{"id":400,"date":"2010-04-22T05:17:29","date_gmt":"2010-04-22T09:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=400"},"modified":"2013-06-26T11:27:31","modified_gmt":"2013-06-26T15:27:31","slug":"dealing-radically-with-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Dealing Radically with Sin (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Put to death therefore . . .” <\/strong>(Colossians 3:5a)<\/p>\n

\u201cPut to death\u201d \u2013 a simple, succinct imperative.\u00a0 It is a command. \u00a0But think<\/em> about it.\u00a0 Reflect<\/em> upon what the Apostle is demanding.\u00a0 Contemplate<\/em> the course of action God has obligated you to!<\/p>\n

The word it not complicated. \u00a0Its meaning is not nuanced, graded or hinted at. \u00a0It means simply \u201cput to death\u201d or \u201ckill.\u201d<\/p>\n

May I ask: Have you ever killed anything?\u00a0 Have you ever put anything to death?<\/p>\n

Understand: the command is not to subdue something.\u00a0 You are not ordered to corral something.\u00a0 You are not asked to corner, suppress, restrain or control something. \u00a0You are ordered, by God, to KILL<\/em><\/strong> something.\u00a0 You<\/em> must end its existence.<\/p>\n

Again I ask: Have you ever done this with anything before?\u00a0 Is there any precedent in your experience for this kind of ruthless, steely-eyed, calculated, cold-blooded course of action?<\/p>\n

Can you do it?\u00a0 Do you have it in you?\u00a0 Can you look it full-faced, in the eye and watch the life drain from its features, death envelop its being, and all hope vanish from its eyes as you keep your hands locked in a vice-grip around its throat?<\/p>\n

What Paul asks of you builds logically (\u201ctherefore) upon what he has said in verses 1-4. \u00a0In view of what he is obligating you to, perhaps it would be well to go back and read those verses once again.\u00a0 Check how much you believe what Paul has said.\u00a0 Do you believe it enough to act upon it\u2014in this fashion and to this extent?<\/p>\n

What Paul tells us there is that the believer has been placed in union with Christ in His death (v.3; cf. 2:12, 20), resurrection (v.1), and ascension (vv.1b, 3), \u201cTherefore\u201d he should take the action prescribed here.\u00a0 That action is to \u201cPut to death.\u201d \u00a0This clearly builds on Paul\u2019s previous statement: \u201cyou have died\u201d (v.3a).<\/p>\n

The verb the Apostle employs here is used only two other times in the New Testament, both of which describe Abraham\u2019s body \u201cas good as dead\u201d when God fulfilled His promise to give him a son (Rom. 4:19; Heb. 11:12).\u00a0 It means simply \u201cput to death\u201d or \u201ckill\u201d (cf. esv, kjv, niv, nrsv).\u00a0 The aorist imperative demands that our action be decisive, immediate, and without delay.\u00a0 The nasb uniquely makes this a mental exercise (\u201cconsider<\/em> . . . as dead,\u201d emphasis added).\u00a0 May I say: The command does not demand less than that, but it certainly is more than a simple trick of the mind.\u00a0 That being said, the Apostle probably has something in mind very similar to \u201cconsider yourselves to be dead to sin\u201d (Rom. 6:11).\u00a0 Romans 6 states the matter as a fact: \u201cour old self was<\/em> crucified<\/em> with Him\u201d (v.6, emphasis added).\u00a0 In Galatians it is phrased similarly: \u201cNow those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified<\/em> the flesh with its passions and desires\u201d (Gal. 5:24, emphasis added).\u00a0 This states the matter as a fact to be believed and reckoned on.\u00a0 Yet Paul also makes this a matter of our action, for we must \u201cpresent yourselves to God as those alive from the dead<\/em>\u201d (Rom. 6:13, emphasis added).\u00a0 And it is \u201cby the Spirit [that] you are putting to death the deeds of the body\u201d (Rom. 8:13).<\/p>\n

Paul is demanding that we become in experience<\/em> what He has already declared us to be in fact<\/em>.\u00a0 God has ruthlessly, thoroughly, absolutely put our old self to death in union with His Son on the cross. \u00a0Now we\u2014like God\u2014must be as thoroughly ruthless in making certain that we make true in our experience what He has made true in our stead in Christ.<\/p>\n

Next time we will look more specifically at just what it is we are to \u201cPut to death.\u201d\u00a0 But for now, may I ask: Are you up to it?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Put to death therefore . . .” (Colossians 3:5a) \u201cPut to death\u201d \u2013 a simple, succinct imperative.\u00a0 It is a command. \u00a0But think about it.\u00a0 Reflect upon what the Apostle is demanding.\u00a0 Contemplate the course of action God has obligated you to! The word it not complicated. \u00a0Its meaning is not nuanced, graded or hinted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-colossians","post-preview"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgYGxX-6s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1608,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/1608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}