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.
Colossians 3:5,6
There are just certain things in life that confuse the living daylights out of me. Anything that requires me to use my hands is at the top of my list. My dad was a genius when it came to using my hands. Me, not so much.
Here’s a simple, and embarrassing, example. I am forever forgetting whether to turn something to the right or left. So, when you see me muttering “lefty loosey, righty tighty” to myself, you’ll know what’s going on.
We have a great car mechanic in town that we trust our lives and cars with. He’s very kind because he’s never laughed or even smirked at some of the things I’ve said or asked. And there’ve been some really humiliating things. Everything connected to car maintenance is way over my head.
Yes, I can put gas in a car. But have you ever overfilled it so much that it started running down the street?
Yes, I can change the oil in a car. But have you ever made the mistake of putting the oil filter on wrong so that it left a giant puddle in the middle of your neighbor’s driveway?
Yes, I know how to turn off the engine. But have you ever rented a car that you couldn’t figure out how to turn the engine off, so you left the car running 25 minutes in the parking lot while you went in to order and pick up a pizza?
There’s not enough time to talk about doing even the simplest maintenance around the house. I have the gift of not being able to fix just about everything. And, if I do make the brave attempt of repairing something, there’s a 99% chance that I’ll first put it together backwards before having to undo and redo.
If you think my life is confusing, how about the Colossians? Paul just told them that they were dead. Now he’s telling them to put some things to death. If they’re already dead, how can they put something to death? Well, there’s dead and then there’s dead. Yes, that’s supposed to sound confusing. But it really isn’t. There’s dead to sin and then there’s dead to sins. And that “s” at the end makes all the difference in the world. Let me explain.
Dead to Sin – The dead of verses 3 and 4 is the one-time “dead to sin” that changes who we are and our eternal life together with God. This all happens when we receive Jesus as our Lord and God[1]. We become the sons and daughters of God and there’s no unbecoming his child[2]. He makes us into a new creation and there’s no going back. The old sin is gone, and we’ve been made once-and-for-all into a new creation[3]
Dead to Sins – But there’s another death. These are the daily death decisions about what we do. These are the sins, the individual words, thoughts, actions, and attitudes that we do against God. Since Christ not only died for our sin, but also died for our sins[4], we want to respond. We’ll want to please the one who loves us. We’ll continually be on the lookout for ways to die to sins and live for righteousness[5].
Some people think that God is some kind of cosmic killjoy, just wanting to keep all the really good stuff from us[6]. After all, just look at the list of the “earthly nature” stuff. Aren’t they all the things that we want? But that’s what our enemy says. The truth is Just the opposite; God wants nothing but the absolute best for you and me. He wants that so desperately that he was willing to come and die a horrific death in our place[7].
Now some people will look at the “earthly nature” list and think, “What’s wrong with sexual immorality and all the rest? They really don’t hurt anyone, so what’s the harm? The harm is that we’re pushing God out and trying to replace our emptiness.
So much of sexual desire comes from the belief that another body can alleviate our aloneness. It can’t do that, but people believe it can. When one body doesn’t work, they look for another.[8]
God alone is the only one who can fill our deep loneliness. The one who made us. The one who loves us. The one who can fill that God-shaped hole inside us. Sin is us wanting to replace God. Sins are us trying to replace God.
The great love and miracle of God is that he takes care of both. Jesus’ death on the cross paid for both our sin and sins. He took our sin and list of sins and nailed them to the cross[9]. So, we don’t need to be confused about who or what he died for. He died for it all. He died for us. He died for you. He died for me.
Noodling Questions
List three things that are confusing for you. Explain why.
Explain the difference between our sin and our sins.
How does God’s forgiveness through Jesus help our confusion?
[1] Romans 6:11
[2] John 1:12
[3] 2 Corinthians 5:17
[4] 1 Corinthians 15:3
[5] 1 Peter 2:24
[6] Genesis 3:4
[7] Romans 5:8
[8] Donna Goddard
[9] Colossians 2:14
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