For some, Christianity is nothing more than a set of rigid beliefs. For others, nothing more than a rigid set of standards. And it seems that every new emerging movement in the church, every new seminar that comes on the scene for success is an effort to somehow capitalize on the Christians' dissatisfaction that have caused them somehow to fail to understand what the Bible says about the Christian life. And there is something very practical about Christian living, about Christian doctrine. And the scripture invariably connects what we believe to what we do, connecting our creed and our practice, always linking what we believe with our living. And I must say it amazes me that the truths of the New Testament that seem to so grip the hearts and the minds and the thoughts of first century Christians never seem to cross the mind of Christians in the 21st century. There is in the gospel a dynamic, a power to energize and to guide life along the proper path. And it is only when Christians fail to identify what that gospel message is, when they ignore the gospel, that they find Christianity to be just a drudgery. Too often I've seen in the church that many Christians define their Christianity in terms of decision that they make sometime in the past. Sometimes I say they simply fail to apply to day-by-day living, and as we heard in the previous message, to the way we think in a way that allows the truth of the gospel, a way that allows the power of the gospel to influence and direct our Christian living. It is Christ, it is the cross, and it is our completeness in Christ that must interfere. Can I put it in those terms? It is Christ, his cross, and the completeness of the gospel that must interfere with life. It must be the focal point for our living the Christian faith. It is the cross that must stand in the way of every sin. It is the cross that must stand in the way to point us to piety. And it's always the case. And again, I was impressed as Dr. Murray spoke in the last hour, how closely the Lord has directed our thinking for these messages. For very, very simply, it is right thinking that produces right living. If we can learn what it is to think right about the gospel, then we are on our way to living right in the Christian life. And the text before us makes this connection. In the previous chapter, the Apostle Paul exposed and warned against all the additions to Christ that were supposed to add to spiritual attainment and satisfaction. And he does so first by expounding the completeness of Christ, the completeness of his deity, the completeness, the fullness of his humanity, and then our completeness in him. If you'll skim over, cast your eye to verses 9 and 10 of chapter 2. For in him, that is in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. LinkedIn, that statement combines that full deity and that full humanity of Christ. What a remarkable statement that is. All of the fullness, all of the completeness of the Godhead. And I say that because when we come to verse 10, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power, and the word that our authorized version translates as fullness in verse 9, the same basic word that we have as complete in verse 10. We have the completeness of Christ, and we, as his people, are complete in him. That completeness is defined in terms then of our union with Christ. And it is our completeness in that union with Christ, not how we adhere to religious principles or other rituals But it is how we meditate and how we apply and how we live in the reality of that union with Christ, that throne union with Christ, that will give direction and give motive and give reason for living out our faith. Our theme here is living out our faith. Living out our faith. And the text before us is going to instruct us as to how to live out that faith from two different perspectives. one from the inside and one from the outside. The apostle defines for us first the principles of Christian living, and then he gives to us the procedure for Christian living. And the text shows us how deep theology translates into the practice of life. Ultimately, for us, there is nothing more practical than doctrine. I must say, I get sick, and I get sore, and I get tired. of those that tell us that we ought not preach doctrine, just be practical, just give me application, just tell me what to do, don't make me think about anything. I submit to you that for us as believers, as Christians, who have the revealed Word of God, there is nothing more practical ultimately for us than Christian truth, the doctrine that God has revealed to us. And as we understand that doctrine, then we have the basis and the foundation for living out that gospel, living out that which we say we believe, for what we believe must translate into how we live. I think it was Spurgeon that said of this chapter. Spurgeon gets credit for saying all these cute things, so I suppose it was Spurgeon that said this chapter begins It begins in heaven, and it ends in the kitchen. It begins with these lofty truths, but it brings us down to the nuts and bolts of what it is to live the Christian life in every sphere, and that's what I want us to reflect on in the time that we have together this evening. I want us to look at the Christian life here from two perspectives, the principle of Christian living and the procedures for Christian living, the hidden life and the seen life. So I start with the principle, and the principle is the hidden life. In the opening four verses of our text, Paul expounds for us here the theology that is absolutely essential both for spiritual life and godly living. He draws our attention to the objective realities of the believer's union with Christ with all of its representative and vital and intimate and mystical significance. A union that is equally true for every believer. A union, and I want us to understand this, every genuine believer enjoys or it is true of, let me put it in those terms, that every true believer is united to Jesus Christ. There is that throne union. And while that is equally true for every believer, the unhappy thing is that it's not equally enjoyed by every believer. And it is my desire for myself and my desire for those that are gathered here that we come to understand something of the beauty and the wonder of what it means to be in Christ, to let that grip our heads and our hearts, that it may be translated then into the way we live our lives on a day-by-day basis. The hidden life. The hidden life. Now we start with the fact of the hidden life. Verse 3. Again, I trust you keep your Bibles open as we make our way through the text this evening. Verse 3 gives to us the fact of that hidden life, for ye are dead." More literally, for you died. Indisputable fact. Paul says, you died. Now, since he's writing to those that were very much alive physically, this past death must refer to something that is spiritual, something I dare say is mystical, And don't be afraid of that word. Theologically, it simply designates that spiritual truth that surpasses human comprehension because of the transcendence of its nature and its significance. It's the most appropriate word to designate this, our spiritual, our mystical union that we have with Jesus Christ, a truth that, notwithstanding its reality, defies understanding. defies complete comprehension and certainly defies my ability to explain. But the statement, you died, takes us to that mysterious and that mystical union that every believer has with Jesus Christ and his death on the cross. There is a sense, incomprehensible, in which every believer jointly participates and shares in that work of the Lord Jesus. Now, I say that staggers the mind. But consider what the scripture says. I'd be afraid to say that if it was just me saying that. But over and again, the scripture makes it clear and makes that remarkable statement. I am crucified, Paul says, with Christ. We are buried with him by baptism into death. Our old man is crucified with him. If one died for all, then we're all dead. That is, all for whom he died, died with him. Remarkable statements. Obviously, we did not hang on the cross with Christ to suffer all the physical agony and the torment that he endured, both in body and soul. In a physical sense, the Lord Jesus suffered and died alone as the substitute for his people. He bore the penalty. of our sin. He exempted us as believers from ever having to pay the penalty of our own sin. But he's our federal head. He's our representative head, standing in the place for all those who are his, and we thus united to him. When Christ died, all of his people died with him, and God regarded believers, the elect, those that had been given to Christ for his eternal Covenant inheritance as belonging, as being in His Son. It's on the cross. It's on the cross where satisfaction against our sin was secured, where the connection to sin was severed. And so being crucified with Christ means that we should look down on sin, we should look down on the old life, from that vantage point. And sin that we find so alluring in our face, yeah, and you know it, there's something alluring about sin or there'd be no such thing as temptation. The sin that is so alluring when in our face loses its appeal when viewed from the old rugged cross. And ironically, although we died, our life has been hidden with Christ in God. Paul goes on to say that. You died, but your life is hid with Christ in God. This mystical death did not produce a lifeless corpse. On the contrary, it is union with Christ, union with his death, that always results and produces that union with his resurrection in life. Consider what verse one says, if ye then be risen with Christ. That assumes the reality. For those of you here that know Greek, this is a simple condition that assumes the reality of the Protestants. I say that for the seminary students. For those of you that don't know Greek, it says the same thing. The idea is since, since this is a fact, since you have been raised with Christ, it assumes that reality. Then on that basis, on that basis, there is a community with his death that always results in the community with his life. And significantly, Paul uses a different form of the verb here to describe the hidden life. We died with Christ once. A once-for-all placement, mysteriously, in Christ when he died. But the form of the verb that he uses here now speaks of not only a being hidden, but with a constant staying hidden with Christ. We were hidden from him. as a past act, and we have the continuing consequences that we are staying hidden in Christ. When we died with Christ, we were at that very time hidden in Christ, and there we constantly remain. And given the fact that Christ is at the right hand of God, there he is, verse one again, seated at the right hand of God, and we are in him. We have a throne union with him. I say this staggers my mind. It staggers my mind when we think of this throne union that we have with Jesus Christ. He's on the throne. Where am I? As a believer in Jesus Christ, where am I? Well, you say, I'm here in Grand Rapids. Yeah, I am. But where am I? I'm in Christ. Where is Christ? He's seated at the right hand of God. There is a union, an inseparable, a mystical, an inexplicable, what a wonderfully true union. that we have united to the Lord Jesus Christ on the very throne of glory. The implications and the applications of this throne union are far-reaching, both regarding our security with God and regarding our duty to the world. The world can't see us there. After all, we're hidden. But God, with whom all things are naked and open, God sees us there, His people, the people that belong to Christ, the elect of God, He sees us. They're in union with Jesus Christ. You think of the imagery that the scripture gives us of the church, Christ is the head and we're the body. There's an inseparable connection, yeah, between the head and the body. The body cannot exist apart from the head. And the head is not alone apart from the body, an inseparable union. And there's a very wonderful sense in which God sees the body in terms of the head. And there's a sobering reality that the world sees the head through the body. They look at us. The world is looking at us who profess to know the Lord Jesus Christ, who profess His name. What do we look like? And what is it about our lives, who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ, that is going to say something to this world about the wonder and the beauty and the glory of our head? Thankfully, God sees us through the head. What a duty belongs to us. now to realize that the world's estimation of our Christ will very often depend upon what they see in the body. So because of that, not only do we have the fact then of that union with Christ, we have the imperatives that the apostle gives to us of this hidden life. And he issues two imperatives in verses one and two that are the logical corollaries to his proposition regarding this union. The logic is clear in the opening statement that assumes, I say, the reality of that fact, since you were raised with Christ, given the fact of that life union with Jesus Christ, there are some things to think about. What Dr. Murray was drawing our attention to in the last session, there are some things to think about. Both imperatives, seek, set your affection, involves thinking, involves thinking. These imperatives are always addressed to our will. They identify then what we are obliged to do. These are not apostolic recommendations. These are apostolic commands that we as believers are under the obligation to do. It starts in the head. First, be seeking the above things. Be seeking the above things. The form of this verb demands a continuing and habitual process. This is not just an occasional thought, but one that becomes the regular routine, again, as we heard in the last session. And furthermore, this seeking does not refer simply to an investigation, but it includes the thoroughgoing effort to obtain that which is sought. The direction of this ongoing effort is above, where Christ sits exalted in his session at God's right hand. Apostolic advice parallels the words of Christ himself. There, in the Sermon on the Mount, where he tells us that we are to have our affections there in heaven, where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. There's no treasure that is more valuable than Jesus. Only he has that infinite value, that intrinsic worth. Nothing else approaches that one who is the pearl of great price. So to regard him as our treasure is to have our earthly heart fixed where he is, where he is seated on that throne at God's right hand. And again, I say this seeking is more than just an examination of doctrine. It's a striving to experience. and to possess the fullness of the blessing. It's one thing to consider the doctrine. It's one thing to look at the truth that God has revealed to us, and we can examine that, and we can look at that, and theologians can argue about how to define this or that. Sometimes theologians can suck the joy right out of the truth. But here's the truth. Here's the truth that God has revealed to us. We seek it. We seek it not just to examine what it looks like, but to come into the experience of it. I think sometimes we as Christians approach the truth of the gospel much like those spies that were sent out to investigate the land of promise. And they went in and they saw the grapes, and they saw that it was indeed a land that was flowing with milk and honey. And they collected those grapes, and they examined those grapes, and those spies said, yeah, these are no doubt the best grapes I've ever seen. But, they just looked at them. They just looked at them. And they stood there looking and examining the grape, but they never took the step into the possession and the experience of what that promise was that God had for them. And there they were on the border of blessing. I think so often we as believers tend to live on the border of blessing. We look at the truth, we examine the truth, we admire the truth, we envy the truth that others have applied to their lives, and how come? This is why we have the great emphasis in the seminary here. The great emphasis not only upon the Reformed truth, but that experiential aspect of that truth. Not just to know it, but to bring it into the reality of life. to live in the reality of what we say we believe. That's what it's all about here. In many ways, that's all I'm trying to say tonight. For us to live in the reality of what we say we believe. So let us not be like those ten spies that admired and could describe the grapes of Canaan but failed to possess them. Let us be like Caleb and Joshua who entered into the possession of what God had promised and provided. We seek the above things, and those above things define for us as Christ there, exalted at God's right hand. But second, we are to set our affection on things above. What our authorized version translates as, set your affection, literally could be translated, be thinking about above things. Be thinking, again, the thinking process. And the form of this verb also demands a continuing and a habitual activity. Thinking is the exercise of the mind and is spiritually crucial. Paul uses the noun form of this particular verb in Romans 8, verse 6, when he says, to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace, the mindset. Where is our mindset? What are we thinking about? And one's mindset is the litmus test that ultimately reveals what one really is. Thinking is the first step to doing. I say again, it's right thinking that produces right behavior. It is the imperative that the believer therefore habitually and routinely engages the mind on the above things where Christ is, where he is with Christ in that throne union. Dr. Murray spoke much of thinking. He used the imagery of the diet of thinking, what we put in our heads. I don't know how thinking works, but I know it works. And I know that when you think about something hard enough, when you think about something long enough, you can't stop thinking about it. Habitual thinking, what analogy can I use here? Habitual thinking grooves the brain. Philippians 4 verse 8 that we meditated upon just a little while ago. Paul suggests some of those things that we are to think about. And we need to groove our brains. We need to groove our brains on those things that are true and honest and pure and lovely and good report, virtue praise. All of those things subsumed really in the Lord Jesus, for all those virtues were his. Groove the brain. Groove the brain in thinking about Christ. Doesn't mean that we never think about other things, for other things are unavoidable parts of life. But it does mean that all else that we think about is governed by the fact that we are united with Christ. Thinking about that affects everything else. And contrary to that common adage that I heard growing up so often, that common adage that somebody can be so heavenly-minded to be no earthly good, I submit to you that the gospel logic is that the more heavenly-minded we are, the more earthly good we will be. The imperative of the hidden life, and now we have the prospect of the hidden life. Verse 4, here's the prospect of that hidden life. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. The prospect of the hidden life is that it does not and will not remain hidden. A day is coming when faith transitions to sight. A day is coming when the invisible becomes the visible. A day is coming when our subjective experience becomes one with our objective position. The Greek word that is translated appear here has the idea more fully of being manifest, being completely revealed and open. So that day comes when Christ, Who is our life? What a statement that is. Christ, our life. The essence of our life? The object of our passions? What defines us? We use that expression. I could say that Hebrew is my life. That tells you something about what my passion is, what my occupation is. Christ is our life. Is Christ our passion? Does Christ define us? Paul says, Christ our life. The essence of our life, the object of our passions that would one day be openly revealed in all of his splendid glory. And adding to the wonder of that is that we will be manifested in the same glory with him. There's no separating Christ and his people. Not then, not now. He's the head, we're the body. So the prospect of that certain glory shared with Christ puts all the stuff of time in its proper place. So it's occupation with Christ that is the secret to everything in the Christian life. You with me there? It is occupation with Christ. that is the secret to everything in the Christian life. So living out our faith, that was my topic, living out our faith. Living out our faith means that we live now with a view to then. We keep eternity in view. We keep the gospel in focus. So Paul begins. with the principles of Christian life, the hidden life, the inside life. But now he transitions to the procedure. What does that look like? What does that hidden life look like? So we come to the procedure, the seen life. And what is true on the inside will show itself on the outside. And although our union with Christ is hidden from view, the evidences of that union should be seen. Union with Christ is going to look like something in the way we live. Doctrine breeds duty. There are ethical demands that flow from theological truths. And in verses 5 to 17, the bulk of the text that we've read, the apostle deals details for us, the implications. of what it is to be in Christ, both in negative and in positive terms. And the logic that the Apostle uses here in dealing with this life, if you will, of sanctification, this logic was adopted by the Westminster divines in their classic definition of sanctification as that work of God's free grace, whereby we are renewed in the whole man after the image of God and are enabled more and more to die unto sin and to live unto righteousness." Dying to sin and living to righteousness. And I say that's exactly the logic that we have before us in the verses that we have read together. So let's consider first then the death to sin. In verses 5 to 11, the focus here on the negative component of this sanctification, dying to sin, believers are to put off all of the vices belonging to the old life outside of Christ. It only makes sense that if we die judicially to sin in union with Christ in His death on the cross, I say it only makes sense that we should also die practically to sin as we live in union with his life in the resurrection. Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 6 and verse 4. Therefore we are buried with him in baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. We died, we were buried. You think of The burial process in the physical realm, that corrupting corpse, is removed from the land of the living. In the spiritual burial in Christ, this living corpse, if you will, is removed from the land of corruption. But there's a separation. There's a separation from the life that was in the sphere in which that life was lived, buried with him. in this baptism unto death. So 1st Paul demands the duty of death. He issues here some commands. Again, these are not just apostolic or pastoral suggestions that are being made, not optional behavior, imperatives that demand obedience. We are to mortify our earthly members, verse 5. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. with all their sinful practices. The word members here usually designates the physical limbs or body parts, but by figure of speech here it includes whatever in us that is of this world that is bent to sin. It parallels what Paul in a moment will call the old man, and we'll consider what that means in just a moment. But in many ways, in many ways, I know it in my experience and my guess is that you know it in your experience. The biggest threat to our sanctification is self. Therefore, we must die to self. Mortify. Mortify your members. Die to self. But this death is not by natural causes, for dying to self is not natural. The word mortify, in many ways, in English, I think has lost some of its force. Blossom of its shock. Talking here about a spiritual suicide, if you will. Must kill self, put it to death. The language is blunt. The language is forceful. The language is shocking. But no more so than Christ's counsel to eliminate those offending body parts for the spiritual welfare of the soul. This member killing refers to the urgent and the immediate effort to eliminate by execution everything and anything that is at odds with God. If our earthly life is truly in heaven, then we must kill off the stuff of the sinful life that we have in our earthly existence. And the consequence of dying with Christ The consequence, I should say, of Christ dying for us, and our dying with Him, is that we should not live anymore with a view to ourselves. No longer a view to our own interests, our own desires, our own concerns, our own ambitions. Paul says in 2 Corinthians that having judged this, having come to think about this, that He died for all, then how can we, for whom He died, died in Him, how can we then live unto ourselves? How can we live with a view to our own selves, with our own interests, with our own desires, if we're really judging this, thinking about this, having the mind engaged in this, that He died for us, that He died for us? to put off the sinful practices. Verse 8, put off all these things. The imagery changes, but the topic's the same. By using the illustration here about changing clothes, the apostle makes the point clear that life in Christ cannot look the same as it did before. It's only logical, yeah, after you take a bath, that you don't put on the same dirty clothes that you had on, required the bath in the first place. And so spiritually, after that washing of regeneration, we must put off the old garments that have been mucked up from the dirt of this world. And this life in union with Christ then requires a visible transformation. The Bible knows nothing about a gospel that makes no demands on life. The Bible knows nothing about a gospel that does not require a change of life. The grace of God finds sinners in the most indescribable of filth. There's power and wonder in the grace of God that can find sinners wherever they are. But grace never leaves sinners where they are. Grace never leaves sinners where it finds them. It finds us in the depths of our sin and our misery. But there's something about that power of grace, yeah, that transforms us. And Paul tells us here with this imagery, put off, put off all of those filthy garments. He then identifies sins that are subject to death. And he gives two extensive but not exhaustive lists of sins to illustrate the kind of behavior that is incongruous to the hidden life in Christ. You have that in verse five, yep. Here are these things of the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, idolatry. Then in verse eight, you come to the anger, the wrath, the malice, the blasphemy, the filthy communication. Here are the sins that we are to put off, that we are to put off. Now, it's not my intent to define or elaborate on each of these specific vices, but I do want us to get the principal point. The principal point that the Apostle is making, if you go through these two lists, both of which have five particular sins, interestingly, they all have bearing upon the second division of God's moral law, dealing with man's relationship to man. For transgression of the second division is always evidence that the first division has already been violated. For man's relationship with man, his fellows, is always a mirror to his relationship with God. But it's interesting to me that in verse 5, the list progresses from outward transgressions to inward transgressions. When you look at verse 8, it's just the opposite. It begins with inward manifestations that then show themselves outwardly. Interesting logic here that the apostle is using. Sometimes the logic that we have in the scripture is not quite the same logical mindset that we have in our culture. We tend to think linearly. We have our proposition and then our proofs that develop those propositions. So we try to teach the students in Amelie's class. be logical, but sometimes the logic that we have in the scripture is different. They don't quite have that linear procedure. I don't want to get technical here. Not quite true. I love being technical. There's a logic here that the apostle is using. I'm going to give you a fancy word here, no big deal, called chiasma. Chiasmus comes from the Greek letter chi, which to you, if you don't know Greek, looks like an X. And this kind of X logic, very frequent in the scripture. And the idea is that our thoughts then, our attention, is to be focused in the center. It brings our attention now to the center. focusing all thoughts to that center statement and then it develops out from that. Have you ever seen the FedEx trucks and signs? If you look at next time you see a FedEx, it's a remarkable advertisement. It's ingenious really. If you look at the FedEx and you look at the X part, where the E transitions to the X. It looked like an arrow. Somebody told me that one time and I looked at it and I could never see it. And then one time I saw it and now I can't look at a FedEx truck without seeing it. Once you see it, you'll see it forever. So next time you see A FedEx sign, look for that. Look at the E, end of the X, where the E transitions to the X, and you'll find an arrow pointing right to the middle of the X. And when you see that, you think of this message when you're learning what chiasm is. All right, chiasm. Chiasm where you have the X and everything is pointing right smack to the middle. Right smack to the middle. I should get commission from FedEx. But when you do that, it's very interesting. Verse five begins with outward sins coming into inward thoughts. Verse eight begins with inward thoughts leading out now to outward manifestations of those sins. It puts the focus upon the head. It puts the focus of these transgressions then upon the mind, upon what we think, what we think, Right thinking produces right living. Wrong thinking produces wrong behavior. Focus there draws attention to the inward attitudes and the inward thoughts. And the focus affirms what we're saying, that thinking determines behavior. And sins of the head are no less serious before God than the sins of the hands. all things open and naked before the eyes of him with whom we have to do." It's another literary device that's operating here when all 10 sins are combined. You would make a mistake to assume that all of these sins here are the only ones Paul says that we need to handle. I can go through that, listen, take them off, say, yeah, I'm not done that one, not done, no, no. It's a figure of speech here, a literary device. A list, a partial list of something that designates the totality of something. If you want the name for it, it's Procytology. A partial list that designates the totality of something. So Paul here, in essence, is just giving us some representative sins. We get the idea here, what is it that we've got to put off? Not just these ten particular sins, but representation of all of the sins. We had to deal with sin. The sins that I have struggles with may not be the sins you struggle with. What you struggle with may not be the sins I have problems with. I look at that list that Paul has, you know, I'm pretty good, I don't do, you know, but what, there's things that bother me and there's things that bother you. What are the sins? Paul said, put it off, put it off. Whatever those sins are in our lives, living out the Christian faith is going to be putting off, mortifying, putting off those sins. And verse 7 gives us hope that it's possible, that there is power in the gospel that can transform the life. These Colossians walk that way sometime, but they don't anymore. There's a reversal of lifestyle that marks every genuine believer. There's no Christian who experientially is as holy as he should be. There's not a one of us here that experientially is as holy as we should be. Not a one of us that will be as holy as we will be. I think every saint can say with John Newton in that famous statement of his, I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I want to be. I am what I hope to be in another world, but still I am not what I once used to be. And by the grace of God, I am what I am." There's hope. This is not just airy-fairy Christianity. This is bringing it down to where we live and where we must live day after day after day. Fill the mind with those above things. kill the stuff of sin, put off that muck. Then Paul explains the reasons for death to sin. He gives two reasons, one negative, one positive. Negatively, death to sin is necessary because sin angers God. Verse 6 makes that clear. Every sin is a violation of his righteous justice and his wrath is poised against And whereas the sinful world stands already condemned before God, all those of us in Christ have been delivered from that condemnation. And insomuch as we have been delivered from that condemnation, no longer under the wrath of God, then sinfulness should no longer be part of our practice. We are no longer subject to God's wrath because of Christ's atoning work. It is the cross, the great The greatest evidence of God's justice and wrath against sin that has dealt with the wrath against us, God put the cross, God put the cross between our sin and Him. And the wrath of God, for our sakes as believers, quenched by the cross of Christ. If God put the cross there, then we ought to as well. Thinking about why he died, remembering that we died in union with him, is reason enough for us to die to sin. But positively, this death to sin is necessary because we have been restored in the image of God, verses nine and 10. We're restored in the image of God. Paul transitions now his argument by linking these two statements, put off and put on, to an imperative to lie not one to another, verse 9. And that's suggested by the imagery of dress that he's already introduced. I don't think it's true. I don't think it's true that clothes make the man. but they do reveal something about the man. I love to wear camouflage. And I look good in it. So when I wear camouflage, yeah, if I wear camouflage and a hat advertising Cabela's, you probably can figure out I love to hunt and would rather be in the woods where you couldn't see me. that says something about me. On the other hand, if I were to wear the scrubs of a surgeon, that would be misleading and potentially dangerous if you believed it. But the point is that we dress according to what we are. And to be hidden in union with Christ demands death to sin because we have put off the old man and put on the new. Calvin defines the old man as whatever we bring from our mother's womb, whatever we are by nature. And in this context, it designates the unregenerate state in which there's no spiritual life or sensitivity or impulse toward God or spiritual things. It's that nature that gives rise and expression to every evil deed. And the simple fact of the matter is that those who trust Christ don't wear those clothes anymore. They're no longer spiritually dead. We're no longer spiritually insensitive or motionless toward God. We have to look different, so we put on the new man. The new man here, that regenerate nature which the Holy Spirit has implanted into a life of a dead heart and soul, the principle of that spiritual life. It's a new garment worn by everyone that's in Christ. Not sinless. Wants to be. It's headed in that direction. But the new man here is described as being continually and habitually and progressively renewed in the knowledge of the Creator's image. It's far beyond our scope or time this evening to consider what it means to be in the image of God, except it points us ultimately to Christ who is that ideal image, the ideal manifestation of God. It is a call for us, very simply, to be like Christ. No matter who we are, race, nationality is irrelevant, verse 11. Every believer is going to look the same in this regard. Put on the new man to where the new man is to be adorned with Christ who is all and in all. He's everything in the realm of grace. And as we look to him, we are changed. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, yeah, that we are changed. from glory unto glory by looking into the face of Jesus Christ. That's how sanctification works, ultimately. We can do all of these little things, but the bottom line is by looking into the face of Jesus Christ, we look into His face, we see all of those virtuous and praiseworthy things that we considered in the last hour, all subsumed in Christ. We look into His face and we are changed from glory unto glory. John tells us in his first epistle, this is always a remarkable thought to me, we learn there when Christ appears, we're going to be made like him because we're going to see him as he is. That's as close as we have anywhere in the scripture that defines for us the miracle, the supernatural act of our glorification. When we see him, We will be like Him because we'll see Him as He is. And I submit to you that if seeing Christ is what ultimately glorifies us, that's the secret to our sanctification as well. Look to Christ. Look full in that glorious face of our Redeemer. And the more we look, transformed from glory to glory to glory. dead to sin, alive to righteousness. Living on our faith is more than just doing bad things, it involves doing good things as well. We're unable to live under righteousness. He gives to us, and I'll hurry through this, He delineates for us the marks of spiritual life, continues the clothes analogy now by telling us to put something on, and then He gives us the virtues of the new man, the style of clothes that we are to wear, those that are chosen by God, set apart as distinct the objects of that fixed and continuing love. Here's how we are to look. And again, without going through all the virtues now that are mentioned in verses 12 and following, all those relate as well to the second division of the law. And all of those are virtues and perfection. that can be found in Christ. So if we want to put on the bowels of mercies, what does that look like? It looks like Christ. Follow Christ. Be like Christ. Forgiveness. Has Christ forgave you? Then that's how we do it. It's this bond of love, the belt that keeps everything complete and together, verse 14. This love which is selflessness. That Christ-likeness who gave himself for his church? Again, there's nothing that will spoil and spot or stain the Christian's wardrobe more than Christ. So we be like him. And again, those virtues are just representative. We put it all together. Put it all together. I don't want to repeat myself, but this is the core of it. This is the core that we fill our sight and we fill our hearts with the sight of Christ. We see all of his virtues, we see all of his merits, we see all of his perfections. We have been predestinated to be conformed on the image of Jesus Christ. Look to him. He details in the methods of the spiritual life, verses 15 and 16. Three imperatives to explain how we are to live out our faith. They all express constant habitual activity. They all underscore that Christian life is a full-time occupation. Let the peace of God rule. Let the word of Christ dwell. This is what should happen, and we should do what is necessary to allow it to happen. Here's a peace that comes only from God, that rules in our heart, with our inner being. We think, we feel, we determine to act. I think this peace here, while it could refer to our subjective experience, I think it more refers to that objective reconciliation of peace that Christ accomplished on the cross, that is to overwhelm our thoughts, to rule, let it rule in our heart, that athletic term that means to act as an umpire, to arbitrate disputes, to make the calls. Let the peace of God, the peace of God that comes from Jesus Christ, Make all the decisions. Let that be the rule of our mind that governs and determines how we think. Let the word about Christ dwell in us. To put it simply, the gospel should be at home in our hearts. Let it dwell within us. It ought to be at home in our hearts, where it will impact every decision, every plan, every activity of life, to live within the sphere of God's word. Part of our Reformed tradition, yes, that we argue sola scriptura, only Scripture. But that has to be more than just a component of our creed. That has to be the experience of our life, that the Scripture becomes that which guides us and rules us, and the love for the Word, more than just talk. But it feels at home. It takes up residence with us. takes up residence with us. It's going to affect our conversation with fellow believers we teach and admonish. It directs our praise to God by the singing of the new song in our hearts. Inside shows itself on the outside. And sandwiched between those is the imperative to be thankful. Constant, habitual gratitude is a component for living out our faith. No exposition required here. How can we not be thankful? How can we not be thankful when we think of Christ, his work, and what it means for us personally? And finally, Paul declares the motives for the spiritual life, verse 17. For why we do what we do is important. Motives matter. And for the Christian, it is the name of Christ, the glory of Christ that ought to be our principal concern in everything thought, everything said, everything done. Scripture disallows the modern. or perhaps I should say postmodern notion of compartmentalizing life so that religious life is somehow unaffected and uninfluenced by everything else I do in life. Not so. The fact that I'm a Christian defines everything in life. The fact that I'm a Christian has bearing upon everything that I do, everything that I say, everything, every place that I go. No compartmentalizing. Not my religious life, and my work life, and my social life, and my family. No, it's my Christian life that has manifestation and application, implications for every other sphere of life that exists. Whatever we do, we do it for Jesus' sake. Consciously, intentionally, in the name of Christ. You think about that. Can't get away from that accent. That right thinking produces right living. Living out our faith then requires thinking. Living out our faith equates simply to living in the reality of the religion we say we believe. There can be no disconnect between belief and practice, no disconnect between doctrine and duty. Objective truth must transfer to subjective experience. And the more we know the gospel, The more we know our completeness in Christ, the more we can enjoy and experience the gospel and life. So in the head, we must know the truth. In the heart, we must believe the truth. And with the hands, we must implement and evidence the truth. Living out our faith starts on the inside. and it shows itself on the outside. Amen.