Colossian Heresy

Pastor Martin zooms in on Colossians 3:9-10 as a second great witness to definitive sanctification, working through the letter's larger framework of the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and union with Christ. He examines the vivid imagery (undressing and dressing), the profound analogy (old man and new man as the totality of humanity in Adam or in Christ), and the decisive tenses (a once-for-all 'having put off' and 'having put on'). He draws three conclusions: every believer has put off the old man and put on the new, every believer as new man must still deal with remaining sin, and every believer must fight sin from the conviction that he is a new man — illustrated by Augustine's famous 'it is no longer I.'

Pastor Martin introduces the third group of witnesses to Christ's deity: passages where He performs works that only God can do. He shows from John 1, Colossians 1:15-17, and Hebrews 1:2-3 that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, then from John 17:2, Ephesians 1:21-22, Colossians 1:17, and Hebrews 1:3 that He is the upholder and governor of providence, in whom all things hold together and by whom all things are upheld by the word of His power — the same Christ who made purification for sins.