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In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

            Most people are afraid of death. Even if it’s not today, there will be a day when the unknown and the uncertainty of it all will probably worm its way into your mind. People are afraid of death because it seems so final; because all we know is this world, here and now, and while some have claimed to come back after death to tell us all, if God didn’t let Paul talk about it, I doubt He’s letting some random person do it. People are afraid of death; but not you, even if you think you are. Because you’ve already got the death part over with. It might not seem like it, since you’re still here and your body and soul are still together in this dying world, but it’s true.

“You have died,” Paul says. And it’s not a metaphor. It’s not symbolic. It is a real death and it really happened. Even though you haven’t died physically yet, nevertheless, you have died. It was just in another person’s death. Because you have been baptized into Christ, you have been buried together with Him. Now, of course, everything depends on the one with whom you’re buried. If you are buried alive, and you have been, everything depends on whether the person with whom you’re buried stays dead. Blessedly, the one with whom you have been buried did not stay dead. His grave did not remain closed and sealed—good thing, too, since that means that yours is open. You have been, Paul says in Colossians 2, buried with Him and raised with Him by faith in the working of Him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead.

Sometimes we think faith, like this death, is not quite real. Oh, you can believe that, but here’s what I know. You can believe all sorts of things, but here’s a fact. I just believe everything is going to turn out okay, everything’s going to be all right. Just believe. But those kinds of believing have nothing to do with Christian faith. Literally everything depends on where your faith is. Your faith is tied to the flesh of Jesus. So if Jesus’s flesh is dead and His bones have long since turned to dust, then the same is true for your faith: just dust. If Jesus is alive, then so is your faith. Your faith is tied to the flesh of Jesus. We’ve got nothing else. This is why Paul says that if Christ is not raised from the dead, then your faith is in vain, empty, worthless. Faith is only good if it is in a Jesus who is alive again, and in the God who raised Him from the dead. Anywhere else, and faith is a worthless, dead, imaginary thing.

But your faith is in the active, powerful working of the one who raised Jesus from the dead, with whom you were buried in baptism. And that is why Paul says to set your minds on the above things, rather than the things on earth. Your faith is there, where Christ is. It is not to ignore the things going on here on earth, as if you could. It just means that your faith isn’t here, in the earthly things. It’s in Christ, whom you can’t see on earth.  

So, you have died with Him; you’ve been buried with Him. But then Paul says, “Put to death.” Put to death what is earthly, sinful, subject to sin and death. Sexual immorality, sensuality, greed (which is idolatry), lying, blaspheming, obscene and corrupt talk from your mouth; put it to death, put it off, strip it from you. But that’s strange; most things that are dead, you don’t have to put to death. We talk about beating a dead horse because you don’t need to do that. It’s already dead; you don’t need to keep on about it. But the dead sinful flesh, the old man, the old nature, the old Adam, you do need to beat it to death over and over again. Discipline the flesh; mortify it—that is, kill it. It is worse than any horror movie villain, who keeps coming back. The sinful flesh has more sequels than any of them.

You know how it goes: you think you’ve gotten pretty good at avoiding that sin; you think you’ve conquered it; you think it’s dead and gone. And then, here it is again, shuffling toward you with some murderous weapon. And so we start to think that maybe we don’t have faith, or at least not real faith. We think we’re not Christians, or at least not real Christians. We think that once it’s dead, it ought to stay that way. If you have died, why do you have to keep putting to death?

The answer is that all you can see is death. You can’t see life. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your resurrection is there too. Your holiness, and the holiness of other Christians. Your righteousness, your perfection, your blamelessness and sinlessness—it’s all hidden with Christ, who is your life. Hidden means you can’t see it, by definition. What we can see, we think that’s the most real, the eternal, the living. But Paul knows, and he tells you, that it is exactly the things you can see that are temporary; the things you can’t see—like Jesus, life, and resurrection—those are the eternal things.

These are the above things, where your life is. So put to death the dying things. You know that none of those sins, tied up in the old body of flesh, are the final word. You know that they are not your life, and therefore they cannot make your faith go up and down; they cannot make your Christian life go up and down. Those are hidden with Christ in God. The things you see will go up and down. The good things you do are good because your faith and life are in Christ. But that doesn’t mean that the more good things you do the more sure your faith and life are. There’s some evidence there, but don’t go looking for your assurance there. Your life isn’t in here, so don’t check your pulse; don’t check to see if you’re still breathing. This is death stuff. Instead, set your mind on the above things, where Christ is.

And He has brought those above things right here to you. Are you baptized? Did He put His name on you? Then here’s your life, where Christ has promised to be. Do you eat and drink the body and blood of Christ with the bread and the wine? Then there is your life, where Christ is. Did you hear His forgiveness, that He does not hold any of your sins against you, because He held them against Himself on the cross? There’s your life, where Christ is. And of course it’s hidden. You can only see water, bread and wine, and hear my voice, which is a poor substitute for Christ’s. Nevertheless! Your life is hidden with that Jesus, in God, wrapped up where no one and nothing can destroy or kill it. But one day, it will become visible, when Jesus—who is your life—is revealed to your eyes. Then all of the things we see and struggle with and put to death day after day after day will not only be hidden, but be erased—from you and your body, and from this creation altogether. Then you will see your life that has been hidden, and you will be revealed with Him in glory. You have died; put to death what is still sinful in you; and you will be raised and appear with Him in the glory of that eternal life. Praise be to the One who raised Him from the dead, and will raise you just as certainly!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 8/1/25