Page 32 - Biblical Counseling I Textbook

Colossians 3:1-17
1. You’ve been raised up…Keep seeking and keep thinking.
2. You have died to this world…Put to death the earthly members.
3. The old self has been laid aside…Lay aside the practices of the old self.
4. The new self has been put on…The new self is in need of renewal.
5. The new self has been put on…Put on the virtues of the new self.
• Put on compassion, kindness, etc.
• Put on love.
• Let the peace of Christ rule…
• Let the word of Christ dwell…

• Do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…
We can look forward to a glorified state (Col. 3:4; 1 John 3:2).

Understanding how people change
Change is necessary for all of us (Rom. 12:2; Phil. 3:12).

There are many unbiblical approaches to change. Many recognize that change is necessary and even desirable.
However, human sinfulness leads us to seek for methods of change that are out of line with God’s plan for
sanctification. We hope for solutions that are quick and permanent. We seek solutions that are aimed at relief
from discomfort and that lead to temporal happiness. We bargain with God with prayer or with good works or
with other expressions of piety. We turn to mystical solutions or to deliverance theology or to self-improvement
methodologies or to moralism. But all of these things not only miss the mark of what God desires for us but are
powerless to bring about a true and lasting change.

Our new reality in Christ is the only basis for real change (Rom. 6:1ff; Col. 3:1-4).

“You must be born again” (John 3:3f; Col. 3:1).
Our need is not simply to become nice but to be made new. Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit,
apart from God causing us to be born again (1 Peter 1:3), any change that takes place will be external. It will be
like painting the outside of a rotting house. The unregenerate person can live a moral life. An unregenerate
person can practice great discipline and self-control, but these things are not ultimately pleasing to God. The
change that is necessary is the wholesale change of our identity. We must be “born of God” (John 1:13).

You must be vitally connected to Christ (John 15:4-7).
Our fundamental identity is found in our union with Christ. We are in Him (cf. Eph. 1), and He is in us (cf. Rom.
8:10; Col. 1:27). Change flows out of Christ’s life in us. Just as the branch draws its life from the vine, so we draw
our life from Christ. To be connected to Him is both an objective reality and a subjective experience. In other
words, the true believer has been united to Christ in reality, and this is unchangeable. At the same time, the
believer must draw upon Christ in practice. This is done primarily through His Word (cf. “If…My words abide in
you…” Jn. 15:7). One cannot abide in Christ (be connected to Him subjectively) if he is not taking in the Word of
Christ.

You must possess the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:9ff).
True believers have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; Romans 8:9). As Paul says in Romans 8:9, if

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