(upbeat music) - Well, today we have a pair of solid Bible questions that at first don't seem to be related, but they are united by Paul in Colossians chapter three, verses nine to 11. So I'll lump them together in this episode. The first one is from a listener named Aaron.

Pastor John, hello, in light of Colossians three, nine to 11, that we have put off the old self and put on the new self. What role does ethnic identity now play in the Christian life? And why does Paul relate this identity to putting off the old self? And the second question on the same text is from a listener named Justin.

Pastor John, hello, and thank you for considering my question. Paul says in Colossians three, 11, that Christ is all and in all. That seems very significant to me. Can you explain it? - Yeah, it does sound significant because it is significant. - And it is beautiful. I mean, who wouldn't wanna know what that means for us?

Christ is all and in all. So let's read it in context. Here's Colossians three, starting in the middle of verse nine through 11. You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Here, and the here there means here in this church and these relationships in this group of people who have put off the old and put on the new. Here, there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. So Paul moves from individual newness in verse 10 to corporate or church or relational newness in verse 11.

And it's crucial to see that movement. A lot of people would like to deny that it moves that direction, but it doesn't. It moves from individual to corporate. Verse 10, you have put off the old self, very individual, with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Now, in order to understand what he's going to say about the newness of the new relationships, we have to get at the essence of what the newness of the new self is. The church is made up of people whose old self has died and whose new self has been created in the image of Christ.

God in Christ has brought a new creation into being our new self. So what then is the central mark of the old self that died and the new self that lives? This is gonna shape all our relationships. So Galatians 5, 24, Paul said, "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh." So the old self, that which died, called the flesh, what's that?

It's the flesh. Romans 8, 7, the flesh is hostile to God. It's insubordinate. It's unable to please God. It's our old rebellious self. When we became Christians, that self died. What about the new self? What's new about the new self? What marks it? The new self is the humble, believing self.

Galatians 2, 20, "I have been crucified with Christ. "It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. "And the life I now live, I live by faith "in the Son of God." That's the new me, the me of faith. So I died, my old self died.

The new life is the new life or the new person of faith. In other words, my hostile, insubordinate, spiritually paralyzed self died and a new, believing, trusting, dependent, humble self came into being. But here's the crucial link with the statement, "Christ is all and in all." Galatians 2, 20 says, "The life I now live, "I live by faith." Yes, but it also says, "It is no longer I who live, "but Christ who lives in me." In me.

In other words, another way to say that all Christians have put on a new, believing self is to say that all Christians are indwelt by Christ. The essence of our newness is that we are not just Christ-trusting and Christ-treasuring, but we are Christ-inhabited. Our new life is Christ in us.

He is our inner life, is our life. If he were not there, we would be dead. Therefore, when Colossians 3, 11 says, "Christ is all and in all," the in all is the same as saying we have put off the old self and put on the new. Our new self, individually, is Christ-inhabited.

The Christ-indwelt self, Christ in us, is our newness. The newness of every member, this is what it means to be a Christian. Every Christian should be able to say this. Then, from his place within each of us, from Christ's place within each of us, he makes himself our supreme treasure.

That's what Paul means in Philippians 1 when he says, "To live is Christ, to live is Christ." And in Philippians 3, when he says, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth "of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. "For his sake, I've suffered the loss of everything, "and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ." So, Christ is all means Christ has become more valuable than all.

And it means whatever besides Christ has value for me, it has that value because of its relation to Christ. Now, now we can relate all of this to the relationships in the new community in verse 11. So, verse 11 says, "Here, here in this church, "where the old self has gone and the new self is put on, "here there is not Greek and Jew, "circumcised and uncircumcised, "barbarian, scythian, slave, free, "but Christ is all and in all.

"Jew and Greek, the age-old hostilities, "some with covenant privilege, "some with out it and unclean latecomers, "circumcised and uncircumcised, "those who conform in all the traditions "of the privileged people "and those who bear no marks of that privilege. "Barbarians, the foreigners, uncultured, "foolish by Greek and Jewish standards "with weird languages like bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar." That's why they're called barbarians, literally.

"Scythian, the distant people to the north of the Black Sea, "the epitome of unrefinement and savagery," Josephus wrote, "Scythians who delight in murdering people "are little better than wild dogs, "slave and free, the opposite poles "of the economic strata of society." If Christ is all and if Christ is in all, what becomes of those relationships?

Once we boasted in our culture and our intellect like the Greeks, but now Christ is all. Once we gloried in our tradition and our religious rigor like the Jews, but now Christ is all. Once we got our strokes because of our ethnic pedigree, but now Christ is all. Once we reveled in not being like the barbarians and the shabby Scythians, but now Christ is all.

Or once we resented not being the cultured, not being rigorous, not having the cultured pedigree, not having wealth and refinement, but now Christ is all. Once we tried to find our significance and our happiness and our security in what we were in relation to other people or in distinction from other people.

We were Jews, we were Greeks, we're circumcised, we're free, we're American, we're rich, we're smart, we're strong, we're pretty, we're witty, we're cool. But then that old self died. A new self was born and the core essence of the new self is that it knows and feels Christ is all.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. To live is Christ. And when someone asks, as I think one of these questioners does, does that mean that all the differences, like cultural and ethnic and racial differences, are canceled out because Christ is all? And the answer is no, it doesn't.

No Jew, no Greek, no barbarian, no Scythian, no slave, no freedman remains unchanged here. Everybody's changed by discovering that Christ is all. Lots of things change for everybody, but none, none is obliterated. I can see your Jewish nose. I can see your Greek forehead. I can hear your barbarian accent.

I can see your Scythian gestures. I can see the hole in your earlobe left over. I can see the refinement of your bearing. None has ceased to be, except that Christ is in all of you. He is your new identity. And everything about you is being renewed after Christ.

And shining as the mark of your new identity is Christ is all. - Very good, thank you, Pastor John. And thanks for the Bible questions, Aaron and Justin. If you have a Bible question that you cannot figure out or can't figure out how to apply to your own life, email us through our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Well, how do I follow God's lead in my daily decisions? I know he's my shepherd. He's leading me, I think. But how do I know if I'm following? It's such an important topic and it's up next time. I'm your host, Tony Renke, and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.

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