Practical Reflections on Colossians 3:5

Ernst-August Bremicker

‘Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth’ (Col. 3:5). With these words the Apostle Paul addressed the believers in Colosse, but the Spirit addresses them to us too. It is of great practical importance for every child of God to heed this call.

The context

The letter to the Colossians views the believer according to his position on earth. He has died and has been buried with Christ, but he has also been quickened and raised with Him. Christ Himself is the believer’s life on this earth and his hope. Because we are thus united with the Lord, our perspective is upward and towards heaven, where Christ is (2:11–15; 3:3–4).

When Paul begins with practical advice for our daily lives in chapter 2:20, he does so on the basis of the doctrinal foundation which he had laid earlier in the chapter. He begins his line of thought with the words ‘If ye have died …’ (v. 20) and ‘If therefore ye have been raised …’ (3:1). Both are true as a matter of principle (we have died, and we have been raised), but at the same time both statements are made with a view to underscoring the practical consequences which should be evident in our lives.

The believer’s two natures

Our old man (that is, what we were before our conversion as responsible sinners before God) has been crucified (Rom. 6:6). He has also been put off (Col. 3:9). Nowhere are we told to put to death the old man. We could not do it ourselves. It was God who did it (at the cross). 

God no longer sees us in the old man, but in the new (Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10). The old man no longer exists in His sight as he has been judicially judged and removed at the cross. We may and must grasp this in faith because that is our position (the way God sees us).

The practical consequences of our having died (Col. 2:20) are set out in our verse: ‘Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth’. As those who have died in the eyes of God, we should be in a practical state of putting to death those members. This may seem a contradiction at first, but appreciating the distinction between the old man and our members will prove that it is not.

What then are the members which Paul says must be put to death? Romans 6:13 also speaks of members, but there it is our natural abilities. These members cannot be put to death, but we are asked to present them as instruments of righteousness to God. In Colossians 3:5, Paul refers to our ‘members’ symbolically: they are the outgrowths of the old nature which every believer still has in him. The old nature (or the flesh) has not yet been put away. It is present in every believer while he or she remains on this earth (as we probably all feel every day). It is always trying to stir itself up, and whatever it produces is necessarily evil.

However, unlike an unbeliever, who is fully governed by the principle of sin (i.e. of the flesh or the old nature), the believer need not sin, though it is possible for him to do so (Rom. 6:12). If a believer sins, the flesh has stirred in him, and thus the old nature has become active (but not the old man, for he no longer exists before God). 

Nature helps us understand this better. Let us imagine a barley field. We will never see such a field grow spontaneously in nature. This is impossible. Nature produces thorns and thistles but not a barley field. Only when a farmer intervenes can a barley field exist and grow. Thus, the heart of the natural man (without new life from God) is like a wild field where thorns and thistles grow. If such a field is to bear good fruit, something completely new must be planted. The farmer plants a barley field by sowing barley seeds, which in due course produce the grain. So in the new birth, God plants the new nature in us through the seed of the Word (Jas. 1:21; 1 John 3:9). This new nature cannot sin, just as no thorn grows from a barley seed. But because the old nature still exists in us, the field can still produce thorns and thistles.

God has already pronounced the death sentence on the flesh by executing it on the Lord Jesus on the cross (Rom. 8:3; Col. 2:11). Nevertheless, the flesh remains in us while we are on this earth, and it can produce fruit. Galatians 5:19 calls this fruit ‘the works of the flesh’. It is the ugly outgrowths that characterise an unbelieving person and, unfortunately, may be visible in us if we do not put them to death. Let us not deceive ourselves: even as believers we are still capable of committing all the things that an unbeliever does. But unlike them, we possess a means of eliminating these things: we put them to death.

Putting to death as a practical matter

Putting to death does not mean confessing sins with a view to obtaining a fresh cleansing of our sins from the blood of Christ. This is a widespread view in Christendom, but it is not scriptural. For Israel, the blood of the passover lamb was put on the lintel and doorposts of their homes only once in their history. For us, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7) — past, present and future. To suggest that, after sinning, we need to take refuge in His blood again, as we did when we recognised ourselves as sinners before God, denies its eternal value before the eye of God and therefore robs us of assurance of salvation. In God’s sight, the sanctified are made perfect forever (Heb. 10:14). If we sin as children of God, it is a serious and sad thing, but our eternal security from the coming judgment is not affected by it at all (although our practical communion with God may be hindered until we have confessed the sin).

The process of putting to death is different. From one perspective, it is (or should be) a once-for-all action as ‘put to death’ is in the aorist tense, a tense in the Greek language which carries the thought of something having been done once with us going on to remain in the good of it. We are therefore to accept and hold in our minds as a firm truth the fact that our ‘members’ (see below) were put to death when the Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross. At the same time, it is necessary for us to live in the attitude of having judged these members. This requires continual vigilance throughout our lives. As already mentioned, Paul uses the term ‘members’ in a symbolic way. They are the deeds (outgrowths) of the old nature which we still have in us. We do not, and cannot, put to death the flesh itself, because that is impossible. It has been judged by God, yet it is still in us. But we can, and should, put to death the excesses of our flesh by taking radical action against them in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:13). And this is especially necessary in the case of sins that concern our thoughts and are carried out in secret: fornication, uncleanness, vile passions, evil lust, and unbridled desire. Other people may never notice such sins and therefore will not be able to admonish us for them, which is why we need to be radical when it comes to them. We should not feed evil thoughts and indulge them, but we should eradicate them mercilessly. The eye that becomes our snare must be plucked out.

We should always keep in mind that the Lord Jesus had to go into death for every single transgression on our way, for every sin that we do as believers. On the cross in the three hours of darkness, the Lord Jesus not only bore the sins we committed before our conversion; no, He also had to bear the sins we would still commit after our conversion. But let us note it well: He bore them (past tense); they have been atoned for. Peter says: ‘who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree’ (1 Pet. 2:24). This bearing of all our sins happened once and for all. On the cross, the Lord Jesus bore every single sin, every evil deed I have committed, every bad thought I have had. He took upon Himself the judgment for the whole great mountain of debt. Remembering this act of love, this mighty work, fills us on the one hand with great admiration and gratitude, and on the other hand it is a painful thought for us that every sin increased the suffering of the Lord Jesus.

A great necessity

We realise how much we need this putting to death. The many evil deeds we still do, the wickedness which comes out of our hearts from time to time — for all this the Lord Jesus had to take upon Himself divine judgment. When we have sinned, we do not simply come to Him paying lip service, but we also look back to the cross, to the dark hours at Calvary and say: ‘Lord Jesus, You had to die for this sin too. You bore it under the terrible judgment of a holy and righteous God who cannot look upon a single sin. My sin increased Your suffering. You had to die for it.’ This is indeed a painful thought for us.

Prevention is better than cure

There is another aspect in this thought of putting to death our members. Only the early putting away of every stirring up of the flesh within us can save us from many a bad deed. The ugly things mentioned in Colossians 3:5 rarely show up in a believer overnight. They are more likely to be the consequence of a wrong mindset, which may only show itself openly after a longer period. Therefore, the very thought of these things must be nipped in the bud and judged in light of the death of our Lord Jesus. Our thoughts are of extraordinary importance (even if no one else sees them). Today’s thoughts will most likely become tomorrow’s actions. Therefore, it is exceedingly important to remind ourselves of the Lord’s death at the slightest thought of sin. This will save us from many evil deeds.

If we have ever wondered how we can live a life of practical holiness by which the Lord is not grieved, we have an answer in our verse. On the one hand, we contemplate what is above and cling in affection and dedication to Christ, and on the other hand we judge every impulse of the flesh in light of the death of the Lord Jesus, remembering that our old man is crucified along with Him, the flesh is already condemned (sentenced) and God sees us clothed with the new man. Thus, Christ will be formed in us, and we will live a life through which He is glorified.

From: Truth and Testimony, 2023