Dorian Gray, Sin, and Grace

Colossians 3:5-7

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Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.

Colossians 3:5-7

Explain

The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, is an excellent book. If you haven’t read it, add it to your list. Although controversial in its own time, the book is teeming with biblical themes. The book opens with a young aristocrat named Dorian Gray sitting for a portrait. His friend and painter, Basil Hallward, swoons over Dorian for his youth and beauty. Basil rambles on, encouraging Dorian to embrace a hedonistic attitude. He believes that pleasure is the ultimate goal in life: if something makes you happy, you should do it. Do not ask about right, wrong, or what is good. Focus on what feels good and proceed regardless of the consequences. While Basil is lecturing, Dorian wishes he could stay young forever while the painting would age in his place. Little did he know- this wish would come true.

This sets up the entire book. The portrait becomes a symbol of Dorian’s soul. As Dorian comes of age, the whole world is at his fingertips, and he chooses indulgence. His sins start small, but they spread. He falls in love with a poor, working-class actress named Sibyl Vane. Dorian is obsessed with her…until he brings his rich, aristocratic friends to watch her perform, and she is unimpressive. Embarrassed, he breaks up with her. His love was not really love. It was vain, selfish, and conceited. Sibyl ends her life with a broken heart.

Dorian then walks into his home and notices that his portrait now has a crooked, evil sneer. He begins to understand that the painting is a reflection of his true self, and that his sins will not affect him physically. So he gives himself over to sin and passions: women, men, brothels, opium dens, murder, cover-ups, blackmail. But Dorian never ages. His external beauty remains radiant. He looks forever young, while everyone around him ages and bears their own sins on their bodies. Meanwhile, the portrait of Dorian Gray becomes disfigured—dark, grotesque, unbearable to look at—and is hidden away in a locked room so that no one will see the real Dorian Gray. The book ends in tragedy.

Oscar Wilde makes a few brilliant and profound points in this book. First, we are the sins we bear. Our sins, whether we know it or not, deeply affect who we are. It might not be visible, but sin always has a price. Second, our choices affect those around us. What starts as a small, insignificant sin always has a blast radius. Sin never just affects us—it spreads and destroys those closest to us.

Sermon in a sentence: To become like Christ, Christians must put to death their desires, put off their former sins, and put on Christ.

Coming to this text, we are entering into the application of the gospel. Christ has died and risen from the grave. So, how then do we live?

Let’s start in the text: “Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you.” The King James translates “put to death” as “mortify.” There is a famous book by the Puritan John Owen called The Mortification of Sin. In that book, he writes the well-known line, “Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.”

That statement feels foreign to our modern worldview. Speaking generally, it often seems that the way Christians handle personal sin today is by running from it—or shrugging it off. Our attitude toward sin is passive and weak. Some don’t even like to think about sin at all. And some of us, right now, may feel uncomfortable with all this talk about sin. Brother or sister, how you view sin speaks volumes about how you view God. It reveals everything about how you understand the gospel.

We cannot afford to be passive towards sin because sin will never be passive towards you. It is not indifferent or apathetic to your destruction. Sin’s desire is to kill you. Sin will lure you near with its sweet perfume and many promises, only to grab hold of you, smile, and drag you to the depths of woe and death. Consider God’s words to Cain, “sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Sin is compared to a monster that is creeping around, just thinking of ways to destroy and consume you. Therefore, put to death what is earthly in you. Literally in Greek, “put to death your earthly members.” Paul is drawing from Jesus. No one taught more about sin than Christ Jesus. He said, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better to lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” Therefore, take no prisoners. Put to death anything not under the reign of Christ.

Put to death Sexual Sins

Paul goes on to list ten sins from 3:5-9. These sins can be broken into three categories: sexual sins, anger, and sins of speech.

The first list of sins is sexual or fleshly in nature: “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

This list is not exhaustive, but it gets the job done. The first word is sexual immorality. In Greek, this is the word porneia, then comes impurity and passion. This is where we get our word pornography. But don’t think this is only a reference to images, statues, or explicit material. This was a broad umbrella term for any sexual promiscuity or sin outside of the covenant of marriage.

I don’t want us to miss this, because it shows us a few important things. First, it shows that Paul’s audience had the same struggles we have today. Sometimes we look back at the past as if they were not human, as if they were not dealing with the same things we are dealing with now. But though the mediums change, there is nothing new under the sun. Human beings have been struggling with sex, anger, and sinful speech from the very beginning.

Second, Paul is writing to a sexualized Greek culture. If you are unaware, we also live in a sexualized Greek culture. Everything in our world is obsessed with sex—from music to movies, art, politics, and schools. From top to bottom, our culture is sexualized.

Sometimes, as a pastor, it is easy for me to look at the direction the world is going and feel discouraged. But when I meditate on verses like this, I am reminded that it has always been this way. These issues and sins are not new. In the 1960s, it was more hidden, but make no mistake—sexual sin has always been there, bubbling under the surface from generation to generation.

The problem with sin of all types, but especially sexual sin, is that it is a perversion of something beautiful and good. The union enjoyed by a man and a woman in marriage is a gift. It is a beautiful gift from God. He created it and designed it. It is good, righteous, and sacred.

Sin’s nature is to pervert, distort, and twist God’s good design. The relationship between a husband and a wife is the predominant metaphor for Christ and the church. How you live sexually is a picture of Christ and the church.

Anything else is a distortion of the good gifts that God intends. For example, you might believe you can watch whatever you want in secret and that there is no harm. But like Dorian Gray, you may look the same on the outside, while on the inside you are training yourself to view men or women—who are made in the image of God—as objects meant for the taking. You are demeaning the dignity and beauty of womanhood or manhood.

Paul places the battlefield on our hearts: “And covetousness, which is idolatry.” Paul has spent the previous chapter denouncing asceticism. Here, he illustrates that to kill the sin is not to destroy the body, but to destroy the desire. Celibacy is of no benefit if we are burning sinfully in our chests. Fasting is of no use if we are angry with our neighbor who enjoys his liberty. We must let Christ rule over our desires.

Wrath and Gospel

You might be indifferent to sin, but God is not. This is hard to hear with our modern sensibilities. It is true, God is love. But God is also holy, righteous, perfect, just, and pure. I could keep going, but make no mistake: God stands opposed to sin. “On account of these things, the wrath of God is coming.” This is meant to weigh heavily on us.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the God of the Old Testament is wrath and vengeance, and Jesus is all love and compassion. No, they have the same attributes. In every way that God the Father is holy, just, perfect, and righteous, so is the Son. And in every way that the Father is compassionate, kind, long-suffering, and forgiving, so is the Son.

The gospel for Christians is that the wrath of God has already come. It was poured out upon the head of Jesus Christ. The cross is the image of where wrath and mercy embrace. This is why the cross is so offensive. Looking at the cross is like looking at the portrait of Dorian Gray. It is a display of your sin. Every drop of blood, every tear, every agonizing breath of Christ, is the cost of your sin on display. From this great display of wrath, mercy and grace flow.

For the Christian, “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” He has done it. He has stood in our place. But the warning of this passage is that if you do not know Christ—if you have not repented of your sin and trusted in Him—then Christ will pour out the wrath of God upon your head. Christ will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty (Revelation 19).

Paul says in Colossians 3:7, “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them.”

If you hear this and think, “Where is my hope?”—here it is: the gospel has transformative power. The gospel really changes people. Paul is saying, “You were one way, but now you are another.” Sometimes Christians can be a bunch of prudes and think, That person is too far from God. They are a lost cause. Or we think people who struggle with different sins than us are outside the reach of Christ.

But Christ’s hands are not bound. He is the ruler of the cosmos. He is the King of the hearts of men and women. This is real gospel change. There is no one so gone, no one so far from God, that He is not able to use His mighty and merciful hand to change and save them. In fact, this is exactly what God has done to save you.

You once lived this way—enslaved by sexual desires, anger, or obscene speech, but now you are followers of a different way. Let us never be ashamed to say, “I once was dead, but now I am alive.”

Apply

Take Up Thy Cross

If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25

These are the words of Christ in the gospels; the application is made specific in the epistles. Bearing our cross with Christ is partly killing our own sin as we identify with the death of Christ. As Christ has died, so we die to self. As Christ was raised, so we are to walk in the newness of life.

Motives Over Mechanics

This concept is difficult to illustrate, but important to understand. Paul is not giving a list of “Don’t do this or that.” The hard heart work is not that easy. Paul is elevating our obedience not to the mechanics of life, but to the motives of the heart. When Christ rules over our motives, our mechanics will follow.

Pray

King Jesus, give us grace to fight sin. To put off the works of our flesh, and to put on Christ. Make us gospel-shaped people who have been transformed by the power of the gospel. Protect us from sexual sins, evil desires, covetousness, and wrong passions. Remind us of the power of our testimonies; we once walked in darkness, but now we walk in the light. Amen.