No one can give you anything more powerful than a deep and wide, high understanding of God.

“Listen carefully, it is so important for you to know, that the ability to live the Christian life is not related to somebody giving you a pep talk.

It is directly related to what you think about God and what you think about yourself.

And if you have a superficial view of God, and an elevated view of yourself, you’re set up to worship yourself and not God.”

Dr. John MacArthur

[3] Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. [2] Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. [3] For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. [5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. [6] Because of these, the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. [7] You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. [8] But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. [9] Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices [10] and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Now we see that we are called to live the risen life.

That we are to reach the world by leaving the world.

We are to live lives of seeking: verse 1 - the “things above.”

Verse 2 - “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Now remember that Paul has, in this letter, in the first two chapters, demonstrated powerfully the supremacy and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He has laid out the realities of His person.

The glory of His person is God in human flesh.

He has laid out the realities of His atoning work.

He has demonstrated that those who are believers in Him are complete in Him.

We have in Him all that we need to feel adequate.

We don’t need human philosophy.

We don’t need religious ritual.

We don’t need legalism.

We don’t need visions and communications with angels, or any other kind of self-denial practices.

We have all died in Christ and have risen in Christ, and we live in newness of life.

That is who we are.

We are new creations,

alive in Christ,

alive from the dead.

This is who we are, and it sets the standard for how we are to live.

Because of who Christ is and what He’s done, because of the fact that we are in Christ and complete in Him, and in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and we are complete in Him, because of these realities of our life and death in Christ, because we have everything we need, therefore we need to live consistently with that identity.

In light of all these glorious truths there’s a certain way we are to live. To sum it up, look down at verse 17 in chapter 3: [17] And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Everything you do, everything you do in word, everything you do in deed should be consistent with your identity in Christ, and should be an offering of thanks given to God the Father. That’s how you are to live your lives, that’s the sum of it all. Whatever you do, word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ as an expression also of gratitude to God the Father for what He has done.

Now this means, on the positive side, that you need to live a heavenly life; and that’s what we saw in the opening four verses. Seek the things above. Set your mind on the things above, the things that are heavenly, the virtues that belong to the perfect, the perfect God, and the perfected believer, and the holy angels.

Live Above The World

Now reality would tell us that’s fine, we need to do that, we endeavor to do that. We want to live in the heavenlies. We want to live, as it were, in Christ-consciousness. We have died with Him; we have risen with Him; we have been seated on the throne with Him. He is in us and we are in Him,and we want to live in a heavenly expression of these realities, and we’re empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit.

But with all that lofty thinking about living the risen life and living in a heavenly way, Paul comes down fast to earthly reality with another “therefore” in verse 5.

If You’re Going To Live The Risen Life

If you’re going to live the risen life, if you’re going to “leave the world” to reach the world, you’re going to have to deal with what remains on earth of your sinfulness; and that requires some very dramatic and consistent practical action, and of a strong nature. Look at verse 5:

[5] Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

Living As Those Made Alive In Christ

If you’re going to live this Christian life, you’ve got to be killing the deeds of the sinful nature.

If you’re going to live the risen life, that’s the positive side,

you’re going to have to be killing that which threatens that,

that which pulls you down into sin.

We are new creatures on the inside, as Paul said in Romans 7,

but we still have remaining flesh on the outside.

And the members of our body, the faculties of our body can be instruments of righteousness, or they can be instruments of iniquity.

But if we are new creatures, we want to be sure that they are instruments of righteousness.

And so, we have to be killing the remaining aspects of our flesh;

that’s part of living the Christian life.

Sanctification

“This is the will of God,” 1 Thessalonians says - “even your sanctification. This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” That is God’s will for us between our “justification,” and our “glorification.” From the time of your salvation to the time of your entrance into heaven, God’s will for you is that you be sanctified.

It is of grave concern to the Lord that we be sanctified;

that means to be separated - separated from sin unto God,

from sin unto holiness.

We are to be increasingly like Christ.

We are to live lives that essentially are heavenly lives,

rather than earthly lives, in that they

manifest all of the virtues

that belong to the Lord and the saints in glory.

Living The Christian Life

So the Christian needs to be killing the corrupting things, and at the base of those corrupting things is idolatry.

If you are consumed with the glory of God,

if you are consumed with the truth of Christ,

if the word concerning Christ dwells in you richly,

if your theology of God is deep and true,

you are

a true worshiper,

you are not going to be

an idol worshiper

who puts yourself in the place of God.