In Our Racial Differences, How Is Christ ‘All’ and ‘in All’?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - Well, today we have a pair of solid Bible questions

00:00:06.600 | that at first don't seem to be related,

00:00:08.880 | but they are united by Paul

00:00:11.580 | in Colossians chapter three, verses nine to 11.

00:00:14.080 | So I'll lump them together in this episode.

00:00:16.840 | The first one is from a listener named Aaron.

00:00:19.680 | Pastor John, hello, in light of Colossians three,

00:00:22.240 | nine to 11, that we have put off the old self

00:00:24.920 | and put on the new self.

00:00:26.600 | What role does ethnic identity now play

00:00:29.480 | in the Christian life?

00:00:31.400 | And why does Paul relate this identity

00:00:33.680 | to putting off the old self?

00:00:36.680 | And the second question on the same text

00:00:38.880 | is from a listener named Justin.

00:00:40.320 | Pastor John, hello, and thank you

00:00:41.600 | for considering my question.

00:00:42.720 | Paul says in Colossians three, 11,

00:00:45.140 | that Christ is all and in all.

00:00:48.160 | That seems very significant to me.

00:00:50.240 | Can you explain it?

00:00:51.640 | - Yeah, it does sound significant

00:00:53.320 | because it is significant.

00:00:55.200 | - And it is beautiful.

00:00:56.880 | I mean, who wouldn't wanna know what that means for us?

00:00:59.880 | Christ is all and in all.

00:01:03.280 | So let's read it in context.

00:01:04.920 | Here's Colossians three,

00:01:07.240 | starting in the middle of verse nine through 11.

00:01:10.760 | You have put off the old self with its practices

00:01:15.680 | and have put on the new self,

00:01:17.760 | which is being renewed in knowledge

00:01:20.280 | after the image of its creator.

00:01:23.440 | Here, and the here there means here in this church

00:01:28.440 | and these relationships in this group of people

00:01:31.800 | who have put off the old and put on the new.

00:01:33.400 | Here, there is not Greek and Jew,

00:01:36.780 | circumcised and uncircumcised,

00:01:39.720 | barbarian, Scythian, slave, free,

00:01:43.760 | but Christ is all and in all.

00:01:49.160 | So Paul moves from individual newness in verse 10

00:01:54.160 | to corporate or church or relational newness in verse 11.

00:01:59.360 | And it's crucial to see that movement.

00:02:04.440 | A lot of people would like to deny

00:02:06.640 | that it moves that direction, but it doesn't.

00:02:09.680 | It moves from individual to corporate.

00:02:12.040 | Verse 10, you have put off the old self,

00:02:15.400 | very individual, with its practices

00:02:18.000 | and have put on the new self,

00:02:20.160 | which is being renewed in knowledge

00:02:21.960 | after the image of its creator.

00:02:24.040 | Now, in order to understand what he's going to say

00:02:27.760 | about the newness of the new relationships,

00:02:31.280 | we have to get at the essence

00:02:33.680 | of what the newness of the new self is.

00:02:37.320 | The church is made up of people whose old self has died

00:02:41.080 | and whose new self has been created in the image of Christ.

00:02:45.260 | God in Christ has brought a new creation

00:02:50.260 | into being our new self.

00:02:53.040 | So what then is the central mark of the old self that died

00:02:58.000 | and the new self that lives?

00:03:01.020 | This is gonna shape all our relationships.

00:03:05.040 | So Galatians 5, 24, Paul said,

00:03:07.660 | "Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh."

00:03:13.240 | So the old self, that which died, called the flesh,

00:03:17.340 | what's that?

00:03:18.740 | It's the flesh.

00:03:20.140 | Romans 8, 7, the flesh is hostile to God.

00:03:23.420 | It's insubordinate.

00:03:24.420 | It's unable to please God.

00:03:26.140 | It's our old rebellious self.

00:03:28.260 | When we became Christians, that self died.

00:03:32.300 | What about the new self?

00:03:33.340 | What's new about the new self?

00:03:35.020 | What marks it?

00:03:37.100 | The new self is the humble, believing self.

00:03:39.540 | Galatians 2, 20, "I have been crucified with Christ.

00:03:42.900 | "It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

00:03:46.160 | "And the life I now live, I live by faith

00:03:49.620 | "in the Son of God."

00:03:50.860 | That's the new me, the me of faith.

00:03:54.140 | So I died, my old self died.

00:03:56.560 | The new life is the new life or the new person of faith.

00:04:01.460 | In other words, my hostile, insubordinate,

00:04:04.140 | spiritually paralyzed self died

00:04:07.820 | and a new, believing, trusting, dependent,

00:04:10.740 | humble self came into being.

00:04:14.620 | But here's the crucial link with the statement,

00:04:17.700 | "Christ is all and in all."

00:04:21.340 | Galatians 2, 20 says, "The life I now live,

00:04:26.340 | "I live by faith."

00:04:27.980 | Yes, but it also says, "It is no longer I who live,

00:04:32.980 | "but Christ who lives in me."

00:04:37.620 | In me.

00:04:39.540 | In other words, another way to say

00:04:42.060 | that all Christians have put on a new, believing self

00:04:47.060 | is to say that all Christians are indwelt by Christ.

00:04:52.300 | The essence of our newness is that

00:04:55.620 | we are not just Christ-trusting and Christ-treasuring,

00:05:00.620 | but we are Christ-inhabited.

00:05:04.640 | Our new life is Christ in us.

00:05:07.420 | He is our inner life, is our life.

00:05:12.320 | If he were not there, we would be dead.

00:05:16.740 | Therefore, when Colossians 3, 11 says,

00:05:20.820 | "Christ is all and in all,"

00:05:24.660 | the in all is the same as saying

00:05:28.420 | we have put off the old self and put on the new.

00:05:31.980 | Our new self, individually, is Christ-inhabited.

00:05:37.380 | The Christ-indwelt self, Christ in us, is our newness.

00:05:42.380 | The newness of every member,

00:05:45.080 | this is what it means to be a Christian.

00:05:48.960 | Every Christian should be able to say this.

00:05:52.440 | Then, from his place within each of us,

00:05:57.180 | from Christ's place within each of us,

00:05:59.940 | he makes himself our supreme treasure.

00:06:04.360 | That's what Paul means in Philippians 1

00:06:06.460 | when he says, "To live is Christ, to live is Christ."

00:06:09.500 | And in Philippians 3, when he says,

00:06:11.120 | "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth

00:06:14.420 | "of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

00:06:17.460 | "For his sake, I've suffered the loss of everything,

00:06:19.860 | "and count them as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ."

00:06:24.220 | So, Christ is all means

00:06:28.260 | Christ has become more valuable than all.

00:06:31.740 | And it means whatever besides Christ

00:06:35.120 | has value for me, it has that value

00:06:38.720 | because of its relation to Christ.

00:06:41.600 | Now, now we can relate all of this

00:06:46.220 | to the relationships in the new community in verse 11.

00:06:50.520 | So, verse 11 says, "Here, here in this church,

00:06:54.540 | "where the old self has gone and the new self is put on,

00:06:59.000 | "here there is not Greek and Jew,

00:07:03.320 | "circumcised and uncircumcised,

00:07:05.660 | "barbarian, scythian, slave, free,

00:07:08.500 | "but Christ is all and in all.

00:07:13.500 | "Jew and Greek, the age-old hostilities,

00:07:17.020 | "some with covenant privilege,

00:07:18.780 | "some with out it and unclean latecomers,

00:07:23.300 | "circumcised and uncircumcised,

00:07:25.940 | "those who conform in all the traditions

00:07:29.580 | "of the privileged people

00:07:30.980 | "and those who bear no marks of that privilege.

00:07:33.360 | "Barbarians, the foreigners, uncultured,

00:07:36.620 | "foolish by Greek and Jewish standards

00:07:38.820 | "with weird languages like bar, bar, bar, bar, bar, bar."

00:07:41.740 | That's why they're called barbarians, literally.

00:07:44.700 | "Scythian, the distant people to the north of the Black Sea,

00:07:49.700 | "the epitome of unrefinement and savagery,"

00:07:53.660 | Josephus wrote, "Scythians who delight in murdering people

00:07:57.840 | "are little better than wild dogs,

00:08:00.420 | "slave and free, the opposite poles

00:08:04.340 | "of the economic strata of society."

00:08:08.560 | If Christ is all and if Christ is in all,

00:08:13.040 | what becomes of those relationships?

00:08:17.320 | Once we boasted in our culture and our intellect

00:08:21.160 | like the Greeks, but now Christ is all.

00:08:24.640 | Once we gloried in our tradition

00:08:27.440 | and our religious rigor like the Jews,

00:08:30.180 | but now Christ is all.

00:08:33.320 | Once we got our strokes because of our ethnic pedigree,

00:08:38.280 | but now Christ is all.

00:08:40.840 | Once we reveled in not being like the barbarians

00:08:44.960 | and the shabby Scythians, but now Christ is all.

00:08:49.560 | Or once we resented not being the cultured,

00:08:54.600 | not being rigorous, not having the cultured pedigree,

00:08:59.600 | not having wealth and refinement, but now Christ is all.

00:09:04.880 | Once we tried to find our significance

00:09:08.120 | and our happiness and our security

00:09:10.940 | in what we were in relation to other people

00:09:14.080 | or in distinction from other people.

00:09:15.960 | We were Jews, we were Greeks, we're circumcised,

00:09:20.540 | we're free, we're American, we're rich, we're smart,

00:09:25.540 | we're strong, we're pretty, we're witty, we're cool.

00:09:30.620 | But then that old self died.

00:09:36.000 | A new self was born and the core essence of the new self

00:09:41.000 | is that it knows and feels Christ is all.

00:09:46.100 | It is no longer I who live,

00:09:48.820 | but Christ who lives in me.

00:09:51.940 | To live is Christ.

00:09:55.280 | And when someone asks,

00:09:56.960 | as I think one of these questioners does,

00:10:00.120 | does that mean that all the differences,

00:10:04.060 | like cultural and ethnic and racial differences,

00:10:08.120 | are canceled out because Christ is all?

00:10:12.420 | And the answer is no, it doesn't.

00:10:15.420 | No Jew, no Greek, no barbarian, no Scythian,

00:10:20.420 | no slave, no freedman remains unchanged here.

00:10:25.420 | Everybody's changed by discovering that Christ is all.

00:10:31.020 | Lots of things change for everybody,

00:10:34.380 | but none, none is obliterated.

00:10:38.580 | I can see your Jewish nose.

00:10:41.480 | I can see your Greek forehead.

00:10:44.900 | I can hear your barbarian accent.

00:10:47.700 | I can see your Scythian gestures.

00:10:50.740 | I can see the hole in your earlobe left over.

00:10:54.060 | I can see the refinement of your bearing.

00:10:58.140 | None has ceased to be,

00:11:01.340 | except that Christ is in all of you.

00:11:05.420 | He is your new identity.

00:11:09.820 | And everything about you is being renewed after Christ.

00:11:14.680 | And shining as the mark of your new identity

00:11:18.600 | is Christ is all.

00:11:22.440 | - Very good, thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:24.200 | And thanks for the Bible questions, Aaron and Justin.

00:11:27.120 | If you have a Bible question that you cannot figure out

00:11:29.320 | or can't figure out how to apply to your own life,

00:11:31.880 | email us through our online home

00:11:33.680 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:36.760 | Well, how do I follow God's lead in my daily decisions?

00:11:40.920 | I know he's my shepherd.

00:11:42.600 | He's leading me, I think.

00:11:44.960 | But how do I know if I'm following?

00:11:46.840 | It's such an important topic and it's up next time.

00:11:49.000 | I'm your host, Tony Renke,

00:11:50.240 | and we'll see you back here on Wednesday.

00:11:52.280 | (upbeat music)

00:11:54.860 | (upbeat music)

00:11:57.440 | (upbeat music)

00:12:00.020 | (Thanks for watching)

In Our Racial Differences, How Is Christ ‘All’ and ‘in All’?

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