TEN LIFE RESOLUTIONS FROM GOD’S WORD (PART 2)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Colossians 3:5-11

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

We’ve just started a ten message series from Paul’s letter to the Colossian believers where we will be covering ten life resolutions we need to adopt found in chapter 3 and the first two verses of chapter 4.

Yesterday, we covered Resolution 1 which was “Set your heart on things above”. In that first message, we saw how the scriptures call us to place our focus fully on the Lord who reigns in absolute authority over everything in heaven and on earth.

As we turn to today’s resolution, we see how it can be a result of making sure we meet Resolution #1. Here it is:

RESOLUTION 2: Put to death your earthly nature. (3:5)

It’s easy to see this, right?

For when we set our hearts on things above and commit to be more-Christ centered, we turn away from the things of the world and that includes sinfulness, our earthly nature which is sometimes referred to as “the flesh” in the Bible. When we have our heart’s affection and mind’s direction set on Jesus, then we can’t have them focused on sin.

In other words, Christ and sin can’t coexist together. It’s either one or the other in your life.

Now, I encourage you to pay close attention to the command given in today’s second resolution. For we are told to “put to death our earthly nature” and death means death. It doesn’t mean we can store sin away and then access it later when our will and desires want it. No, sin can no longer have a place in our lives when we have become a Christian. It has to be exterminated and eradicated from our life.

What does this earthly, sinful nature look like?

The scriptures tell us of some things that must be eliminated. They include the following:

- sexual immorality

- impurity

- lust and desires

- greed

- anger and rage

- malice

- slander

- profanity

- idolatry

- lying

Are any of these transgressions present in your life?

If so, it’s time to put them to death, for good.

We need to remember that to truly be a Christian, we are to be Christ-like and Jesus didn’t have anything to do with sin. He was the only human who perfectly put sin to death, all the way to the cross where He won our victory over it.

If you need to put sins to death in your life, start by adopting Resolution #1 and set your heart on things above. When you do, then the very holiness and righteousness of Christ will replace your earthly nature and you will begin to taking the right steps toward being the person that the Lord wants you to be.

Jesus is the only One who can assure that we put to death our earthly nature, to say goodbye to our wickedness and hello to the fruits of the Spirit, fruits that we will cover as we look at Resolution #3 tomorrow.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com