Dead or Alive

I’ve heard that some believers mess up from time to time.

On occasion, so I’m told, some actually behave so badly that if you saw them right then you couldn’t tell them from any sinner in the world. I understand that sometimes this goes on for quite a while.

No believers reading this, I’m sure, but out west; I’ve heard there are believers out west who struggle with their behavior.

Believers like these are often tempted to think to themselves, “I feel like a failure; I keep sinning; my thought-life is black, black, black; I don’t control my emotions—so I must be bad, I must be out of fellowship with God, I deserve punishment and I need to set things right.” So what do we do? We punish ourselves, and sometimes those closest to us as well. After all, someone has to pay!

Like most things we struggle with, this type of thinking stems from believing something that looks like it’s true, but really isn’t. Things appear true to us when they make sense to our senses. They look true when they fit with what we see and experience.

This is why spiritual truths often seem like nonsense to people. They don’t appeal to the senses; they are literally non-sense. This is one of the ideas we can take from 1 Corinthians 1:27 (NKJV) 27 “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise”, and “1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV) 14 …the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Some have called this “the upside-down Kingdom”, but it is more accurate to say that we live in an upside-down world. The Kingdom is right-side up. Truth is defined by God, not by our senses.

Here is what God says is true: 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17 NKJV

But it’s hard to take a statement like that, “as He is, so are we in this world”, at face value and simply believe that God meant what He said. It’s more sensible to think that if we act poorly, we need to pay for it; that has been drilled into our heads since we were very little. It makes more sense that our fellowship with God should be broken when we mess up.

There are several ways to look at the error in belief that causes us to think that we lose fellowship with God and need to be punished when we mess up, but I think that perhaps the core of the problem has to do with what happened at the cross.

It is not uncommon to hear teaching that goes something like this: After you are born again you have a Spiritual nature, but you didn’t lose your old sinful nature. Your old nature is at war with your new nature, and you have to walk uprightly and make sure the new nature wins.

Or you might have heard, it’s like two dogs, a good dog and a bad dog. The one you feed is the one that will be stronger. This implies that if I find myself struggling with sin I have only myself to blame and I am destined for the fire even though I am Abba’s child.

Or maybe you’ll hear, once you are saved, God will begin chipping away all the parts of you that don’t look like Jesus. Boy that sure sounds painful. It certainly makes me blanch when I think of loving and trusting God.

None of this sounds like the God of the Bible to me. God says, James 1:17-18 (NKJV)

17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”, and in Matthew 7:11 (NKJV) He says,

11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

So let’s take a look at what happened at the cross that gives us freedom from sin, freedom from guilt, and freedom from condemnation—and all without feeding any dogs.

Colossians 2:4 and6-19 NKJV

4 Now this I say lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words.

Notice that Paul realizes that there are many persuasive speakers who sound really great to our fleshly ears; who are very sensible; but who are not accurately representing the Gospel. Remember that “gospel” means good news, and there is no bad news in the good news.

OK, onward:

6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord,

(by grace; through faith; not by works)

so walk in Him,

Walk by grace; through faith; not by works; remember it is He who works in you both to desire and to do godly things. Philippians 2:13 (NKJV)

7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

Philosophy is appealing. Great thinkers and well thought out arguments are, well, hard to argue with. It is easy to think that if someone more intellectually gifted than we has thought a thing through, they are probably right. There is comfort in that because we can feel pretty safe believing what they say while not having to take the time to compare it to what scripture says and think it through for ourselves.

It feels dangerous to us to go against traditions. As a young pastoral candidate, I had to undergo questioning from several seasoned pastors in my district and from the District Superintendent himself. I can tell you that bucking tradition in such an environment is not easy. One outcome of this is that many preachers simply teach what they have been taught and many in the congregation simply believe it. Without study and checking scripture when things don’t sit well, we open ourselves up to becoming deceived into a view of God that is incorrect and that has negative consequences in our lives and the lives of those we care about.

Now we get down to the basic principles of the world. It can be easy to look at them rather than believing Jesus means exactly what He says. Picking up our text in Colossians 2 at verse 9, we read:

9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

This sounds a lot like as He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17 NKJV

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,

Something very interesting is going on here. Circumcision was a sign that Israel belonged to God. But Jesus didn’t circumcise our physical bodies, instead, He “put off”, or took away, the body of the sins of the flesh. Some translations render this, “the putting off of the sinful nature.” The Greek here is “putting off the soma of the sarx”, which does have to do with the body, but since our physical bodies remain unchanged when we are made new creatures in Christ, it must refer to more than that. Let’s go further.

12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Who do you bury? Dead people!

13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh (also sarx), He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,

ALL—not just those that occurred before you were reborn. Parenthetically, it can be helpful to remember that when He did this, over 2000 years ago, you had committed no sins, as you were not even a twinkle in the eye of your ancestors.

14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

What was that handwriting? Maybe the same handwriting Jesus was referring to when He wrote on the ground as the Pharisees tested His reaction to a woman caught in adultery? The “ministry of death, written and engraved on stones.” 2 Corinthians 3:7 (NKJV) The Law given through Moses.

15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,

17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

It’s always and only all about our wonderful Lord and King Jesus—what He did and who He is.

18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Notice here how our freedom is a reward and that it is Jesus, God, the Head who holds everything together and causes growth and increase. We aren’t in there anywhere except on the receiving side being rewarded with freedom because of what He did for us!

Now let’s look at Romans 6:3-23 (NKJV)

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

Sounds a lot like what we read in Colossians, doesn’t it?

4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death,

Again we see that we were buried with Him.

that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Now here comes the really great part. How did we get dead so that we could be buried with Him?

6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

Our old man—our Adamic nature—was crucified with Christ on the cross! That’s real freedom; that’s a real reward. We are in Christ, not in Adam. The Bible talks many times about someone having been in the loins of their ancestor. This is the reason that Adam’s sin was inherited by all of us. He was what theologians call our “federal head”. That fancy term just means that Adam was our ultimate father, and we inherited all that we are from him because without his seed, we would not be here. So it is with Jesus now! We were crucified with Him and then raised with Him to a new life. So, we are dead to sin—dead to Adam and his nature—and alive to Christ—alive to His righteous, holy, fully accepted nature. Watch…

11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

Notice that we are talking about fruit here. Branches don’t produce (cause) fruit; they bear it. So, when we were Adam’s children, we bore fruit based on his sinful nature.

22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

But now we are God’s children, and we bear fruit based on His perfect, righteous, and holy nature.

Galatians 2:20 (NKJV)

20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

That sounds like a real exchange of lives. The change was complete in every respect. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. His life lived through us.

Romans 7:4-6 (NKJV)

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.

6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

So, we do not have to worry that we fall out of fellowship with God when we mess up, even if we do it on purpose. We simply need to remember that such behavior does not reflect who we truly are any longer. It’s a mindset from our accuser and from living in this fallen world where our senses can sometimes get the better of us.

We are fully accepted by God. As we learn to believe more fully that our old self was crucified with Him and we are totally new creations, we will find that the Holy Spirit within us produces the fruit of the Spirit and we bear it and put it on display for others to see and feed upon.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NKJV)

16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

This is the Good News, and there is no bad news in the Good News.