Christ is the Substance
Notes
Transcript
Two things from Hope Station: Tiny Home and Faith & Finances
Through these first two chapters of Colossians we have laid a great foundation upon which to build. We are growing a great root system to nourish us.
Colossians 2:
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.
20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—
21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch”
22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings?
23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.
If we can grasp v.17, understanding ‘these’ refers to the things the law gave us, and acknowledge Jesus as the substance, the weight, the meat, the source of the shadow and of everything about a believer’s life, we will be ok
We are in that cycle of culture when people are wanting to hold themselves up as the standard. They are not. You are not. I am not. Christ is the standard.
Some people want to give you advice based on examples that are not Christ, not scripture. Dont listen to them.
The ‘substance’ of this poor advice, which was actually false teaching, was ritual observation of the law. Days and diets.
But Paul was attacking false teaching, not personal preference. In the modern church we have the pendulum of personal preference: everywhere from worship styles to decoration preferences. So long as our preference doesn't contradict the full context of scripture, we have freedom. And notice here he doesn't bring up things like meat sacrificed to idols, which is a personal preference he deals with elsewhere.
The Jerusalem Council, about 15 years before this letter, had already dealt with holding on to the law (including the Pharisaical traditions) reminding both jewish and gentile believers Christ had filled up the law. Which helps us understand why hanging on to the law was condemned.
The Law was a shadow.
Festival of booths(Feast of Tabernacles), where Jews would build little tents out of branches and stay in them to remind themselves of their time in the wilderness. This foreshadowed the coming of Christ to temporarily dwell among us. It could even be related to the Holy Spirit dwelling in us as Jesus taught ‘I am the vine, you are the branches’....
These festivals, the new moon celebration or day of sabbath were all from the jewish law. The gentiles debated whether to celebrate (worship) on Saturday or Sunday, but that came from jewish origins as well.
Culture is hard to change. For a lot of people it’s where we find our identity. Outside the power of the Holy Spirit to change us through repentance and forgiveness, it takes a generation or so for culture to change. The first century christians who were of a jewish background believed that God had given them their culture. The festivals etc were evidence of that. But Paul is strictly forbidding this church from living under those regulations. His basis for doing so was the teaching of Jesus:
Jesus taught these regulations were coming to an end. In He calls out the Pharisees about thinking they were approved by keeping traditions related to what they ate. Although there were laws dictating what Jews should eat, Jesus told them it was not what they put into their mouths that defiled them, but what came out of their mouth. He said from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. And He told them the heart contained the evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness and slander.
If human effort is effective then the work of God was unnecessary. Jesus nailed the record of our sin to the cross and completely filled up the requirements of the law. It was His work. We dont add to it.
He is the substance.
For the Jews, virtually everything in their religious and cultural heritage had been replaced by the person and work of Christ. Peter was the poster-child for this: At the Jerusalem Council in , corrected for returning to jewish custom in , even having had the vision () of the sheet lowered from heaven and being told ‘dont call anything I have made unclean’.
Peter’s understanding was being built up. As long as he was rooted in Jesus, built on the foundation of the faith Jesus placed in him, he was good. He is one of the unique characters in the NT story. Having walked with Jesus, even on water, and having participated in the trial and seen the resurrected Christ, we still get to follow his growth. If anyone could help us understand the one who filled out the shadow, it might be Peter.
The ascetics: Already there was a movement to punish self as a way to get closer to God. These people thought they could do something that would gain favor with God so they would live in extreme denial of even the most basic comforts, even to the point of harming themselves.
These things listed in v.18 all have the same result: disconnecting from the Christ, the Head of the body. What is the phrase? Running around like a chicken with your head cut off? What is the meaning? Acting foolishly, irrationally. So it looks like scripture is pointing us to the foolishness of adding to the redemptive work of Christ on the cross. Believe it! Live it! Exist in it!