In Christ We Are Anew

Commentary on Colossians 3:1-17

Khen Lim




Josef Stalin (Image source: mp3-kniga.ru)

Despite the Soviets and the Nazis have signed a non-aggression treaty on August 23 1939, it was an open secret that the hostilities would commence no matter what. This was made evident after Joachim von Ribbentrop’s (Hitler’s foreign minister) invitation to the Russians to join the three Axis partners (Germany, Italy and Japan) that formed the Tripartite Pact ended dismally for the Soviet Union and so when Vyacheslav Molotov (Stalin’s foreign minister) returned home empty-handed, everyone knew what Hitler’s promise actually meant.

Stalin’s response to the inevitable was by and large inconceivable. When everyone expected him to prepare to defend Mother Russia, he did little to nothing. 

His fortification of their western border was half-hearted because he feared provoking the Germans. Just before the invasion, a German deserter crossed into the Soviet Union and warned them that the attack was all but done, he was executed for lying. In fact Stalin continued exporting food and mineral resources to Germany and barred those living near the borders to evacuate. Before that, when Churchill cautioned him, he accused the British prime minister of stoking the Germans to act.

Despite all the forewarnings and Stalin’s inaction, Operation Barbarossa was launched in the early hours of the morning of June 22 1941, thus beginning the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The Soviet leader’s refusal to act in defence wrought heavy costs on the people and the country. Half their airpower was obliterated. Infantry forces were blunted and humiliated. With poor intel, strategies were all in the wrong place and time. In a week, the Germans had taken Minsk, 300 miles past the border, leaving a straight road to Smolensk and then, Moscow.

Because of Stalin, the Soviet Union was in tatters and basically looking increasingly like an abattoir. Everyone knew it but in recalling his paranoia and jealousy-fuelled fury that led to the massive military purge of the 1930s, no one dared to tell him. Drawn down and demoralised, he retreated to his dacha where he holed up for three days, refusing to answer calls or receive any of his generals. But in those three days ending June 1941, there was much consternation among even his military top brass. Stalin’s collapse looked like a complete mental breakdown and there was a possibility that either he could be on the verge of death or he was ripe for a coup d’état.

His disastrous blunders and refusal to heed good advice had by now earned him plenty of critics and enemies who felt certain that second only to death, his arrest would be the best option. In fact, Stalin was expecting the same. And with that, they celebrated, shouting and rejoicing that the evil dictator was finally no more. 

Most unfortunately, he was nowhere near dead and those who were jubilant over their mistaken assumption paid with their lives when those who went to him did not put him in jail but to reinforce his authority by pleading him to take charge and return to lead the country. And with that, Stalin survived and remained in power until his death a dozen years later.

It is uncanny that Christian life isn’t much different.

When we are born into the world, we are clothed in sin-clad flesh and body. Our bodies are worldly vessels that are bedevilled by lusts of all forms (Eph 2:1-3, Jms 1:14). Then one day, we discover Jesus and we are enraptured by His promise of salvation and eternal life. You may or may not remember that very moment of joy and victory over sin. That sudden feeling that, at last, we have conquered sin through Christ. It was an incredible feeling, knowing and realising that all our old and sinful ways were now gone. Forever. The world then felt like a brand new place. It was brighter, more hopeful and it was all good and wonderful. Our hearts soared to new unheard-of heights as we envision a life without sin.

However tantalising this all sounded, it eventually dawned on all of us that the old self was still active. While there was that unmistakable feeling of newness of life, there was never any doubt that the old had not really left as well. It became a spiritual struggle, a warfare, now battling for our attention inside us (Gal 5:17). It is only then that we realise our life is but a battle to be fought within the realm of our consciousness.

It is this fight to the end that Paul talks about in Colossians 3:1-17 where he offers a fresh principled look at how this battle must be fought to overcome our struggles. He gives us a compelling view of the kind of life we can lead in glory to God, one that we can savour sweet victory over that pesky old man in us.

Paul certainly knew what he was on about when he suggested that we clothe ourselves in Christ. Christ offers us the perfectly tailored clothing that allows us to be a positive and glowing influence on the world. On the other hand, on our sinful selves, our perfect outfit will stain but clothed in Christ, His light will surely shine outwardly.

When we are raised with Christ, we must pursue the things that are above (Mt 6:33), where Christ is seated to the right of God, and not on the things on earth for we have since died unto ourselves to be raised in Christ and today, our lives are hidden with the Son in the Father. When Christ is revealed in our lives, we will also be revealed in Him in glory.

Clothed now for and in Christ, we are to put to death whatever attributes that are of the impure flesh such as covetousness, greed, corruption, licentiousness, fornication and all that is bound by evil, knowing that in disobedience comes the wrath of God. Of our old self, this was once the way of life we followed but in Christ, we must be rid ourselves of this as well as our anger, maliciousness, slander, lies and profanities and then be renewed in the knowledge that there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free but instead, Christ is all and in all (Col 3:11).

As God’s elected children, holy and beloved, the old must be done away. In its place, we are to emanate lovingkindness, humbleness, compassion, meekness and perseverance. We are to be tolerant of others and their differences, forgiving of others as we seek God to forgive us (Col 3:13). In love, we must bind all our life to be in harmony with how Christ wants us to conduct ourselves.

Be at peace just as Christ rules our hearts. Be thankful and grateful for the kindness and thoughtfulness others show to us and we underline that by singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs of praiseworthiness to God. And in all that we say or do, in word or in deed, lead us to everything in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through Him, give thanks to God our Father.