{"id":462,"date":"2010-06-01T05:53:16","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T12:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=462"},"modified":"2011-01-14T05:05:23","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T12:05:23","slug":"on-with-the-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/?p=462","title":{"rendered":"On with the New …"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Colossians 3:9 and 10 the Apostle Paul lays the foundation for how we may, in actual practice, declare \u201cOut with the old and on with the new.\u201d\u00a0 In verse 9 we met the \u201cout with the old.\u201d\u00a0 Now consider how the Apostle tells us we can live out the new life Jesus Christ offers.<\/p>\n

“… and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him\u2014”<\/strong><\/span> (Colossians 3:10)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul now adds (\u201cand\u201d) a second participial clause (for the first see the previous post<\/a>), providing the second ground upon which the imperatives of verses 5-9a are based. \u00a0Corresponding to the first participle (\u201csince you laid aside the old self,\u201d v.9) Paul tells us we \u201chave put on the new self.\u201d\u00a0 Once again the tense is aorist \u2013 signaling decisive action.\u00a0 The verb will be used again in verse 12 where it is clear that what is \u201cput on\u201d are new virtues and actions.\u00a0 Paul has emphasized the change of position and identity with regard to \u201cthe old man\u201d (v.9) and now he intends the same here with regard to \u201cthe new self.\u201d\u00a0 This is a change both of regeneration to new life with a new heart individually and of transfer from being counted \u201cin Adam\u201d to being established \u201cin Christ\u201d corporately.<\/p>\n

While such a change will be manifested clearly in one\u2019s outward behavior (vv.9, 12) it is fundamentally an inward change for such a one is he \u201cwho is being renewed to a true knowledge.\u201d\u00a0 The participle itself is a compound word comprised of \u201cagain\u201d and \u201cmake new.\u201d\u00a0 The word is used only here and 2 Corinthians 4:16: \u201c. . . though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed<\/em> day by day\u201d (emphasis added).\u00a0 The present tense underscores the continual nature of the process (cf. Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).\u00a0 The passive voice emphasizes that the accomplishment of this renewal is the doing of another \u2013 God Himself.\u00a0 We are, by His grace, not what we once were in Adam.\u00a0 Yet He is ever and always working to make what He has effected in us true of us in every dimension of our being, He is thus always making anew, actualizing a new quality of life here and now.\u00a0 In this there is constant hope, for we are, by His grace, not what we shall yet be in Christ.\u00a0 This ongoing transformation is \u201cto a true knowledge.\u201d\u00a0 This is now the fourth time in this letter that Paul has used this noun (1:9, 10; 2:2; 3:10) and he employs the cognate verb in 1:6.\u00a0 It is a compound word (\u201cupon\u201d and \u201cknowledge\u201d) which intensifies the root and points to fullness, depth and completeness of knowledge.\u00a0 He has been using the word in a thrust against the false teachers in Colossae.\u00a0 They were emphasizing their knowledge of things spiritual (2:4, 8, 18), but Paul makes clear that in Christ \u201care hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge\u201d (Col. 2:3).\u00a0 In the earlier usages Paul prays or longs for the realization of this knowledge in the Colossian believers\u2019 lives.\u00a0 In 1:9 the knowledge Paul desired for the Colossian believers was \u201cof His will,\u201d in 1:10 it was \u201cof God,\u201d and in 2:2 it was knowledge \u201cof God\u2019s mystery,\u201d a \u201cmystery\u201d which is \u201cChrist Himself.\u201d\u00a0 The preposition is directional\u2014God is ever moving us \u201cinto\u201d this full, true, complete knowledge that is found in Christ alone.<\/p>\n

This renewal is not nebulous or without form.\u00a0 It has a pattern, a goal, a destination.\u00a0 It is \u201caccording to the image of the One who created him.\u00a0 The word translated \u201cthe image\u201d immediately reminds one of Genesis 1:26-27: \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness . . .\u2019 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.\u201d\u00a0 Yet closer to home here in Colossians the word was used by Paul earlier to say that Christ \u201cis the image of the invisible God\u201d (1:15a).\u00a0 This is a theologically rich and significant word as it relates to one\u2019s Christology.\u00a0 The same word that in 1:15 stresses not just similarity, but shared essence is now used of the pattern after which the believer is being remade.\u00a0 While Christ is the image of God (1:15), we have been and are being remade \u201caccording to\u201d the image of Christ (3:10).\u00a0 This is holy ground and we must take off our theological sandals and walk softly.\u00a0 This does not say that we are the \u201cimage\u201d of Christ as He is the \u201cimage\u201d of God, but that we are being remade \u201caccording to\u201d (\u201cin accordance with, just as, similar<\/em>(ly<\/em>) to<\/em>\u201d, BAGD, 407) His \u201cimage.\u201d\u00a0 It is not that the believer ever shares in the divine essence itself, yet the union of the believer with Christ is indeed real.\u00a0 So real is it that Paul has been able to speak of \u201cChrist, who is our life\u201d (3:4).\u00a0 \u201cFor in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ\u201d (Col. 2:9-10a).\u00a0 Peter asserts that we \u201cmay become partakers of the divine nature\u201d (2 Pet. 1:4).\u00a0 To be sure\u2014and to emphasize once again\u2014we do not and never will share in Christ\u2019s divinity or Godhood.\u00a0 Yet the writers of Scripture speak of the union of the believer with Christ in the most intimate of ways.\u00a0 Paul speaks elsewhere of the body of Christ coming to a place where we attain \u201cto the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ\u201d (Eph. 4:13) and that together we may actually become \u201cthe fullness of Him who fills all in all\u201d (1:23).\u00a0 This is a mystery, the subtle nuances of which are difficult to draw out in detail (and which we attempt at our own peril), but the parameters of which are clearly drawn (and which we ignore to our own spiritual detriment).<\/p>\n

The image after which we are being remade is \u201cof the One who created him.\u201d\u00a0 Here in Colossians it is Christ who is pictured as the Creator.\u00a0 He is \u201cthe firstborn over all creation.\u00a0 For by Him all things were created\u201d (1:15b-16a).\u00a0 The personal pronoun (\u201chim\u201d) finds its antecedent in \u201cthe new self.”[1]<\/a> Since inwardly we are being remade after Christ\u2019s image (v.10b) we ought then to put on new outward actions to reflect this inward change (vv.8-9).\u00a0 This inward-to-outward movement of logic confirms our understanding of the vice lists in verses 5 and 8 (see this post<\/a>) where we saw Paul logically moving from inward impulse to outward action in his description of sin and in implicitly outlining a strategy for overcoming these sins.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Harris, 153.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Colossians 3:9 and 10 the Apostle Paul lays the foundation for how we may, in actual practice, declare \u201cOut with the old and on with the new.\u201d\u00a0 In verse 9 we met the \u201cout with the old.\u201d\u00a0 Now consider how the Apostle tells us we can live out the new life Jesus Christ offers. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_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_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-462","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-7s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","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=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jkitchen.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}