Colossians 2:16-23 –
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.
Introduction
Do you ever feel like your faith in Jesus is missing something? Are there times when the abundant life Jesus offers feels somewhat less than abundant? Have you ever had a stretch that you would describe as anything other than being filled with the love of Christ and the fullness of God? Can you remember a time in which God’s Word made promises of joy and satisfaction that seemed dubious or elusive?
Of course you have. We all have. That’s the nature of this life. We cannot escape experiences of incompleteness because in God’s plan of redemption we won’t be completely complete until Jesus’ return. That’s not to say we cannot know true fellowship with God or genuine growth in holiness or real and increasing joy in Jesus. But it is to say that we cannot know the full measure of the satisfaction that will be ours in the new heavens and earth while we are still living in the old heavens and earth.
The real question, then, is not whether we’ll experience loneliness or despondency or emptiness. The real question is what we will do when we do. For non-Christians, there are all kinds of answers, spanning the entire spectrums of wisdom and folly as well as good and evil.
But the point of our passage isn’t about what those outside the church do when they feel some measure of incompleteness. It is about what those inside the church do. It is meant to be a mirror for all of us, revealing to us what we are holding fast to when our lives aren’t as they ought to be.
And so, Grace Church, before I share with you the big idea, and before I pray, let me invite you to pray silently, asking the Spirit of God to help you see where you are holding fast to Jesus and where you are holding fast to something else; where you are living by faith in the promises of God in times of emptiness and where you are living according to some form of self-made religion. And I invite you to pray, asking the Spirit to help you see freshly and fully the uniquely sufficiency of Jesus to bring fullness.
The big idea of this passage is that if you try to add anything to Jesus, take away anything from Jesus, or look to anything but Jesus for salvation or satisfaction (legalism, mysticism, asceticism, or anything else), you will not get Jesus, salvation, or satisfaction. The main takeaway is to do a careful inventory of what you are holding fast to and put off all that is not Jesus.
Mere Christianity
The Colossian Christians were facing then, many of the same things that the Wyoming Christians face today. They were weary and confused as they tried to sort out what to believe and what not to believe about Jesus and His will for their lives. There were false teachers among them who were offering all manner of alternative to the truth of Jesus.
In our passage for this morning, we find the clearest explanation of the content of the false teaching in the entire letter. Paul’s aim in sharing it was to reveal its devastating emptiness and contrast it with the fullness that is in Christ alone. He knew the Colossians needed to decide between holding fast to Jesus or the things offered by the false teachers and he wanted to help them see their choice for what it was.
That’s my aim for you all this morning as well. And to that end, I mean to share with you in plainest terms what Jesus offers and the first of the three alternatives offered by the false teachers in Colossae. My prayer is that you will see each in appropriate contrast.
Let’s begin, then by considering what Paul has already said concerning the justification of Jesus, the sanctification of Jesus, and the person of Jesus before considering the legalism of heretics.
The Justification of Jesus
Regarding the justification of Jesus, Paul was clear concerning why we need to be justified in the first place. We were all “once alienated and hostile in mind” (1:21), “doing evil deeds” (1:21), and “dead in [our] trespasses and the uncircumcision of [our] flesh” (2:13). In other words, we were ruined in our sin and powerless to do anything about it on our own. And much of the emptiness we feel is tied to this reality that is common to all mankind.
But then Paul was equally clear on what Jesus did for us. He effectively “[made] peace by the blood of his cross” (1:20), “reconciled [us to God] in his body of flesh by His death” (1:21), “set aside [our record of debt], [by] nailing it to the cross” (2:14), canceled “the record of debt that stood against us” (2:14), and on our behalf He “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them” (2:16). Once and for all, Jesus did those things on behalf of hopeless, lonely, and lost sinners like us.
How do hopeless, lonely, lost sinners gain access to that saving work of Jesus? Is it by working hard enough or doing enough good things to please God? Is it by eliminating enough bad things from our lives to make up for our sins? Is it by creating our own religion? NO!!! Paul explained that it is by hearing “the Word of truth, the gospel” (1:5), by having “heard and understood the grace of God in truth” (1:7), by placing our “faith in Christ Jesus” (1:4), and all that “through faith in the powerful working of God” (2:12). In other words, it is by the grace of God alone, through faith in Christ alone, that we are justified, declared righteous in God’s sight.
But what does it mean to be justified? It means, Paul wrote, being “delivered…from the domain of darkness and transferred…to the kingdom of His beloved Son” (1:13), receiving “redemption [and] the forgiveness of sins” (1:14), indeed, being “forgiven…[of] all our trespasses” (2:13), being “filled in [Jesus]” (2:10), being “circumcised with a circumcision made without hands” (2:11), “buried with Him in baptism” (1:12), “raised with Him” in newness of life (2:12), “made alive together with [Jesus]” (2:13), and, as we see in our passage for this morning, effectively dying “to the elemental spirits of the world” (2:20).
That’s the gracious work of God, to ensure the promise of God, to justify sinners in Christ. Again, ask the Spirit to help you marvel at these marvelous truths.
The Sanctification of Jesus
But, as awesome as that is, that’s just the beginning of the gospel, the good news, of Jesus. It gets even bigger and better than all of that. It’s not merely a promise of justification based on the righteousness of Jesus. It is also a promise to work true and complete righteousness in all of us.
So, how do we get the sanctifying grace of Jesus? Is justification ours by grace, through faith, but sanctification ours by our own means? That’s what the false teachers were saying to the Colossians. Were they right? No, the grace that justifies also sanctifies. The faith that first unites us to Christ, keeps us united to Him and His transforming power.
We will “toil” and “struggle” for our spiritual growth, but we will do so “with all His energy that He powerfully works within” us (1:29). Ultimately, then, sanctification is ours as we “Continue in the faith, stable and steadfast” (1:23), as we refuse, in the Spirit’s power, to shift “from the hope of the gospel that [we] heard” (1:23).
But what does it mean to be sanctified? What has God actually promised to work in us as we trust in Him? He is, Paul declared, making us incrementally and increasingly “holy and blameless and above reproach” (1:22). He is filling us with ever-growing “love in the Spirit (1:8) …for all the saints” (1:4) and causing our “hearts [to be] …encouraged, … [and] knit together in love” (2:2). He is filling us with “hope laid up…in heaven” (1:5). He is causing us to bear increasing “fruit” (1:6) “in every good work (1:10). And He is enabling us to give “thanks to the Father” (1:11) in all our circumstances.
He does these things by filling us with the “knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (1:9) and causing us to be continually “increasing in the knowledge of God” (1:19), until “the Word of God [is] fully known” by us (1:25) and we reach “all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:2-3). He does so by empowering us to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him” (1:10) and strengthening us “with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (1:11).
The sanctifying work of Jesus means continually having “Christ in you” (1:27). It means a growing burden to proclaim Christ to the world (1:28), “warning …and teaching” (1:28) everyone who will listen, no matter the cost. It means having God-given “firmness of…faith in Christ” (2:5), that we might be deeply “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith” (2:7). And ultimately, it means “putting off the body of flesh” (2:11), becoming truly “mature in Christ” (1:28) by being captivated by Christ (2:8-9), that we might continually walk in Christ “as [we] received Christ Jesus the Lord” (2:6).
Grace, if that’s not the most remarkable list you can imagine, your appetites are miscalibrated, your pallet is unrefined, and your desires are out of sync with reality. More significantly, if those things aren’t more desirable than everything else in your life, you are necessarily and certainly missing out on the most joyful, satisfying, fulfilling, God-honoring, good, beautiful, and true things in all the universe. Likewise, if you are seeking them in ways different from what God has commanded and promised, you will fail to receive them as you ought.
And the point, once again, is that none of us see, delight in, or seek the sanctifying work of Jesus as we ought, and that’s why we feel empty, alone, discouraged, frustrated, and incomplete at times. But the question remains, will we hold fast to the finished work of Jesus and the promises of God that flow from it, or will we create our own hope to hold fast to as the false teachers in Colossae advocated.
Jesus
As remarkable as all of that is, there’s one more aspect of the gospel Paul proclaimed; the greatest part of all. Paul was clear on the unmatched and entirely sufficient glory of the justifying and sanctifying grace of Jesus, but he was clearer still on the infinite and unparalleled glory of Jesus Himself.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven…” (1:15-20).
Grace, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, Paul told the Colossians that in Jesus “the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (2:9) and that He is “the head of all rule and authority” (2:10).
In our passage Paul added that Jesus alone is “the substance” of all good shadows (2:17) and “the Head” (2:19) of the Church—its power, source, and authority. And Paul wanted his readers to understand that nothing compares to that, to Him, to Jesus.
If that’s who Jesus is and that’s what He’s done and is doing for all who hope in Him, why, why, why would we hold fast to anything else? Why would we cling to anything else? Why would we put our hope in anything else? Why would we seek to add to or take away from those things?
That’s been Paul’s consistent argument throughout this letter. And we need to have all of that in mind as we consider the three main “anything else’s” confronting the Colossians. We’ll look at the first one this morning and the other two next week.
Holding Fast to the Head
All of that gets us right to the heart of this passage. If all that we’ve just considered is the essence of Christianity, and if believing it through every circumstance and trial is what it means to hold fast to Jesus, then what’s the alternative and why would anyone choose it?
Paul described the alternative in general terms as “shifting from the hope of the gospel” (1:23), as being “delude[d]…with plausible arguments” (2:5), and as being taken “captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world” (2:8).
But again, if Christ is the answer, what were the specific things being presented to the Colossians that threatened to shift them from the gospel, delude them, take them captive, pass judgment on them, and disqualify them? What were the plausible arguments, the bad philosophies, the empty deceits, the human traditions, and the elemental spirits? What were the alternatives to holding fast to Christ, the Head?
There are, of course, countless alternatives, but the Colossians faced three in particular. Others have referred to them as legalism, asceticism, and mysticism.
Legalism (16-17)
Colossae wasn’t a Jewish city. The church there consisted primarily of Gentile believers. And yet some among them were, evidently, pressing them to trust in Christ and Jewish laws/traditions, Jesus plus regulations. That is, they were advocating various forms of legalism, for their spiritual life and standing before God.
“Therefore,” in v.16, Paul warned them, “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.
Paul doesn’t tell us precisely what the false teachers were demanding in this regard. What I mean is, he is unclear about exactly what food and drink, and what festivals, sacrifices (new moon), or Sabbath, issues were being taught. But what we do know is that the false teachers were judging the Colossian church based on their participation in certain Jewish laws and customs.
Paul’s point was not that those are irrelevant issues. He wasn’t saying there’s nothing to be learned or gained from the traditions of God’s people. And he certainly wasn’t saying that Christians don’t need to obey God. His point was that the false teachers were wrong in legalistically suggesting any of those things were the basis of the Colossians’ right standing with God.
Paul says to these Colossian Christians, “Look, these people are … trying to judge you on [things like] what you eat, what you drink; whether or not you attend Passover, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Lights; whether you make your sacrifice on the first day of the month, which is new moon, and whether you subscribe to all of the laws and rules and rituals of the Sabbath day. They are saying it isn’t enough to know Christ, you have to know Christ and keep the Jewish law[s and traditions].”
Today, we might say that our standing with God is tied to having faithful quiet times or church attendance or prayer life. We might say it’s tied to the number of ministries we’re apart of or the number of times we’re a part of them. We might say it’s tied to how much money, or what percentage of our income, we give to the church. We might say it’s tied to the doctrinal soundness of our church or our willingness to speak prophetically to the world around us. We might say it’s tied to how we educate our kids or how many verses they’ve memorized. We might say it’s tied to how often we share our faith or how many people we’ve seen trust in Jesus. We might say that our standing with God is tied to any number of things in addition to Jesus.
There are certainly people out there, and perhaps even in here, that would judge us for any of those things and pressure us to hold fast to them as the foundation of our standing before God.
Of these kinds of Jesus + things, of this kind of hoping in our ability to keep the law in its legal demands, Paul wrote elsewhere (Galatians 4:10), “You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.” And (Galatians 5:2-4), “Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.” And in similar fashion, he forbids his readers from “devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth” (Titus 1:14).
But Paul’s point, as he makes clear in the next verse, is that as good as any of those things might be in their proper context, they never were and never will be sufficient to save us. Neither have they ever been or will they be sufficient to truly satisfy us. Christ alone is truly sufficient and satisfying. He alone is preeminent. He alone can save.
Why must we not allow others to judge us in these things, these areas of command and tradition? Because…
17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Traditions and commands absolutely have a proper place in the lives of Christians, but their place is not to save or satisfy, it is to point to the only thing, the only One, who can!
If we put good ideas or even God’s commands in the wrong place, we make a wreck of it all. If we seek our justification or our sanctification by sufficiently keeping the terms of the law or the traditions of men, we make a wreck of it all. If we look to add anything, even good things, to the death and resurrection of Jesus as the basis of God’s acceptance of us, we will make a wreck of it all. That’s the first thing the Colossians were faced with and why Paul was emphatic in helping them keep them in the right place.
Conclusion
With even the most surface-level, honest assessment of the person and work of Jesus compared to the legalism of the false teachers, the contrast ought to be as clear as night and day. But if that’s the case, why was this even a matter of temptation for the Colossians? It was a temptation for them for the same reason it is has been a temptation for every follower of Jesus since them, including everyone in this room.
Why is it a temptation common to us all? Ultimately, it’s simply a matter of failing to see Jesus for who He is and His work and promises for what they are, and therefore, of failing to trust in Him as we ought. We just don’t believe that Jesus is who God’s Word says He is or that He’s done/will do what He’s promised.
More specifically, though, in my experience (personally and pastorally), the temptation goes something like this:
We feel some type of emptiness. We consider what God’s Word calls us to do—remember the gospel, find a specific passage in the Bible that speaks to our emptiness and ask God to help us believe it, share our difficulty with a brother or sister in Christ and ask them for wisdom and prayer, listen to music that recalls and celebrates the glory and grace of God, and make use of the rest of the various means of grace. But we also consider the inconsistent relief those things have brought in the past.
More honestly and crudely, we lament the fact that doing what God says we ought to do just hasn’t always “worked” very well. We do it as best we can, but the loneliness, the emptiness, the sadness, the dissatisfaction don’t lift. And as soon as that thought germinates in our heads and hearts, we are primed to look for something, anything that will lift it (even if for just a few moments).
Because we often live as if this life is primarily about avoiding as much hardship as possible and escaping it as quickly as possible when it comes, the false teachers in Colossae and the countless false teachers today really do have something to offer.
It is a fact that there are many things capable of providing us with an immediate sense of relief from the emptiness we all experience at times. Drugs really will do that. The romantic attention of a boy or girl really will do that. Internet scrolling, social media, and online purchases really will do that. Success in sports, business, school, and ministry really will do that. Thrill seeking really will do that. Expensive toys really will do that. Pornography and extramarital sex really will do that. Certain aspects of self-made religions, like legalism, really will do that.
Pretending otherwise is an unfortunate and obviously misleading tactic that many parents and pastors have chosen.
The Colossians were in a hard spot and holding fast to Jesus wasn’t providing immediate relief for some of their problems and so they were ripe for the genuine offer of immediate relief provided by the false teachers—just like you and I today.
Paul’s charge to the Colossians, and my charge to you, then, is to not merely remember the claims of God’s Word concerning Jesus and what He’s done in contrast with the obviously inferior claims of everything and everyone else. Likewise, it is not merely to consider which is most likely to provide the most immediate relief. Paul’s charge and mine, is to consider more deeply what it means to have faith and to live a life of faith.
There are two things concerning the life Jesus’ calls us to live, concerning the true nature of a life of faith, that I invite you to consider in closing.
First, please consider the simple biblical truth that hardship—including the feelings of emptiness, loneliness, incompleteness, and dissatisfaction that are common to all who are not yet fully sanctified (which is all of us)—is one of the most significant tools of God to reveal our need for Him and to sanctify those who accept that. Grace, the emptiness that we try so hard to avoid is often the very means by which God works in us a full sense of fullness. A life of faith, the kind of faith that God gives and requires, is continually learning to trust in that promise, and hold fast to Jesus, forsaking all offers of immediate (though temporary, hollow, and ultimately deadly) relief for the sake of the true and lasting relief that Jesus alone gives in His perfect timing.
And second, a life of faith looks ultimately to what is to come. It is not blind to what’s in front of us, but it interprets what’s in front of us in light of what will certainly be. A life of faith, then, echoes Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
A life of faith is not ignorant of or indifferent to the hardships of this life. But it does look to them as the means of grace they are and sees them in light of the eternal glory that awaits all who hold fast to Jesus, the justifier, the sanctifier, the preeminent one. May it be so for us all, Grace Church, by the grace of God that is certainly in us through faith in Jesus.