Angelic Conflict part 341: Future work of Christ [Bema seat] – Col 3; Rom 5:21; 6:6; 8:29.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 341: Future work of Christ [Bema seat] - Col 3; ROM 5:21; 6:6; 8:29.

 

 

Col 3 is a great place to see the difference between good and evil.

 

COL 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

 

COL 3:2 Set your mind [phroneo] on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

 

Popular at the time is the ascetic Gnosticism, licentious Gnosticism, and Epicurean sensualism [Epicurus; wise pleasure of the day but no afterlife, all things, even the soul made of atoms] of which all have the same fundamental error of concentrating on earthly, mundane things.

 

COL 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

"Your new spiritual life is no longer in the sphere of the earthly and sensual, but is with the life of the risen Christ, who is unseen with God." [Vincent's New Testament Word Studies]

 

Some believers only want the new spiritual life if it comes along with enough of the earthly and the sensual and in this inordinate desire they attempt to limit God to what their eye has seen, and their ear has heard, and what has already entered into their heart. This quenches the Spirit and is in violation of PHI 2:5.

 

1CO 2:9

"Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,

And which have not entered the heart of man,

All that God has prepared for those who love Him."

 

PHI 2:5, 8

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus… And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

 

This is not to say that God will not include much of the earthly and sensual things as blessings to the believer who has capacity for them, but capacity does truly mean that a believer is fully content in the spiritual life without any of these things.

 

Don't limit God by setting your mind on the things of the earth.

 

COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

In the first part of this verse we see that Christ is not just the giver of eternal life, but He is Himself the very essence of Christian life.

 

Christ doesn't just give us life but His is our life. The life is Christ.

 

This phrase has been thrown around so much in the wrong context or meaning that it seems to have lost its meaning. Our Christian life is Christ Himself.

 

Think of these as you go through your day: in your marriage, family life, job, and all the details of life - (1) set my mind on the things of the Spirit, i.e. Spirit lead me, guide me, empower me to make great choices from the word of God, and that (2) that life is Christ Himself!

 

This is putting on Christ and all that goes with the life that is Him. This is to be every day and we are to be alert to it every day as our enemy prowls looking for an opening, or a naked believer, unclothed.

 

1PE 5:8

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

 

COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

At the Second Coming what we are in Him will no longer be hidden, but will become manifest.

 

In the second part of this verse we see that the veil which now shrouds your higher life from others, will then be withdrawn. The world which now persecutes, despises, ignores now, will then be blinded with the dazzling glory of the revelation.

 

COL 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body [suppression] as dead to immorality [fornication, GAL 5:19], impurity [uncleanness, GAL 5:19], passion [inordinate passion], evil desire [kakos - bad things of 2CO 2:5], and greed [desire to have more], which [singular - covetousness] amounts to idolatry.

 

immorality = fornication [GAL 5:19]

impurity - uncleanness [GAL 5:19]

passion - inordinate desire

evil desire - bad [kakos from 2CO 5:10]

greed - desire to have more

idolatry - from greed

 

We are made in God's image. These things are against God's person, therefore, if we practice them they injure our mind, body, and soul and they rob us of the life of Christ.

 

The Gnostic solution to the these things of the flesh which has greatly influenced much of religion, both those who call themselves by another name and those who call themselves Christians, was asceticism or self-abasement. However, no matter how much someone denies themselves, if it is without the fullness of the word of God, the fullness of Christ, the fullness of the Father, and the fullness of the Spirit, self-abasement has no value against the flesh. Power only succumbs to a greater power, and then, only reluctantly. The desires of the flesh can only be supplanted by a replacement. As we studied some time ago in ROM 5:21, the queen of sin and death has been supplanted by the queen of grace and this queen of grace, which is the free receiving of wisdom and power from the word of God and the Spirit of God, must reign in life if there is to be any victory in ourselves.

 

ROM 5:21

as sin reigned in death [queen of sin and death], even so grace might reign [queen of grace] through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

Remember from our brief look at the falsehood of dualism that the power of good is far superior to the power of sin and evil. The queen of sin stands there like a hideous hag, though a queen; and grace stands there, more than abundant, clothed in the beauty of faith and love, fair and self-communicative, though a sovereign. She is the love of God in exercise to sinful men: that is what the NT means by grace. And is it not a great thought?

 

1TI 1:14

the grace of our Lord was more than abundant [than the evil of Saul of Tarsus], with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus.

 

The choice of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles is a manifestation of the superior power of grace over sin and evil.

 

In contrast to the supplanting of the flesh with the gifts from God the ascetics had a different strategy and this had no value against the flesh.

 

The false doctrine of the ascetic Gnostics had failed to check sensual indulgence, COL 2:23.

 

COL 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value [price or honor] against fleshly indulgence.

 

COL 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body [suppression] as dead to immorality [fornication, GAL 5:19], impurity [uncleanness, GAL 5:19], passion [inordinate passion], evil desire [kakos - bad things of 2CO 2:5], and greed [desire to have more], which [singular - covetousness] amounts to idolatry.

 

"consider" - nekro,w[nekroo] = to make dead. "So then, put to death your earthly members…"

 

There is no Greek word for body in this verse. This is a command to make dead your earthly members which press forward to the sins mentioned. One could cut off arms and legs and pluck out eyes and remove hearing, taste, and smell and still sin in these areas. The command is to put to death the part of us that is already dead. God gives commands that prosper our souls and so consider fits here in terms of reckoning the death of what Christ crucified. If it needed to be crucified it can't be good.

 

ROM 6:6

knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

The true doctrine of the apostle has power to kill the whole carnal man by the substitution of a heavenly life for a code of minute ordinances or rules.

 

Our life which is Christ at length attains the end after which the Gnostic teachers, and legalists of all names, have striven, and striven in vain. Christ's life fills the vacuum that the flesh and the world attempt to fill but cannot. The things of the flesh, world, and KOD cannot be allowed to exist forever and so they must be judged.

 

COL 3:6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come [but not upon the believer],

 

Judgment must come at the Second Coming and then finally at the end of the Millennial reign at the GWTJ since these sins cannot be allowed to continue. The conflict must come to an end and every believer can experience the peace that comes with knowing that he will never be a part of this judgment.

 

If the wrath of God is going to come in the form of the returning Christ with us along with Him to put an end to these things then does it make sense for us to walk in them now?

 

COL 3:7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.

 

A continued list of bad is given in verses 8 and 9.

COL 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger [abiding and habitual], wrath [boiling agitation], malice [desire to injure], slander [injuring the name of another], and abusive speech from your mouth [low and obscene speech].

 

anger - abiding and habitual

wrath - boiling agitation

malice - desire to injure

slander - injuring the name of another

abusive speech - low and obscene

 

COL 3:9 Do not lie to one another [meaning it is still going on], since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,