Colossians 2:16,17by Dr. Grant C. RichisonTo: Colossians Main Menu To: Grace Notes Home Page Colossians 2:16"So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths."A pitfall that bedevils the child of God is legalism. Verses 16-19 set before us warnings against legalism. There are two dangers in the Christian life; one is the extreme of the other. We can under live or over live the Christian life. If an airplane pilot undershoots the runway or overshoots it, he can get killed at either end. We do not want to believe anything less than that which is in the Bible. Neither do we want to believe any more than is in the Bible. The Devil tries to push us to either end. Here he attempts to make us overshoot the runway through legalism. Legalism is pseudo spirituality. Religious types believe that there is something spiritual in asceticism. The more they deny themselves, the more the impress God. The more miserable they make themselves the better their place with God. ---------- "So let no one judge you " Note the word "so." This word sends us back to verse fourteen. Jesus wiped out the ordinances against us on the cross. Old Testament ritual, restrictions and regulations were abolished on the cross yet many Christians today hang onto them. They have hang-over from their religious training. They do not realize that Jesus met all the demands of the law on the cross. When a legalistic person observes a Christian operating on grace (v.15) he judges him as operating on license. Spiritual bullies use the standard of self to measure others. To defend his position of legalism he must attack those who operate on grace. The bond woman (law) always persecutes the free woman (grace; Gal. 4). Legalism always criticizes grace (Rom. 14:4). He wants to superimpose his system upon the grace believer. He loves to meddle in the affairs of other believers. He tries to run their lives. He sets himself as the criterion of spirituality. "You are not spiritual like me unless you have given up..." Principle = we cannot build our spirituality on someone else's lack of spirituality or apparent failure to meet our standards. It is open season on Christians. People love to pass judgment on believers. It is also a favorite indoor sport of Christians. Christians love to judge other Christians. Matthew 7 argues against judgment of others: 1 "Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. 3 "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 "Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. PRINCIPLE: The Christian is to not let legalism judge him. APPLICATION: If we are in the habit of passing judgment on other Christians, we will find ourselves the victims one day. We pass premature judgment because we do not possess all the facts. If we did, it would withhold judgment or temper our judgment with mercy. Because we are ignorant of all the factors we pass hasty, censorious judgment only later to find that we were wrong. By then we have done so much damage we can do nothing to undo it. Some people seek to build their righteousness on criticism and judgment of those who violate their own standards. In order, we have annual, monthly and weekly religious celebrations in this verse. ---------- "in food or in drink" Christians are free from the legalistic requirements about food (Rom. 14:1-4). The terms "food" and "drink" refer to the acts of eating and drinking. It is not a question of food or drink; it is a matter of ascetic attitudes toward them. Romans 14 addresses this issue: "Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 3 Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him. 4 Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand" (Rom. 14:1-4). "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). "But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse" (I Cor. 8:8). Food is a non issue to the Christian life. " Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (I Cor. 10:31). This is the operating principle in all disputes over food and drink. We may eat all foods so long as we eat them with thanksgiving (I Tim. 4:3). ---------- "or regarding a festival" Israel had three outstanding feasts a year: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles. The first and last days of these feasts were holy days. In those days they did no work. In the New Testament era we observe no feasts. Religious days such as Christmas, Easter, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are inventions of men. The Bible does not give the day the Lord Jesus was born. We commemorate the resurrection every Sunday, not just one day a year. There are always those who pay their annual respect to God on Easter. Everyone likes something special. For one day a year they are on their best behavior and manners as if this impresses God. God nowhere in the Bible presents this as a standard of Christianity. ---------- "or a new moon" This day was celebrated by blowing trumpets, special sacrifice, feasting and religious instruction. Labor was suspended and no national or private feasts were permitted to take place. Religious authorities went to great pain to fix the commencement of the month. Also, the Gnosticism of the Lycus Valley had its systems of new moon worship as well. The new moon may have its affect on our romantic life but there is no significance to Christianity! PRINCIPLE: Ritual can destroy the vitality of our faith. APPLICATION: Religious mechanism can attack our faith. If we place special value on religious apparatus rather than upon the person of Christ, we lose the reality of Christianity. Many people give up food for lint. Others wear uniforms or special clothing. Earlier this century many evangelicals would not travel on Sunday or go into an establishment where liquor was sold. Some Christian even chant mantras believing that God will specially bless them. What moment we think that our religion can commend us to God, we miss the boat about how to live the Christian life. The first day of the week is Sunday; the seventh day of the week is Saturday. If we were to keep the Sabbath day we would worship on Saturday. Does the Bible teach the Christian is to worship on Saturday? ---------- "or sabbaths" The word "sabbath" means seven. The Bible uses "sabbath" most commonly of the seventh day of the week -- Saturday. "Sabbath" is used more broadly in the sense of a festival set apart for a special occasion. The root for "sabbaths" means to cease, desist. The word came to mean a complete cessation. The idea is not relaxation or refreshment but cessation from activity. For six days God created and on the seventh he rested. The seventh day is a commemoration of grace -- God did the doing. We rest in that. The observation of the seventh day of week by Israel was a "sign" between God and his people. God rested after six days of creation (Ex. 31:16,17; 20:8-11). Eventually these regulations became a burden to Israel due to over systemization of their religion. Two treatises of the Mishna are entirely occupied with regulations for observance. Jesus liberated people from the vexatious traditional accretions which were an end in themselves (Matt. 12:1-13; John 5:5-16). He made it a means to an end. For the first three centuries of Christianity, "sabbaths" were never confounded with the first day of the week. Rom. 14:5; Gal. 4:9-11. Those who place Christians under legalism make an artificial separation between the ceremonial and moral law. They say that the sabbath has not been annulled. o The Sabbath is the only one of the Ten Commands not repeated in the New Testament. o Christians met on Sunday, not Saturday (Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:2). o Our passage condemns Sabbath observance, Col. 2:16. o The law was only a shadow of the reality to come (Jesus Christ; Heb 8:5; 10:1). What the Old Testament foreshadowed our Lord fulfilled (Mt. 5:17; Rom. 8:3-4). PRINCIPLE: The Bible places no special privilege upon worship on special days. APPLICATION: Many children sour on church because of the superficial and hypercritical behavior patterns of their parents. As soon as church is over, their parents act like imbeciles the rest of the week. They are supposed to act like "Christians" on Sunday. They cannot go to a hockey game on Sunday. Somehow this is supposed to impress God. Children wind up antagonistic to God and the Bible. Pseudo spirituality restricts activities on Sunday. Colossians 2:17"which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ."We should not let the law judge us (v.14) because Christ fulfilled the law (Rom 6:14). The five systems of legalism of verse 16 are the "shadow" in this verse. ---------- "which are a shadow of things to come" "Shadow" is used of the image or outline cast by an object (here), of ceremonies under the Law; of the Tabernacle and its appurtenances and offerings, Heb. 8:5; of these as appointed under the Law, Heb. 10:1. A "shadow" is the shape or shade cast by an object which blocks rays of light. Here it refers to an entity that corresponds to an archetype or foreshadowing, reality, corresponding reality. The "shadow" of the Old Testament, that is, the Old Testament ceremonies about Christ are simply ways of depicting Christ before he came historically. The animal sacrifices were an illustration of his sacrificial death. They were not the reality of his death. Shadow, however, always reveals that there is reality somewhere. "Things to come" -- the coming of Christ and his work. ---------- "but the substance is of Christ" The ceremonies of the law served their purpose well. After they fulfilled their purpose God instituted something better -- the reality of Christ. All the ceremony of the Old Testament, the legalistic system, the Aaronic priesthood, the tabernacle with its furnishings and ritual all pointed forward to Christ. They were pictures and parables of Christ. Jesus took the place of all that ceremony. The "substance" is equivalent to reality. Reality is found in Christ (Heb. 8:5; 10:1,4). It impossible to have shadow without light. A shadow points toward something real -- "substance." The Old Testament types merely foreshadowed the coming reality. Christ was the fulfillment of the types (Mt. 5:17; Rom. 8:3-4). A "shadow" is only an image cast by a real object which represents its form. The Old Testament types were not real. Jesus Christ is the reality. Since the reality has come there is no longer a need to follow the shadow of the Old Testament types. Christ is the intrinsic value, not the types. It was the substance that caused the light that caused the shadow to come. To continue in ceremonial observance (shadows) implies that Christ has not come. PRINCIPLE: The law cannot save a sinner nor sanctify a saint. APPLICATION: It is very difficult to get the message of grace through to religious people. They feel they must make a contribution to their salvation. To come to grips with the fact that only Jesus can satisfy an absolutely holy God is a humbling experience. Before we can accept what God does for us we have to stop doing the doing (Rom. 4:5). It is imperative to turn from good works, the law, morality, religion, the Ten Commandments to become a Christian. God provides all that we need for salvation in the death of Christ (Gal. 3:13). When we believe that promise, we become a true Christian. The law cannot sanctify a saint. Formerly, in the Old Testament, God wrote the law on tables of stone. In the New Testament he writes the law on our hearts. When we become a Christian, God puts a new heart in us to live before him. Ritual without reality is a deadly error. It introduces meaninglessness into our lives. People who partake of the Lord's supper without understanding its meaning simply go through motions, but not the reality of the Christian life. Some people feel there is good luck in going through rituals. Maybe God will bless them if they move in the shadows of religion. But Christianity presents Jesus Christ as reality. Would you rather have shadow or substance? Would you rather tell a shadow that you love it, or a person? It is no fun to kiss a shadow! Ritual without Christ is like kissing a shadow. Copyright © 1995, Dr. Grant Richison. All rights reserved. There is no charge for Grace Notes Materials. You can help further this work by your prayer and by sending a contribution to: Grace Notes% Warren Doud wdoud@bga.com1705 Aggie Lane Austin, Texas 78757 Grace Notes Web site: http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/ Anonymous FTP site: ftp://ftp.bga.com/vendors/wdoud/ Grace Notes is a ministry of Village Missions International. |
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