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| Daughter of Zion, behold thy salvation cometh. The Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard and ye shall have gladness of heart. Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel: Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock. |
Saturday after Populus Zion
If
then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not
on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in
God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in
glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication,
uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because
of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, in
which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But now you yourselves
are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out
of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man
with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge
according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor
Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but
Christ is all and in all (Colossians 3:1-11).
Paul continues his familiar
call for Christians to live in accordance with their new nature, rather than
according to their old, sinful nature. The one who has been baptized has been buried
with Christ, and he has been raised with Christ through faith.[1] He
is a new creation, though he will indeed fight with his flesh and its evil
desires all the days of his life. Paul encourages us to seek those things which
are above. We are to set our minds on things above, not the things on the
earth. This is not a call for Christians to isolate themselves from the world,
and live in a cave constantly chanting only prayers. No, as he writes
elsewhere, we are called to deny the lusts of the flesh and walk in the Spirit,
i.e. act according to our new man, since we now live in the Spirit, and those
who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.[2] In
our baptism we died. Our life is hidden with Christ in God. In short, we are
called to act like it.
We must understand, however,
two things. First, this putting to death of our members is a process; it does
not happen instantly upon our conversion. Paul demonstrates this when he
writes, in his distress, the words of Romans, chapter seven:
I
find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another
law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.[3]
Second, our justification comes
first, and then our sanctification. That is just a fancy way of saying that God
saves us by grace, through faith in Christ first, and then we work to deny the
desires of our flesh. We do not try to do good, to clean ourselves up, to make
ourselves holy so that we are acceptable to God, and He then saves us. We must
pay attention to the order of things. Paul tells the Colossians to put off
anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language, lying, and the entire “old
man with his deeds,” after he declares to them that they are raised with
Christ. He does not tell them to put off these things to become raised with Christ, for it is by grace you are saved,
through faith, so that no man can boast.[4]
It is because of these deeds,
Paul says, that God’s wrath will be poured out on the earth, on the sons of
disobedience. We are no longer son of disobedience, though we once walked
according to the course of this world as they did. Since we are a new creation
in Christ, we ought to act like it. Peter writes:
But
the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent
heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore,
since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to
be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the
day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and
the elements will melt with fervent heat?[5]
We ought to be the kind of
people who repent of our sin; who strive to put to death our old man; who seek
to love and serve our neighbor; who walk carefully, not as fools but as wise,
redeeming the time, because the days are evil.[6] This
is the purpose of Advent: that we may prepare ourselves for Christ’s return,
waiting, ready for Him, with girded waist and burning lamp.[7] Blessed
are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.[8]
[1]
Colossians 2:12
[2]
Galatians 5:16-17, 24-25
[3] Romans
7:21-23
[4]
Ephesians 2:1-10
[5] 2
Peter 3:10-12
[6]
Ephesians 5:15-16
[7]
Luke 12:35
[8]
Luke 12:37
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