November 2

November 2, 2008

Living the Good Life
a sermon on Colossians 3.1-17
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama

A teenage girl was at church camp. Her Bible study leader asked her, “Are you saved?” The girl was not sure what this meant, so she asked. Her teacher answered, “If you died today, do you know you would spend eternity in heaven with God?” Honestly she didn’t. “Would you like to?” She would. So the teacher led her through some basic Christian teaching: how sin separates us from God, how Jesus died to bridge that gap, and how his grace is available for any who ask. The girl prayed asking Jesus to forgive and save her. She felt very good about her decision. The other campers and leaders were excited. Then she asked her teacher, “What happens now?” “You pray. You go to church. You try not to sin. You tell others about Jesus.” It made sense, but at the same time she had hoped there would be more to it. She could feel good about eternity, but what about today? Surely Christianity was about more than just what happens to you when you die. She knew she ought to do some things and not do other things. But why? She knew she was going to heaven. That happens by grace, which she had asked for. It was almost as if the rest of her life didn’t matter. She knew it did, but she didn’t understand how or why.

A young man began attending a liberal church because a friend invited him. It was different, but he found it intriguing. The message he heard was: “God loves you just the way you are.” He was assured that God would never exclude anyone. This church didn’t worry much about souls. Their message was one of acceptance: “God has accepted you, so you must accept yourself and others.” This proved impossible for the young man. The problem was, he did not like certain things about himself—certain desires, attitudes, and a stubborn selfish streak. He knew the difference between right and wrong. For some reason he often preferred the wrong. And that bothered him. If it bothered him, he reasoned, shouldn’t it bother God?

Now a question for you: What’s missing in both these pictures? … Transformation! The first picture is lacking because it isn’t deep enough. The second picture is wrong because it misunderstands … well it misunderstands a lot. Being saved is more than fire insurance. It is new life! Jesus sets us free to live a beautiful new life, a better life. Our future resurrection will be the completion of our transformation, not the beginning. New life begins now, life with God. Moving to the second picture, God does love you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you that way. He wants to transform you. He wants you to be beautiful and joyful. God loves us in spite of our rebellion against him, not because of it. Jesus sets us free to become children of God who are worthy of his love. Right now he loves us, but he does so because of who he is, not because we are worthy of his love. Jesus changes that. In Christ we become a new creation. We become creatures of God who are worthy of his love. It’s a long process. You never reach that point until the resurrection, but it is a process that begins as soon as you have faith in Christ. Well, actually, it begins even before that, in God’s grace that calls you to faith in the first place.

A few weeks ago I introduced an intermittent sermon series on great passages of the Old Testament. I thought, as long as I am doing that, why not some great passages of the New Testament. Our text today is one of them. It bristles with the exciting message of new life, good life. Jesus offers us more than eternal security. He offers us more than pabulum to make us feel better. He offers us nothing less than life with God. Another way to say the same thing is life in Christ. What is this new life like? Our scripture reading explains it.

Two main themes dominate, so I want to identify them before we burrow through the text looking for gold. The first thing to know about this exciting new life is: God is at the center of it. The text starts off talking about the good life by urging us to set our hearts and minds on heaven. Be careful. This is very easy to misunderstand! The obvious meaning would seem to be: “Think about God and heaven, become a mystic or monk, and forget about mundane affairs like church budgets or the well-being of children in your community.” That is not what it means! Instead, having your heart and mind set on heaven means you live in this world with a different outlook. You evaluate things and make decisions based on a different set of values. Most obviously this means the good life is not about wealth, comfort, power, or prestige. Most people assume it is. Christians should know better. It is about giving, service, worship, and an attitude of thankfulness.

I know some of you are thinking, “Yeah, right. You don’t really believe that, do you?” Call me crazy, but I do. Here’s a thought experiment for you: If you have spent your life pursuing pleasure (however you define that) and avoiding pain, if you have come this far using the values our consumer culture gives you by default, how is that working out for you? Does it fulfill? Does it satisfy? Or does it just ease the pain enough to keep going? One thing I am sure of, whatever the good life is, Jesus knows more about it than any of us. You’ll discover it quicker by looking to him than you will by following the crowd, searching your heart, or listening to the experts.

So the life Jesus offers has God right at the center. No surprise there. You won’t be surprised either to learn, second, that it is a life connected to others. You should be surprised, however, at how important a loving community is. In our reading, it is one of those forest not obvious because of the trees things.

Reading this passage casually, you might roll your eyes and think, “Oh, yeah, here we go. Another list of ‘Thou shalt nots.’ More of those touchy-feely, warm-fuzzy virtues like kindness. That’s Christianity all right—don’t have fun and try to be boring.” If you thought that, you missed the big picture. The first list of things you don’t want to do is mostly about sex. “What’s new?” one might ask. “The church is always obsessing about that.” But if that’s your first thought, I’ll bet you’ve never understood the reason why. The reason is—and it’s also the reason behind that first list—those sorts of sins are terribly destructive of … community. Immorality and greed, two sins at the heart of the first list, tear apart a loving community faster than fire in a drought stricken forest.

Look at the other list. It is about attitudes toward others and how we talk about them. How we talk to one another and how we talk about one another are obviously vital to the health of our unity.

You can tell I’m right about the importance of community in this passage if you look at verse 11. It tells how all those distinctions people think matter so much—race, nationality, and socio-economic class—don’t matter. OK, sure, we know the New Testament teaches that, but why here? Why right on the heels of “get rid of hateful feelings and insults”? Because it’s all about community! The behaviors we avoid are things that tear us apart. And nothing ought to tear us apart because we are united in Christ! The virtues we practice are things that unite us and strengthen or preserve our unity. That’s why after the list of virtues our text tries to sell us on forgiving and love. You cannot have community without them, and as the whole passage is trying to get through our heads, you can’t live the good life without community.

Those two themes dominate: God at the center and our need for one another. We really ought to dig for gold, now, because it is there. There are two great lines, and a couple of vivid pictures to help us understand what life-with-God, or life-in-Christ look like. Let’s look at the pictures first, then the lines.

If the beginning of our reading didn’t sound odd to you, you’ve been in church long enough to get used to the talk. “You have been raised to life with Christ.” What in the world? I thought that’s what would happen after I die. I haven’t died yet, so what’s this business about being raised? It means you have died to an old way of life and been raised to a new one. When you come to Christ in faith, you die to the old life of rebellion against God. Part of becoming a Christian is surrendering to God, acknowledging that he is God and you are not. At the same time, a new life begins, that life-with-God or life-in-Christ. This new life is the goal of salvation. It is the reason Jesus came, so that you could live this life—now and in eternity.

The other is picture involves changing clothes. Verse 9, “You stripped off the old self with it habits and have put on the new self.” Later on, “Because you are God’s people, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.”

Have you ever felt out of place because of the way you were dressed? The party was more formal than you realized? Or you were the only one wearing a suit and tie? Or worse still, you get mixed up about costume day? I have shown up at the emergency room unshaved, wearing shorts and a T-shirt with a cartoon character on it. I informed the attendant, “I’m looking for so-and-so. I’m her pastor.” The attendant doesn’t know it’s my day off and I’ve rushed over. She looks me over skeptically before her eyes settle on the Bible in my hand, and I can imagine her thinking, “It takes all kinds.” Of course, in the emergency room, no one cares much. That’s part of what emergency means. If you have ever dressed inappropriately when you should have known better, well … it’s uncomfortable, isn’t it?

The old selfish lifestyle makes you conspicuously out-of-place in God’s new world. Of course, the new life-with-God clothes Jesus gives you make you out-of-place in this broken world in which we live. How you dress comes down to who you are and where you want to fit in.

Very quickly then, the two brilliant lines that make this passage great: Verse 4, “Your real life is Christ.” Did you hear that? Your real life is Christ! “And when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory.” Right now, Jesus Christ is Lord, but his power and glory are hidden. People debate God’s existence. For some reason, known only to God, we await the day his glory is made known. But, not only is his glory hidden right now, so is yours. Your true life, the real you, the person God intends for you to be, is not who you are now. Who you are now is like the seed. Who you will be, when Christ comes again, is like the tree that grows from the seed. You cannot imagine now what you will be, but you do know that you will be like Christ.

And that leads to the other profound line, verse 11: “This [new self] is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.” If you are in Christ, you are a new creation. And this new creation is God’s creation, and he constantly renews it in his image.

That’s exciting. What Jesus offers is far better than most people, even church-going people, realize. It’s different too. Maybe harder in some ways. But in the end it is more authentic. Jesus offers more than happiness when you die and more than a pat on the back. He offers new life with God. God is at the center of this life, and it is lived in loving community with others. Colossians 3.1-17 gives numerous practical examples of this life in action. I challenge you to read this passage daily this week and give them some thought. When you come to Christ, he begins to transform you into the beautiful person God intends you to be. He will not stop until you become a creature worthy of his love, a creature fit for life in his kingdom. Amen.

rev_mauldin@yahoo.com back to sermons