Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: What is it that will make the difference for you and for me in seeking to live the Christian life in faithfulness? In seeking to do battle with sin, in seeking to grow in holiness, in seeking to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ.

Host: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller and glad you've joined us today. And Jonathan, you asked a question that I think many, many people wrestle with and struggle with for years. What is the thing that makes the difference so that I can battle against sin and begin to win? I mean, how can we actually begin to have some victory there?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, we do ask that question and sometimes we, we ask it sort of with our hands in, in the air and, and with a almost a sense of despair because we feel we're not moving forward and the battle with sin is not going well and we wonder, we wonder what's wrong with us and what do we do.

And the answer to it is not to find some flashy new method. It's not to turn over a new leaf. It is to return once again to the essentials of who Jesus is and what he's achieved for us at the cross and what he's given to us by his spirit.

We return to the fundamentals of the faith and we find that in Christ there is all that we need for life and godliness. And, and the Apostle Paul in our passage today, in our message today is taking us back once again to who Jesus is and what he has done and what he has made us to be as a new people in Christ. And we're going to find, I believe and I trust, refreshment in seeing and hearing that again.

Host: So for the person who says, I hear you say that, Jonathan, but I just can't seem to gain victory over the sin. It's just a matter of, in a sense, kind of preaching truth, reminding ourselves of the gospel truth again and again and again.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Paul does emphasize the importance of the mind in these things. And here in Colossians 3, he is going to remind us of who Jesus is and what he has done and where he is even now. And he's going to say to us, set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on Earth. And, and the mind is important within this, and that's why we take time to look to the scriptures, to listen to the word of God as we're going to now.

Host: Well, let's do that right now. Grab your Bible. Join us in Colossians chapter 3 as we begin to message called Seeking Things Above. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, what is it that will make the difference for you and for me in seeking to live the Christian life in faithfulness? In seeking to do battle with sin, in seeking to grow in holiness, in seeking to become more like the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. What is it that's going to help us? What is it that's going to spur us on? What is it that is going to move us forward in the days ahead?

You may remember that back in chapter 2 of Colossians, Paul has been combating some false teaching, some false teaching in Colossae that has promoted worldly religion, the religion of rules and regulations. And has promoted that as the means to defeat sin and to grow in holiness.

False teachers had been promoting these worldly techniques, but Paul has shown their emptiness and their powerlessness. Just notice how chapter 2 concluded. Just be reminded of this. These approaches and techniques, end of the chapter there, have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body. But here's the problem, they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. They won't help you. They're not going to do it.

Now, if you have tried religion and techniques, and self-driven discipline to help you to change, to conquer sin, to grow in holiness, you will know from personal experience that it is a hopeless exercise. You'll know the feeling of trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, of getting nowhere in the process.

And Paul wants us to see that there's a better way. He wants us to see that there is a a hope-filled way. He wants us to see that there is a truly effective way through which we may change and grow and say no to sin and become holier in life. And don't we want to do that? Don't we want to learn to do that?

I mentioned the other week that we were reading John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress at home. And I'm reminded here at this point in Colossians of a moment in the story where, where the pilgrim Christian has nearly been diverted in his journey as he seeks to remove the burden of guilt and sin from his back.

He was, he was following in the way that Evangelist had sent him, the gospel way. But Mr. Worldly Wiseman had pulled him aside and had told him that the best thing for him would actually be to change direction, to stop going the way that Evangelist had said, and to go and see Mr. Legality.

Go and see Mr. Legality, who would teach him some wholesome rules and good behavior that would reform him. But as Christian considered this, he saw that the road to Mr. Legality's house was a hard road, up a steep and dangerous hill, and that his, his burden of sin it felt heavier just as he looked at this road.

And at that very moment as he was contemplating these things, Evangelist came along and put him once again on the gospel path. Now that is really the junction which we find ourselves at here at the end of chapter 2 and at the start of chapter 3.

Paul is pulling us off the track of legalism and worldly religion, and he is putting us firmly onto the gospel track once more, to pursue holiness, to pursue godliness of life. He points us to the reality of Jesus's finished work and then later to two responses that we must make.

Notice it with me, the reality of Jesus's finished work. Chapter 3 and verse 1 again, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Paul changes gear away from considering the religious efforts enjoined by the false teachers, and he turns our attention now once again to the Lord Jesus Christ and to what Jesus has already done, what has already taken place in him and through him.

And right here we do have a lesson if we would pause and consider it. Right here we have an insight. The way to holiness, the way to victory, the way to change is not through anything that you or I can achieve. It is through Jesus Christ and through what he has done.

We do not look within for help, as the self-help books would tell us. We don't look within because there are no resources of value within us that will affect change. No, we look to him. And that's where Paul is taking us. Here is what Jesus has done. Here is objective reality. Here is what has taken place for the Christian through the work of Jesus, verse 3. You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

And here we are taken right to the heart of Paul's understanding of our union with Christ. This is a key New Testament doctrine, one that Paul really majors on in his writing. Jesus died on a Roman cross 2000 years ago, and if we belong to him, if we trust in him, if we know him as our Savior, here is what is true of us. We died with him too.

The old me, the lost and sinful, the hopeless me, I died with Christ. The believer is so completely and truly joined to Jesus that what is true of Jesus has become true of us in this sense. He died, and so too did we.

And that means because we are united to Jesus in his death, there really has been a clean break from the old me. I died. The old me, the sinful me, the earthbound me is a thing of history, buried, dead, gone, no future, no life, no power, dead.

But that's not all. Jesus not only died, Paul tells us, but he rose again. And if we belong to him, we are joined to him in his resurrection life. Our new life is hidden with Christ in God. We are joined to him, we are safe in him, we are alive in Christ.

And so there is now within us, joined to Jesus by his spirit, there is power and vitality for a new way of living. But there's more. There's more. Not only did Jesus die and rise, he then ascended on high. He returned to his heavenly home.

And notice with, with me what that means for us, verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Jesus ascended. He is seated on high at the right hand of the Father. And as a people who are joined to Jesus by his spirit, there is a sense, and this is a mystery, there is a sense in which we have been raised with him too, not just from the grave, but to the heavens.

It's a similar thought, if you'll remember that Paul expresses in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 6, where he says that God raised us up with him, that is with Jesus, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's already happened in some mysterious and wonderful sense.

You see, if we belong to Jesus, if we are bound to Jesus, united to Jesus, our true home is in heaven above. Our true home is with Jesus. The one to whom we are joined by the Spirit, the one who even now is seated at the right hand on high.

Now, these are very, very big thoughts, aren't they? These are very, very big claims. These are big theological truths. The fact that we who believe are united to Jesus in his death, in his resurrection, even in his ascension, in some way, the fact that we are united to him in this sense is a huge truth to comprehend, a very, very wonderful truth.

But what does it all have to do with the matter at hand said in the context here in Colossians, with the desire, end of chapter 2, to stop the indulgence of the flesh? To grow in holiness, to say no to sin. Why is our union with Christ relevant and significant here? How is it going to make a difference for me and for you tomorrow as we try and do battle with sin and grow in holiness?

Host: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, and a message called Seeking Things Above. He's part of our series through the Book of Colossians called Walking Worthy. Now, we're going to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment.

Well, Encounter the Truth is able to be on the station because of your generosity. So thank you for giving to and supporting this ministry. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a book that Jonathan has picked out. It's called Can We Trust the Gospels, written by New Testament scholar Peter Williams. And after looking at all the evidence, whether you're a skeptic or a scholar, you're going to find some powerful arguments in this book in favor of trusting the Gospels. We'd love to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for your support. Find out more and give online at encounterthetruth.org or call us at 1-833-99Truth. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org. Back to the message. Here's Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Consider it with me for a moment, two types of video you might watch. Bear with me here, see if this is of any help. If you're anything like me, you might like from time to time to watch a how-to video. You have a project of some kind you want to do, something maybe to fix around the house. You don't know how to do it. You look up a how-to DIY video, and someone walks you through how to do whatever it is you need to do.

I watched one of those the other day, I had a job to do. I went to try and conduct the particular repair myself, and I promptly broke the equipment trying to copy the video, hopeless, useless exercise. That's one kind of video we might watch from time to time.

Another kind of video, I don't know, you might like to watch, one genre that I enjoy is that of historical documentary, a film chronicling the making of some aspect of the modern world, or telling the story of a technological breakthrough or a great military victory or something like that. And in such a video, you might learn the story of a hero who achieved something great, a hero from whose achievement we continue to benefit today, Churchill and the Second World War, that's a favorite, Edison and the light bulb, Pasteur and vaccines, you get the idea, whatever it is.

Now, the first kind of video is concerned with what we might do. The second kind of video is all about, concerned with what someone else has done for us. The false teachers in Colossae were showing how-to videos for battling sin and growing in holiness. That's what the peddlers of worldly religion always show, always offer, that's all they have.

At the opening of chapter 3, Paul shows us the grand sweep of what Jesus our Savior has done for us and then in us. And he opens our eyes to see how this living Savior's finished work, his great victory, transforms and empowers our pursuit of holiness of life.

You see, Jesus has done something for us and something in us that we could never do for ourselves. He's caused us to die. He's caused us to die to our old selves, to our old way of life.

Now, the sinful nature, the old me, the flesh within, it's still, it's still there for a short time. It still battles on and troubles us. But Paul is, is, is realistic about that fact and we'll see that in the verses to come. But here's the thing, there has been a decisive break. And there is a real sense in which the old me no longer has a life and a future.

More than that, the real me, the reborn me, the person that has been redeemed and made new by Jesus, this person has risen from the dead in Christ, and I have a new life, I have a new power in Jesus. And not only that, but my permanent address, it's actually changed too. With my new life and my new identity, I have a new home.

This world with all its corrupting influences, its draws and its enticements, with all its corrupting power which seems just to stain us even as we walk through it, do you ever have that sense like a muddy path on a rainy day, it's hard to stay clean. This world is no longer our home. Heaven is now our home because Jesus is taken us there by faith and through our union with him.

There's yet another aspect to the work of Jesus. It's, it's not part of the documentary film yet because it hasn't actually happened yet, but this is the final piece of his work and it makes all the difference here. He not only died and rose and ascended on high, but here's the thing, he's coming back. He's coming back again, verse 4.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Now, works-based religion, worldly religion, do-it-yourself religion, the kind of religion that the false teachers were pushing at Colossae, it is an inherently hopeless business because within a system like that, you can never have any kind of certainty about the future.

Will God accept me in the end? Will I ultimately be saved? Will I be cast away at the judgment? Well, it all depends upon my behavior and my success and my self-reform. That's always the message of worldly religion. And it's a great tragedy because people labor under this and have no hope.

And given the fact that I'm not very good at improving myself, in fact, I'm not good at it at all. Given the fact that I'm not very good at modifying my behavior, I don't seem to have much success with that. Holiness doesn't come naturally to any of us. Because of that, worldly religion must always lead to fear, to foreboding, to uncertainty when it comes to the future.

But here's the thing, true gospel Christianity is utterly unlike that. Because our standing before God is based entirely on the work of Jesus Christ, the finished work of Christ. And because he joins his people to himself in this unbreakable way, because of this, we actually know the outcome ahead of time and we know it with certainty.

Jesus, who is our life, who is our everything, he will appear. And when he appears, he will gather his people to himself, and he will cause us to appear with him in glory. You see, the outcome of the Christian life is a foregone conclusion. Jesus will appear once more in this world and one day he will take us home.

And so we rest secure, and so we are filled with hope, and so we have nothing to fear. It's utterly unlike worldly religion. Now, that is the reality of the finished work of Jesus Christ. It's the basis of our holiness. It is the only cause for hope that we can actually change.

But this finished work of Jesus, it doesn't lead to inactivity. It doesn't lead to disengagement on our part, imagining that there's nothing left now to do. Quite the contrary. Paul turns now to our necessary response to this finished work of Christ. Two responses actually that we must make.

Number one, seek the things that are above, verse 1. If then you have been raised with Christ, if that's true, seek the things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Now, all of us will know something of the inclination to pursue particular things at particular times in our lives. Some of us are maybe more driven than others, but we all know this sense, to allow some focus to more or less take over for a season, a college degree, excelling at a particular sport, pursuing a romantic interest, driving your career. To some extent, we all know something of this and we do this.

And Paul has an important instruction for us, given this reality. Here it is. Pursue, seek. And the language is quite pointed language here actually. It speaks of aiming at and driving at something. Seek the things that are above, rather than pursuing and seeking the things of this earth, possessions, achievements, those things, rather than setting our sights on the things of this world where so often worldly pursuits involve the entanglements of sin.

Rather than do that, instead, aim at, pursue, drive after the things that are above. You see, Jesus is above, and we are united to him. And so our true home is above. It's right and proper therefore that our sights should be set there and not here, not on the things of this world.

Now, that doesn't mean by the way that we ignore this world, that we refuse to participate in anything in this world. It means simply that our activity in this world is shaped by our heavenly vision. Our priorities in the here and now are shaped by the agenda of heaven above.

To put the same point in another kind of way, Paul tells us to give attention to our thinking, verse 2. Set your minds on things that are above, says Paul, not on things that are on Earth. It's very fascinating that. I wonder what it is that your mind defaults to in your idle moments. When you're on a bus, on a train, on a delayed flight, when you're sitting at the doctor's office, waiting to be called in, when you're just drifting off to sleep, when you wake up in the morning, when you're not reading or talking or working, what is it that comes to mind for you and occupies your thoughts? What is it?

Maybe it's a worry or a regret. Maybe it's a project or a dream. Maybe it's relationships or money, work or sports. I don't know what it is for you, but I guess you probably know what it is for you.

We might say that the things that our mind defaults to, the things that it is most inclined to consider, these are the things that our mind is set upon. They are the things with which we are preoccupied, the things that we are concerned about or care about.

But if you're serious about following Jesus, growing in godliness, saying no to sin, Paul has an instruction and an admonition for each one of us. He says, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on Earth.

And you know, we read that, and we think, okay, Paul, you know, that makes good sense. Oh, I get that. I'm, I'm with you. Good idea. Of course that's what I ought to do. I buy that. But then very quickly reality hits, doesn't it? And, and we remember, don't we, that the things of this world can be alluring and enticing and compelling to our minds. And it's not so easy to remove them from the position of default interest.

We remember that the concerns of this world weigh heavily upon us, and it's not so easy, is it, to remove them from the position of default focus. You and I, when we pause to consider it, we know full well that shifting our focus from the things of this world to the things above will take some kind of initiative, some kind of help, some kind of strategy.

And here I think, you know, we don't turn to a magic formula. We're always looking for the special magic formula, and there isn't one here. We, we don't, we don't find some mysterious insight that only the insider can know. No, here we turn actually to the bread and butter of the Christian life. We actually return to basics.

And the main engine here, it is the word of God. It's God's own voice. As we hear him speak in the scriptures, it's his word that turns our attention heavenward and reminds us of who it is that we are and where it is that we belong.

Host: Jonathan Griffiths here in Encounter the Truth in a message called Seeking Things Above. Now, we're going to pause here, but we'll continue next time. If you ever miss a broadcast, come and listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org.

Well, Jonathan, for years now, we have had people attacking the Gospels, sometimes trying to figure out things that they say are conflicting accounts and various Gospels and even groups of scholars who have got together and said, well, we're not so sure about this or we're not so sure about that. And I know you've got a friend from the UK who has written a book entitled Can We Trust the Gospels. It's written by Peter Williams. And Jonathan, what, what argument is Peter making in this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, Steve, I don't think it's going to surprise you or surprise any of our listeners when I say that yes, I think Peter's case is very compelling and very strong for why we can trust the Gospels. His answer is, yes, we can trust them.

As Christian believers, we need to be willing to engage with the arguments and to really think through the issues. And I think for those who are exploring the faith, but maybe aren't yet committed Christians, you know, you want to know are these documents in the Bible reliable and can I take them seriously? And, and Peter's got serious arguments to engage with. And so again, we would just love to get this resource into your hands so that you can open up the arguments for yourself and engage with the evidence yourself.

Host: Well, as you give a gift of any amount in support Encounter the Truth this month, we do want to send you and we'll send you a copy of this book. Again, it's entitled Can We Trust the Gospels. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or call us at 1-833-99Truth. That's encounterthetruth.org or 1-833-998-7884. You can also write to us at Encounter the Truth, PO Box 5513, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 215 North Arlington Heights Road, Suite 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Brett, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.