Those That Are in Christ Are Dead to the World

Thomas Boston, 1676–1732

Ettrick, Oct. 2, 1720.
 

Colossians 3:3 "For you are dead."

THESE words are a reason of the preceding exhortation, to set our affections on things above, not on things upon the earth. We must not set our hearts on, nor by any means seek the things on earth as our happiness; for we are dead, and the dead have laid down all their worldly care in the grave, and have no more to do with this world. Now all that are in Christ are dead, yes buried with him and risen again, chapter 2:12. and 3:1. And of these only the text speaks, as for others they are yet alive.

Question. In what sense are believers said to be dead?

There is a natural death consisting in the separation of the soul from the body; of this the apostle speaks not. A moral death consisting in a separation of certain qualities from the soul, which are the principles of action according to their kind, which being removed, the soul acts no more in that way, than a man morally dead moves and acts. There is a twofold moral life competent to man. One in Adam, another in Christ; the former our natural stock, the latter the supernatural one. In these, all men, as branches, live a life agreeable to the nature of the stock to which they are united. In the former all natural men are living, in the latter all believers. Those who are in Christ are cut out of the natural stock, and so they are dead to it; engrafted to Christ, and so they are alive to him. This death of which the apostle speaks, is the dying of the soul to the natural stock, whereby it comes to pass that the communication is stopped between that stock and them, as by natural death the communication between the soul and the body is stopped. This death is fourfold:

1. Believers are dead to the law as a covenant of works. This is the doctrine of the scriptures. "Wherefore, says Paul, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God." This is also the doctrine of our confession of faith, chapter 19 article 6. So that as the law is a covenant, believers have no more to do with it, than a dead wife has with the husband, to whom she was sometime married. Christ by his death, has removed the obligation of it as a covenant from those that are his, and as it were grinded to powder the stones on which it was written. In the mean time, he gives the same law to believers, as the will of their new husband.

2. They are dead to themselves. "For none of us, says Paul, lives to himself." Believers live to him that loved them and died for them. "For me, says Paul, to live is Christ." Natural men being in the old stock, the covenant of works is the covenant by which they are influenced. Self is the principle and end of their actions. When one comes to Christ, he dies to the first covenant, he dies to the old principle, for behold the law of the new marriage: "And I said unto her, you shall abide for me many days, you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man; so will I also be for you." And so among the first lessons learned at Christ's school is self-denial, by which one dies to his natural, moral, and religious self.

3. They are dead to sin. "How shall we who are dead to sin, says Paul, live any longer therein." The dominion or reigning power of it in them is broken. "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace." It is no more their trade and course of life which they choose. "He who is born of God does not commit sin." The firm hold which their heart and affections had of it is loosed, and it lies on them as a burden of which their souls are weary.

4. They are dead to the world. "But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." There they sought their happiness before they came to Christ; there they always sought a resting place, and satisfaction to their hearts. Their affections lay in them dead to God and the things of another world; but living and lively to the things of a present life. But now the glass is turned, and they are dead to that world, which they valued so much before.

All these are comprehended in the death here meant; but the death to the world is the thing chiefly aimed at. So the doctrine is,

Doctrine.—Those that are in Christ are dead to the world: I shall,

I. Show in what respect they are dead to the world.

II. What way this dying to the world is brought about: we are then,
 

I. To show in what respects they are dead to the world:

1. In their head Jesus Christ, hence they are said to be buried with him in baptism. He lived in the world for a time, at length he left it by death, not to return to live any more in it as formerly. He died as a public person, in name of all those that are his; rose again, and ascended into Heaven, and they also are risen with him, v. 1 of this chapter, "Yes, they are raised up together, and are made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Hence, the believer, whatever he be in himself, looking to himself as in Christ, must needs conclude himself to be dead to the world, unless he will either renounce his union with Christ, or think that though the head be dead to it, the members have no interest in that death.

2. In their own persons, by virtue of the death of Christ, so they are said to be planted in the likeness of his death. The power of his death having deadened their affections to this earth; that as the world crucified Christ, so Christ crucified has crucified them to the world. They are dead to it sacramentally, Colossians 2:12. The sacrament of baptism signifies them to be dead to it, binds and obliges them to die to it more and more. They are also dead to it inceptively. The death is not complete, but it is begun, Galatians 6:14. Another spirit than the spirit of the world, is put into them, and the death will certainly be completed. They are dead to it comparatively, in comparison with the men of the world, and with themselves in their unrenewed state: We proceed,

II. To show what way this dying to the world is brought about.

1. In the day the Lord begins to deal with the soul, he finds it living and lively to the world. The man's heart and affections are set upon it. He loves it, lives to it, and longs for it, more than anything else. Their constant cry is, who will show us any good. His life is enrapt up in it. If it smiles he is well; if it frowns he is broken. He knows nothing better, he desires nothing better. From it he seeks his satisfaction, and without it he can have none.

2. God blasts the creature to the man. He comes to the world's springs, but behold they are dry, the broken cisterns have no water in them. The bed is shorter than he can stretch himself upon it, and the covering narrower than he can wrap himself in it. These disappointments make a sick heart, and are by a gracious God blessed to be the forerunners of his dying to it. He struggles as one in sickness, being anxious to preserve his life, but all in vain. Thus the prodigal "would gladly have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him."

Lastly, The Lord holds out to him, and by the power of his grace brings him to, and sets him upon the breasts of his own consolation. We see all this exemplified in the parable of the prodigal son, Luke 15:17–24. The Lord effectually discovers to him on the one hand the vanity of the world, and makes the man say there is no hope; on the other his own fullness, and brings the soul to Christ for all. "Thus the kingdom of Heaven is like unto treasure hidden in a field; the which when a man has found, he hides, and for joy thereof, goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field." So the soul dies to the world. This death to the world, is the dying of the heart and affections to it. The grace of God deadens the man's affections to the things on earth, looses the lively firm hold which the heart took of these things, so the heart falls off from them to God himself, and the things above.

Use 1. This may serve for a trial of our state, whether we be in Christ or not. Are you dead to the world? This is the trying point in our text. And it will be a trying point to us all. It is certain we cannot serve two masters. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." If we be living to Christ, we are dead to the world; and if we be living to the world we are dead to Christ.

Question, What are the characters of one dead to the world?

Before I answer this question, I premise four things:

1. This death is but imperfect in the best while here, and is never perfected until death comes and separates the soul from the body. Hence though the Apostle tells them in the text that they were dead, yet in verse 5 he exhorts them "to mortify their members which are upon the earth, fornication, impurity, and the like." Still there is flesh as well as spirit in the regenerate, and that flesh, though dying, yet has its lustings. Hence, it is compared to crucifying, which is a lingering death, Galatians 6:15.

2. This death is a matter of great difficulty to accomplish. Any death whatever is difficult. A death-bed though a down bed will be hard. It is one of the hardest kinds of death, a crucifying. The difficulty of it is also held out, under the notion of the weaning of a child from the breasts, Psalm 131:2.

3. The case being thus, our gracious God for Christ's sake, looks upon the habitual fixed bent of the soul towards himself and away from the world as dying to it, though the remains of corruption do cause it to make sallies another way. He looks to the soul's deliberative choice, sincere aims, and endeavors to be quite dead to the world, as a dying to it, and the longings of the Spirit to be free of it. Romans 7:24, 25. 2 Corinthians 7:12. Galatians 5:17.

4. Wherefore the characters of this death are more or less to be found in one, as he is more or less dead to the world. Sometimes a gracious soul may, in a triumphant manner, have the moon so under his feet, that he values it no more than a handful of dust, Galatians 6:14. At other times the enemy may rise and drag him at his heels, as he did with Peter in the high priest's hall. However they have a constant war with him, in which they sometimes lose and sometimes win a particular battle; but they will always be overcomers in the war. "For whatever is born of God, overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith."

These things being premised, I now, in answer to the question, observe,

1. That he who is dead to the world is a resigned man, resigned to the disposal of divine providence. "If any man, said Jesus, will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. The Lord, say the saints, shall choose our inheritance for us." When once a man is dead, his friends may do with him what they will. He opposes them not, let them set him up on high, or lay him as low as they please. So is he who is dead to the world laid at the Lord's feet. With David they say, "Behold here am I, let him do to me as seems good to him." If that which is crooked in their lot cannot be made straight, they yield to it as it is. If their lot be not brought up to their mind, they endeavor to bring down their mind to their lot; studying "in whatever state they are therewith to be content."

2. The world's joys and smiles do not go deep with him, his heart does not sink in them, but uses them passingly with a holy carelessness, 1 Corinthians 7:29–31. As the dogs of Egypt lap their water out of the Nile cautiously, for fear of the crocodiles, so does the godly man taste the joys of the world. Lay a dead man before a fire, he will gather some warmth, but it will soon be gone, for it goes not far in. But when a living man is in that posture, it will go through him and abide with him. So worldly men's worldly joys go deeper, and make deeper and more lasting impressions upon them; than the worldly joys of godly men do.

3. The world's sorrows and frowns do not much pain him, they go not so deep into the heart as other sorrows do. They weep as though they wept not. One can bear an incision into a mortified member without much trouble, while the cutting in a sound place will bring a terrible anguish. The truth is, the grace of God suffers neither the worldly joys, nor sorrows of the saints to come to that perfection which they attain in others. But the more piercing any sorrow is on account of any worldly cross, it speaks the affections to the world, to have been, and to be still too lively. And nothing makes one's sorrows for the want of anything in the world too deep, but that their affection and desires of it were too high.

4. His heart is going after the better things of another world, even while he is compassed about with the good things of this. Though created streams be running smoothly, and the world gives him a soft seat, yet these are not his chief comforts, and his heart says within him, this is not my rest. With Hannah he says, my heart rejoices in the Lord. And with David, the Lord lives; and blessed be my rock. While all the preparations are making for a dead man's corpse, he with his soul is gone to another world, and is minding other things. Those who are dead to the world, may love its good things as a friend, but are not wedded to them as a husband. They may use them as a staff, but not build on them as a pillar. Christ himself being the support of their souls.

5. He will stand without them when they are gone, for they were not the pillar on which his house stood. Therefore when all of them are removed, he will say with Habakkuk, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." One may strip a man when he is dead, and offer a thousand injuries to his dead body. He regards them not, he is gone to another world. The saints take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, "knowing in themselves that they have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance." Alas! that soul is in a sad state, whose comfort waxes and wanes according as his created comforts do so; is hungry, or starved, or full, just as the breasts of worldly things are full or empty. If we were dead to the world as we ought to be, these things might come to us, or go from us, without changing our temper of spirit.

Use 2. Of exhortation. Be exhorted to be dead to the world, and thereby evidence yourselves to be true Christians. This should be a Christian's constant exercise to be dying to it. That death is one of the greatest employments of our life. Labor to be dead, 1. To the world's comforts. "They that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not: and they that buy, as though they bought not." Learn to be content without them as well as with them, and never launch forth so far into the deep of them, but that you may be ready to come ashore on God's call. Our happiness consists not in them but in God. Therefore if he shall see it meet to deny us even our lawful desires of comfort in created things, mingle our drink with gall, and make us of those who never eat with pleasure; let us be ready to part with what he sees meet to withhold from us.

2. To the world's hardships. We should know both how to be abased, and know how to abound. Paul who knew this, was so dead to the worst things which the world could do to him, "that none of these things could move him." All the advantage which the world can get of us, by the ill treatment we meet with in it, comes by our unmortified affections to it. If we could get these deadened, the devil and the world would have a cold coal to blow at, and could never be able to burn us thereby. A lively faith in God, and of the vanity of the world, and all that is in it, its good and its evil, would make us go through the world's fire, and not be burned. But more particularly, labor to be dead,

1. To your relations in the world. "If any man, says Jesus, come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." True we are to love them as ourselves, but not as our God; therefore we are to be ready to part with them, and our comfort in them at the call of Providence. It was the commendation of Levi, "that in the cause of God he regarded none of these," Deuteronomy 33:9. Much of the world's comfort is placed in these, but we had need to be dead to them, when we consider that sin and misery broke into the world by that door. And now that sin has spread like poison in a cup, one is not to wonder that his greatest cross start up out of that from which he looked for his greatest comfort, like a leopard out of the pleasant Lebanon. Father and mother are kindly names, but in effect they are often found cruel as the ostrich in the wilderness. Husbands and wives made one flesh, designed for meet helps, yet are often rottenness in the bones. Sons of youth are as arrows, but often are the arrows turned, and shot through the hearts of those for whose hands they were prepared. Daughters are like corner stones; but these corner stones often fall down on the heads of the builders and crush them. So great need have we to be dead to relations.

2. To the substance of the world. Some have it and it has their hearts, and parts between Christ and them. This was the case with the young man, Mark 10:22. For no man can serve two masters. Some have it not, but it has a firm hold of their hearts, and they constantly cry, who will show us any good. The first are hugged to death by its embraces, the second frowned to death by its flying from them, while they follow it. And what is it for which both have such a fondness, but a load of thick clay; a fair beautiful nothing even that which is not. Yet this is it, for which the great and the small strive each with his competitor. And when it is got, though it fill the hand, it cannot fill the heart. And when it is obtained or lost, pierces the heart with many sorrows, 1 Timothy 6:10. Oh! then be dead to it. Live above it, whether you have or want it. Take it as the traveler does foul or fair weather, even as he finds it, because he must be forward.

3. To credit and esteem in the world. A mercy it is in itself, but it is often a great idol that parts between men and God. Few but suffer an eclipse in it some time or other. It is a precious ointment, but often providence orders a dead fly to fall into it. The lively lust of pride in the heart, must have it, cannot want it. But O! what a miserable case is that man in, whose comfort depends upon the esteem of others, which in itself is not capable to make him either better or worse; upon that which may be ruined with the blast of a foul mouth; that lies like chaff to be tossed up and down, as the wind blows in the world. Be dead to it then, that if God will make a stepping stone to your credit and reputation to his own glory, he may have it cheerfully. That if he will have you to lie among the pots, you may silently creep down and lie there until he bring you out again as did Christ himself and his apostles. Be ready to be a fool to the world, that you may be wise.

4. To your ease and liberty. Paul was ready "not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." The flesh would always gladly be easy, Master spare yourself. And when the trouble rises without, then the storm begins within, raised by the unmortified desire of ease. This world is a valley of tears and misery. Therefore if we be wise, we must learn to lie still in the bed which providence makes to us, though there be a thorn of uneasiness in it. "For that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered." This is not our rest. Who frets himself because the sea is still in motion, that the winds blow on the earth, the clouds return after the fair blink, and the rain falls? We cannot expect that it should be otherwise in the lower regions. And we should be content to undergo troubles in this world, thinking ourselves happy if we can attain ease in another world.

5. To your own will with respect to the world. "Our souls should be even as a weaned child." Your desires must be to your spiritual husband; to grant them or refuse them as seems good in his sight, saying with David, Let him do to me as seems good in his sight. A will of our own, not subordinated to the will of God, is a sinful rebellious bent of spirit, and the fountain of all our miseries with respect to things of this life. In the day the soul takes Christ it gives up its own will and resigns itself to his will, saying from henceforth, Your will be done. And much of this death consists in holding by and renewing that resignation. It makes one's will yield to the will of the Lord, as the wax to the seal.

Lastly, To your life in the world, Luke 14:26. Your bodies must be the Lord's, not only for service, but a sacrifice too, if he pleases. None go to Heaven but martyrs, if not in action, yet in affection. Perhaps the Lord may have use for your health, strength, a leg or limb of your body, yes, for your blood. Be dead to them all, that they may be at his service. What a vain thing is the life of man on earth? It is a stage of miseries, a thing of which one may be quickly made weary and sick, and long to be made free of; an inordinate affection to it is a dangerous thing, in this ensnaring world.

Motive 1. Consider the vanity of the world, and all that is in it, Ecclesiastes 1:2. It is but a heap of vanities, which deserves not lively affections, and they who are most dead to it are the most happy.

There is an insufficiency in all things under the sun, there can be no dependence upon them, without being deceived. They are all greater in expectation than in fruition, fairest afar off, and the more one has expected them, the more piercing is the disappointment. They can never fill the soul. You shall as soon fill your hands with wind, grasp your arms full of dreams and shadows, as fill your hearts with the world's dry breasts, Isaiah 55:2.—There is an unsuitableness between the soul and them. The soul is spiritual, they are carnal earthly things. The soul is immortal, they are perishing, so that your hearts can no more feed on them and prosper, than the fishes on meadows, or dry ground. There is also an uncertainty in them. Nothing is constant here but inconstancy and change. One may be stripped of them in life. "For riches certainly make themselves wings; they fly away, as an eagle toward Heaven." This world is a wheel where the spoak now uppermost turns presently lowest: one day saw Job rich and poor to a proverb. You may have comfortable relations, which may quickly be taken from you, or your comfort in them lost. The most untainted reputation may be killed with the bite of a malicious mouth. And our very life hangs on a thousand uncertainties.

Death will surely strip us of them at length, and at what time it comes we know not. We carry nothing hence but a coffin and a winding sheet; and we are not sure even of these. Sometimes many fair bodies have but served to fill up a ditch, or to be a feast to the fishes of the sea. It were our wisdom then to sit loose to that which we must necessarily part with.

Motive 2. Deadness to the world would make you very easy, in all the changes with which we may meet in the world; he who has attained it cannot be miserable, meet with what he may. The smiles of the world he would not much value, and the frowns of it, he would little regard. The heaviest cross would be but light, if it wanted the overweight which a man alive to the world lays upon it. What is the rise of so much uneasy walking under the cross, but that we are wedded to this and the other thing, and so being exceedingly glad of our gourd while we have it, we are exceedingly sorry and fretful when it is withered. As ever then you would be easy whatever weather blow in the world, strive to be dead to it.

Motive 3. Consider what this world is; a right view of it might stir us up to die to it: men are deceived with the fair show which it makes. O! to see it in its true colors.

It is Satan's bait, by which he draws men in shoals down the stream into the sea of God's wrath. They run after it, and gaping for the bait are caught with the hook. Judas was ruined with the thirty pieces. Demas turned apostate for the present world. The profits and pleasures of it are in the two horns, with which it pushes many to their wound, and most part to death. The devil attacked the second Adam with it, Matthew 4:9. For by that means he had prevailed with our first parents.

It is the wicked's portion, Psalm 17:14. The most part of it is dealt among them who are to expect no portion in the glory to be revealed. It was a sad memorandum given to the rich man in Hell, "Son, remember that you in your life time received your good things." Alas! that men should be so found of that upon which God puts such contempt as that he makes it the portion of those whom he hates.

It is the snare of the godly, in which their feet are apt to be entangled. While they walk through it, they are as among lions' dens, where they are often alarmed, wounded and almost rent in pieces, pierced through with many sorrows. How often does that mist rise from it, which hides their sun at noon day? And therefore they are often longing to be beyond the reach of it; its smiles and its frowns. And it is a victory glorious in their eyes, when they overcome it. The world is a passing show. The fashion of it passes away. A gaudy vanity that lasts for a little time, and draws the eyes of foolish men after it; but it will quickly be gone. The stage of vanity will be taken down. This bewitching world will go all to the flames at length, 2 Peter 3:7. The sweet of that intoxicating cup will soon be drunk out, but the dregs of it will taste forever to those who set their hearts upon it.

Motive 4. Consider the great advantages of deadness to the world. It would be the very life of the soul. It would fit you to act for God and to be useful to men. Consider who they are that in all ages have been most useful for God in their day, acting for his honor, cause, and interest among men. And you will find they were men dead to the world. "Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect to the recompense of reward." Says Paul, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." The world is a mighty clog, and often so entangles many good men that they become very restless, and often sit under a cloud. Therefore we are exhorted "to lay aside every weight, and the sin which does so easily beset us, and to run with patience, the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

This deadness would also fit you to suffer for God, Acts 20:24. He who is dead to the world, is in a proper state to take up Christ's cross, and follow him, however heavy it be. This will keep you safe in a time of trial, when others whose hearts are glued to the world will be ready to make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience.

It will fit you for communion with God here, Psalm 4:6–8. This earth interposes between us and the sun of righteousness makes an eclipse of the light of the Lord's countenance to us. But were it rolled away out of the heart, and the affections to it deadened, our sky from above would clear up; even as the manna fell after the provision brought from Egypt was done. The Lord's people had much sweet communion with him in the duties of religion, during the times of persecution, for then they were in a great measure dead to the world. But since they have become more alive to the world, they have grown more dead to God.

It would also make you fit for Heaven. "Who is this that comes up from the wilderness leaning upon her beloved?" He who is dead to the world his heart is in Heaven, and his treasures there, and that makes Heaven home to a man. When death comes, it would make a man fall like ripe fruit from a tree; whereas a heart unweaned from the world, makes a person unfit for death and for another world.

Directions 1. Pray, and look to the Lord for the light of his Spirit, to discover to you the vanity of the world. This alone can make you see to purpose an end of all perfection. Men by considering this world, and by their own experience of it, cannot fail to make a rational discovery of the vanity of it. But alas! that can no more deaden their hearts, than painted fire can burn off one's bonds. But the light of the Spirit is the light of life, powerful and efficacious, and will give one the world under his feet. John Baptist said, "Jesus shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and with fire."

2. Believe and live in the exercise of faith. "For whoever is born of God, overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." Close then with Christ in the gospel offer, "taking him in whom all fullness dwells," for your all. Thus the heart going out after Christ will drop the vain world. Faith's discoveries of Christ mortify men to the world, Matthew 13:45, 46. The heart of man is an empty thing, and must be filled from without itself; and there is no way to take it off the world, but to place them on Christ the better portion.

3. Look off from the world. Look not at the things which are seen. Dwell not on the thoughts of the world but turn away your eyes from its deceitful allurements and beg grace for that purpose, saying, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken you me in your way." The first sin began at looking, and if man was brought down from his perfect innocence, by that means; how difficult is it for the corrupt heart not to be fired with temptation, while a person thus courts it.

4. Look much at the other world where glory dwells. Look at the things which are not seen and which are eternal. The more you think of that world and the happiness there, the more you will prize it. And the more you prize it, the more you will undervalue the present world. They will be dead to the world, who have their conversation in Heaven, as from the stars this earth would appear a small thing.

Lastly, Meditate much on the sufferings of Christ, and by faith make application of them to yourselves, Galatians 6:14. Often think how the world treated Christ, how he became poor that we might be made rich; how he was put to death; and consider all this as for you, so shall virtue come from his cross to make you dead to the world. Then you will say, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Amen.