My teaching on Colossians 3

Read Colossians 3:12-17

The problem with most heretical Churches is a vast misunderstanding between 2 Biblical components: Law & Gospel. Law would be your works: do this and don’t do that; the Gospel is its opposite, its what Christ has done for you.

So when Jesus explains what the greatest Law is He says it’s to Love God and Love Neighbor, the Love of God and Love of Neighbor is good, it’s required, it’s shorthand for both the 10 Commandments and the whole of the Mosaic Law, but its not the Gospel. The Law, can only condemn the unbeliever, as in- Sinner, you didn’t love God rightly, and you did not love your neighbor enough therefore depart from me you worker of iniquity, to the Hell prepared for the Devil and his angels, for I never knew you.

This error leads to Biblical misapplication: the preaching of purpose, pop-psychology, self-esteem, morals, life-transformation, and obedience as if they were Saving, instead of the Gospel. Preaching like this is how a 22 yr old Mega-church like Granger Community (which Christianity Today calls the 6^th most influential church in America) this is how they can survey themselves and find that 47% of their congregation doesn’t believe in Salvation by Grace, 57% don’t believe the Bible is authoritative, 41% don’t believe God is involved in their lives, 56% don’t believe Jesus is the only way to Eternal Life (even though He said He was), and 71% of their Church do believe a life focused on material pursuits is the best way to live. Its outrageous that Christian’s in American can hear that and not only still call them Christian, but continue to follow their lead in preaching and teaching methods.

So here are 3 points for you to distinguish Law & Gospel in Scripture.

1 – We can all agree that the Bible is full of rules and commands, but why would that be a good thing? .... Why is the Bible being full of rules a good thing?

Because without it we wouldn’t know what God wanted or expected from us, this is what we’ll call the Law.

2 – The catch is that God has set up the Law in such a way that 100% of people (excluding Christ, of course) are not only expected but also guaranteed to fail at it.

Can you think of a reason why it would be that you couldn’t live up to the Law?

Because God’s standard or expectation is very high, its absolute perfection 100% of the time in all areas of thought, word and deed. So if you’re in this class today and you have ever sinned (even once), 1 little sin then legally you are guilty of having failed to meet God’s expectation, and having rebelled against His righteous Law and you deserve to burn in Hell forever.

To quote one of my favorite Preachers, Matt Chandler, “the Law is holy to demand your perfect obedience, but it is not able to give you the ability to obey it.” The Law is only diagnostic, it can only (by comparison) reveal to us our own personal sinfulness – idolatry, lust, lying, coveting, wrath, but for the Christian instead of being condemning, the threats of the Law have been removed (like a toothless lion), for the Saint it merely points us to how God wants us to live now that we are “in Christ”.

3 – The application is that at some point you will fail at obeying God, and it’s at that point that the Christian clings to Christ. When we fail to obey God as we should or love our neighbor as we should what we’re doing is proving that we don’t love God with all our heart, soul, mind and spirit.

So you guys tell me, should the Christian despair, say Oh no I just sinned so I must have lost my Salvation – crap, I better get to church again and say that magical incantation known as the Sinner’s Prayer again, get rededicated again, get re-baptized again and really, really try harder next time?

Or maybe the Christian should just minimize the Law of God by saying oops I lied but its no big deal, or sure in lust, I just committed adultery but well nobody’s perfect right?

Your sin is a big deal, it’s such a big deal that that you couldn’t do anything about it. God Himself had to come down, out of Heaven, become flesh, He had to cry, sweat, toil, serve, suffer, bleed and die because your sins are a very big deal. The Christian’s hope is in Christ’s perfect righteousness and in His Salvation of us, not in our performance for Him.

To quote the great Lutheran theologian Rod Rosenblatt, “When we get to Heaven and find out that Salvation was wholly dependent on Christ’s sacrifice we’ll say- you mean it was really that easy, just faith in Him, free, gratis, without works, that’s all? Well I’ll be damned! … And that’s just it; you wont, because He was cursed for you.”

So that was my 20 minute introduction…. let’s get back to Colossians. If you are a Christian then Paul says in Colossians 3 verses 1-4 Christian, focus on Christ; and in verses 5-11 Christian, make a decisive break with the sinful tendencies of your past, and now in verses 12-17 Christian, put on the Virtues of Christ. Paul calls the Colossians to a holy life style, to be consistent in action to the status gifted to us who are “in Christ”.

So more simply if you’re a Christian – start acting like one; if you’re a Saint – start acting like one, if you’re Holy – then start acting like it. Since we have been chosen by God to be His children and to stand before him, then you should behave as if you really are Coram Deo, living your life before the very face of God; you need to start living up to what you already are “in Christ”.

We are called here to Bear with 1 another, and to learn tolerance within the Christian Community, but Paul warns, don’t let that tolerance extend to false teaching, if you are forgiven by Christ then forgive your bother or sister in Christ as well, again Christians are called to love because its love that binds the other Godly virtues together. Anyone want to comment or ask questions about this?

There is one thing that I’ve come to appreciate at Calvary that is something my friends didn’t like about it, and that is being intentional about the music selection Paul talks here about Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as a means of teaching and admonishing. Unlike Contemporary Christian Pop/Rock of today, the older hymns and psalms were more Biblically and theologically accurate and strengthened your faith and taught by its lyrics while more modern music merely entertains with sentimental fluff. Is anyone else with me on that?

Let me just read you the lyrics to 3 Contemporary Christian Praise and Worship songs that I have heard at various purpose-driven churches:

“Mess us up, mess us up, mess us up in your presence, oh God. Mess us up, mess us up, mess us up in your presence, oh God.” (You just repeat that 9 times, then do a musical interlude then repeat it 9 more times.)

Or you may recognize this secular song remix, written by Dead or Alive’s transvestite singer which mimics a South Park spoof by switching the original lyric “Baby” for “Jesus.” “You spin me right round Jesus right round like a record Jesus right round, round, round. You spin me right round Jesus right round like a record Jesus right round, round, round.” (You do that about 4 times and get the crowd to actually get up and spin around. And then keep going till they get bored.)

Or the Holy Ghost Hokey Pokey (Its just the regular Hokey Pokey lyrics sung passionately – as if you weren’t really doing a silly kids song and in the Acoustic guitar praise and worship fashion.) “You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out, you put your left foot in and you shake it all about.” Don’t you guys feel closer to Jesus yet? That’s what’s considered worship today in American Evangelicalism.

Well I’ll simply end with this admonition, In the name of the Lord Jesus, may his peace dwell in you richly, be thankful in all things, teach & admonish 1 another and worship God often and in everything you do, do it for Christ, since He has already done it all for you.