally means “to seek diligently”. We talk about having our heart set on something.

When I was a little boy of about nine, I can remember that my birthday was approaching and I had my heart set on a certain toy that I wanted. It was all I could think about. I day-dreamed about it, and thought about how wonderful it would be to own it. And when my birthday came, that’s what I received.

Some people have their hearts set on earthly things—things which are passing away. You talk to them and that’s all they talk about. They are really focused on those things. You can soon tell, by talking with such a person, where their heart is.

Paul reminds us that, as Christians, we have been identified with Jesus Christ. When Christ rose from the dead, we rose too. And now Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of God. The fact that he is seated means that his work is finished. The fact that he is seated at the right hand of God means that he is in a position of ultimate power and authority.

And our life is hidden with Christ in God (v. 3). This refers to our firm and secure relationship with him. It is a relationship which isn’t visible yet—it exists in the spiritual realm and in that sense, it’s hidden from earthly view—but someday it will be plain for us to see. So that’s where our hearts ought to be. Our hearts—our loyalty, our allegiance, our priorities, our hopes and aspirations—ought to be with Christ in heaven

2. Is my mind in the right place?

In verse 2, Paul says “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” If your heart is set on heavenly things, then you’re going to want to give your mind to those things as well. The expression literally means to “think on” the things above. Bishop Lightfoot said “We must not only seek heaven, we must think heaven”.

We need to begin to see things in terms of eternity. We can no longer think and live as though this world is all that matters—we need to cultivate an eternal perspective.

You say “But that’s going to make us so heavenly minded that we’re no earthly good!” Not at all! The teaching in these last two chapters of Colossians is tremendously practical—we find out how to be more effective as people, how to be better husbands and wives, how to have a healthier family life, how to be successful in the workplace, and so on.

But it all begins here—by setting our hearts and our minds on heaven. So that we do these earthly things with heaven and eternity in view.

What are you filling your mind with these days? What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you thinking about? Are you training yourself to think about heaven? Are you cultivating an eternal perspective on life?

Notice that both of these statements—set your hearts on things above, and set your minds on things above—are commands. They are imperatives. That means that we are supposed to do something about them. The onus is on me to obey these commands. And the key to whether or not I’m going to obey has to do with the next question:

3. Have I attended my own funeral?

What does that mean “Have I attended my own funeral”? What kind of question is that?

Simply this: if I am a Christian, I am dead. Like the title of the film, I am a dead man (or a dead woman) walking. I am dead in that my old self—the “old me” has died—I have been crucified with Christ.

Now the “old me” that died was very much alive to sin. Before I became a Christian, sin was my master and I was its slave. But now that I’m a Christian, the “old me” is dead. And I need to remember that. I need, as it were, to have attended the funeral service for the “old me”. I need, as Paul said in Romans 6:11 to reckon myself dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When I feel sin pulling at my heartstrings; when I feel temptation coming on strong; I need to go back to that funeral parlor. I need to see my old self lying in that casket. And I need to say “Satan, if you’re talking to me, you’re talking to a dead man. You don’t have any power over me anymore.” The Bible says “anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” So that means that when Satan says ‘Jump’, I’m not gonna say ‘How high?’ anymore. Because I belong to Jesus now, and my life is hidden with him in God.”

If you’re having trouble visualizing this—if you’re having trouble attending your own funeral—you want to read Romans 6, because there you find the funeral service for the “old you”.

4. Am I ready for Christ’s appearing?

Look at verse 4. “When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Right now, our life is hidden with Christ in God, but one day Christ is going to appear visibly and bodily and we will be united with him. What a great day that will be!

But did you know that there are many Christians who are secretly dreading the return of Christ. Why? Because they don’t have their hearts and their minds in the right place. They are living earthbound lives. They’ve set their affections on things below rather than things above.

So when Christ returns to receive us to himself, they’re not going to be happy and they’re not going to be ready. They are going to be ashamed at his coming.

Perhaps the best barometer of spiritual authenticity is how you feel about the Lord’s coming. The early Christians used to say “Maranatha”, an Aramaic expression which meant “Come quickly, Lord!” Is “Maranatha!” the desire of your heart this morning?

So four questions to ask yourself as you seek the heavenly:

Is my heart in the right place?
Is my mind in the right place?
Have I attended my own funeral?
Am I ready for Christ’s appearing?

Well, every coin has two sides. And every Bible truth has two sides as well. The positive side of living the Christian life authentically is to seek the heavenly. And the negative side of it is to slay the earthly. Look at verse 5…

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature

Now that expression “put to death” is a pretty strong expression. It means to “make dead; to exterminate; to kill completely” and the verb tense that Paul uses indicates that we are to do it urgently and decisively. Half measures will not do.

Picture a man who is working on a giant machine in a factory. This machine has several huge rollers and pulleys. All of a sudden, the man gets his sleeve caught in one of the rollers. The machine begins to pull his arm in. In a matter of seconds, it is going to crush his shoulder and his head, so with his last ounce of strength, he grabs an ax with his free hand and chops his arm off, and saves his own life.

Sound pretty brutal? That’s how severely we are to deal with sin in our lives. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount said “If your eye causes you to stumble into sin, gouge it out. If your hand causes you to sin, chop it off. Don’t take half measures! Better you should go into the kingdom of heaven maimed than go to hell whole.”

Now what are we to deal with that way? The things which belong to our earthly nature. You see, although the “old me” has died with Christ, my old nature still clings to me. My old nature is like a spiritual hangover from my previous way of life. It’s those old habits and attitudes and appetites that are left over from my lifestyle before I became a Christian.

And I can’t compromise or take half measures with those things. The only thing to do with them is exterminate them. Take drastic action. Kill them off.

Now Paul lists some of these behaviors, and he divides the list into two parts—sensual sins—sins of appetite—and social sins—sins of attitude.

Look at verse 5 again…

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.

The term “sexual immorality” is derived from the Greek word “porneia” from which we get our word “pornography”. Impurity means “unclean thoughts”. Lust and evil desires refer to natural passions that are out of control. And greed means always wanting more. And when you always want more, you are acting as though you are the only person that matters—you’re putting yourself at the center of your universe. And that is why Paul says that greed is idolatry.

These temptations are extremely common in our society today. Everywhere we go in our culture, we are assaulted with the message that sexual immorality is an exciting and desirable lifestyle.

God gave us our desire for sex. He built that appetite into us and it is beautiful and good when we follow God’s guidelines for it. But what we are seeing today in our society is a blatant disregard for God’s principles, and an uncontrolled pursuit of the passion and the appetite for its own sake.

And that is devastating. It is devastating to individuals, to marriages, to families, and to the entire moral fabric of society.

And as Christians, we are subject to this temptation. So how are we to deal with it? Paul tells us right here in this passage. Kill it. Don’t take half measures. Don’t fool around with this kind of temptation. You cannot stand around and rationalize when you are being tempted to commit sensual sin.

Do what Joseph did—run for your life. Take drastic measures. If you see something that tempts you, don’t look at it again. If you have something in your house that entices you this way, get rid of it. Cut it off, gouge it out.

Uncontrolled passion, sex outside of marriage, evil thoughts, impurity—these are things that God is going to judge—not because he’s against sex. God invented sex. But he is against the behaviour would take that beautiful gift and cheapen it and misuse it and destroy it.

The temptation to sensual sin—to take our physical appetites outside of God’s boundaries—is a very powerful part of our old nature that we have to fight to exterminate.

Next, Paul gives us a list of social sins—sins not of appetite, but of attitude. Look at verse 8…

But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

G. Campbell Morgan once called this list of social sins the “sins in good standing”. The reason he called them that is that they somehow seem to be more acceptable to us than the previous list of sins.

We have become so accustomed to displays of bad temper, critical attitudes, lying or telling half-truths, gossip, and coarse joking that we’re no longer upset or convicted about such things. Yet the Bible labels them as sins and lists them right next to the sensual sins.

What’s the difference between anger and rage? Anger is when you do a slow burn. Rage is when you explode all at once. Malice is when you really desire to hurt someone—it is sinful anger taken to the next level.

Slander is when you speak untruthfully about another person and try to tear him down; to damage his reputation. Filthy language is just that—using foul words, coarse humor, obscenity. It’s pretty prevalent in our culture, but there’s nothing attractive about talking like that.

Lying is when you distort the truth for your own benefit. It’s possible to tell a lie even when your words are technically correct, if you intend to communicate something other than the truth. And when you lie, you’re doing the devil’s work for him because the devil is a liar and the father of lies, as Jesus said.

These are the behaviors that we are to put off, or rid ourselves of—the sensual sins and the social sins. Paul likens it to changing our clothes. Look at verses 9-10. He says “Don’t do these things…

since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

It’s a picture of taking off one set of clothes and putting on another.

In January, 1945, the Soviet Red Army was advancing through Poland, driving the Nazi armies back toward Germany with relentless hammer-blows. On January 18, the first Russian spearheads made a devastating discovery. On that day, they reached the gates of Auschwitz—the dreaded Nazi death camp—which up til then had been nothing more than a sinister rumour.

There at Auschwitz they found the remains of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles, Russians, Gypsies, and others who had been systematically exterminated. Auschwitz was murder on an industrial scale—a death factory that defied belief.

But the Russians found more than dead bodies at Auschwitz. There were thousands of prisoners still living—barely. They were starving and shivering in the mid-winter cold. Their bodies were not much more than emaciated skeletons, and their eyes were hollow and empty and haunted by the things they had seen and heard. They wore gray and blue striped pyjamas—the universal uniform of the concentration camp inmate. The Jewish prisoners had a faded yellow star of David sown on the breast of their filthy, torn, lice-infested clothing.

These living prisoners had been simply abandoned. Their SS guards had fled a couple of days previously in the face of the Russian advance. But the prisoners remained at the camp, wandering around dazed and in shock—not sure of where to go or what to do. Most of them had lost their entire families in the Holocaust.

The International Red Cross workers who arrived several days later, had to decide what to do with them. These people were liberated and were officially free to go. But they certainly didn’t look or feel free.

The first order of business was to get them some new clothes. Each liberated prisoner was given a fresh, clean outfit. They would strip off their filthy concentration camp rags, torn, dirty, full of fleas and lice, foul with excrement, some of them caked with blood and puss. Then they would shower, and put on their new set of clothes—the clothes which said “Now you are free.” Their old rags, which they had worn every day up til then, were burned in a great bonfire.

That is the picture that Paul draws for us here. We take off our old set of clothes and put on the new clothes that speak of our freedom in Christ. And in two weeks we are going to look at those new clothes, and the new character that Christ puts within us.

One more thing in this passage. Jesus is our spiritual liberator. When we walk out of Satan’s concentration camp, we find that there are no more barriers of hostility and prejudice and hatred that cut us off from other people. “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” (v. 11)

As new creatures, we are one in Christ. No more divisions based on nationality or race or ethnic background or social status. No more ethnic barriers or tribal animosities. Christ, our liberator, brings us all together. That’s what the church is—a place where people of all nationalities are one. I’m glad that Erindale Bible Chapel is a little picture of that.

Seek the heavenly. Slay the earthly. And you’ll be a spiritually authentic person.