'If ye then were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above,

where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things

above, not on things on the earth (cf. Phil. 3:19,20).  For ye died,

and your life is hid with Christ in God.  When Christ, our life, shall

appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.  Mortify,

therefore, your members which are upon the earth' (Col. 3:1-5 author's

In Colossians 2:23 we have the 'neglecting of the body' which leads

after all 'to the satisfying of the flesh'.  This comprises all the will

worship and humility of Rome, with its fastings, penances, and other

inventions for the manufacturing of a creature of holiness, right down to

those holiness conventions that stress rules and resolutions, badges and

slogans.  In direct contrast with the 'neglecting of the body' in the wrong

sense, we have in Colossians 3:5 the 'mortifying of the members' in the

Scriptural sense as being a direct result of being raised with Christ and

being occupied with Him.  Our life is there and death here.  The word

translated 'mortify' occurs only in two other passages in the New Testament.

'And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as

good as dead' (Rom. 4:19 R.V).

'Wherefore also there sprang of one, and him as good as dead, so many

as the stars' (Heb. 11:12 R.V.).

This is the lesson in Colossians 3.  Just as Abraham, we also are to

see by faith that our sinful selves are as good as dead, and to believe God's

verdict that we died with Christ from the law of God as a means of

justification, and to all works of the flesh as a means of sanctification.

Instead of the word 'mortify' countenancing ritualistic teaching, it

teaches just the opposite.  As we feed the new nature we starve the old.  As

by faith we walk in the power of the 'new man' which has been created in true

holiness, we shall 'put off the old man with his deeds'.  Apart from the

risen Saviour all sanctification is of the flesh, and is 'put on' in a

different sense than that meant by the Scriptures.

Some may have observed in a sheltered spot a tree covered with dead

leaves, having gone through the winter without actually dropping them to the

ground, but when the returning spring forces the new life through the

branches, the old leaves must go, being removed by the power of the life

within; so to live in the light of Colossians 3:1-4 will of itself bring

about the 'mortifying' of verse 5.  A glance at verses 5-17 of this chapter

will show that the believer is called upon to 'walk worthily'; but verses 1-4

come first, and as the other side of the question is that which appears most

prominent in the sermons and literature of today, we seek to give prominence

to the foundation of all holiness, trusting that then we may build something

more acceptable to God.  In the Pentateuch we read of 'strange incense' and

'strange fire'.  Every time the believer forgets the import of the words

'accepted in the Beloved', every time he is prompted to lean on something

apart from Christ, he is preparing 'strange incense' which cannot please God.

Sanctification includes consecration, for resurrection life is pre-

eminently a life unto God.  How many times have we reviewed our past and

mourned that we have not lived unto God?  How many times have we resolved to

keep down the flesh and 'yield ourselves' to Him?  How many times have we