“Live Like You Were Dying (Again)”
Colossians 3:1-11
7-31-2022
In the name of Jesus, dear friends in Christ. Do you have a pretty good memory? Mine isn’t as sharp as it used to be, and the worst part is that I know it! Anyway, I’m sure all my previous sermons are permanently etched in your minds, but do you recall one where I used the country song “Live Like You Were Dying” as an illustration? Well, I did and sadly I forgot that {even though I’m sure you hadn’t.} After I gave the bulletin information to our secretary, a couple of rusty old brain cells bumped together and the sketchy memory of that sermon came back. So, we decided to add the word “again” to the title because this is a recurring theme for St. Paul. I can assure you; this is a totally different sermon based on a different letter of Paul’s so don’t tune me out thinking you’ve heard this one before.
Okay, with that disclaimer let’s dive in. In our Epistle Lesson, St. Paul is saying that you should “Live Like You Were Dying” but with a different twist. He starts off by telling us Christians to set our minds on things above. He’s not saying that we should just think about heaven. Rather, our whole focus is to be on living the new life which is ours through faith in Jesus. How did we get that new life? Paul says it was by dying with Christ. Back in chapter 2, he says we died and were buried with Christ in our Baptisms. That is to say that when you were Baptized your corrupt, sinful nature was put to death. It was killed and it no longer has control over you. You were also simultaneously resurrected with Christ and made into a new person. As we often say, you were wrapped in the robe of Christ’s righteousness. Now, when God looks at you, He sees the perfection of His Son, Jesus.
That’s all well and good. But why then does Paul go on to say in verse 5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature”? I thought he just said that our old, sinful nature was killed in our Baptisms? Well, it’s true that the old Adam was put to death in your Baptism, but as long as we live in this world, that sinful human nature still clings to us. It was drowned in those waters of Baptism and has no control over us. But we have this insane ability to perform CPR and bring it back to life. The devil and the sinful world entice us to resuscitate the dead, old Adam in us. They urge us to live once again under the control and direction of our former master, sin.
So Paul encourages Christians to daily “put to death” that old, sinful nature. Any evil thoughts or deeds such as sexual immorality, lust, or greed must be put to death. Attitudes and actions which are opposed to God’s will, such as unrighteous anger, meanness, dirty language, and lying must be gotten rid of, by putting it to death. Paul is not naive. He knows that we will be plagued constantly by these sins until the day we die. We will never be totally free from them in this life. And so, we must regularly be putting them to death so that they don’t take control of us again.
How do we do that? It’s as simple as going back to your Baptism. Please turn with me to page 325 in your hymnals. In the right-hand column, under the section on Baptism, the Fourth Part asks the question, “What does such Baptizing with water indicate?” Let’s read the answer together… Did you catch that? By daily contrition and repentance, the Old Adam—your old, sinful nature—is drowned and dies along with its sinful desires, and a new man—your new life in Christ—emerges to live a Godly life. Each day you and I are to take that Old Adam back to the Baptismal font and drown it. Kill it! How? Through contrition and repentance. You don’t need to be re-Baptized. The power of your Baptism is still effective regardless of how long ago you were washed in those holy waters.
Gayleen and I had a conversation a while ago with a relative who no longer believed in infant Baptism. Some of her friends in college, who had been Baptized as babies, were doing some pretty sinful things and she assumed that meant their Baptisms had no power. That’s a false and shaky premise to build on. Look at what Paul says. He’s talking to people who were already Baptized Christians. He says that we are to put to death whatever belongs to the sinful nature. He never says that these sinful actions invalidated the powerful thing that happened in Baptism. No. But when we find that we’ve given into the temptations of the sinful nature, all we need do is recognize those sins and repent of them, asking God to forgive us for Jesus’ sake. As we do so, the Holy Spirit once again applies the power of our Baptism, drowns that sinful nature, and washes us clean so that we can stand pure before God. In a very real way, Paul is telling us to “Live Like You Were Dying… again and again.” Because if we’re daily confessing our sins before God, then the Old Adam is indeed dying so that we can live as God’s beloved children.
Here’s the problem, though. We don’t always take this admonition of Paul seriously. Instead of putting to death the old, sinful nature, we diddle around with it. We act as though we can control it without actually killing it. This evil monster is hanging on your back and you’re throwing soft, spongy, Nerf balls at it rather than hacking it to death with the mighty sword of God’s power.
Now why would we do that? Well, lots of reasons. One of them is that sinning is fun. I’m serious. If sinning wasn’t fun, do you think people would do it? And we’re afraid that if we let the Holy Spirit totally kill that sinful nature then that’ll end our fun. Another reason is that we simply don’t want to give up control of those areas of our life. We honestly think we can restrict the Old Adam on our own. After all, we’re Christians, aren’t we? And so, people fall into the trap of thinking that they can master the sinful nature by imposing strict rules on themselves and on others. There were some folks who were trying to do that to the Colossians and Paul addressed it back in chapter 2. He says, “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.” They were trying to control the sinful nature through outward rules and regulations. Paul says it won’t work. Only the Holy Spirit and His power can destroy the Old Adam in us.
C.S. Lewis wrote a short book called “The Great Divorce”, which, by the way, has nothing to do with marriage. There is a scene in the book where an angel confronts a man who has a little, red lizard on his shoulder. The lizard is whispering nasty things and temptations in the man’s ear. The angel asks the man if he’d like him to kill the little beast. The man hesitates and then says it’s not necessary because the lizard was quiet now and had gone to sleep. But the angel presses on, offering to kill the lizard that’s plaguing him. The man says he’s sure he can control it and hopefully get rid of it. The angel tells him it won’t work and offers again to kill the lizard. The man reveals he’s afraid that by killing the lizard, he himself will be killed. The angel assures him he won’t die, but it will hurt to kill the little beast. As the angel prepares to grab the lizard it starts to promise the man that it’ll behave. Finally, the man relents and lets the angel remove the lizard, throwing it to the ground, breaking it’s back. Then comes a strange twist. The man, free from the pestering, controlling lizard is transformed into a strong, new man. And the lizard is transformed into a mighty stallion. The man jumps on its back and rides happily away.
Lewis wasn’t just telling a weird fairy tale here. He goes on to explain that the lizard was the man’s sensual desires which had turned into lust. That lust was mastering the man and destroying him. But when he gave up all control and let the angel remove that beast of lust, it no longer controlled the man, but he controlled it. The new man was then able to master his natural desires and let them be a servant to him.
We are very much like that man. God has created us to have good, natural desires. But when sin perverts those desires, they become like that evil, little lizard, controlling and destroying us. For instance, God made us with sexual needs and desires. There’s nothing bad or wrong with that. But sin perverts that natural desire which makes it evil. It becomes lust which then burns within and controls us. It whispers in our ears and tells us to express our sexual desires in ways outside of how God designed us. God says, “Let me kill it.” But we object and say, “Look, it’s quiet now. Those bad, lustful thoughts have gone to sleep.” The Holy Spirit presses on and encourages us to let Him kill the lust. But we assure Him that we we’ve got it under control now. When God’s Word convicts us that our thoughts and actions are sinful, the little beast called lust assures us that it will behave itself. But the Holy Spirit keeps applying the pressure because He knows the sinful nature is a liar and will quickly rear its ugly head. He asks again and again to let Him kill it. We hesitate to let Him do it though, because we fear that if He kills the lust, it will also kill us. God gently assures us this isn’t true. He allowed His perfect and Holy Son, Jesus, to be killed on the cross so that we could be freed of sins power over us. And Christ rose from the dead so that we too could be raised to a new life when we are united to Him by faith.
Yes, it hurts to let Him put the sinful nature to death because we’ve become so fond of it. Isn’t that true of all our pet sins that we tend to hold onto and refuse to put to death? And therefore, they control us. The only way to be rid of them is to repent and confess them to God. By doing so, we are asking Him to accomplish what we are unable to do. We are asking Him to kill our sinful nature and its control over us.
When we finally relent, then wonderful things can happen in our lives. The new person, created in us by the Holy Spirit, can emerge. Paul says that when the “old self” has been removed God puts in us the “new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” And suddenly we discover that our natural desires no longer control us, but we control them by God’s power; kind of like that horse in the story. We are now free to enjoy the new life which we were given through faith in Christ. So you see, you really are supposed to “Live Like You Were Dying… again and again” because our old, sinful nature has indeed been put to death. In our opening hymn we sang, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” The answer is, “Yes! I have died with Christ in my Baptism and have been raised with Him!” And now, being dead to those sinful desires, we can truly live. We can live in the peace of God which is ours through Jesus Christ. We can live with our hearts and minds focused “on things above,” confident of the resurrection from the dead and our eternal life with our gracious God in heaven. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!