Augustine of Hippo, one of the great minds of the late Roman Empire, wrestled with the notion of God and the question of evil, before coming to believe that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God.

He goes on in his Confessions to say that as a young adult his prayer was, “God, give me chastity and self-control, but not yet”. One day he heard a young child’s voice singing, Tolle lege; tolle lege – ‘Take up, read; take up, read.’

He had been reading Paul the Apostle’s Letter to the Romans. Going back to the place where he had left the text, he let it fall open and his eyes lit on the words from chapter 13: Let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

As he read, he found the solution to his heart’s longing. “How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be free of the sweets of folly: things that I once feared to lose, it was now joy to put away. You (Lord) cast them forth from me, … and in their stead you entered in, sweeter than every pleasure…” (Confessions VIII)

Paul’s advice in Romans 13 is similar to that in Colossians chapter 3:1-11. In the opening verse there he says: Since you have been raised to a new life in Christ, set your hearts and minds on the things above… And in verse 5 he writes: Put to death therefore what belongs to your earthly nature…

He is saying that God’s people should let the light of our new relationship with the risen Lord Jesus fall on every aspect of life. Everything is to reflect our new identity. Let me touch on three examples that Paul gives us – sexuality, the tongue and relationships.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Passions. If you know the Lord Jesus, Paul is saying, then sex is for marriage only. ‘You used to do what you wanted to do,’ he says, ‘but now having linked yourself with the Lord, put to death such behaviour.’ People often insist that they are ‘making love’, but with Paul’s reference to greed in this context, he is saying that really it’s lust.

In recent years studies suggest that the internet is having a negative impact on marriages. People are so consumed by it, especially pornography, that they have less time and inclination for their for their marriage partner. What a strange paradox: ogling at pictures more than enjoying the precious gift of the personal, intimate relationship of marriage.

As Augustine came to realize, God is not interested in spoiling our fun. Rather, as our Maker, he’s providing the framework for our pursuit of the good things of this world as he prepares us for a new world, where we’ll have more true pleasure than anything we can begin to imagine.

Paul also speaks about the tongue: But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

It seems strange that Paul writes about controlling the tongue in the same context as he writes about our sexuality. What we forget is that the New Testament sees the tongue as our most sin prone organ. In his Letter, James says that the tongue is a restless evil.

You may think that to get on in life you need to express yourself with vehemence and an edgy vocabulary. But malice, obscenity, and rage constantly damage and destroy relationships.

Sometimes people tell me that nobody likes a saint: they’re so self-righteous. But to say this is to forget what true humanity is. To be truly human is to be like Jesus. Let me ask, ‘Do you get the impression that he was a dull, anaemic personality?’ He was man as men and women are meant to be.

Which brings us to Paul’s further comment – Relationships:

In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

Here in Colossians 3:11 Paul is telling us that God’s people need to recognize the unity we have in Christ and, in turn, provide a picture to the world of God’s new society. One of the significant features of New Testament Christianity was the breakdown of racial and cultural barriers – especially between Jewish and non-Jewish Christians.

Paul’s words set the agenda of unity across the social and racial divisions for God’s people. Yes, we’ll disappoint one another, we won’t always be as tolerant as we should be, we won’t always love one another, or forgive one another as we should. But we must try. That should be our goal.

Put to death therefore what belongs to your earthly nature… Paul writes.

You may find it helpful to remember Augustine’s words as he read the Scriptures: “How sweet did it suddenly become to me to be free of the sweets of folly: things that I once feared to lose, it was now joy to put away. Lord, you cast them forth from me, you the true and highest sweetness, … and in their stead you entered in, sweeter than every pleasure…”

Augustine could sum up, “God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.”

A prayer. Lord if we are honest, we find our consciences pricked by the lofty standards you have set, of sexual purity, in our speaking, and in our relationships. We know that this failure in us affects the whole world, creating injustice and protest, conflict and war. Please forgive us. Lord, we also want to thank you for the new world you have made, to which you have given us title. Help us to fix our gaze on you and your promises. Turn our hearts to love you and to honor you. Help us to live for your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

At midnight in Sydney as the year 2000 and the new millennium began, the word Eternity lit up on the Harbour Bridge.

The back story is the personal story of Arthur Stace. Born in poverty to alcoholic parents, he had little education and became a petty criminal, an alcoholic and homeless. In the aftermath of World War II, he joined the lines outside St Barnabas’ Broadway, an Anglican Church in Sydney that provided food and shelter for the homeless. However, to get a meal involved first hearing a sermon! Stace turned to Jesus Christ.

One night, at another church, he heard a sermon on Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits Eternity, whose name is Holy;… “I wish that I could sound or shout Eternity to everyone in the streets of Sydney,” the preacher said. “We’ve all got to meet it. Where will you spend Eternity?” Taking up the challenge, the almost illiterate Arthur Stace, started chalking Eternity, in a distinctive copperplate script, on the streets of Downtown Sydney. Over 35 years he chalked it 500,000 times. Eternity became the mystery and the fascination of Sydney.

And how important this word is for our world today – a world challenged by a pandemic with its drastic health, social and economic consequences. Eternity opens up a new way of looking at life.

New life. In his Letter to the Colossians, chapter 3:1 Paul the Apostle writes: So if you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. In Colossians 1 and 2 Paul tells us that with the coming of Jesus Christ the new age of God’s kingdom has dawned. This new age co-exists with the old which the New Testament refers to as the world. For the present a door is open, allowing people to pass from the old age to the new. In Colossians 1:13 he puts it this way: God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves…

When we come to our senses and turn to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our whole relationship with God changes. In Colossians 2:20 Paul speaks of everyone who turns to Christ as dying with him. Now in Colossians 3, he says: So if you have been raised with Christ…

New perspective. While physically we are still in the old world, God’s people now move in the sphere of resurrection life. And Paul wants the light of this sphere of eternity, to fall on everything we say and do. ‘Live,’ he says, ‘as though you belong, not on the earth, but in heaven.’

Now, it’s natural to let the concerns of this world dominate our hearts. But Paul urges everyone who has this new life in the Lord Jesus, to see the challenges and troubles of life through the lens of their new resurrected and eternal life.

Because Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God, he sits on the throne of holiness and great power. No longer should we feel that we are helpless victims of a troubled world with all its faults and failures, disease and death. And when we truly see that life now is fleeting, we will experience a greater joy and peace as we center our lives more and more on the Lord Jesus.

Paul develops this: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God, he says in verse 3. From God’s perspective, everyone who lives without him is dead. We may be healthy and enjoying life, but as far as God is concerned, we are dead. However, when we truly turn to Jesus Christ, God raises us up to a new life with Christ.

For the present others only see our physical bodies. The reality of our new and eternal life is hidden. Indeed, because those around us cannot see, let alone understand the life we now have, there will be misunderstanding, mockery and even anger at the lifestyle changes they observe. But, because our faith is grounded in the God who keeps his promises, what is now hidden will one day be disclosed. Everyone will see it. Paul puts it this way in verse 4: When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

In today’s world of scientific progressivism, the idea of Christ bursting through the skies in a blazing display of power and glory, seems pure science fiction. But the Bible leaves us in no doubt. From cover to cover it tells us that the world is going somewhere and that the final outcome will be the return of God’s king.

Do you realize that it is only some twenty-eight life spans ago – a life span being 70 years – since the events of the death and resurrection of God’s Son? During the course of his public life Jesus had predicted these events. He also spoke of his return. In the same way that his death and resurrection were fulfilled, is it not conceivable that his third prediction will also take place?

And when he returns, what a day that will be! This present age will be seen for what it is – passing. And the pure joy and glory of God’s people will be manifest for what it is, an experience of life in all its fullness, for all eternity.

Eternity awakens our minds to see life now through the longer lens of a time without end – of God’s country.

It is nothing short of a miracle that Arthur Stace’s one-word sermon on New Year’s Eve of the new millennium was seen by an estimated four billion people around the world. In this troubled world, let’s live in the light of eternity and the return of God’s King.

A Prayer: O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: do not leave us desolate, but send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to where our Savior Christ has gone before, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore.  Amen.

Back in August 2011, The Wall Street Journal carried an article, ‘Reversing the Decay of London Undone’ by Dr. Jonathan Sacks, then chief rabbi in Britain.

Dr. Sacks stated, ‘In virtually every Western society in the 1960s there was a moral revolution, an abandonment of its entire traditional ethic of self-restraint. All you need, sang the Beatles, is love. The Judeo-Christian moral code was jettisoned. In its place came: whatever works for you…’

He further observed, ‘The collapse of families and communities leaves in its wake unsocialized young people, deprived of parental care, who on average—and yes, there are exceptions—do worse than their peers at school, are more susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse, less likely to find stable employment and more likely to land up in jail…

‘Much can and must be done by governments, but they cannot of themselves change lives,’ he went on. ‘Governments cannot make marriages or turn feckless individuals into responsible citizens. That needs another kind of change agent…’

Gospel Centered Re-fresh. Let me suggest that more than ever we need a re-fresh moment of God’s good news. True and lasting changes in society occur when individual lives are transformed from the inside out through God’s mercy.

Consider Paul’s words in Colossians 2:13-15: And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having cancelled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.

Paul is writing of the condition of the Jewish and the non-Jewish peoples. The Jewish people could not keep God’s written law, and the world that doesn’t know God fails to keep even the law of their own conscience. All men and women are morally bankrupt.

This biblical teaching is central to a Reformational understanding of humanity. Dr Ashley Null, a leading authority on Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Henry VIII, summarizes Cranmer’s anthropology this way: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.’ Cranmer understood that ‘the trouble with human nature is that we are born with a heart that loves ourselves over and above everything else in this world, including God. We are born slaves to the lust for self-gratification,….’

Captives. Furthermore, we are captive to spiritual forces we cannot defeat. Satan, holding himself out as a chief prosecutor, presents the catalogue of our failures to God. Being the demanding prosecutor he is, Satan insists that the penalty must be paid – something that God, in his justice, cannot refuse. And because sin is a capital offence we are all en route to a death we cannot avoid.

C.S. Lewis brilliantly captures these elements in the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Edmund has betrayed Peter, Susan and Lucy, and Aslan himself. The Witch demands Edmunds’ life. “He has broken the laws of the deep,” she insists. “He is mine,” she shrieks.  “His life is forfeit.”

God’s Intervention. In the busyness of life it is easy to forget the significance of Jesus’ crucifixion. Let’s pause and consider Paul’s words. He tells us that through Jesus’ death God has smashed the bars of our spiritual prison of self-interest and has cancelled the debt we owe. The charge sheet against us has been wiped clean. And in the same way that the indictments against Jesus were nailed to his cross, he has taken the indictments against us and nailed them to his cross as well.

Furthermore, Paul tells us that Jesus through his death has disarmed the demonic powers that we couldn’t overcome. Had those powers known the mighty power Jesus wielded through his voluntary sacrifice, they would have dismissed any thought of putting the Lord of glory to death (1 Corinthians 2:8). St. Augustine spoke of Jesus’ crucifixion as the devil’s mousetrap.

And so it is, supremely, that Jesus Christ once and for all abolished death for us. As John 11 records, Jesus says to all men and women, “I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me, though they die, shall live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25f). No longer should we fear death’s inexorable approach: God made you alive with Christ, Paul says in Colossians 2:13.

The cross is where Jesus turned our captivity into the glorious liberty of the children of God. The hymn-writers, Keith Getty and Stuart Townend wrote: This the power of the cross: Christ became sin for us. Took the blame, bore the wrath; we stand forgiven at the cross.

Transformation. Jesus’ death provides a fresh start in life for everyone who turns to him in repentance and faith.

FF Bruce in his commentary on Colossians (p.112) writes: ‘The message proclaimed by Paul to the Colossians remains the one message of hope to men and women in their frustration and despair. Christ crucified and risen is Lord of all.’

A prayer.

   Almighty God, our heavenly Father, like lost sheep we have gone our own way, not loving you as we ought, nor loving our neighbors as ourselves.

   We have done what we ought not to have done, and we have not done what we ought to have done. We justly deserve your condemnation.

   Father, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, forgive us all that is past, and grant that from this time forward, we may serve and please you in newness of life, to the honor and glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

The good news is, God has promised in his Word that when we confess our sins, he forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Thanks be to God.

Years ago, I met an academic from China, who told me that when on June 4, 1989, the people’s army turned on the pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square, Marxism and Maoism within him died. He said he knew then that if there was such a thing as truth, it must come from outside human invention – from God, if he exists.

That night he went home and read from cover to cover a book he had been given years before. It was a New Testament. Reading it through at least twice that night he realized that here was a book that was beyond human imagining.

I introduce this conversation because many today are being swept along by the tide of current opinion that denies the existence of God. Indeed, occasionally someone says to me, ‘I don’t know what to believe. It’s difficult to work out what’s true and what’s not.’  And while this kind of comment is often true for the non-churchgoer, it can also be true for God’s people.

In troubled times, we may be tempted to allow a sure faith in Christ to be subverted. We may be tempted to doubt the substantial truth of God’s gospel; we may be tempted to so focus our faith on the important issues of human equality – yes, they are important – but lose sight of a prior, vital love for God and for the Lord Jesus Christ. And, in the extreme, we may be so attracted by the voices of the ‘new’ faith of atheism, that we come to deny the reality and the significance of Jesus Christ, and the true freedoms that he brings.

Come with me to Paul’s words in Colossians chapter 2:8 See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ…

Deception. Paul was convinced that God’s people in Colossae were in danger of losing the freedom that they’d found through their faith in Jesus Christ. They were vulnerable to being carried away by an empty philosophy that was being persuasively marketed. The framers of these subversive ideas do not seem to have been promoting an immoral life. Rather, they were promoting a world-view that distorted or subverted the truth of God’s gospel and faith in the Lord Jesus.

Now it’s fair to say that Paul was not against philosophy in its simple meaning of a love for knowledge and truth. But his language here of philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, speaks of philosophy that has its source in human reasoning. For Paul, God’s gospel was supernaturally revealed in the context of God’s acts in history. We can only come to understand the significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ because God has revealed it. Yes, we need to use our minds to understand God’s revelation in Christ, but our starting point is with his self-revelation in the Scriptures.

Consider what Paul goes on to write: For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily,

Divinity. God’s people in Colossae needed to refocus their thinking on Jesus Christ. They needed to ask again: Who is he? What does he mean for us? Paul says again what he has said in the previous chapter: Christ is truly God and man. While many find this hard to believe, the evidence is there that Jesus is a man who is also truly God.

Think of the miracles he performed— his ability to control nature, to heal the sick, to feed thousands, and his ability to raise even the dead. Furthermore, his actions reveal the compassion of a merciful God. Jesus didn’t do these things because he was a man of great faith. Rather, he did them because he was both 100% God and 100% man.

Philosophers and other religions may say that he was a great teacher or a prophet, but they don’t agree that he is God in the flesh. Yet, if the fullness of God lives in Jesus, if Jesus is truly divinity who walked amongst us, then he is the source of truth. Paul is not simply repeating what he has said about Jesus Christ in the previous chapter. Here he is telling us that in Jesus Christ we find the very essence of God.

God is love. And, notice, Jesus Christ doesn’t simply reveal a God of power and might, but one whose very nature is to show mercy. This is so important for us to know. Think of it this way. We say that God is love. But love is a relationship word. To say God is love, is meaningless unless God has someone throughout eternity to love. CS Lewis in Mere Christianity wrote: ‘Love is something that one person has for another person. If God was a single person, then before the world was made, he was not love.’

The very existence of the eternal Son of God who has taken on human form, that Paul tells us about in Colossians, assures us that God is personal, and because his central nature is to love, is also a compassionate and merciful God. Here is the God worth knowing – the God whose nature is not just power and majesty, but love and mercy. Don’t be deceived.

In John 1:14 we read John the Gospel writer’s testimony concerning Jesus Christ: And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

In Psalm 1 we read: Happy are those … whose delight is in the law, the revelation of the Lord.

A prayer: Almighty God, the protector of all who put their trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: increase and multiply your mercy upon us, so that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal: grant this, heavenly Father, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.