Dr. Sean Lucas on March 12, 2010
My dear friends:
This past week in our Sunday morning worship, we considered Colossians 3:5-11. One of the things that I very much hope we saw is the seriousness of our sin; the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit called us to “put to death therefore what is earthly in you.” We need to be killing sin before sin kills us; sin is that serious, that deadly, that dangerous.
And yet, as you think about what it means to be killing sin, one thing you must recognize is this: you can’t truly put sin to death by focusing on the sin. No, the way to put your sin to death is to turn your mind away from your sin and to focus it on your Savior.
That was Paul’s intention in Colossians 3. Remember what he said in the first two verses: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” The way to put to death your sin is to turn your mind, heart, soul, and body away from sexual and interpersonal sins and to orient your entire being around the resurrected and ruling Jesus.
Why? Because at the very heart of our faith, the true engine of our piety, and the actual basis of our sanctification is our justification received by faith. It is both “Christ for us” and “Christ in us” that not only give us confidence, but also give us power to say no to sin and to put on “new clothes”—the virtues that Paul describes in Colossians 3:12-17 and that we will look at this coming Sunday.
One of the ways to learn this is to come again and again to biblically-based and theologically-rich hymns written by pastors and theologians. One of my favorite hymn writers is Horatius Bonar. Bonar (with whom I share my birthday! December 19, 1808-May 31, 1889) served in the Free Church of Scotland after the Disruption of 1843. He served two long pastorates in Kelso and Edinburgh, Scotland, and was honored as the moderator of the Free Church General Assembly in 1883.
Several of our hymns in the Trinity Hymnal are written by Bonar; perhaps the most familiar is “Not what my hands have done” (#461). However, one that is not in our hymnal, but should be, is his hymn text “Christ for us.” Consider how Bonar’s words capture our ground of confidence and power that flows from our justification by faith.
On merit not my own I stand;
On doings which I have not done,
Merit beyond what I can claim,
Doings more perfect than my own.
Upon a life I have not lived,
Upon a death I did not die,
Another’s life, another’s death,
I stake my whole eternity.
Not on the tears which I have shed;
Not on the sorrows I have known,
Another’s tears, another’s griefs,
On them I rest, on them alone.
Jesus, O Son of God, I build
On what Thy cross has done for me;
There both my death and life I read,
My guilt, my pardon there I see.
Lord, I believe; oh deal with me
As one who has Thy word believed;
I take the gift, Lord look on me
As one who has Thy gift received.
I taste the love the gift contains,
I clasp the pardon which it brings,
And pass up to the living source
Above, whence all this fulness springs.
As you receive God’s grace and mercy to put to death your sins by God’s Word and Spirit, look to Jesus. Look to what his cross has done for you. Believe that in Christ you have received pardon for guilt, cleansing for shame, merits for righteousness. See yourself as a new man or new woman in Christ. Find yourself free to delight and rejoice in God’s grace even as you are empowered by the living source to war against your sin and to wear the new clothes of holy practice for God’s glory.
May God grant you grace to live as you already are in Christ!
In the grip of God’s grace,
Sean