Colossians 3:1-11. Your new life: off with the old | David Todd | 261004 | Growing as Christians

And to start with, Paul says, look, if you want to grow as a Christian, focus on your Christ-centered new life.

in the first few verses.

Look, verses one and two, you'll see if you've got those open in front of you, as Paul speaks to these Colossians, he'll say, set your heart, set your minds on things above.

Really seek the things above.

And all through this letter, he's talked about being in Christ.

If you're a Christian, the thing that is most true about you now is thought about this? Do you think this way? If you're a Christian, the thing that is most true about you, the Apostle Paul would say, is that you are in Christ.

And you think, what does that mean? It's not that forgiveness or future hope are untrue, but it turns out those flow from this other thing.

Your location in Christ matters.

And for this kind of reason, imagine, you think about it this way.

Imagine one of your friends goes on a Canadian road trip.

That's how they spent their summer on a Canadian road trip.

And you ask them, where were you? And they said, we were in a camper van.

And you think, yeah, not untrue.

Just not the whole story.

That's the kind of thing you're asking about.

What does it mean that you were in the camper van? Where does that take you? And when Paul talks to Christians about being in Christ, he's wanting us to have particular locations in view, ones that you will travel through with him.

And in this letter, in this passage, implicitly or explicitly, Paul says of Jesus these four things.

Christ has died.

Christ was raised.

Christ is seated at God's right hand.

And one day Christ will appear.

The first three, they've kind of happened now, right? The last one is a not yet.

That is not yet happened.

Jesus, though innocent, died paying the price for sin.

And he did that on behalf of others.