#9 What's a Christian
 

Away with the Old Life!
 

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him.
(Colossians 2:11-12)
 

    God's covenant with Abraham directed Abraham and his descendants to be circumcised as the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual relationship. Through the prophets God later explained that it wasn't enough to have an outward and visible sign if there wasn't an inward and spiritual reality. The prophets used to talk not just about being circumcised physically, but being circumcised in heart. Godly Israelites needed a spiritual, inner circumcision that matched up to the external symbol.
    In the same way, Paul says, Christ has come and done away with the sinful nature, that tendency to sin that's in all of us. All of us have a tendency to sin. Christ can "circumcise@ that tendency when we come to him.
    That doesn't mean God takes away our ability to sin. Rather, he gives us the desire and the ability not to sin.
    We may not utilize that ability; we may stifle that desire and go on with the old life. When that happens we veer off track and end up in all kinds of destruction.
    Do you have a tendency to lust or greed? Do you have problems in telling the truth, in desiring righteousness? In Christ we have been circumcised! Sin has been put off! Learn to live in the reality of it.
    But what does it mean when it says we have been buried with Christ? Those of you who have attended the burial service of a loved one know its sense of finality, its sense of termination. You stand around the graveside, and you see the casket containing the remains of your loved one. You know that very shortly it will be lowered into the ground and that will mean termination.
    In England ropes are put through hoops on the casket's side, and family members actually lower the casket into the open hole in the ground. Then they take soil and begin to cover it. There is an awful sense of termination in burial.
    When Paul says you were buried with Christ, he means your conversion terminated the old life. It came to an end. When you identified with Christ, you said goodbye to the old stuff.
    Forget this, and there's a good chance you'll slip back into the old ways. You might be crucified and buried with Christ; in fact, you're dead, but unfortunately you won't lie down. Listen, you need to borrow a shovel.
    What are some tendencies you have to sin that need to be put off or done away with in order for your old life to be truly buried?
 

~Stuart Briscoe~