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yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God" (Rom. 6: 12, 13).
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service"
(Rom. 12: 1).
The same truth is expressed in a very practical way in Ephesians:--
"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands
the thing that is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth" (Eph. 4: 28).
While, therefore, death is stressed in Col. 3: 5, life is ever in mind. Putting off must
be followed by putting on. Sanctification does not consist in dying, but in living; not in
putting off, but in putting on; not in burial, but in rising to walk in newness of life.
The section we are considering extends to verse 11. The last four verses amplify the
thought of the mortifying of the members with their deeds:--
"But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy
communications out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off
the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of Him that created him; where there is neither Greek nor
Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is
all, and in all" (Col. 3: 8-11).
Just as we have seen that death to sin is followed by life to righteousness, so putting
off must be followed by putting on before the statement of truth is complete. The mere
putting off by itself may rise no higher than the commandments of men with their
"Touch not, taste not, handle not".
No human comment on this passage can be a substitute for the parallel found in
Eph. 4:, which we now quote, so that it may be read together with Col. 3: 8-11:--
"But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been
taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former
conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind: and that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4: 20-24).
The "old man" was dealt with at the cross (Rom. 6: 6). The body of sin (the
"members which are on the earth" of Col. 3: 5) has been rendered inoperative. And the
object is that henceforth we should not serve sin, but that, in virtue of newness of life, we
should be free to serve God. We can only repudiate the old man with his deeds, because
of the finished work of Christ. Without that cross and that finished work, our efforts to
repudiate the old man would only end in the cry of the "wretched man" of Rom. 7: 24.
A new creation is involved in this putting off and putting on. This is clearly seen in
the use of such expressions as "being renewed" and "after the image of Him that created
him". This reference back to Gen. 1: 26 is important. The first man was created a living