Why Dead Men Must Die

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Happy Friday everyone, and welcome back to the podcast.

00:00:07.720 | Pastor John is back in the studio with me today

00:00:09.720 | for a really sharp Bible question

00:00:11.440 | on Colossians chapter three, verse three.

00:00:13.580 | It comes to us from a listener named Josiah.

00:00:17.560 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you

00:00:18.600 | for taking my question today.

00:00:20.120 | How do we reconcile Colossians 3:3,

00:00:23.040 | for you have died and your life is hidden

00:00:25.960 | with Christ in God, with Ephesians 2:1,

00:00:29.280 | and you were dead in trespasses and sins.

00:00:33.080 | I know this refers to our spiritual state of existence

00:00:35.240 | before and after Christ.

00:00:36.720 | I was already dead, and then I died.

00:00:40.540 | Is that right?

00:00:41.640 | Are those who are saved were dead,

00:00:44.260 | and then they died again?

00:00:46.760 | So dead men die.

00:00:48.880 | Is that how salvation works in Paul's mind?

00:00:50.960 | Pastor John, what would you say to Josiah?

00:00:54.180 | - That's a really good question.

00:00:55.520 | I love this kind of question.

00:00:56.360 | - Yeah, I know.

00:00:57.200 | (laughs)

00:00:58.080 | - I know, I love when people read the Bible

00:00:59.680 | carefully enough that they think,

00:01:01.360 | "How does that fit together?"

00:01:03.600 | It seems so strange.

00:01:05.520 | Those are just golden moments in Bible reading to go deeper.

00:01:09.340 | So Josiah has put his finger right

00:01:12.440 | on a crucial biblical paradox.

00:01:15.520 | So Ephesians 2 describes all human beings

00:01:19.920 | as dead in trespasses and sins in need of life.

00:01:25.320 | And then Colossians 3 says we must die

00:01:30.320 | in order to have that life.

00:01:32.880 | That's a good question.

00:01:35.080 | So the answer is yes, yes,

00:01:37.560 | dead men must die if they are to live.

00:01:41.360 | That's true.

00:01:43.040 | That's the clear teaching of Scripture,

00:01:46.640 | and there are two senses in which the dead

00:01:51.240 | must die in order to live.

00:01:53.520 | So now if we step back and say,

00:01:55.960 | "Whoa, that sounds really confusing."

00:01:57.880 | (laughs)

00:01:58.920 | There are five things that need to be clarified.

00:02:02.760 | First, in what sense are all people dead

00:02:07.760 | apart from Christ?

00:02:09.520 | Second, in what sense are those dead people alive

00:02:14.520 | while they are dead?

00:02:17.120 | Because it's clear those dead people

00:02:18.920 | are walking around all around us during the day.

00:02:23.540 | Third and fourth, what are the two ways

00:02:28.540 | that these dead people must die if they are to live?

00:02:33.160 | And then finally, fifth, what is the difference

00:02:39.140 | between the life we have after this double death

00:02:44.140 | and the life we had while we were dead?

00:02:48.460 | (laughs)

00:02:49.300 | It all sounds very odd, I know,

00:02:51.340 | but that's exactly the question.

00:02:54.500 | Those are questions that the Scripture leads us to ask.

00:02:58.620 | So here's number one.

00:03:00.140 | First, in what sense are all people dead?

00:03:05.140 | All people.

00:03:07.660 | Until God makes them alive in Christ,

00:03:12.100 | and here's the way Ephesians 2, 1, and 3 describe it.

00:03:18.660 | And you were dead in trespasses and sins

00:03:23.520 | and were by nature children of wrath

00:03:28.060 | like the rest of mankind.

00:03:31.980 | So, this is not just a few people.

00:03:35.380 | Deadness is what characterizes all of mankind,

00:03:40.380 | Paul says, all human beings.

00:03:44.700 | Here's the way John describes our deadness

00:03:47.980 | before new birth.

00:03:49.200 | We know that we have passed out of death into life

00:03:55.060 | because we love the brothers.

00:03:58.500 | Whoever does not love abides in death, 1 John 3, 14.

00:04:03.500 | Or here's the way Jesus talks about it, Matthew 8, 22.

00:04:09.260 | Follow me and leave the dead to bury their own dead.

00:04:14.820 | And Luke 15, 24, the father in the parable

00:04:18.300 | of the prodigal son, this, my son was dead

00:04:22.140 | and is alive again.

00:04:24.060 | He was lost and is found.

00:04:26.540 | Or here's Paul again in 1 Timothy 5, 6.

00:04:29.540 | She who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives.

00:04:34.540 | So in what sense then were we all dead

00:04:42.620 | before God made us alive in Christ?

00:04:46.980 | Paul has several ways of describing our deadness.

00:04:49.740 | Here's one, Ephesians 4, 18.

00:04:52.580 | They are darkened, blind in their understanding,

00:04:57.580 | alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance

00:05:01.760 | that is in them due to the hardness of heart.

00:05:06.760 | So darkness and hardness.

00:05:11.180 | Can't see certain reality, can't feel certain reality.

00:05:16.180 | What couldn't we see when we were dead?

00:05:19.740 | 2 Corinthians 4, 4 says unbelievers cannot see the light

00:05:24.660 | of the gospel of the glory of Christ

00:05:27.220 | who is the image of God.

00:05:29.380 | And in this darkness, this blindness and hardness,

00:05:33.680 | we don't have the moral ability to gladly submit to God.

00:05:39.620 | Romans 8, 7, the mind of the flesh is hostile to God.

00:05:43.500 | It does not submit to God's law.

00:05:45.740 | Indeed, it cannot.

00:05:47.820 | And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

00:05:51.600 | So what does our original deadness mean?

00:05:57.280 | It means hearts hard and blind to the beauty of Christ

00:06:02.280 | and therefore in revolt against the will of Christ.

00:06:09.980 | Second, in what sense are those dead people,

00:06:14.980 | all of us before conversion, alive?

00:06:19.660 | Because Ephesians 2, 2 also says,

00:06:23.940 | they're very, very active, says this.

00:06:27.380 | You were dead in the trespasses and sins

00:06:30.340 | in which you once walked.

00:06:32.260 | You're walking, dead men walking.

00:06:35.760 | Following the age of this world,

00:06:37.780 | following the prince of the power of the air,

00:06:40.180 | the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

00:06:43.220 | among whom we all once conducted ourselves.

00:06:48.220 | So we're dead conducting ourselves in passions of our flesh,

00:06:53.700 | carrying out the desires of the body and the mind

00:06:56.180 | and we're by nature, children of wrath

00:06:58.020 | like the rest of mankind.

00:06:59.280 | So we are very active dead people.

00:07:03.020 | In Romans 6, 17 and 6, 20 describes the dead

00:07:08.020 | as slaves of sin.

00:07:12.360 | There was no faith.

00:07:14.940 | Without faith, it is impossible to please God.

00:07:17.880 | We sinned and sinned and sinned.

00:07:19.820 | So the dead were very active slaves,

00:07:23.300 | but nothing came from faith.

00:07:27.160 | Third, now here comes this double clarification,

00:07:31.300 | third and fourth I said.

00:07:33.860 | There are two senses in which the spiritually dead

00:07:37.980 | need to die in order to live.

00:07:41.500 | First, they need to be united with Christ

00:07:46.500 | so that his death counts as their death.

00:07:51.500 | Romans 6, 5, we have been united with him

00:07:56.500 | in a death like his.

00:07:59.940 | And then Galatians 2, 20, I have been crucified with Christ.

00:08:04.940 | Romans 6, verse 6, our old self was crucified with him.

00:08:10.320 | So this union with Christ in his death

00:08:17.740 | happens through faith.

00:08:20.580 | When we believe in Christ, God counts his death

00:08:26.740 | to be our death.

00:08:29.920 | This means that the condemnation owing to our sins

00:08:35.940 | falls on Christ.

00:08:39.340 | And because of our union with him,

00:08:41.780 | we are now counted free from punishment,

00:08:46.780 | no condemnation for those united to Christ,

00:08:51.300 | that is in Christ.

00:08:53.500 | So that old, hard, blind, rebellious, dead self

00:08:58.500 | is now freed from guilt.

00:09:05.540 | Its sins are punished, covered.

00:09:10.340 | Now what?

00:09:11.700 | And here's the second sense in which the dead must die.

00:09:19.020 | Our old self, our old blind, hard, rebellious nature

00:09:24.020 | is replaced by a defining new nature, a new person.

00:09:32.300 | This is what the new birth does, new creation.

00:09:39.860 | This is a real transformation.

00:09:44.820 | Paul describes the ongoing experience

00:09:47.520 | of this newness like this.

00:09:49.900 | You have put off the old self with its practices

00:09:54.900 | and have put on the new self,

00:09:59.960 | which is being renewed in knowledge after its image,

00:10:03.980 | after the image of its creator, Colossians 3, 9 and 10.

00:10:08.580 | So the original dead person passes through two deaths

00:10:13.580 | on the way to life.

00:10:17.060 | The hard, blind, rebellious, dead self

00:10:21.940 | is miraculously, graciously, freely, sovereignly by God,

00:10:26.940 | united to Christ as God creates faith in the heart

00:10:35.040 | so that all the punishment that dead man deserved

00:10:40.980 | was endured by Christ.

00:10:45.000 | And in that same instant, in that same act of faith,

00:10:49.960 | God creates a new nature in us,

00:10:54.960 | which leads now to one last question, fifth clarification.

00:11:00.800 | What is the difference between the life of this new nature

00:11:06.760 | and the life we had when we were dead?

00:11:13.640 | Let's let Paul answer the question

00:11:15.800 | because he does it so beautifully in Galatians 2, 20.

00:11:20.800 | There are not many verses more preciously personal

00:11:24.400 | in Paul's writings than Galatians 2, 20.

00:11:28.400 | I have been crucified with Christ.

00:11:31.800 | It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

00:11:36.800 | And the life, now this is my answer to the question,

00:11:41.460 | what's the new life that you have

00:11:43.840 | after this double death that you walked through?

00:11:47.600 | The life I now live in the flesh,

00:11:50.720 | I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me

00:11:55.720 | and gave himself for me.

00:11:58.040 | So the new nature that God created in the new birth

00:12:03.040 | is a nature that has faith in the Son of God.

00:12:07.800 | It is a nature that believes.

00:12:10.480 | It is not hard.

00:12:12.700 | It's tender to the truth and the beauty of Christ.

00:12:16.800 | It's not blind.

00:12:18.840 | It sees the supreme worth of Christ.

00:12:23.200 | It's not insubordinate and rebellious.

00:12:27.180 | It gladly submits to the Lordship of Christ.

00:12:32.180 | So yes, Josiah, the dead must die in order to live.

00:12:38.480 | And what a glorious work Christ has wrought

00:12:43.480 | in his death and resurrection to make that happen.

00:12:50.120 | - Thank you, Pastor John.

00:12:52.240 | And thank you for joining us today.

00:12:53.560 | You can ask a Bible question of your own,

00:12:55.040 | search our growing archive,

00:12:56.760 | or subscribe to the podcast,

00:12:58.040 | all at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:13:02.440 | Well, Monday, we have a great topic coming up.

00:13:05.620 | It's a great one for those of us

00:13:07.000 | who wanna teach Christian hedonism.

00:13:09.040 | Now, how do we make it our own?

00:13:11.480 | Or to ask a question even more broadly,

00:13:13.460 | how do we take the key teachings of others

00:13:16.500 | and incorporate them into our ministry

00:13:18.460 | so that we're not just mimicking our teachers?

00:13:21.860 | That's an important question faced by any budding

00:13:24.080 | Christian communicator, writer, teacher, or preacher.

00:13:26.960 | And that's a question on the table on Monday.

00:13:28.700 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

00:13:30.140 | We'll see you back here on the other side of the weekend.

00:13:33.080 | See you then.

00:13:33.920 | (upbeat music)

00:13:36.500 | (upbeat music)

00:13:39.080 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Why Dead Men Must Die

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