WWUTT 068 Be Set Apart (Colossians 2:6-15)

Be Holy as I Am Holy

If you are in Christ, you are to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, putting on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

When we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand the Text, committed to the sound teaching of the Word of God. For questions and comments, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com. And don't forget our website, www .utt .com.

Here's our host, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. Merry Christmas, everyone. Yeah, I know I'm way early for that, but so is everybody else. I'm just going with the flow of things here. My local hardware store is decorated to the nines with Christmas stuff.

You walk into that place, you would not be able to tell that we haven't even gotten to Thanksgiving yet. And we're getting a jumpstart on our Christmas protesting this year. People are already angry that they're not being wished a Merry Christmas, and we're more than two weeks away from Thanksgiving.

For goodness sake, people, settle down. 2 Timothy 2 .23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, patiently enduring evil.

This whole thing is, again, it's people's voices that rise louder than the rest saying, I am the expert, and you need to listen to what I am telling you. You need to get upset about this because I'm telling you to get upset.

Christ Above Human Tradition

But as we've been reading in Colossians chapter two this week, we need to be careful not to listen to authority other than Christ. If it is any authority that is apart from Christ, it is worthless. It is meaningless.

It is empty deceit, according to human tradition and according to the elemental spirits of the world. If it is not according to Christ, we're in Colossians chapter two, again, looking at verses six through 15.

If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, let me ask you something before we get to the text here. Are you aware of how much the world has changed in 15 years? Can you remember what the culture was like 15 years ago, wherever you're listening from?

Because I know that we get listeners to this program all over the world. So wherever you are, can you remember what your culture was like 15 years ago? Now I know that we also have some homeschool families that listen in, and so for some of my youngest listeners, you're probably not even old enough to have been alive 15 years ago.

But for those of you who are twice that age or older, can you remember how much or can you think of how much your culture has changed in 15 years? Let me tell you a story. I know a man whom I will call John.

He was a missionary to Africa and he lived and shared the gospel there for 15 years. He lived in a very isolated region where there was no media or television. He didn't even have access to electricity most of the time and running water was a luxury.

These are the people that he lived with and ministered to, planning a church there and being a pastor there for over a decade. There were people that walked for miles to come to that church and learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now when John came back to the United States of America, he could not believe how much it had changed. It was overwhelming to him even how much it had changed. He turned on the TV and he saw shows where men were kissing men and women were kissing women.

And when he left the U .S., that was absolutely unheard of. That would have been a ratings disaster for a television network. People would have been in an uproar, but he came to find that in 15 years, it had now become devastating to a television network not to entertain those kinds of relationships.

He heard songs on the radio with people saying swear words that were not allowed to be aired when he left the States. And furthermore, that stuff was so controversial that people just would not have bought into it.

It would have been a disaster for a radio station to air those kinds of things. He saw magazine covers in the grocery store line, the checkout lines showing women wearing very revealing clothing that was practically considered nudity 15 years earlier.

Such images may have been up high in a magazine rack with an opaque plastic label on the front that you couldn't see through, but you would not have seen them in the checkout lines. My, how the world has changed in 15 years.

John noticed an immediate difference between the country that he had left and the country that he had returned to. As he reintegrated with some of the friends and family that he left behind, he realized that they were not as aware to the changes of the culture.

It's not that they were completely unaware. They knew that things had changed, but they were more desensitized having experienced the change gradually over time instead of the way that John did all at once.

He had been completely separated from the culture and had a different perspective than his friends and family did, and the result was alien. It was so drastically different, but his friends and family barely even noticed.

In first Peter one 15, we are told as he who called you is holy. You also be holy in all your conduct. What does it mean to be holy? What does that mean? The word holy means to be set apart. We are called out by God to be set apart from the rest of the world and be united with Christ in holiness.

As it goes on to say in verse 16, as God says to us, be holy as I am holy. So as we are imitators of Christ, if we are imitators of our God, we are to be set apart from the culture. Romans 12, one and two says to present yourselves as holy and pleasing sacrifices unto the Lord.

And this is your spiritual act of worship. Conform yourself no longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by renewing your mind. And then you will see God's good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is holiness being set apart from the world in Christ Jesus. And we're going to be talking about that more as we continue on in our study with Colossians chapter two. Before opening up here in verse eight, let's come to the Lord in prayer.

Our wonderful and holy God, we ask that you would impart upon us a desire for holiness, that you would give us a knowledge and an understanding of what holiness means. What does it mean to be holy? What are you calling us as your children to be in this world?

Give us the knowledge and the understanding of this as we come to your scriptures today. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Colossians chapter two, well, I'll start in verse six here as we have all this week.

Therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him, established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. As we're getting closer to that season, before we get to Christmas, we've got Thanksgiving to get through.

Verse eight, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit. According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. For in him, the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

And you have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead and you who were dead in your trespasses in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. And we'll get through at least that section today. Tomorrow we'll be looking at verses 16 to the end of the chapter.

We will get all the way through a Colossians chapter two this week. OK, so let's go back here. I'm going to go back to verse 11. All right. Jesus is the head of all rule and authority. So as I mentioned at the start of the program, we need to be careful about those that we listen to who claim to be the rule.

They claim to be the authority that you need to listen to. Christ is the one that the whole fullness of deity dwells within, and we have been filled in him who is the head of all rule and authority. So whoever we're listening to, make sure it measures up with the words of Christ Jesus.

First John four, one, don't accept every spirit that comes from God, for there are many false spirits that have gone into the world. We need to test the spirits and know that they are from God. So in him, in Christ, verse 11, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

Now, what is this? What does this mean? Let me ask you this. What is circumcision? Now, parents, for those of you who are in those homeschool groups that are listening to this program, I hope that you will explain to your children what circumcision is.

And please don't be embarrassed by this. It is important that we understand this because it is something that marks of the people of God in the Old Testament. And it is something that is still there. There is still a spiritual understanding of this among the people of God, even here as we are in New Testament people.

So it is a very important term in Christianity, and we shouldn't shy away from explaining it. So let me give you a brief explanation of circumcision here. God made a covenant with Abraham, and he said to him that you will be the father of many nations and all of your children will be my children.

I will be their God. If you unite yourself to me, I will unite myself to you. Now, if your children, if my people do not unite themselves to me, if they go after another people and unite themselves with their gods, then I will cut them off.

And everything that applies, everything that is tied in with male anatomy there applies. So circumcision is the cutting off of the foreskin from the tip of the penis. And this is supposed to symbolize that Abraham, the servants in his household who were circumcised all of his children, his male children who were circumcised, they were to be cut off from the rest of the world and united with God.

But if they united themselves with false gods, God would cut them off from their inheritance in the kingdom of God. Are you kind of understanding the symbolism there and how and how the metaphor of circumcision applies and still applies even now to the people of God?

Because here in this section, as we go on here in Colossians chapter two, in Christ, we were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

So if we are in Christ Jesus, we're cut off from the rest of the world. We do not unite ourselves with the world. We are united with Christ. We cannot keep one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God, because if we do that, we are not united wholly to Christ Jesus.

There is still something about this world that we are clinging to and loving instead of God, not devoting ourselves fully unto the Lord. And so we must be circumcised with Christ. Now, we are a spiritual people today on this side of the cross.

As a New Testament people, a new covenant people, we are we are a spiritual people not marked by symbols of the flesh. So circumcision no longer applies to being a sign of that covenant that was made with the people of Abraham.

The sign of that covenant now is the Holy Spirit that is upon us. That is the sign of the covenant. It is not circumcision. We're not a people of the flesh anymore. Even for the Israelite people in the Old Testament, the covenant of circumcision was supposed to be a symbol of something that was supposed to happen for them spiritually as well.

When you look at Deuteronomy chapter 10, verses 12 through 22, Moses is speaking to the Israelite people before they are to go into the promised land and take it according to God's commands. And here's what Moses says to the Israelites.

He says,. And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord which I am commanding you today for your good?

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.

Verse 16, Circumcised, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the Lord your God.

You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. He is your praise. He is your God who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. Your fathers went down to Egypt, 70 persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven, thus fulfilling the promise that had been made to Abraham.

So even here in a people that were marked by the flesh, by the covenant of circumcision, he says, Deuteronomy 10, 16, Circumcised, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. So even the circumcision of the flesh that was given to the Israelite people, even for them, it was supposed to be a symbol of an attitude of their hearts, not something that they did on the outside, but who they were on the inside.

Changed from the core, from the inside out, showing that they were the people of God by their actions, not merely by what was marked in their flesh. And so we, as the people of God, are supposed to show the same thing as well.

If we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, then we will show ourselves as set apart, as holy. Now, that does not mean that you are going to be perfect because you still inhabit imperfect flesh. Your body has not yet been redeemed.

So you will constantly struggle between the things of this world and the things of the spirit, the things that you desire to do that pleases God and the things of this world that entice you and tempt you and draw you away.

There are times when we will give into those temptations. Do not hear me saying that as permission to give into those temptations, but just the reality of the situation that we are in the flesh and we will still be struggling against the desires of the flesh.

I've had those struggles today already, in fact. And so we need a constant cleansing from the Lord. And we have this promise that has been given to us. First John 1 9. If we ask forgiveness for our from our sins, God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness because the price was paid for us.

And it was it was paid by Jesus Christ on the cross. So when that verse says that God is just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, it is because it is Christ who has paid that penalty for us. And we see that come out also here in Colossians as we continue on with the passage.

So let's keep going. Going back to Colossians chapter two, verse 11 in Christ, you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands by putting off the body of flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God who raised him from the dead.

Now, I think it is necessary for me to explain something here about verse 12. I know that I've got Presbyterian brothers and sisters who are listening to this program. Love you. OK, I have no desire to quarrel with you in any way over this particular verse.

But I know that Presbyterians and reform the Reformed Church of America will take this verse, Colossians 2 12, and see that baptism is a replacement for circumcision. So in the old covenant, circumcision was the sign and seal of the covenant with Abraham.

And in the New Testament, the it's baptism that is the sign and seal. It is the replacement of circumcision. I do not necessarily follow that view. I see that circumcision is circumcision and baptism is baptism.

And Paul is using metaphors in this section to talk about being united fully with Christ. We are cut off from the world and united with Christ. We have been buried with him in baptism and we've been raised to new life in Christ.

I see these things as being two different things, not one being a replacement for the other, as we had talked about when we were in our study of Philippians, Philippians 3 3. For we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

So the evidence of our conversion is not in anything physical. It is the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us. Let's continue in our study of Colossians chapter two in verse 13. You who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

OK, now this is a Greco Roman metaphor. The record of debt was a written note of indebtedness. So if you were in debt to someone else and it was it was verified by the Roman Empire, yeah, you owe this debt to this other person or you owed a debt to the Roman Empire itself.

There would be this record of debt that would be held against you. And so because of our sin, we were indebted to God. We owed God, which we could not pay back. We were incapable of paying to God what we owed for our sin.

God took care of that himself by sending his son Jesus in the likeness of human flesh and paying for in his flesh what we were incapable of paying for in hours. So he canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

And this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. OK, before explaining verse 15 back to verse 14 here, he canceled the record of debt, nailing it to the cross.

So when a criminal was crucified, the thing that they were being punished for was nailed there to the top of the cross. Now, you probably know this, right, because of the pictures that you've seen of Jesus being crucified.

And there was a sign that was hung above him that said, here is Jesus, the king of the Jews. So we had a record of debt that was being held against us. And in Romans 6, 23, it says the wages of sin is death.

But God paid the penalty for us. Jesus Christ died on the cross in our place. And that record of debt that stood against us was nailed with him to the cross. All of its legal demands, death, which is what we owed, was paid for by Christ.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Now, this is another Greco-Roman metaphor, because whenever the Romans would conquer a people, there would be a huge parade and a procession in which the generals and the emperor would come riding through Rome, and they would have the corpses of their enemies with them, showing the people, here's who it is that we conquered.

And they would put them to open shame. And God did this with Satan and his minions when Christ was nailed to the cross. He put all of the rulers and authorities to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

Now, we are still going to struggle against the devil schemes as long as we still inhabit this flesh. And since he is referred to as the ruler of this world, there will still be that constant struggle between the things of the spirit that we desire to do that honor and please God and the temptations of the flesh.

But if we are rooted in Christ, if we're built up in him, established in the faith, abounding and thanksgiving for all that the Lord our God has done for us, then we will be able to keep ourselves from being taken captive by worldly philosophy and empty deceit.

Those things that are according to human tradition and according to the elemental spirits of the world and not according to Christ. Let us fix ourselves entirely upon Christ Jesus, cut off from the world, united with Christ in holiness, thinking with the mind of God, as Paul says in Philippians 2 5.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus in our heart down to our very core. We desire holiness. We are filled with Christ Jesus. So let us be again cut off from the world and united completely in Christ our Lord God.

Thank you so much for rescuing us from our trespasses and sins and making us alive together with you for giving us all of our sins. Thank you for canceling the record of debt that stood against us, nailing it to the cross.

Thank you for disarming the rulers and authorities, knowing that they have no ultimate hold on us for we are truly united in Christ Jesus. Deliver us from this world into your eternal kingdom, and we pray and ask these things in Jesus name.

What Jesus Looked Like Is Not the Point

Amen. Man, that Jesus was one good looking dude, wasn't he? From artistic portrayals to movies and television, we've been treated to a fair, pun intended, number of depictions of Christ that range from good looking to really good looking.

It's like the son of God just up and walked out of a soap opera. Yeah, well, there you go. Before handsome Jesus came along, second century philosopher Celsus made fun of Christianity for having an ugly God when compared to the chiseled marble gods the pagans worshipped.

Needless to say, this criticism made an impact and imagery shifted more toward the radiant Jesus described in Revelation. Ultimately, European art won over the Jesus brand and he's been a long haired white dude since the sixth century.

Mormons especially love their white Jesus. But can we really know what Jesus looked like? Well, we know he wasn't white. He would have looked like pretty much any Galilean in the first century, kind of like this.

There was nothing special about Jesus' appearance. In fact, Isaiah 53 says he had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire him. It goes on to say that he was a man of sorrows as one from whom men hide their faces.

When Jesus was arrested, Judas had a signal for the mob to know which one was Jesus, saying the one I kiss is the man. Obviously, Jesus didn't stand out from even his own disciples. When it comes down to it, what Jesus looked like is not nearly as important as what he did.

Living a perfect life, dying on the cross for our sins and rising again from the grave. All who follow him will have eternal life. Then we'll get to see him and know exactly what he looked like. Even though we should know better than to think of him as a good looking white dude when we understand the text.

Knowing What Jesus Looked Like

Jan from Florida writes in and says, Dear Watch, I watched your video about how Jesus wasn't white. And my question is this. Are we not supposed to know what Jesus looked like at all? Or can we know about what he looked like?

Are we as Christians not supposed to put such stock in such things? Well, thank you for your question, Jan. First of all, we can know what he looked like. Jesus was a Galilean, so he would have looked like any Galilean from the first century.

He had olive skin, which would have made him a little bit darker than white and a little bit lighter than black, basically. And we also know that he was not that much more distinguishable from the rest of his disciples.

And this is why the Pharisees needed Judas to point out to them which one Jesus was. They had a concern that when they came to arrest Jesus, one of his disciples was going to step forward and sacrifice themselves for him and say, I'm Jesus.

And so it was necessary for them to have Judas point out to them which one Jesus was. But if you had looked at Jesus and his disciples, you would not have been able to tell. Oh, yeah, that's Jesus. He's the handsome one with the white robe and the purple sash around him.

OK, that's that's not how that would have would have gone. Now, the other part of your question was this. Are we as Christians not supposed to put such stock in such things? Yeah, we're really not. It's not supposed to be a big deal for us to know exactly what it was that Jesus looked like.

I think it's OK for kids to color pictures of Jesus in Sunday school or watch a video that has a picture of Jesus in it. As long as we are explaining to our kids, that's not what he looked like. And you're not worshiping that image.

We are to worship. We're to worship God. But we can know what he looked like. And I think it's OK to theorize such things is not as long as we're not putting too much stock in that. Now, here's a fun little bit of trivia for you.

Whenever you are seeing classical paintings of Jesus, he's almost always looking to his right. And the reason for that is because whenever you look at yourself in the mirror, you might notice that the left side of your face looks a little bit happier than the right side.

And so the reason Jesus is almost always looking to his right is because the left side of the face is often happier looking. Now, every time you look at a painting of Jesus, you'll always think of that.

God bless you. And thank you for listening today. We will continue our study of Colossians tomorrow.

This has been When We Understand the Text of Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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