Remade: Part 4.

(Blog series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

“…since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of its Creator.”-Colossians 3:9-10

I love this. I want to think of my old self as a ugly coat. God comes up to me and gives me this beautiful white coat, in which He crafted. So I take the ugly coat off and I put on the beautiful one on; The one which has been made new in His image. Who wants to wear the ugly coat? Not me, that’s for sure. We have been remade. We should embrace it.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”-v.12

Now what are we supposed to clothe ourselves with? This verse isn’t saying we should wear the latest fashion, the coolest jeans,  or the fabulous hair. We should clothes ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, & patience. Since we have been remade, it’s easier to wear these things. We have been made new in the image of Christ. The image of Christ IS these things.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”-v.15

Since we are in the body of Christ, we have been called to live a life of peace. It’s difficult, I get it. But if we desire to live peaceful lives, it will happen. We have HOPE in our lives. We have CHRIST. That should give us the greatest peace! We have no need to worry about the world and it’s problem. Christ is our problem solver.

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”-v.16

We should want the Word of Christ to dwell in us. We should be a sponge and soak up His Word like never before. If we want lives that proclaim peace, hope, love, joy, etc. we NEED the Word of God to fill us up. Think about this: Say we are a car. The Word of God is the gasoline. If we aren’t filling our tank, how are we even going to get anywhere? It will make things so much more difficult if we aren’t filling our tank up. How will the world know that we have Christ if our lives aren’t saturated in Him?

Remade: Part 3.

(Read Part 1 & Part 2 of my Remade blog series if you haven’t )

“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”-Colossians 2:13-14

Soak that verse in.  What a powerful verse it is!

Things we need to be reminded of:
1.God made us alive with Christ.
2. He forgave ALL of our sins.
3. He took those sins to the cross & left them there.

What a great reminder of Christ’s love! We are remade because of the nails in His hands and in His feet.

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”-Colossians 3:1-2

Key things:
Raised with Christ
Set your heart on things above (2x)

In the Message version it says this, “So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.” (v. 1-2)

I just love that! If we want this amazing new life, we should act like we do want it. We should focus on the things Christ focuses on, not on what the world focuses on (like Jersey Shore, the latest fashion, the current this or that, etc.) It’s so hard not to focus on those things,  but since we have been raised with Christ our hearts should focus on the Kingdom.

Our sins were nailed on the cross. Our bodies died with Christ. We ARE remade.

“For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”-v.3-4

Our lives are hidden with Christ. He is our life. We’ve learned that He has made us whole.

What is stopping you from accepting the new identity of yourself? You’ve been remade.

Remade: Part 2.

If you haven’t, I suggest you read Part 1 of my mini series of Remade.

Okay, open up your Bible to Colossians 2:6. We are going to go deep into His Word Ready?

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness“- Colossians 2:6

I love this verse. As Christians, THIS is how we should we live our live.
ROOTED & BUILT UP IN HIM
STRENGTHENED IN FAITH
OVERFLOWING WITH THANKFULNESS

Circle, highlight, underline, etc. those lines! Since we are remade, our lives should change. We need to grow, stretch, let God mold us and get strong in our faith and in His Word.

“For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority”-v.9-10

We have been given fullness in Christ. We are full because of Him. We no longer are empty. We have received the Holy Spirit. We are complete. Nothing lacking. We were empty…NOW we are full. BECAUSE OF HIM.

“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 the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.”-v.11-12

Our sinful nature died when Christ died. When He was raised from the dead, so were we. We have a fresh start. We are clean. We have been remade.

Remade: Part 1.

“You are more than the choices that you’ve made. You are more than the sum of your past mistakes. You are more than the problems you create. You’ve been remade.”-Tenth Avenue North

We have been remade. Isn’t that the coolest thing? Through Jesus, we are no longer the same person. In His eyes, our mistakes, choices, screw ups, problems, decisions, etc. are not shown. He see’s a beautiful creation.

“Since you are precious and honored in my sight…”-Isaiah 43:4

I love seeing the difference Christ can make in someones life. They are no longer bitter, angry, helpless, so-on and so-forth. You can see that have been remade.

Colossians is an amazing book in the Bible. If we were hanging out right now, you could see that this book is filled with different colored highlight marks, pencil marks, & notes. I want to dive into a little series called, wait for it….REMADE.

I would suggest opening up your Bible to Colossians 1:21. Start highlighting & making notes. Now I’m not going to talk much about Colossians 1. There is a big chunk of stuff that I’m skipping but please read it. It’s seriously good stuff.

Verse 21 & 22 says that we “were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”

Merriam Webster defines reconcile as an restoration to friendship or harmony. Through His body, we are reconciled with Christ. Because Christ died, we have no blemish on us. We are FREE of accusation. Can you say, remade? At first we weren’t friends with God but through His body we are and he see’s us as holy in His sight. Get the picture? We are REMADE.

He looks at us and see’s holy (Colossians 1:22)
He looks at us and doesn’t see our sins and failures (Micah 7:19, Psalm 103:12)
He looks at us and see’s a child of God (John 1:12-13)