The Gospel: The Answer to Legalism, Part 3

How many of you have a bad habit you’d like to get rid of? Raise your hand. I have some bad habits. If you all haven’t seen them yet, or if you don’t believe, just ask the beautiful lady with the two adorable children right down here in the front row.

Now these habits you’re thinking about - they probably range from benign to malignant. It could be something as simple as picking your nose; speaking before you think; it could be overspending at Wal-Mart; it could be pushing the speed limit by a little bit. Or it could be something a bit more destructive to others and to yourself, something that is definitely sin. It could be an anger problem. It could be a pattern of dishonesty. Small lies become big lies and then before you know it you’re stretching the truth out of habit with no real reason to do so. It could be something like lust. You can’t control that first glance at that attractive person at the grocery store, but you are responsible for the second or third or fourth look. You may stumble across a pornographic website by accident the first time, but the second time it’s on you.

And these habits get formed because we are creatures of habit. We are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator, are we not? God has made us to be creatures of habit. Check this out. Researchers have found that there are three moving pieces that contribute to a habit. The first is a trigger. Something you see or hear or remember or feel or taste triggers that desire within you to do the thing you’re becoming habituated to do. The second is the actual habit itself - the action that you’re becoming habituated to do. And the third is the reward - something that triggers a release of dopamine in your brain. It makes you feel good, makes you happy, and it reinforces the cycle, making you all the more likely to repeat it again and again. [Wikipedia, “Habit”, accessed April 24, 2021]

We all know, too, that it’s much easier to form a habit than it is to break a habit. Can I get an amen on that one? It’s much easier to form a habit than it is to break a habit. Now, here’s the thing. Most of us, when we start trying to break a bad habit, we naturally turn to rules and regulations. You might put up signs around the house reminding you to do something or not do something. You might ask a friend to keep you in check. Those things are good. But when it comes to the deeply embedded sin habits in our lives, rules and regulations by themselves do not work. Because when it comes to sin habits, the problem is the heart, the inner person. Rules and regulations can’t touch that part of you. But Christ can.

Notice with me this morning three aspects of this issue of rules and regulations and how they relate to the sin problems in our lives. First, a crucial reminder.

#1: A crucial reminder (v. 20a)

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 2

20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,

So what’s the crucial reminder? The main point in this passage is the question Paul asks in verse 20, “Why do you still submit yourself to decrees?” But before he goes there, Paul gives his readers the crucial reminder of their true spiritual address. I know it’s been a while, but in a previous sermon on Colossians, I talked about conversion, being born again, as a spiritual change of address. That’s what Paul’s getting at in verse 20 when he writes, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world...”

Now a couple of questions when I read this immediately come to mind. The first is what does it mean that I have died with Christ? For that we have to go back to an earlier part of chapter two, verses 12-13.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 2

having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

Think of it as getting married. When you stood before your spouse and the minister pronounced you husband and wife, you were joined together not just legally but spiritually. One flesh, the Bible calls it. You no longer belong to yourself but to your spouse; your spouse no longer belongs to himself or herself, but to you. God joins you together in this one-flesh union so that - and here’s the point - so that what is true of your spouse is also true of you. If your spouse is poor, so are you. If your spouse is unhappy, so are you. You’ve heard the saying, “If momma ain’t happy, no one’s happy”? It’s true.

Well the same thing happens when we place faith in Christ. We are joined to Christ. What is true of Him is true of us. What He did, we did, because we are one with Him and in Him. Jesus died; because we are one with Him, we died. Jesus is risen, and so are we. Where Jesus is, because we are in Him and He is in us, there we are too.

So when Paul says in verse 20, “If you have died with Christ”, he means that in some mysterious sense, the old you is dead and gone, never to return again, and the new you, which has been born anew in you, the new person you are in Christ. we are already with Christ in heaven. If that seems like a stretch to you, I get that, but look down at chapter three where Paul just comes right out and says that very thing.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 3

3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

So there you have it. You and I may be very much alive and well and here and present on this earth. But somehow, in another, truer sense, that we don’t fully understand, we are already seated with Christ in heaven. Which means that although we live in this world, we are not ultimately of this world. We do not ultimately belong to this world. That’s the crucial reminder. That’s what we have to keep in mind as we live and breathe and move in this world. We’re here; we’re alive; we’re serving and worshiping and loving and obeying, but our true home is heaven, and because we are one with Christ, in some sense we are already there.

Now my other question as I studied this was, what in the world does Paul mean by the “elemental principles of the world”? The Greek word for “elements” refers something very, very basic. Like learning how to write or learning how to add and subtract, like learning your alphabet. Elements means something extremely basic, something so basic that once you’ve mastered it, it would be weird and foolish to spend your time on it. In this context, it means basic ways of trying to overcome sin. Christians have higher resources, more effective resources, because we’re one with Christ.

But he adds to that word “elemental principles” the phrase “of the world”. Well in the Bible the “world” often means humankind, unredeemed, cut off from God, separated from His power and His grace. So take these two ideas - basic ways of overcoming sin that are worldly, meaning powerless, futile, ineffective. This is what it means when he says elemental principles - worldly, ineffective ways of managing problematic behavior. I like what one author said this week that I came across in my study:

Colossians: A Commentary 2:20–23 The Visionaries’ Teachings Have No Value

Since they have already been transferred into the higher realm through being united with Christ, they need no instruction or guidance from the former and lower existence.

In other words, if you’ve been raised with Christ, and you’re seated with Him in the heavenly places, and all that is His is yours including His resurrection power, and if you’re in Him and He’s in you, if you have all of that, why would you turn back to the world for help with your problems? That’s like having prime rib and baked potato in front of you; and you push that plate aside and instead pour yourself some generic golden grahams.

Now notice this: Paul says in verse 20 that we have died with Christ to these elementary principles of the world. Almost all translations have that. Actually, though, the NKJV is closer to what the Greek literally says

The New King James Version Chapter 2

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world,

What’s the difference? Seems like a minor difference - “to” versus “from”. But it’s not. It’s a major difference. That little word “from” in the Greek implies a rupture, a dissociation. It implies a clean break from the world’s ways of dealing with unwanted sinful habits.

By the way, these subtle differences in wording in the Bible are important. They’re actually very important in real life, too. Consider this. You’ve made dinner for your mom and dad. You said you’d text them when it was time to come over, when dinner was ready. So you cook and it’s all ready and so you pull out your phone and open your messaging app and you type this: “Let’s eat, mom and dad.”

Small wording differences MATTER!

“Let’s eat, mom and dad.”

“Let’s eat mom and dad.”

See? If you understand, turn to the person beside you and say, “It really does matter!” It really does matter. We want to make sure we understand God’s word, so that we can obey it, and live it, and progressively become conformed to Christ’s image.

Okay, so what does all of this theology have to do with habits and rules and regulations? For that we go to the second point.

#2: A pertinent question (vv. 20b-21)

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 2

20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”

Now I know that’s been a lot of theology and it’s been heavy and you guys have been so patient, so here’s a little break.

There was a man, Mr. Smith, who couldn’t stop biting his nails. Constantly he would bite them, furiously he would bite them, all the way down to the quick. He would have blood fingers because of this habit of biting his nails. Well one day his wife, Mrs. Smith, was having coffee with a friend and she said, “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. I’ve cured my husband from biting his nails.” Her friend was skeptical. “Really? How?” Mrs. Smith said, “Well, it’s quite simple really. He took his teeth one night last week before bed and I hid them. He hasn’t bitten his nails in six days!” [Swindoll, p258]

Now here’s how the crucial reminder that we’ve been raised with Christ relates to breaking habits. If you’ve died with Christ, so that you are no longer bound to merely human, worldly ways of doing things, that eventually has to shape our lives in profound ways. One of the ways that will shape our lives is that we have come to understand that just telling ourselves “No” isn’t enough to defeat the sin in our lives. That’s what Paul means when he says, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why — and here’s the crucial question — “why, as if you were still living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’” (Col. 2:20-21 NASB).

Apparently the false teachers were making the avoidance of certain foods and drinks the measure of godliness. Or a way to grow in godliness. They had apparently forgotten what Jesus said about foods and drinks. They thought regulations and rules and laws were the way to really change people’s behavior.

And so they said, as verse 21 tells us, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” (NASB). You’ll notice in your translation that those three commands are within quotation marks. That means Paul is not giving us those commands himself. He is quoting them from the false teachers. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. They didn’t trust that grace alone was sufficient. They thought grace was deficient, that if you just tell people their sins are forgiven they’ll just go do whatever they want. When forced to choose between law and grace, they chose law; it seemed more reliable, more solid, it felt safer.

It’s not laws and rules and regulations that change us. It’s grace. Jesus knew this, of course. The apostles learned it from Him. Travel back in time with me about 30 years or so from the writing of Colossians to the earthly life of Jesus. Read along with me this account of a situation almost identical to what Paul is talking about.

Jesus encountered this with the Pharisees. The Pharisees added all these rules and regulations o the law. Don’t eat this. Don’t drink that. Make sure you wash your hands — not to avoid germs, but to clean off the defilement that comes from contact with non-Jews, that they considered unclean. This is what Jesus said about that:

The New International Version Chapter 7

Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.” [16]

Jesus is saying, no, you’ve got it backwards. It’s not what goes into your stomach that morally defiles you. It’s the sin is already in your heart that morally defiles you, and no rule or regulation is going to be able to fix that. What is needed is a new birth, a new heart, a new Spirit, and with those things the power to live a new kind of life. Which is exactly what Jesus will provide us with through His death and resurrection.

So the crucial question is: Given the power that is now resident inside you, given the fact that you’ve been raised with Christ to new life, why are you resort to commands to help you live the life Christ wants you to live? “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch” — do you know what that is, church? That’s trying to grow in holiness simply by avoiding sin.

Now, don’t misunderstand me. Grace is not a license to sin. The fact that the law of God has been satisfied by Christ’s death is not an invitation for us to flagrantly violate the law. The truth that all our sins have been forgiven and our record wiped clean by God is not a summons to do whatever we want. We are called to holiness. “Be holy, as I am holy” - that was a command of God found in the law, the book of Leviticus. But you want to know something? The apostle Peter, in the NT, repeats that command.

New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version Chapter 1

As aobedient children, do not bbe conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, 15 but alike the Holy One who called you, bbe holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.”

So we are not to do whatever we want. We are to obey. We are to fight sin. But we are to fight sin with the tools God has given us, because they are the only tools that will truly bring about change at a heart level. Speaking of those tools that God has given us, versus the ineffective rules the world offers us, notice with me now Paul’s negative evaluation of the false teachers’ prescription for change.

#3: A negative evaluation (vv. 22-23)

There are three components to Paul’s negative evaluation.

A. The legalist is focused on transient things (v. 22a)

Look back with me at verse 22 where Paul gives his take on the decrees - do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. He says, verse 22, “which all refer to things destined to perish with use”. I really like how the NLT translates this verse: “Such rules are mere human teachings about things that are gone as soon as we use them”.

There’s a story about a married couple that was really struggling to communicate, really having a hard time just living together. They had tried marriage retreats, read books, vacations. None of it worked. So they decided as a last resort to come and see their pastor. (I can tell you as a pastor that this is usually how it works. You never know that any couple has a problem until they’re in your office ready to hire lawyers. Don’t wait until your at a crisis point to get help. Soap box over.)

Anyway, this couple had come in....prepared? They had each written down a list of pros and cons about the other. There was a big line down the middle, bad things about their spouse written on the left, good things on the right. Of course, the bad things outnumbered the good.

They hand the lists to the counselor, hoping he’ll see they’re incompatible; they want him to validate their decision to seek a divorce. He takes the lists and puts on his glasses, leans back in his chair, and starts reading over them silently. After about five minutes, he completely shocks the couple. He puts the two pieces of paper together, tears them neatly in half, right down the line in the middle. He then wads up all four pieces of torn paper and throws them into the garbage can. He leans forward on his desk and gets sharp with the couple. He says, “Your problem is not that you’re incompatible. Your problem is that you’re fixated on things that don’t ultimately matter. What matters is not your rules for each other or your expectations. What matters is that you treat your marriage as what it is: a relationship.”

The legalist is focused on things that do not last.

B. The legalist is limited to human wisdom (v. 22b)

The legalist is also limited to human wisdom and strength. Look at how Paul characterizes the false teachers’ efforts to help people change: In the second half of verse, after Paul says these regulations refer to thing destined to perish, he then says that these regulations they’re imposing - they’re “in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.” Because the world is cut off from God until they’re in relationship with God, what the world offers us is limited to its own human wisdom.

Now because human beings are made in the image of God, alot of human wisdom can be helpful. For example, you’ve heard of that book called The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? It reminds us that the first few days of breaking a habit are the hardest. That’s true and it’s good to know. Google how to break a bad habit and if you hit the right websites, you’ll find some good, secular tips. They’ll tell you to keep the pay-off in mind; how good it’ll feel to have conquered that habit. You’ll read that you should avoid triggers and anything that is associated in your mind with the thing you want to stop doing.

All of that is true and good and helpful. But when it comes to conquering sin, unlike what the Colossians were hearing, all of that worldly wisdom may be good and true and helpful, but you know what else it’ll be? Useless, unless God is in it. Unless the power of Christ is energizing you, and the love of Christ is motivating you, and the beauty of Christ is compelling you, you won’t kick a sinful habit. Paul is saying, “Look, these false teachers are peddling a superficial method of change. They don’t know Christ, the source of spiritual power. And you can’t take someone somewhere you haven’t been yourself. He’s saying, “Don’t put your hope and trust in the commandments and teachings of men. Don’t limit yourself to human wisdom.”

C. The legalist is a poser (v. 23)

The last component of Paul’s evaluation of the false teachers’ methods of change: the legalist is a poser. The legalist is a poser. He says in verse 23, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom...” I think verse 23 is interesting. Paul freely admits that human traditions and secular methods of change - they sound right. They look good. When it comes to Christian legalists, man they sound so spiritual and they seem so godly, but verse 23 pulls back the curtain and reveals that it is “self-made religion”.

What is self-made religion? Self-made religion is could be “I take a little bit of Christianity and a little bit of Catholicism and a little bit of Taoism and mix it all together into my own personal religion that fits me (thinking, wrongly of course, that the worship of God is about expressing yourself;). Self-made religion could be “God helps those who help themselves.” You know? Self-made religion could be “I believe you have to meet God halfway. He’s not gonna come all the way to where you are.” Self-made religion could be “I’ll come back to church and recommit my life to Christ when I clean up my act” (how silly, right? As though you could clean up your life with Him!).

Self-made religion is a religion that begins with self, operates through self, and ends with self. The self-made religious person — if you could pull back the veneer of super spirituality you would see a heart full of do’s and don’ts but devoid of Christ. The legalist, in other words, is a poser. Naming the name of Christ, but knowing nothing of His power and love in their own experience.

Whether it’s self-made religion like we just talked about, or self-abasement or severe treatment of the body (like denying yourself food or freezing yourself in the cold like the monks used to do), whether it’s 7 habits of a highly effective person or whatever, he says it may have the “appearance of wisdom”, but in reality, last part of verse 23, “they are of no value against fleshly indulgence.” puts the nail in the coffin of legalism.

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church Christianity Is Not a New Morality

Christianity did not come into the world to proclaim a new morality and, sweeping away all the supernatural props by which men were wont to support their trembling, guilt-stricken souls, to throw them back on their own strong right arms to conquer a standing before God for themselves. It came to proclaim the real sacrifice for sin which God had provided in order to supersede all the poor fumbling efforts which men had made and were making to provide a sacrifice for sin for themselves; and, planting men’s feet on this, to bid them go forward. It was in this sign that Christianity conquered, and it is in this sign alone that it continues to conquer. We may think what we will of such a religion. What cannot be denied is that Christianity is such a religion.

“Christianity did not come into this world to proclaim a new morality…it came to proclaim the real sacrifice for sin which God had provided.” [B. B. Warfield]

The legalists are focused on transient things, the legalist is limited to human wisdom, and the legalist is a poser. That is the apostle Paul’s inspired evaluation of 1st century and 21st century self-help techniques. When you place your hope in them, and try to live by them instead of abiding in Christ, what happens is that you end up coming under another law. And when you come under law, law always enslaves. Living by rules sand regulations do not make you more like Christ; they separate you from Christ.

Conclusion and call for response

All of this reminds me of when I got my first dog. I was six. His name was Buster. I remember the day we got him. It was a rainy, cold day, when we went over to someone’s house who wanted to sell him. He was part bulldog and part Boston terrier. When I walked over to him he ran over to me and did that thing that dogs do when they’re chained up. They run as far as the chain will let them run and then they jump up in the air, trying to get as much distance as the chain would let him. He was chained up, soaking wet, and muddy as all get-out, but I loved him as soon as I saw him. We took him home.

Turns out he had been abused. For years when you would walk up to him to pet him, he would hesitate, or he would cower and turn his head away and flinch; he expected to be struck. He was what pastor Tony Evans would call a law dog rather than a grace dog. This is what Tony Evans says:

“You can always tell the difference between a grace dog and a law dog when you walk into a house. A law dog has its tail tucked underneath. Its master intimidates it. Its afraid of its master. It is a miserable dog.”

Later on my dog Buster came to be what Tony Evans describes as a grace dog. “But a grace dog’s tail is wagging when its master comes home because there’s a relationship there.”

“Have you ever seen a person with a big dog on a leash and the dog is dragging the person or the person is pulling the dog? That is the way a lot of us are living our Christian lives; we’re living on a law leash. Stop that! Don’t do that! Come here! Read your Bible! Pray! Go to church! There is nothing wrong with those things. It’s just a leash is jerking us around.” [Evans, p141]

Now listen to that one sentence again: “But a grace dog’s tail is wagging when its master comes home because there’s a relationship there.” That’s it. It’s a relationship with Jesus Christ that changes us. It’s knowing that He will always accept us and always love us and always receive us back if we come repentant and confessing.

That seems on the face of it like it would cause us to rebel and do whatever we want. And indeed, for some it does. But that’s because they misunderstand it. If you really understand grace, you don’t want to live for yourself - you want to live for Jesus. And when you fail, you’re grieved by it; you come back, you confess, you repent, He gives you strength to get up and try again; and this happens again, and again, and again, with Jesus never running out of patience, never getting frustrated, never getting irritated. And us? Each time we come back to Christ after having fallen, and we find His arms open wide with love, we get a little bit stronger; we hate sin a little bit more; we fight just a bit harder; and by and by we grow in holiness. That is how you change; that is how you overcome sinful habits; that is how you become more like Jesus.

So where are you with all of this this morning? Are you a rule-follower? Not a bad thing in itself, but it will destroy you if you are trying to follow anyone’s rules other than God’s rules found in His word, and if you’re trying to follow God’s rules without God’s power. Jesus is waiting this morning with open arms of freedom. He wants to liberate you from the rules and regulations of others and fill you up with Himself and that is how you will finally change.

Maybe you’re here this morning and you would say, “Pastor Dustin, you know I think I’m one of those people who imposes my own arbitrary rules on others. I’m the one saying to those around me, Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch. But you know, I realize now that I’m not God. I don’t have the right to create my own morality and bring others into subjection to it. I need to trust that God will work in their lives, and He doesn’t need my help.” Friends, if this is you, Jesus is waiting with open arms of forgiveness. He isn’t done with you or tired of you.

Maybe others of you this morning are here and you would say that you don’t really have a relationship with Jesus. Maybe there’s just enough Jesus on the outside of you to fool others, but your heart is devoid of Jesus. If that’s you, Jesus is waiting with open arms of salvation and a fresh start. You say, “What do I do?” You get honest with God. You confess to Him that you’re a sinner, that you’ve violated His law, that you deserve condemnation. You tell Him that you trust in Christ, that He is the Son of God and that He died for you, in your place, bearing your guilt and sin and shame. Tell God you want this, you want this forgiveness and release from bondage and a fresh start. “All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”