Truth That Changes Lives

JP Jones: This passage tells us to follow as we live out this new life. And this is the first one: put on Christ's virtues.

Guest (Male): Thank you for joining us on Truth That Changes Lives. Pastor JP Jones is the senior pastor of Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills, California, and a professor in biblical studies at Biola University. Today on Truth That Changes Lives, Pastor JP will be giving us a message from a series entitled All About Jesus. Let's listen as JP gives us part one of Dressed Up For Jesus.

JP Jones: If you have your Bibles, would you open to Colossians chapter 3? We're going to continue in this study. We're talking about the fact that it's all about Jesus. In the book of Colossians, the Apostle Paul is writing to a group of people who've come to faith in Christ but are still experiencing some of the baggage from their life, the baggage of thinking and living that they've been influenced by because of the culture they grew up in.

They were influenced by Greek philosophy on the one hand and by Jewish legalism on the other hand and by the mystery cults of religion on the other side. So they had a worldview and a lifestyle experience much like people today. Kind of a conglomeration of secular, religious, scientific, philosophical, psychological, all thrown together into a life that was kind of working but was so foreign to the new life in Christ.

And so Paul writes the book of Colossians to really drive home who Jesus is, how Jesus sets us free, and how Jesus is the answer to every question that we have. Every philosophical question, every religious question, every practical life question. Just like the folks at Colossae, we need to see that it's all about Jesus.

And so Paul has been unpacking that for us as we've been working through this book. We come to chapter 3, where Paul now is really shifting to talk about how we live this new life. And last week, we talked about some things that we need to get rid of. We saw that Paul specifies that there's some things in our life that we need to kill. We need to put to death. And there's some things we need to get rid of, and there's some things we need to stop because they're just destructive to our spiritual life, and they have no part of the new life that's ours in Christ.

Now Paul looks at the positive and reaffirms the new spiritual identity we have and gives us some positive characteristics that we're to put on as followers of Jesus. Colossians 3, verses 10 to 17: "You've put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge and the image of its creator. Here there's no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.

Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

So here Paul is giving us a positive description of our new life in Christ and the commands that are related to living this new life. And the first thing that Paul does is he gives us the logic for these commands, or the spiritual reasoning behind this description of our new life in Christ. What he tells us is the source and the motivation for living a new life.

Essentially, it's this: at salvation, we became new people. We put on Christ, and there's a spiritual renewal that's taking place in our lives. And this spiritual renewal is moving us in the direction of becoming more like Christ. And Christ is in us, and we've been chosen by God. We're holy, we're set apart by God, and we're loved by God. And because all of this is true, what makes the most sense is to live the new life that is already ours.

We are to put on what we've already put on. Paul uses a Greek verb here. It's the word *enduo*. And he says at the moment of salvation, we put on Christ. When someone comes to faith, the Bible describes that experience in several different metaphors. Jesus talked about being born again spiritually. So we're born by the Spirit.

Paul, in Ephesians chapter 2, talks about being dead and then being made alive. And here in Colossians chapter 3, he describes it as putting on Christ. Here at Crossline, we talk about crossing the line. They're all just descriptions to describe the same experience. And that is the experience when someone comes to a place in their life where they recognize they're separated from God because of sin.

But God's love for them is so great that Jesus Christ is the bridge to God. And that when we put our faith in Christ and we receive Christ, we become a new person on the inside. We receive the gift of eternal life. All of our sins are forgiven, and Jesus actually comes to live inside of us.

Paul here in Colossians chapter 3 describes that as putting on Christ. And what he says happens when we put on Christ is that God begins a renewal project from the inside out. Every one of us as believers in Jesus, we're under construction. God's not finished with us yet, but he's begun a work and he's continuing that work.

And Paul says not only have we put on Christ, but we need to recognize that we've been chosen by God. We're set apart, we're holy, and we're loved by God. And since all that's true, we need to clothe ourselves with Christ. The spiritual logic is because we're new people in Christ, we ought to live like new people in Christ.

Let me see if I can illustrate that for you. Let's suppose that I told you that I put ten million dollars in your bank account. I'd be willing to bet that most of you wouldn't really do anything differently than you're doing right now because you wouldn't believe me. You just wouldn't think it's true. Just something JP said.

So you just continue living your life the way you've been living it. But suppose after I told you I put ten million dollars in your account, the bank manager gives you a call and says, "Congratulations, you just got ten million bucks deposited in your account." You said, "Really?" They said, "Really." You went down to the bank and he showed you all the legal transaction and you became convinced.

Ten million dollars has now been placed in your account. At that point in time, I'd be willing to bet you'd do some things differently. Some of you might immediately transfer it into some kind of investment account. Others of you might immediately withdraw some of that money and buy a car, buy some clothes, buy a vacation, buy a new house. You'd spend it.

But you wouldn't just keep on living the same way you're living now. You see, the knowledge and the certainty that you've been given ten million dollars would begin to make a difference in terms of how you live. Here's the connection: I think this is what happens for many people in the church. They hear the good news about Jesus Christ at some point in their life, whether they're a kid, a teen, or an adult.

And the hope of forgiveness and the promise of eternal life is good news. And so they receive Christ. Then they start hearing some of the other stuff that the Bible teaches about dying with Christ, being raised up with Christ, having new spiritual life in Christ. And they just don't believe it.

And so even though they've received salvation, the way they go about living the Christian life is not much different than the way they went about living their life before. Kind of me trying to figure out how to do my life. But when the certainty of God's resources become clear, and the hope that Christ actually lives inside of me, and the truth that I have put on Christ and I died with Christ, I've been raised up with Christ, Christ is in me, Christ's resurrection life is available to me.

There's the possibility of living new life because I have new life. Well, then I put on what I've already put on. You see, think about going down to Nordstrom and buying an outfit, brand new outfit. You take it home, you put it in your closet, and you just let it sit there. It's yours.

But if you never take it out of the wrapping, and you never unhook the tags, and you never dress up and go out, well, you're not putting on what's already yours. There's a lot of Christians like that. They're not putting on what's already theirs.

The logic of the Apostle Paul here in Colossians 3 isn't to try to get out some Christian experience. It's not trying to try harder. No, it's putting on what's already ours in Christ. And Paul says that we put on Christ, we're being renewed, Christ is all and Christ is in us. We've been chosen by God, we're holy and we're loved.

Therefore, we are to clothe ourselves with Christ. There's real motivation here because of what is already ours in Jesus Christ. Now, because of what's already ours in Jesus Christ, these are the commands that this passage tells us to follow as we live out this new life. And this is the first one: put on Christ's virtues.

Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other, forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Clothe yourselves, put on. It's the Greek word *enduo*, which is a word that means to put on clothes.

And Paul applies it to the virtues of Jesus Christ that are ours by the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. So in our spiritual closets, we have new spiritual clothes to put on. They are compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love.

Every one of those virtues is available to every Christian. They're the very virtues of Christ. They're part of the new life of Christ. They're part of the new life of Christ that we've already put on. And we put it on when we were saved, when we received Jesus into our lives.

If you're here today and you're a guest or you're seeking, you're questioning, the Bible says that when you receive Christ, when you do cross the line and put your faith in Jesus Christ, that not only do you receive the forgiveness of sins and not only do you receive the guarantee of heaven, you receive a whole new spiritual wardrobe.

A whole new life that is possible for you to live because they're part of the virtues of Jesus Christ who lives inside of you. Every Christian has the potential of new spiritual life and so the command is put it on. Put it on. Put it on. We're to put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love.

Now I've been a pastor for quite a few years. I've been in vocational ministry my entire career ever since I graduated from college. When I first began my ministry as a pastor, when I came to church and when I came to preach, I wore a three-piece suit. And then I transitioned to just a suit and tie, and then sports coat and tie, and then sports coat without the tie, and then dress shirt and slacks, and then the current rendition that you see before you right now.

But never in my career did I come to church naked. I was always wearing something. Now if you look around, everybody here's wearing something. We put some clothes on. Paul says, "Clothe yourself. Put on." And then he mentions the virtues that are ours, that are in our spiritual wardrobe, that we are to put on.

Every day we need to put these clothes on because they're part of our new life in Christ. That's a decision. That's a proactive, intentional decision. The Christian life doesn't just happen. We choose to live as followers of Jesus. And we need to intentionally clothe ourselves with the very virtues of Jesus Christ.

And in this list that Paul gives us, he says in verse 14, "And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." You know, I used to read this passage in Colossians and think what it's really saying is love is the greatest of all these virtues, and love is what binds together my unity of relationships with people.

And that's true, but that's not really the emphasis of this passage. You see, the emphasis of this passage is here are all these virtues that are available to me as a follower of Jesus, that are available to you as a follower of Jesus, that are available to you if you give your life to Christ. They will become yours as a new person in Christ.

Here are all these virtues, and then he says, "And at the top of the list, there's love. And it's love that connects all these virtues together in perfection." In other words, if I just try to be a virtuous person but don't have love at the core, then you know what I am? I'm like what it says in 1 Corinthians 13. I'm a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal.

That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 13. It says describing God's love and the primacy of love: "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and do not have love, I've become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I'm nothing.

If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, if I surrender my body to be burned but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind, is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. It does not seek its own and is not provoked. Does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

Love is the perfect bond of unity that ties all these Christian virtues together. And so what is first and foremost in our lives as followers of Jesus is to put on Christ's love. It ties everything else together. And that's why Jesus said, "By this all men will know that you're my disciples, by the love that you have for one another."

So let me ask you: what'd you put on when you got dressed to come to church today? You see, we have a whole new spiritual wardrobe as followers of Jesus Christ. And every day, we need to make a choice to put on the very virtues of Jesus Christ, and at the top of that list, it's putting on love. That's a choice to let the love of Jesus Christ be central in our lives. It's part of living the new life. And we're to put on what we've already put on.

Well, Paul now gives several short commands that continue this theme of living new life in Christ. Here's the next command: let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Verse 15 says, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

The word here "rule" is the Greek verb *brabuo*, which means to umpire. Let the peace of Christ umpire. That's right. It's a word taken right out of the sports vernacular of Paul's day, where an umpire made the call. Just like today, there are referees and umpires that make a call.

I remember when I was real little, I played Little League. And I had a Little League coach that, I mean, he knew every rule in that Little League rulebook for baseball. And whenever an umpire would make a call that he didn't like, he would come out of our dugout, and he'd have his rulebook in his back pocket. He'd pull the rulebook out and he'd walk up to that umpire and he'd tell them what the rule really said.

But guess who got to make the call? The umpire. So Paul says, "Let the peace of Christ be the umpire in your heart." Yesterday, I was thinking about this passage, went on a walk near where I live in the wilderness park, and I'm meditating and praying on this passage. And I was thinking about this particular verse: let the peace of Christ rule in your heart.

And I thought, "Well, who wouldn't want to let the peace of Christ rule in your heart?" I mean, nobody wants to be living in anxiety and stress and worry and all that stuff. So what's the deal? And as I was thinking about it, I reflected on the fact that the deal is there are things that we allow to rob peace from ruling in our hearts.

And because we allow them in our heart, even though we may want peace, we don't get peace because we've got this other stuff going on. So I started thinking, "Well, what is that? What's the kind of stuff that would stop peace from ruling in my heart?" And here's the first thing I thought of: it's what I call stinkin' thinkin'.

You know what stinkin' thinkin' is. Stinkin' thinkin' is any thought process where you go negative, or you go critical, or you go fearful, or you go prideful, or you go selfish. In other words, you think in some way that is opposite to what God says is true. It's not driven by faith, it's not driven by Christ's lordship, it's certainly not driven by the peace of Christ. It's driven by your selfish preoccupation with whatever you're thinking.

And because you're thinking it and you're feeling it, you feel entitled to think it and feel it, so it just perpetuates. Maybe it's fear-based, so you're afraid about something that may happen out there in the future. And the more you think about it, the more you become afraid of it, and the more you try to micromanage it, and the more you control it, and the more fear you have related to it, and the more you realize you're out of control and therefore the more fear you have about it. It's stinkin' thinkin'.

Or maybe it's related to some form of bitterness. Somebody's wronged you, and maybe it's legitimate. Maybe somebody actually did wrong you, but you did not let it go and forgive, and so you've held onto it. And every time you review it, it just brings up that anger associated with it.

And how unfair that was, and how could God allow that to happen, and how could that person just go on about their merry way without ever having any sense that what they did was wrong? And you build it up in your mind. You see, it's stinkin' thinkin'. Stinkin' thinkin' can follow a whole lot of different venues, but what it basically is, it's looking at something from your perspective rather than God's perspective.

And then it spirals out of control and it robs you of being able to have peace. And the peace of Christ can't rule in your heart because stinkin' thinkin' is ruling in your heart. Here's something else that would stop the peace of Christ from ruling in your heart: it's unconfessed sin.

Unconfessed sin. In Psalm 32, David says, "When I kept silent about my sin, God's hand was heavy upon me. My energy just drained away like water on a hot day in summer." You know water on a street when it's really hot, it steams and then it just evaporates and all of a sudden it just dries up? That's the way David compared his emotional, psychological, and spiritual strength when he refused to confess his sins.

If we've got unconfessed sin in our life, the peace of Christ can't rule in our hearts. Here's another thing that could be preventing the peace of Christ from ruling in your heart. I mean, maybe you want peace, but the reason that the peace of Christ is not ruling in your heart is there's something in your life that's robbing it from existing: not having any margin.

Guest (Male): What a great message for all of us today. Pastor JP provides us with great insight. That is why we'd like to make it available to you on CD. Just get in touch and mention today's date. We'll send it your way for just five dollars. Or if you'd like to support this ministry, you can write us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or give us a call at 949-916-0250. That's 949-916-0250.

For your gift of twenty-five dollars or more, we will send you a signed copy of JP's new book, Facing Goliath. Please join us every Sunday at 9:00 or 11:00 AM at Crossline Church in Laguna Hills. The address is 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653. Or check us out on the web at crosslinechurch.com.

We want to help you in your relationship with Christ. Please get in touch with us at Truth That Changes Lives, 23331 Moulton Parkway, Laguna Hills, California 92653, or call us at 949-916-0250. On the internet, you'll find us at crosslinechurch.com. We hope to see you at one of our services every Sunday at our new campus in Laguna Hills. For more information and directions, please go to crosslinechurch.com. Please join us next time on Truth That Changes Lives.