Colossians Lesson 5

Okay, we are in Lesson 5. Everybody got Lesson 5? If you don't have Lesson 5, you have to go to the other room. There's some in the back. Lesson 6 will be on the web this week, or on your email this week, if you're on the email list. Okay, so we're going to cover Chapter 1, verses 18, 19, and 20. Hopefully you are actually reading the scriptures because this first chapter of Colossians is so packed full of the grace of God and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ that it is overwhelming. I will read the verses and then we will get into the question.

He is also head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross, through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. So, my first question was, what's the difference from being the firstborn of creation, back when we were looking at verse 15, and being the firstborn from the dead? You guys did do your homework, right?

Would you say that the firstborn of creation refers to his superiority of his position? Yeah, it's not a question of time, it's a question of rank. He's the firstborn of all creation because he was the creator. But the firstborn from the dead is a matter of Even if he'd have been the last born, he still had the first position. Understand that? It's a matter of position, not of time.

The firstborn of all creation, because he's the creator and the firstborn from among the dead, is a new matter. He was in fact the firstborn from among the dead. What does that mean, by the way? To be the firstborn from the dead? Aren't there incidences of people who appear to have died, thinking of Lazarus, and somehow find their way back on the earth because like Jesus raised them from the dead? What's the difference here? I'm sliding into question two.

He would never die again. What's that? He would never die again. Jesus would never die again. I often think about Lazarus. If I'm Lazus, I'm thinking, what? I have to do this again? I already died once. I mean, it's not really a great prospect, I guess. So the firstborn is a place of dignity. Now, nobody's told me what the firstborn from among the dead is or the dead. He was raised with a glorified body. Did he have a glorified body when he was raised? Didn't he? I don't think so. Not yet.

He was the head of the New Creation. Oh, New Creation. What's the New Creation? What we are a part of. Now we have Democrats and we only had Republicans before. What's the New Creation? Is it the first born from among those who are spiritually dead? Yeah. Did you hear what she said? He's the firstborn from those who were spiritually dead. What's death mean? Separation? He was separated, wasn't he? On the cross he was separated from the father and he died physically. But he was resurrected. So he's the first one to come out of that environment of separation. Yeah. Was it his who was literally, ever spiritually dead? Ah, humanly speaking, yeah. Not from a deity standpoint, yeah. Well, think about it. I mean, he's got your sin nature and mine on him. He's identified with that. So what is the father going to do?

Yeah, we always look at death as somebody in a coffin someplace who's immobile. But death really is just separation from life. You see that? Turn on the news tonight at 10 o'clock. You know what you're watching? Death going up and down the street. You're watching, turn on the television at any time, what are you watching? You're watching death functioning. You see that? Those people Of course, if you're on the tube, then there's some life there. But the rest of them guys, death is functioning. All of those folks are dead to God. They're spiritually dead.

And the Lord Jesus was identified with them and rose out by the glory of the Father. It took the glory of the three persons of the Godhead to raise him out of them. How about this statement? It took more power to raise him from the dead than it did to do the creation. Where did you get that? That's in 1st Michael chapter 15. No, I get that because in several places it talks about that the Father's power raised him, his own, and the Spirit, all three. And I've got it written down at home. I'll get it for you. So being the first born from among the dead, did he just rise back to what he was before? In other words, Lazarus showed up, somebody said, well, he isn't going to die anymore.

Is that the criteria? He's now what? A human. Wasn't he a human when he was on the cross? I guess he was. Wasn't he that before? Sure he was. He's 100% God, 100% man. He's crucified as a man. What's the difference? But he could take people with him. He took people with him into death?

Or when he rose? When he rose. Okay. Didn't he? Well, he had a resurrected body never to die. And Lazarus was just resuscitated. I mean, he had the same body, except the rotting one. What's that? The rotting one. OK. Yeah. A salvation to perform. A salvation to perform.

What's that mean? And he died for me and you, and he planned for creation to do that. And after the cross, he hadn't checked that box. Do you have a pencil with you? Now, we have to distinguish between the fact that the Lord Jesus died for us which is paying the penalty for our sins, and his dying on two sins in which we were included in that. So his being raised from the dead, what we're talking about here, being the firstborn from among the dead, are we talking about the Lord Jesus being raised after he died to pay the penalty for our sins? Or are we talking about him being raised after having become sin for us?

I think so. I think that's right. When he says to Mary Magdalene, you know, after he's raised him up again, you know, he said, touch me not because I haven't yet ascended. Yeah, isn't that cool? What is that? I happen to really love that verse because it spells out this new creation.

It's like the verses in 2 Corinthians where, I'm paraphrasing, where it says that we used to know Jesus after the flesh but we don't know him that way anymore. We don't know any man after the flesh anymore. How come? It goes right back to there. He says to Mary, it wasn't so much touch me physically, it was don't identify with me as a man on the earth.

You need to wait until I'm glorified in the heavenlies and then you can identify with me because that's where we're all going. Does that make sense? Did I say that right? Mary Magdalene was connected to him earthly. The resurrection started a new creation, he is the new creation and he's going to be when he ascends, he's going to be glorified. The spirit's job is to reveal the glorified Christ to the believer and he's telling Mary, now hold on until I'm glorified and then you can, he used to, some of the Bible say touch me, but you can identify with me then. That's what he meant.

Does everybody understand what I just said? If you look at Romans 6, 3 and 4, it talks about us being included. It says, therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death. So we were included in the death. So that as Christ was raised from the dead, through the glory of the Father, so that we too might walk in newness of life.

The noun there is newness, not life. So that we might walk in newness. Kainos. Now, what is this newness he's talking about? It's the new creation. You see that? We live positionally right now in the new creation, in Christ. The problem is that physically we're still here with the old body, living in the old creation, but we are the first fruit. We are members of the new creation. Newness, new in kind and quality. So how do you kind of check into that new creation? How do you find out about it? Well, you said we are the first fruit. Yeah. Somebody was saying You don't need to worry about being fruitful because you are fruit. Okay. Okay. Fruity maybe.

In the Jewish system the feast of first fruits was what was it for? They were offered to God the first harvest of the field and it was what the rest of the crop was going to be like. We're giving God the first fruit and the whole harvest is going to be just like this one. So the Lord Jesus himself is the first born, the first fruit. Everybody after him is going to be just like him. So when it talks about you being the first fruits, Believers being the first fruits, we are exactly like the Lord Jesus because we were raised with him. We're part of that crop, to put it in an agricultural term.

You see that? Other than deity, is there any difference between you and Christ? Other than he's better looking. Is there any difference? Still, positionally I should have said. Is there any difference between you and him? No, there's not. There's none of them. So the problem is that we don't see ourselves in Christ only because we look in the mirror and Christ isn't looking back at us. If you're like me, most of you are over 40. Some of you are over 40. You look in the mirror and you think, who is that guy? I'm not afraid, as Jack says.

So this newness of life, I think we have to, the incarnation, Christ becoming a man, is entirely distinct from his headship of the church, which involves a further union. So he's the firstborn and he's the head of the church. Now what's that about? He was born of a woman, right? Which made him the first, brought him to earth. But what makes him the headship of the church? What gives him that?

What event? The question is what event made Christ the head of the church? And by the way, let's start with this. What is the church? The body of Christ. What is the body of Christ? We are believers. Everybody who believes in the person and works under the name of Jesus becomes a member of the body of Christ. Now he's the head of that body. How do you get to be the head of that body?

Through the Savior. No. Through his crucifixion. No. Could you say it's the resurrection? Resurrection. That's how. Is the body alive or dead? You as members of the body of Christ, are you alive or dead? You're alive, right? So the head of the organism that you're united to is alive.

He got that position by being resurrected. You see that? The crucifixion burial and all of that was part of his being qualified and you being qualified, but the position of the body, the body is a resurrected organism, not a dead one, not a crucified one. Well, crucified in the sense it's passed.

The word means the called out ones which were called out from among the spiritually dead. Called out ones. Everybody hear what Roy said? No. Turn up the volume. He said we are called out ones. We've been called out from the dead to life in Christ. Now, his being the head of the body is because he's resurrected and the body's resurrected. What does it mean to be the head of the body? Is he just the boss? He's the leader. What's that? Leader? Okay, what else? Think about it in terms of life. He's the one that directs everything. Yeah, he directs everything.

You know the example in Corinthians about how a human body functions? That every single part of your human body has an important function for the health of the entire organism? Spiritually, the body of Christ is exactly like that and everybody who's in it has a really important function you've been called to. Now what I love about that set of verses is towards the end it says that the one that is the least noticeable is deserving of the most honor.

So you guys are all home complaining that you're not doing all these spiritual works, right? You just do what God calls you to do. Be where, the example is a flower along the side of the road, blooming, so that somebody walking by can appreciate the glory of God in a flower that just is there, not doing anything, just there. So you don't have to be, you know, some big high-powered whatever. Do you ever serve the Lord? Yeah, you do.

He calls you uniquely and puts you in his body uniquely to serve a great purpose. And we pray this morning for people who are sick. You know why they're sick? Because some part of the body stopped functioning like it's supposed to. So what happens? The whole body gets sick. Was that particular part of the body important? It was to them. Do you know what the answer to number two is?

No. Did he just rise back to what he was before the cross? The answer is no, he didn't. He came into newness of life. Put it this way, when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, there had never been that kind of life on the earth before, ever. What kind of life are we talking about? What kind of life? Resurrected. Resurrected life. Here we have, what's that? New and kind. Eternal life. A life that's unique to a person who's the God man.

And somebody said way back here, he'll never die again. Why won't he die? Because sin's no longer an issue. So the life that he has resurrected is a brand new life. Now did he have that kind of life when he was here on the earth? I think he did, but it was inside the shell. But now that the shell has been broken and he's raised from the dead, here is this new and kind and quality life that you and I share.

The difference is so dramatic. that a non-believer and you are as far apart as you possibly could be in terms of existence. We've already covered the verse that God has qualified us to be the inheritance of the saints in life. Remember the verse? I forgot if Jim taught it or I don't know, did you teach it? So you have been qualified by God Because of the life that you have, to be in the Holy of Holies, that's your home, that's where you're from now, and you have the life that's consistent with that place, which is where the glory of God is. That's different than my buddy across the street here in the White House. who his sins are paid for, but he's not a saint.

He doesn't have that kind of life. It is so dramatically different, it takes us a lifetime to learn the difference. This is totally different from Adam and Eve's life too. I've heard it taught that we go back to be like them, but I don't believe that's right. Say that louder, I can't hear you. I've got Wanda's hearing aid. You know, his life, he became like Adam and Eve, but the perfect Adam and Eve. Well, that's not right either, because this is new and kind life.

Everybody understand what he's talking about? What's the difference between Adam and Christ in terms of where they came from? Adam was created. And he was what? Earthly. Where's the Lord Jesus from? Heaven. Oh, that's different. That's a little different, huh? He's not an earthly man. Guess what?

Neither are you. None of you are earthly human beings anymore. You're heavenly creatures. We really don't fit here. No kidding. We don't fit here, but you know what? The only earthly good man is the heavenly man. Because you're the only one that can do anything that's worthwhile here. The man of the earth can't. Not yet. Not yet. It's almost like God recreated us in the heavenlies.

Had a meeting and said, okay, you guys are all now these heavenly creatures and I'm going to send you back to earth to represent me. You don't belong there. You're strangers and sojourners there and you're going to be in enemy territory, but you're there to represent me. You don't belong there anymore. You belong to me here in the heavenlies. That's kind of what it's like. And what are we always trying to do? We're trying to bring Jesus down into this environment and fix up whatever the problems are here.

No. No. How many of you have ever traveled to a foreign country? A little different there? It is, isn't it? I remember the first time I was... I'm sorry. Well, you went to Detroit? No, I went to Rome. And I was telling Mary yesterday, that was years ago, and I thought, I wonder if God's going to be different. I know that's stupid.

I'm glad you said it. I was talking to a lady yesterday from Florida and she calls me every once in a while. Her mother is 94 years old and she takes care of her and she's Italian and she and her mom got Italian citizenship. They have dual citizenship.

And she said, I want to take my mother back to Italy because she wants to go there, but none of my brothers and sisters want me to do it. I said, well, you don't belong in Italy. She said, we don't. I said, no, you don't belong in the United States either. She said, we don't.

I said, no, you're heavenly people. So if you die at the airport, you're halfway there. But isn't that true? My sister one time said, I'm going to Ireland, I wish you'd go with me. I said, I'm not from there anymore. I'm not. Where am I from? That's ridiculous. Did you see the outfit I had on last week? Was there enough green there for you? But I'm not from Ireland. You know, I was born in Iowa. I'm not from Iowa. I'm not even from Denver. I'm from heaven. That's really where I'm from. And that's where you're all from, too.

The headship of the church is connected with the resurrection. Everybody got that clear? Is the relationship of mankind to Christ in his taking on humanity the same as our relationships as members of his body? Is the question clear? I'll read it again. Is the relationship of mankind to Christ in his taking on humanity when he was born, Christmas. Is it the same as our relationship as members of his body?

No. I hear a no. Do you have any yeses? You can't just say no. If you say no, you've got to explain. What if you say yes, you've got to explain. You've got to explain too. Would you say it's because of his humanity we didn't have union with him? Because of his humanity we didn't have... So it's only after that... Now, think about this.

When the Lord Jesus became a man, he did the uniting with what? Flesh and blood, right? He did. He united himself to man. That doesn't mean you're united to him, because why was that important that he unite himself to man? He had to be man in order to Sure. Who was it that sinned? Who was it that sinned and caused the fall? It was a man, wasn't it? It was Adam. He had the head. He was given dominion over the earth.

So do you think God would require a man to redeem it back? I mean, could an angel have come and died? God said, it was a real simple equation. He said, the soul that sins is going to die. Angels don't die. I know a couple that do. Lucifer, for one, he's separated from the life of God. He's dead. He's going to live forever. But that doesn't mean he isn't dead. The guy across the street is going to live forever, it just depends on where. And why the blood? What does blood prove? The significance of it. It pays its price. No, it's simpler than that. If I take blood out of your body, what does your body do? The life of the flesh is in the blood.

I read this thing, and I gave this to Echo about a year ago, and he's never gotten back to me. Never gotten back to me. About blood, and how your blood circulates through your body, and the blood is an organ, and it takes oxygen and nutrients to every part of your body, and on the way by, it picks up all the garbage and brings it back. So, the author said, That's how sin gets permeated through your body, it's in the blood. So I gave it to Echo, I said, read this and tell me what you think about it.

I must have stumped him because he's never gotten back. So the life is in the blood. So if you take the blood out of the body, the body dies from a physical standpoint. But that's not the same as spiritual death. It's just separation from the source of eternal life or God's very own life. In our case, the resurrected Christ life. Now, my relationship to the Lord Jesus, or his relationship to me, when he took flesh and blood, he became the representative man, is what I want to say.

In other words, Adam Have you ever entertained the thought that, boy, if I was Adam, I wouldn't have done what he did? You ever entertained that thought? Isn't that a stupid thought? You know why? Because you come from him, you'd have done exactly what he did.

As a matter of fact, it says so in Romans 5, that you and I sinned in Adam when he sinned. We did it. He's the representative man. God gave him dominion over the creation. Didn't he? You work it. It's yours. You make the decisions. I picture God forming creatures out of the dust and handing them to Adam and saying, OK, you name that one. You name that one. God didn't name them. He did. It was his creation. So when he fell, the whole creation went with him. Everything that's true of Adam is true of every human being that comes from Adam. There's this really little, mentioned two or three times in Genesis, that says, like begets like. Right? I don't care what the evolutionists say. Like begets like.

That's also true in the spiritual realm. If you're born from a dead man, spiritually, you're going to be a dead man. So the Lord Jesus takes on flesh and blood. He becomes a man. He's different though. He's a different kind of a man because his father isn't from Adam's line. So he doesn't have the sin nature. Is he a human being? Absolutely he is. But he doesn't have any sin.

Then he goes to the cross. He's up there on the cross and he makes the decision about what's going to happen and how long it's going to be and when he's going to die. He told him, I'm giving my life, you're not taking it. I'm going to die when I say I'm going to die, not when you think I should. So what happens is that God takes you and me at the point of which Christ is on the cross, he's now a representative man.

Just like Adam, what's going to be true of him, what was true of Adam, what's going to be true of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be true of everybody who comes from his line. So he takes you and me, our sin natures, our person, and he puts us in Christ. Don't you realize that when you were baptized, you were baptized into when? What's the timeline? Eternity. No. What does it say in Romans 5? When you were baptized into Christ, what event was going on when you got put in there?

He was dying. So you go in and you die. He's made sin, all of Adamic sin, for us. When he dies, the word death means separation, what does he separate from? All there is of Adam. He totally separates from Adam. Where are you? You're in Christ. So what's true of you now? You got separated from Adam. You now have a new identity. You now have a new head who happens to be Christ. They bury him You get buried too, and then he rises from the dead. Where are you? You're in him.

What's your relationship now to Adam? Nothing, other than your body is decaying and you're living in his world, but you have no unity or relationship with him. Your relationship and unity now is with the resurrected glorified Christ. So when you answer this question, You have to understand, I think, that the relationship that Christ had with humanity wasn't union until he died. And then he's raised from the dead and you're raised with him. Your relationship to the world, to Adam, to sin, to law, is exactly the same as Christ's.

True or not true? Do you feel good about that? It has nothing to do with how you feel about it. It's the truth. It's true. So does our physical body change when we're saved? Does our physical body change? No. Right now? Right. When we're saved, nothing changes.

Isn't it interesting that God... I've always thought, gee, it's amazing, Father, that you have put this new creature, me, and I still am living in this old body. And not only that, I've got my sin nature in there. rocking around, trying to do its thing, and I'm stuck in the old world.

Why didn't you take me home that day? The reason is that we represent and manifest the Lord Jesus Christ to this world. That's why you're here. It makes me think of my eldest sister. We were on a bus late one night, and my sister said, People in the world are just going out now and the people in front of us turn around and look at us like we were from outer space.

For some reason lately the term, it is finished, really kind of hits me really hard. Yeah, it should. It absolutely should. It's over. One of the guys that led me to the Lord, you know, he had a kind of a interesting way of saying things and guys would come to him for counseling about their sin and he would say to them, it's too late for you.

You died. Don't be telling me about it. It's over for you. You should have never accepted Christ. And I used to think, wow, you know, that's really right. You know, it is finished. It is over. And that's the hard part, to settle down on it is finished. All that I was in Adam, my whole history, everything is over with.

What happens to Adam? What happens to Adam? That's a good question. Is Adam saved? You think Adam is saved? Is he going to hell or is he going to live in paradise or wherever it is? What do you think? How many think he's saved? One, two. He wouldn't like the odds in this room. How many think he's going to spend eternity in the lake of fire? Now listen to this. When Adam sinned, he felt naked. Why? Conscience, yeah. The light went out.

So he knows that he's got to cover up his nakedness. So he goes to Hawaii and he gets some of those big philodendrons they have. He covers himself up. But God comes to him and first of all God is seeking him out. Because he's hiding from God. That's what sin does. It causes you to hide. Do you ever notice that? Christians who kind of get in a funk, they hide from God. They think they've got to clean themselves up before they go back to church. It's so dumb.

So God comes and finds them and says, well, who told you you were naked? And then he gives them some skins to cover. Where do those skins come from? That's exactly right. And what did Adam do when God handed him to him? He took him. Is he saved? Absolutely he is. He accepted God's remedy. Yeah, sure he is. I'm not going to punch him in the eye when I see him.

No, I can't, because I would have done exactly the same thing he did. And that's a great principle to understand, because as new creatures in the resurrected Christ, you will do what he does. You know a good example of that? When Jesus was on the cross, what did he say about his crucifiers? What did he do? Forgiveness.

Now, fast forward a few years, here's Stephen. The cool thing about Stephen is, he's the first creature that heaven opened up for. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand. He sees Jesus, like 2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What does he do to the people who are going to fire rocks off his head? He forgives them.

Gee, funny that it worked out the same. You see that? You don't have to try to be holy, you already are. You don't have to try to live like a Christian, you already are one. Does that make sense? That's very difficult. Not for the Holy Spirit. It's difficult for you and me. It's impossible. Bruce Berry Chafer said that God has called us to live a life that's totally impossible to live but expects us to do it.

Okay. Alright, question five. Chester McCauley asked the following question, quote, Will his new creation, the church, respond to his headship as the physical creation does? So here's the thought. He's on the boat, right? He's taking a nap, and there's a storm going on. And the apostles are all afraid. The boat's filling up with water. He wakes up and he tells the storm, that's enough. And it goes instantly calm. So Macaulay says, do you think the church is going to respond to him in the same way? It got quiet in here, didn't it? What do you think?

It's different because we have the life of Christ. The creation doesn't have the life of Christ. I mean, it will, but I think it's different. Yeah, it is different. Macaulay says, he spoke and the angry waves subsided. Do we respond as obediently? The word come is a word that means to move from one condition to another. It refers to recognizing his lordship in your daily life. Isn't that interesting. Will we respond when we go to be with the Lord instantly like the way? Sure, but not now. Why not?

You've got too much rain in your life. I have over my telephone, be still and know that I am God. Because at times when I get uptight about something, it's very helpful. I always have to make a comment about the word obedience because it sounds so legal and rigid, doesn't it? What's the word mean? It means to listen under. Just to listen under. Listen under. Submit yourself. Just listen under. There's a lot of things that you'll read in the Word of God about He will give you what Vern calls a logical imperative. Do this, don't do this. And if you have any savvy at all, you say, that's no way. You know?

It's like in Ephesians when it says, I'm supposed to present Donna holy and blameless before him in love. That chance of that happening. Outside of the... She didn't let me finish. outside of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. I recognize that that's my job. I'm to love her as Christ loved the church, and I'm to present her to the Lord Jesus, holy and blameless.

Well, if I have any sense at all, I'm thinking, are you kidding? Father, I can't do that. He says, right, you can't, but I'll do it through you. And I'll get the glory. That's cool. So you read these things and you study these things about how a son who's a member of the body of Christ, with Christ the head, is to function. And if you have any sense at all, half of those things, you think, are you kidding God? That's not going to happen. Yeah, it is. Because he's going to do it through you. That's how it works.

I've got a question on the previous question there. We're not going back to this. What's our relationship within the body then? With each other? Yeah. Okay, good question. Anybody want to tackle that one? Everybody hear the question? No. What's our relationship to one another within the body of Christ? To love one another. Isn't that right? Say that again. To love one another.

What do you think about that answer? That's pretty good, isn't it? It's pretty good, but I like the one in John 14, 17, where the Lord prays. I guess it's 17, where he prays that we might be one as we are. How's the body of Christ supposed to function? Like a human body, in harmony. And where is our focus to be? On Him.

Think of all these church splits. What did Verne say, there are 5,000 denominations? I don't know. Yeah, it's crazy. From John 17 to 5,000 denominations. How are we doing? Not very good. The body of Christ in relationship to each other is to be in harmony with who Christ is. You know, we're to love one another. Well, again, it's okay. And then somebody says, yeah, but I don't like him. I can love him, but I don't like him. Nonsense. You don't like him, you don't love him. It's agape. It's consistent with who the head is.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ's life that permeates through his body. And we function in harmony with who he is. So what's our job? Our job is to grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, to be conformed to his image, to walk and live by faith in what we know to be true. It's his job to carry out the functions of the body.

Your kidneys, if you have them, don't need to get up in the morning and check and see what's on the agenda for today. They function. Some of you are like me, they're getting old. My knees sort of need directions in the morning. You're supposed to bend. That's the second bell, right? So we'll pick up with six next week.

Dear Father, how we thank you that we are, in fact, members of your body, that we are united to the head of the body, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we are seated with him in the heaven, thanks Father. We thank you, we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.