The Dragonskin Principle // An Exposition Of Colossians 2.11–15

When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision — the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by His victory over them on the cross. …Colossians 2:11-15.

The Two-Part Call to Come and Die

Do you believe that Christ has a calling, another life, waiting for you? Do you believe there is more, so much more, in Him. Do you really believe it to the point that it moves you to new heights and depths of surrender? C.S. Lewis famously said: “If we find in ourselves a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” When we believe, really believe, there is more we take the command of Christ to come and die seriously. When you encountered Christ for the first time, were you shaken, unsettled, undone? Did the power and presence that radiated from Him awaken you to something way more than you ever fathomed before? Were the overall passions and pursuits of your life radically transformed: shifted onto a new pathway and trajectory? And today, do you still desire His fullness in your life badly enough to surrender all of your sin, selfishness, and even the weights and outside priorities that keep you entangled in things that have nothing to do with His purposes? My earnest prayer and hope for you today is that you would wake up and stop playing games with God, to tear away the dragon skin of sin that keeps you slumbering, distracted, disenchanted, and unengaged. How will the world ever find an answer that the Church is numb to … right? Keith Green said it best: “The world is sleeping in the dark, But the church just can’t fight, ‘Cause it’s asleep in the light.” So…

Are you still leaning into Him and pursuing His calling above everything else? Or have you settled into a negotiated compromise with everyday life and pressures that have robbed you blind of the spiritual passion, vigor, and determined pursuit you felt at the start?

At the start, everything is clean and clear. We must be born again into a new kingdom life to see and know and apprehend Him. But coming undone — being unmade to be put back together — is just the start. This Colossians passage above, reveals a two-step process for entering into the fullness of life in Christ: first, we are buried with Christ in death. Second, through active trust and faith in Him we are raised to new life. Buried then raised. Dead then awakened to life. Most Christians seem to love the first part and hate the second. Most tend to thrive in the freedom and grace that comes from letting go in death and surrender, but push back when it becomes time to trust and grow as He calls and leads. But both are absolutely essential. These are the two inseparable halves of this spiritual revolution known as the Christian life: the first half of the revolution is coming to Him, experiencing salvation, and the second half is fully entering into the life of discipleship and radical pursuit. If you are feeling weighed down, disturbed, agitated, frustrated, windblown, and generally unsatisfied in your walk with Christ, this truth is for you. What are you hanging onto that is not Him? Whatever it is, it will only weigh you down and hinder you in your pursuit of life, in your pursuit of Him. There are two halves of this revolution — both salvation and sanctification — and without both the whole thing breaks down. It is essential that we all — by coming to Christ and continuing with Him — deal with the complacent sin and insidious darkness that hides away in the cobwebs and back corners of our lives.

Killing My Old Man

The second-half struggle is real. For all of us. For my part, I battle with pride. More precisely, the pride of being right or justified and knowing it. I have to fight against my own attitude that finds expression in a lack of love, impatience, or confrontational behavior. I fight against the tough and fibrous self-will that lays crouched in my soul, ready to devour the vitality and joyfulness of my spiritual life in a moment. Just a few years back, my friendship with a fellow Christian leader had been growing in meaningful ways. At some point his openness and attitude began to deteriorate, making me wonder if something was up. While meeting over coffee one day, I asked him if there was anything he wanted to talk about, any thoughts he wanted to share: was anything bothering him? He said everything was good. A few more times in the following months I asked a similar question in different contexts. He insisted that everything was fine. Then, six months later he told me that he, in fact, had been bothered and obsessing about a number of things. He had written them down and thought them through, but never shared them. And worse, now he wanted to break up our partnership because of these unvoiced concerns. I was furious. I had never had the opportunity to respond despite my efforts at transparency. The whole situation enraged me. I will admit to you that I nearly, deliberately torpedoed our whole friendship because of the situation. I came right up to the edge. Regardless of my external restraint, my heart was embittered and not right. In prayer I had to bow my head and surrender my attitude of resentful defensiveness, recklessly and without reservation, to Christ. Patience and grace had to win out over my sense of what was right. Quietness had to rule my actions when I wanted to say so much more. His Lordship over me had to triumph. What I wanted had to decrease and die, and what He wanted had to increase and win out or my life in Christ would spiral downward.

Then as now, if I want Christ to rule in me, to command my heart and soul and life, that old fleshly-minded and selfishly-inclined man in me has to go. My old man, who I was apart from Christ, has to crawl up on the cross and die. I have to put him there. And Christ has to do His transforming and freeing work in me.

I. This Will Cut Deeper Than You Think

Again I say, this second-half struggle is real. To understand the second-half of this spiritual revolution of the soul, there are two things you need to know. The grace and mercy of God are unspeakably amazing and overwhelming. But you need to know they have a purpose: that is, to kill off — to put to death — your old self. That old grimy, dingy, and darkened self in you that is bent on sin, willfully rebellious, and determined to get his or her own way has to die, or it will eventually destroy you. For those gathered on the day of Pentecost, when they heard the stark gospel message, the truth astonished, awakened, and shook them. Peter’s words pierced their hearts.

Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and they said to him and to the other apostles, “Brothers, what should we do?” Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. …Acts 2.37-39

Repentance is the key to the kingdom, literally. The truth cut deep. It had to. Both John the Baptist’s and Jesus’ first message was that we must, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” <Matthew 3:2, 4.17, Mark 1.15>. The Apostle Paul said later that God “commands all people everywhere to repent.” <Acts 17.30>

The gospel truth is razor sharp and ready to bring clarity where there is confusion and freedom where there is failure. But you have to place yourself under the knife of soul-surrender. He is the good Physician who is able to cure the sick, mend the broken, and cut out the cancer of sin that is eating you alive.

But you have to trust Him and move towards His heart and purposes, not away. In this hour of pervasive permissiveness, have we forgotten that sin is a cold-stone criminal that will steal, kill, and destroy our lives … while He waits and works to restore us, give us abundant and overflowing life, and heal our self-inflicted woundedness? His answer is the only antidote to our sin problem. Christ Himself is the only way into an unburdened, unbroken, and an unfettered life. Repentance, obedience, and rest from self are the essential pathway to freedom. But to get there we have to let truth infused with His grace and mercy do its perfect work in us, “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” <Matthew 16.25>

II. He’s Not Like Other Gods

In the opening episodes of the movie, The Matrix, Trinity counsels Neo, as he walks into the room to meet with Morpheus: “Let me give you one piece of advice. Be honest. He knows more than you can imagine.” In I Chronicles, as King David gives the Israelite kingdom over to his son Solomon, who would become king after him, he gives a similar, weighty instruction.

Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve Him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek Him, you will find Him. But if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever. So take this seriously. The Lord has chosen you to build a Temple as His sanctuary. Be strong, and do it.              …I Chronicles 28.9-10

“He’s not like other gods or idols,” David is saying. “He sees you and knows you. You cannot hide things from Him. He knows more than you can possibly imagine. So give your heart and all that you are to Him, be honest and seek Him. Let His love permeate your life. And you will find, like I did, that it is infinitely and entirely worth it!” Have we forgotten the nature of the God we are dealing with? He knows more than we can possibly imagine. It doesn’t do any good to try and hide stuff from Him or to play games. We have to struggle vehemently against sin, to not allow it to have sway over us.

To live for Him, we have to enter fully and unreservedly into the radiance and intensity and piercing light of His presence. We have to let it expose our hearts, wash us clean, and lift us into new life.

His sovereignty is a game-changing reality, because it means He is the only one who sees the way through. He is the only one that can get us free of the tangled mess of sin and selfishness that we get ourselves trapped in. Because He sees it all, He sees the way out. And He’s the only one. We just have to remember and understand clearly that He’s not like other gods.

The Dragonskin Principle

So this is it. We have arrived at the center-point, the key question: what are you hiding away? What are you harboring from Him? Do you understand it is only killing you to keep it? Understand this:

Sin will always take you farther than you want to go, make you stay longer than you want to stay, and make you pay more than you want to pay.

It will rob you of your very life: your joy, your peace, your hope. Anything good will drain out of the hole in the bottom of the boat that sin creates. And in time, it will sink you. Scripture is exceedingly clear on this. Sin is at war with you, so you should be at war with it. Your sinful nature will object and squirm and fight to remain. But it has to go, at any cost and whatever it takes. That old leathery skin of pride, selfishness, and inward depravity must be stripped away or we will never be free. Look again at our key passage:

Christ performed a spiritual circumcision — the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with Him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ.          …Colossians 2:11b-13a.

Eustace was an impertinent, self-centered, conniving, and scowly-type of little boy. In book five of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, author C.S. Lewis tells how Eustace discovered a cave full of hidden treasure on a remote island, put on a gold bracelet he found, then fell asleep on a pile of loot, and turned into a dragon. After realizing his situation, he desperately wants to change back but cannot. Then one night, Aslan (i.e. a large lion who plays the saviour-type character in the Narnia series) comes to Eustace and guides him to a large well “like a very big round bath with marble steps going down into it.” Eustace wants to get into the well, but Aslan tells him he has to remove his dragon skin before entering the water. So Eustace begins peeling away the outer layers of the stuff, but finds that no matter how many layers of dragon skin he manages to peel off, it was no use. He was still a dragon. Then, Eustace tells us, the Lion told him that He would have to remove it…

I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off … He peeled the beastly stuff right off … And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me — I didn’t like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I’d no skin on — and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again.”
…C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

God’s Mighty Revivals, Man’s Mighty Choice

That old dead, carnal stuff — the flesh of the old life of slavery, darkness, selfishness, and despair — will come off, but only with Christ’s help and only if we let Him do it. This is the dragonskin principle. This is the expression and accomplishment of the two-step process of dying and being raised into new life in Him.

During my freshman year of college, God had done some extraordinary things in the little fellowship group of Christian friends that He had placed around us. Sporadic prayer times and spiritual discussions turned into regularly scheduled prayer meetings and weekly Bible study gatherings. By our second semester, what was going on in the midst of our group had elevated to the level of phenomenon on our campus. During that year, God had been growing me and — with or without my knowledge and with or without my consent — dealing with deeper issues of pride, immaturity, attitude, complacency, and sin that had to be worked out inside of me before I was ready to face life or, more importantly, ready to face God’s plans for me. All things led for me up to the night of April 7. It was the end of the year and we would all be leaving in a little less than a month with our first year behind us. My buddy Derek was to give a talk that was much anticipated in our group because he had been spending a lot of time alone in prayer and seeking God; and the difference in him had been noticeable. As worship wound down and Derek began his talk, what he was saying really began to soak in. He wasn’t just talking, though, he was preaching, because what he was saying had such force behind it. He went on about the need in us as Christians for humility, prayer, turning from sin and coming to God on simple terms. I remember him referring to a little child and saying that we needed to be more like children — more trusting and willing and open. He was saying that we were not being as open to God as we needed to be. How could we as Christians dare to sit and blame God for so many of our problems, distresses, pains, and troubles in our lives when we were not willing to stop and allow him to help? What were we afraid of? And how was God ever going to show his massive love that he had for us if we would never give Him the chance? If we just refused to ever come into the light? He wasn’t mad not at all, rather, he was just being painfully honest and sharing from his heart. And you could see it in his eyes. At one point he drew a line on the ground with his foot and challenged us to come over to God, to surrender all and be done with it. What he was saying really got hold of me, or maybe it was just God. I don’t know but it all came down to one thing — or so Derek had said — “God’s mighty revivals” or even God’s mighty love or work, and “Man’s mighty choice.” I remember at some point towards the end of his talk that night, eventually putting down my pen, putting my head into my hands and beginning to cry. And then crying and crying floods of tears as I just let it out and poured my heart out before God. It was that very night that I surrendered my life to the ministry saying to God, “How could I do anything else? How could I be happy doing anything else?”

Come To The Cross

What is the number one temptation that most Christians face? Is it self-interest, greed, ambition, pride, deceitfulness, disobedient and stubborn resistance to God, or something darker … what do you think? The real answer for most is none of the above: the number one temptation for most Christians is silently and secretly, in a place that only they and God see, to just give up. To throw in the towel inwardly and keep going through the motions outwardly. Remember the two-step process we saw in Colossians 2? “Christ performed a spiritual circumcision — the cutting away of your sinful nature.” First, we are buried with Christ in death. Second, we are raised to new life. Buried then raised. Dead then awakened to life. Have you ceased thriving and growing in Him? Are you running from the second step: that is, being cleansed, washed, and sanctified by enjoying, knowing, and relentlessly pursuing Him? It’s that old dead, scaly and hardened dragonskin, right? It’s time, isn’t it? Time to let Him step in and cut it away? Time to step into the well of healing water? So I urge you, as the prophet Hosea did, to “Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so that we may offer You our praises." <Hosea 14.2> Be aware that you will never experience fullness of joy in God while you are trying to sidestep this reality. It won’t, it will never, work. Soak this in. Then come to the cross.

Note: This article is the supplementary blog version of the message linked here.