“If you died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts, why do you submit to rules and regulations as though you were living in the world?”
Colossians 2: 20, CEV
The Bible speaks, not of the potential, but of the reality of the believer’s death with Christ. Therefore, it is not that we may or that we will at some point in the distant future “[die] with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts,” but that the believer has, in fact died already and is now “[dead] with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts.” In fact, in the Greek language, this truth is even more readily apparent as the word that begins
Colossians 2: 20 can more accurately be translated as “since” – “[Since] you died with Christ” – making the statement one of immediate fact rather than a mere possibility. Thus, the believer can trust that their position before God is sure (that they are loved; that they are forgiven and redeemed), and that God’s mercy will endure forever. For, while the believer looks upon the cross and sees Jesus dying there, God looks upon the cross and sees both Jesus and the believer dying there. God sees me dying with Jesus and, in like manner, when Jesus rose from the dead God saw me rise with Him…. The believer has become one with Christ, dying with Him “to the way the world thinks and acts.”
Of course, most of us know what Jesus has done – that He died in our place and paid the ransom for our sins – but we often neglect (or shy away from) the intensely personal truth Paul is expressing in Colossians 2: 20: the truth of our death “with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts.” Therefore, we fail to live as those who have been set free from the “rules and regulations” of the world. Rather, while we celebrate the truth that we are forgiven, we often continue to live as slaves to the world, binding burdens on ourselves that are too heavy to bear and pursuing the unfruitful lusts of our flesh. And, having misplaced our affections, we suffer with the consequences of our own inflamed passions: guilt and shame, regret and fear, prejudice and hate, violence and pride, and a “thousand other things that flesh is heir too.” And, in response, we often settle into religion – into a system of rules and regulations that serve to indict us rather than set us free to experience the wondrous love God desires for us. For, the purpose of the law is not to set us free from sin, but to reveal it and, by revealing it, to point out our need for a Savior (see Romans 7). The purpose of love, however, is not merely to reveal sin, but to die for sin – our sin; the sins of the world – so that we might die to sin and be raised to new life.
The trouble is, while the Bible testifies that I’ve died to sin, my flesh keeps saying I’m not quite dead yet. So, I find that I keep “submitting” to the world as though I were still “living” in it … which is a problem, because this robs me of love, hope, peace, and joy. So, Paul (a man who understood my plight) instructs me to “set [my] heart on what is in heaven, where Christ rules at God’s right side. Think about what is up there, not about what is here on earth.” (Colossians 3: 1b-2, CEV) So, in response, let us give ourselves to the Word and to prayer, to gathering in worship with fellow believers and moving beyond rules and regulations toward the building of relationship with God. And, in that way, let us embrace the truth that we have truly “died with Christ to the way the world thinks and acts” and let us live in the new life that Christ has given us, loving and serving and sharing His life with all. Let us die with Christ that we may live!
In Christ,
Pastor Todd
