From The Pastor….A New Creation
When I was in college I took an introductory course in philosophy and logic. One day our professor asked us to listen
to a story and then answer a question. This was the story:
A lumber company sent a shipment of lumber down the river to be sold. It was shipped on a wooden barge.
During the trip down the river the barge started to leak and it was discovered that a board was rotted through and
was letting water into the barge. So the captain took one of the boards from the lumber shipment and replaced the rotted wood.
As the long journey down the river continued more and more of the ship’s timbers and planking were found to be
rotten. So the captain and crew continued to replace the rotten wood with new lumber from their load.
By the time they reached their destination every piece of wood on that boat had been replaced with new wood.
And the question our professor asked was this; was the boat that arrived after the long trip the same boat or a different
boat?
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things
above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life,
appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires
and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to
walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:
anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken
off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the
image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:1-10, NIV)
We died with Christ (v. 3a). The fullest explanation of this wonderful truth is found in
Romans 6–8. Christ not only died for us (substitution), but we died with Him (identification). Christ
not only died for sin, bearing its penalty; but He died unto sin, breaking its power. Because we are “in
Christ” through the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), we died with Christ. This means that we can have victory
over the old sin nature that wants to control us. “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”
(Rom. 6:2)
We live in Christ (v. 4a). Christ is our life. Eternal life is not some heavenly substance that God imparts when we, as sinners, trust
the Saviour. Eternal life is Jesus Christ Himself. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of
God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). We are dead and alive at the same time—dead to sin and alive in Christ.
So – are you the same old person, or are you a new person? If you died in
Christ you have become new. But if you continue to live and interact with others in the same old way, what does that say about
your “new life.”
“I’ve been crucified
with Christ, therefore I no longer live; Jesus Christ now lives in me”
