Legalism and Liberty Pt.4

song didn’t you Rachel? What a great truth. My sin not
in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no
more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh my soul. If you would please
take your Bibles once again and turn to Colossians chapter 2
We come now to the end, to the fourth part of this section,
a caution on legalism, which is the fifth of five examination
points for those who profess faith in Christ. The larger passage
of scripture here in chapter two, you will recall, is the
one that is dealing with these series of examination points
which began all the way back in verse 4. And we’ve been reminded
of the discernment that must be exercised by believers, verses
4 and 5. The steadfastness that must be
maintained, verses 6 and 7. The caution to be observed, verses
8 through 12. The regeneration that just simply
needs to be enjoyed. We need to rest in the fact that
God woke us up from the sleep of death. And then finally, the
last section, the one that we’re in, the one through which we’re
working, the liberty to be guarded. Those are the examination points
that Paul presents to the believer as a means of examining their
lives to see whether the fruit of their life is legitimate. Paul saw something, or better
stated, he heard of something, something very destructive lurking
in the region of Colossae, legalism. And he knew that this was something
for which this little church must watch among themselves. So Paul sets forth this examination
standard, the fifth, because legalism destroys true Christianity. As believers in Jesus Christ,
we must guard our Christian liberty. And so the fruit of the gospel
must be inspected. You see, we want to do. That’s our innate desire. We want to do something, something
to earn or contribute or to repay for all of the spiritual blessings
that we’ve enjoyed. There’s nothing wrong with that
desire. But when that desire becomes
manifest and we begin to try to pay God back, or try to earn
God’s favor, that is legalism. Christianity is not a religion
that cooperates with that desire. We are saved by faith in Jesus
Christ alone, nothing more. We are still, after our study,
we are still no closer to identifying the particular strain of legalism
being proffered around this little church of Colossae. It did seem
to have elements of Judaism, but it was not limited to that. There were many other pernicious
errors being pushed upon these believers, rituals and observances
of all kinds. And these were no innocent religious
people inviting others, say, for an innocent conversation
over dinner. These were false teachers. urging
these young believers to implement or institute some additional
practice to their Christianity, or a set of practices, really,
to involve those in their spiritual lives. A host of duties and ceremonies
that must be done in order for them to secure God’s grace and
forgiveness. In short, they were promoting
works-based righteousness. We’ve seen it. They were goading
others into legalism and adherence to rules or practices that would
be performed in order to secure their spiritual standing. That
mindset is the religion of the world, not Christianity. Anything like that is immediately
a threat to the foundational doctrine of justification by
faith. Any of these additional observances,
rites, or rituals, once they are received as a religious requirement,
it destroys the confidence of that simple gospel faith. So
it’s no wonder that even at the faintest hint of legalism in
the region surrounding Colossae, that this faithful apostle issues
this warning. He knew that like an invasive
weed, one such thought taking root in the church would soon
be inextricably established. If the Lord’s people would glance
down at Colossians chapter two, we find ourselves once again
in this lengthy passage, verse 15 through 23, and I’ll take
it in full. When he had disarmed the rulers
and authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed
over them through him. Therefore, no one is to act as
your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival
or a new moon or a Sabbath day, things which are a mere shadow
of what is to come. But the substance belongs to
Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you
of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship
of angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated
without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to
the head, from whom the entire body being supplied and held
together by the joints and ligaments grows with a growth which is
from God. If you have died with Christ
to the elementary principles of the world, 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, which all
refer to things destined to perish with use, in accordance with
the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which
have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion
and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are
of no value against fleshly indulgence. We are brought here in verses
20 to 23, Paul’s fourth point in this subsection, At the start of this section
on legalism, we saw that Paul began by reminding his readers
that the Lord Jesus Christ has vanquished all authority. Paul
refers to them as rulers and authorities, but we saw there
in verse 15 that Paul was no doubt talking about spiritual
authority, the devil and his demons. Paul speaks of the victory
as absolutely decisive. that Jesus had disarmed them,
he had triumphed over them, and he had made a shameful display
of them. But that leads immediately into
Paul’s second point in verse 16, his assessment of the battleground
of liberty, the hearts and minds of believers. And there Paul
makes an assertion of freedom that no one is to act as our
judge, He presents the threats to freedom, all of those various
rites and rituals that these false teachers were seeking to
add to Christianity. And he sets forth the foundation
of freedom. There was not mere shadows like
these rituals and observances, but the substance was Christ. Given these truths, why would
we let anyone act as our judge? And that brings us to Paul’s
third point, the evil of legalism. What we referred to last Lord’s
Day as spiritual injustice. Paul further identifies these
false teachers there in verse 18 as spiritual thieves. attempting to defraud believers
of the peace and confidence that they have in Christ. They do
this by means of their so many extra practices. They do so because
they have effectively let go of Christ themselves. Not holding
fast to the head, as Paul put it. Well, that brings us to the
fourth and final point here of this subsection, verses 20 through
23. And Paul really has two things
left to say, but they are really two ways of addressing the same
point. The foolishness of surrendering
to legalists and their various practices. Paul issues one final
challenge and he makes one final argument here in these verses. And if you would, I’d like you
to go back to verse 20 in our consideration of liberty and
legalism, where he begins here to shame
legalism. We have, first of all, the final
challenge to legalism, beginning in verse 20. Here in verse 20,
Paul issues his strongest admonition yet. In verse 15, he simply stated
a fact, that Christ had conquered his enemies. In verses 16 and
17, he applied that truth, insisting that as Christians, they had
no judge but Christ. In verse 18, Paul does issue
a command, let no one keep defrauding you. But that was just as much
an indictment on the teachers as it was on the dupes of Colossae. In the verse before us, Paul
issues a strong command. Paul opens with what might sound
like a presumptuous or a great assumption, if you have died
with Christ. But that is exactly what a believer
does when he or she comes to faith in the Lord Jesus. They
die to themselves. They die to their sin. They die
to their old life. Conversion to Christ is death
to the law, death to works righteousness, death to guilt, death to self,
death to the world and its ways. This dying with Christ is something
that Jesus Christ himself taught. Just listen, Matthew chapter
10. And he who does not take his
cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has
found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life
for my sake will find it. He calls us to die. Matthew chapter
16, same gospel. Verse 24, Jesus said to his disciples,
if anyone wishes to come after me, they must deny themselves,
take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save
his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will
find it. An echo of those previous words
in Matthew 10. In John chapter 12, John captures
this brief one-sentence version of Christ’s call to come and
die. He who loves his life loses it,
and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life
eternal. Paul likewise teaches this so
graphically in Romans 6. Would you turn to Romans 6, just
briefly, Romans chapter 6. We’re only going to look at a
couple of verses, but good to have you there. Romans chapter
6, and when you get there, go to verse 1, if you would. Paul had just declared justification
by faith, that we are not saved by our works, we’re saved by
our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Romans chapter five. And we,
at least theoretically, can come away saying, great, if God has
provided by his grace for all of our sin, shouldn’t we live
casual lives, not concerned about our sin? since God is, after all, going
to grant us grace. That’s what Paul’s addressing
in verse one of chapter six. What shall we say then? Are we
to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never
be. How shall we who died to sin
still live in it? Or do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized
into his death? And he begins here in verse one
with a rhetorical question. Are we to continue in sin that
grace might increase? And it’s an idea that Paul immediately
rejects. May it never be, no way, absolutely
not. How shall we who died to sin
still live in it? When we come to Christ, we come,
in a very real sense, to die. We die to ourselves. We die to
our sin. It’s called repentance. And as
you already know, if you’ve ever heard me even speak about this
verse before, you’ve likely already heard this, Paul is not talking
about water baptism there in verse three. He’s not. Do you not know that all of us
have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized, what
are you reading, a different version? Frasco? That word baptized
means immersed. He’s not talking about the rite,
the ritual of baptism. What he’s talking about is the
real thing, what baptism symbolizes. He’s talking about when you and
I were immersed into Christ, of which baptism is a beautiful
symbol. He’s talking about the real thing
here. Water baptism is a symbol, but
Paul is talking about the reality that the believer has been immersed. He has died and been immersed
into Christ, not into water. He says there a second time,
immersed into his death. Let’s examine these words in
Colossians 2, if you would go back. Let’s examine these words
a little more carefully. To what does Paul specifically
here in this passage identify that to which a believer dies? He says we came to die. To what
did we die? Look please at verse 20, where
Paul says here that our death was a dying to the elementary
principles of the world. Now this word, elementary principles,
we just crossed back in verse eight, you may recall. And there
Paul is describing the philosophy and empty deception of the false
teachers. They brought nothing, nothing
of substance. philosophy, ideas, empty deception. All it would do is harm its hearers. And he says there that their
teaching is right in line with the elementary principles of
the world. And there, just like here, our
translators use two English words to translate one Greek word.
In both places, Pardon me. In both places, Paul is just
referring to the basics of life, the most basic elements of learning.
And remember, we’ve already identified that one of the basic desires
of humanity is to do something to earn our good favor with God. Of these same elemental things,
Paul also speaks in Galatians 4, In Galatians 4, he reminds
his readers that in our unsaved condition, we were held in bondage
by such things. We wanted it so bad we couldn’t
break out of that cycle. Paul proceeds there to challenge
the Galatians in their foolishness of returning to such weak and
elemental things. The things will not, will not,
they do not, they cannot save. And his point is that these false
teachers, by pressing their legalistic additions to Christianity, they
were returning to the very rudimentary spiritual things, works, as opposed
to faith. Paul addressed this same thing
with young Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.11. It is a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we will
also live with him. If we endure, we will reign with
him. If we deny him, he will deny us. We died to those things. So Paul calls the legalists teaching
ministry, the elementary principles of the world. And he says that
our dying with Christ was itself a death to its priorities, a
death to the world’s priorities, a death to the world’s affections,
and the world’s principles. These principles are worldly,
not spiritual. They are those things to which
the people of this world bind themselves, not those who are
spiritual and heavenly. The unbelieving people of this
world gravitate to such principles and they eagerly immerse themselves
in them. The Christian, however, should
not. And so if we’re dead to them, they no longer have any
influence or control over our life. And Paul issues a very
strong challenge here at the end of verse 20. Why? Why, as if you were living in
the world, do you subject yourself to these worldly decrees? Paul
uses a bit of irony here, and you see it. Of course these believers
were in the world in one sense. They were alive, just as you
are this morning. They were living, they were breathing,
they were functioning. In that sense, they were in the
world. But in another sense, in which
the believer is said to be no longer in the world, we are no
longer controlled by its dictates, we are no longer aligned with
its affections. One of the great summary principles
of the Christian faith, and I remember as a young man going to look
for this verse, Maybe you did the same thing. We are to be
in the world, but not of the world. And I went looking for
the, the verse doesn’t exist. It’s distilled from the principles
of Scripture. One of the great summary principles
of the Christian faith is that we are to be in the world, but
not of the world. That’s what Paul’s saying to
the Colossians. They were in the world, but they
were not to be of the world. The believer has been drafted
out of the natural world and placed into the spiritual realm. The Christian is no longer a
citizen of this world, but he or she is a citizen of God’s
kingdom. In chapter three, Paul is going
to advance into a discussion of the believer’s heavenly citizenship. I know that we’re all looking
forward to chapter three, but would you just glance ahead there
one moment over to chapter three and just to two verses? Lord willing, this is next Lord’s
day’s verse. Therefore, if you have been raised
up with Christ, keep seeking the things above. You’re a heavenly
citizen. Keep your focus there. Keep seeking the things above
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds
on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth.
You see, heaven is the Christians’ real homeland, not this world. How absurd then, Paul insists,
that we should be adopting the world’s principles. that we should
revert to these rudimentary spiritual standards and practices instead
of living as if we were no longer of this world. Believers are
citizens of a new kingdom. They’re no longer subject to
the world and its dictates. And so Paul rather pointedly
asks, why? Why do you submit yourself to
its decrees? Why? I love the way my dear Scottish
pastoral friend John Eadie said it. Men attach a higher sanctity
to abstinence from certain kinds of foods and physical refreshment
than to abstinence from sin. Did you hear what he said? We
would rather have a thing that we can do or not do than to simply
mortify the sin in our life. Listen to that again. Men attach
a higher sanctity to abstinence from certain kinds of food and
physical refreshment than to abstinence from sin and would
rather violate a divine statute than break a self-inflicted fast. to willingly submit to such man-made
statutes would be to turn their backs on God, the God who saved
them, and to revert to efforts that are repulsive to God. From time to time in our lives,
we have the opportunity to go back, don’t we? Go back to our
grade school. Go back to our high school. Go
back to a previous place of employment. Go back to the city or town in
which we were raised. But this return, the one that
Paul’s talking about here, the return of which Paul speaks here,
it would be like being set free from the darkest, ugliest, most
horrible prison, only to willfully return To once again subject
ourselves to such horrors? Who breaks into a prison? That’s
Paul’s concern here. As believers, we have been freed
by the magnanimous grace of God. Would they return now, trying
the world’s ways? God the Father planned our redemption
from eternity past. Jesus Christ secured our redemption
by his death on the cross. The Holy Spirit applied that
atoning sacrifice to us after all that God did on our behalf. How could we possibly think of
going back? Paul’s direct challenge in verse
21, would you just look there, here in this verse, Paul now
points out the particular kinds of things to which the Colossians
were at least being tempted to adopt. Why, Paul questions, do
you submit yourself to decrees such as, do not handle, do not
taste, do not touch? The word translated there is
decrees is the Greek word, listen to this, dogmatizo. You heard it. the word from which
we get our word dogmatic. The noun form of that word means
opinion and could even be stretched to refer to an ordinance. Someone
came up with an opinion and made it a law. Something that they
could issue and enforce. But the form of the verb here which is the form of the word
before us. The form of the word here means
to declare an opinion or a position, and the false teachers were dogmatically
insisting that others adopt these religious observances. But the
form of the verb indicates that some of the Colossian believers
were willingly submitting to these dogmatic opinions. They
were putting it on themselves. And based on Paul’s language
here, it seems that not only were they being pressured into
adopting some of these legalistic practices, it seems that they
were already doing so. This shouldn’t surprise us. These false teachers were already
acting as their judges. There was already pressure in
that regard. They were already defrauding
them, remember, of their blessings of salvation. How great the pressure must have
been to yield, to give in, to submit to these external demands. Okay, I’ll do it. Paul doesn’t tell us exactly
what the things were to that which they were yielding. He
just says that it involved handling, tasting, and touching. He doesn’t
tell us that they did not have any external significance, perhaps
the food smelled really good. Perhaps the drink was very enticing. But would you notice, please,
the parenthetical comment that follows these prohibitive statements
there in verse 22? They are things which all, Paul
says, all refer to things destined to perish with use. In other
words, they’re absolutely useless, spiritually speaking. This word perish is a detailed
one. We use it to speak of decay, corruption, destruction, disintegration. Take, for instance, a candle.
Even a candle used in a very important ritual Once burned, candle is utterly
useless. Same with all the prohibitions
regarding food and drink. Do we begin to grasp what Paul
is saying here? Whether or not they chose to
submit to these rules about food and drink, in the end, spiritually
speaking, they would be no better off nor would they be any worse. It did nothing for them spiritually. It would neither benefit them
nor condemn them. Those elements, once consumed,
they have a very limited existence, don’t they? Whether they’re things
that are prescribed or things that are forbidden, If fish is
prescribed for a meal, once it’s consumed, that substance can
no longer even be considered fish, and it’s soon eliminated
from the body entirely. Such things provide absolutely
no spiritual benefit. But Paul avoids the mention of
any particulars here. We don’t need the particulars.
We know that the essence here is legalism, and here the prescribed
rules are all in the negative. Perhaps the reason Paul doesn’t
go any further here, identifying the particular kinds of legalistic
demands, it’s because such man-made rules change over time. We have
our own set of challenges in our day. And so Paul just states
it generally, do not handle taste or touch. That was their prohibition. The bottom line is that as believers,
they were free. They were liberated from such
man-made rules. And we know that these observations
and rituals are man-made because Paul describes them in such in
the final line there of 22. Glance please at the very last
line. Paul refers to these practices
as the mere commandments and teachings of men. There is no
biblical command at all. The teaching, not only of the
false teachers of that region, but all the religions of the
world. are man-made. Did you get that? I’ll make sure that it’s recorded.
All the religions of the world are man-made. To reduce our Christianity
to some kind of system of do’s and don’ts is to take away from
its divine origin and power. It puts the focus on all the
wrong things. True Christianity is not focused
on externals, but rather on internal holiness, which is a work of
God. These external rituals and rules
were human in their origin. And this is but an echo of what
Paul said back in verse eight, where he spoke of philosophy
and empty deception, the tradition of men, which is not according
to Christ. There’s no scriptural support
whatsoever for the things that they’re pressing upon these believers.
That’s the test. Is it biblical? Is it prescribed chapter and
verse in the pages of scripture? So Paul is drawing his conclusion
to close here, and he makes one final argument against legalism. It’s there in the last verse
of chapter two, verse 23. In shaming this surrender to
legalism, Paul not only makes a final challenge to legalism,
but he gives this final argument against it. There are matters,
verse 23, which have to be sure the appearance of wisdom in self-made
religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body,
but are of no value against fleshly indulgence. In his final argument,
Paul takes his readers here back to all the various things which
these false teachers were urging and insisting upon. When he says
these are matters, he points back to the food and drink, the
festival, the new moon. He points back to the celebrations,
to the Sabbath day observances of verse 16, as well as to the
more wide ranging self-abasement, worship of the angels, visions. He points back, in addition to
verse 18, to the very general prohibitions of verse 21, do
not taste, handle, touch. These are all matters, Paul says,
which have the appearance of wisdom. And after all that Paul has said,
this might sound somewhat contradictory, doesn’t it? The appearance of
wisdom? The false teachers, they make
a convincing argument. They’re very persuasive in their
explanation of these matters and why I need to do it this
way or why I need to celebrate this ritual or go to this particular
feast. They’re very persuasive. These
practices and rituals on the face of them seem reasonable. They seem to have a legitimate
spiritual benefit. They sound good. like eating
fish on Friday, or being baptized by a threefold immersion, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, or that you must be baptized only in
their denomination, or that you must eat and drink that, or that
you may not eat and drink this, or that you must wear your hair
a certain length, or your skirt or that you must worship according
to this highly liturgical plan, or that you must do this, or
you must not do that. These things initially sound
plausible. They seem to be wise and beneficial
to us. They appear to be able to impart
some higher spiritual good, if we would only adopt them into
our life and practice. They appear to impart spiritual
good, but they’re as empty as a canyon. Paul says in the first
place, they are matters of self-made religion. One translator worded
it this way, it is self-imposed worship. In other words, it is
worship according to your own dictates. The word here is effectively
self-chosen piety. Church, your way. Which I would
suggest to you is epidemic in our day. Not unlike what Paul said in
verse 22, they are of men, man-made. And we can easily imagine this.
right, a Joseph Smith, a Charles Russell, or a woman, a Mary Baker
Eddy. We can imagine them, or perhaps
even with a makeshift committee, sitting around inventing a religion,
sitting around thinking of ways that they could approach God
their way. Entire religious movements have
started Exactly this way. Such religion is not born out
of an edict from God, as much as some would claim, but some
person’s imagination and no more. I remember something that dear
James Boyce once said, or better what he wrote, regarding the
idea of this self-styled worship, whatever we want to do, Boyce
said, it is a sobering note that in the pages of the Bible, God
says more about unacceptable worship than he does about acceptable
or pleasing worship. Well, the writer of Hebrews certainly
seemed to have a humble awareness of that, didn’t he? Hebrews 12,
28, and 29. Therefore, since we receive a
kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude by which
we may offer to God an acceptable sacrifice with reverence and
awe, for our God is a consuming fire. That indicates the kind
of worship that was being promoted in Colossae. It was not only
unsanctioned, it was holy, unacceptable, it was displeasing to God. Look what else it says about
this phantom wisdom. It’s not only self-made, it is
self-abasement. We ran across this word just
last week in our consideration of verse 18, and there we saw
that Paul used this word humility. to describe their deceitful practices. It wasn’t genuine humility. It
was false. It was nothing but pride in disguise
designed to manipulate those who observed it. They wanted
to be seen. He describes this religion with
a third phrase, severe treatment of the body. We’ve already dealt
with the prevailing asceticism of these charlatans. thinking
that by restricting the harsh treatment of their physical body
that they garnered some kind of spiritual blessing. It was
misguided and an empty pursuit, Paul says. In a world that was
steeped in ascetic practices, Paul reminded young Timothy of
this, that bodily discipline is of only little profit but
godliness. True godliness is profitable
for all things. You skip a meal, there may be
some spiritual benefit to that, but godliness, a pursuit of godliness, is profitable for all things
since it holds promise for the present life and for the life
to come. Even the best form of bodily
discipline will carry a person just so far. but it does not
provide its user with some kind of superpower. Paul says of all
this, it is of no value against fleshly indulgence. The strange
thing is, that is exactly what these false teachers were aiming
for with these so many observances and rituals. They thought that they were building
an impenetrable wall around themselves. And that’s what they were promising
others as well. When all was said and done, by
doing all these pseudo-religious practices, these people were
no better equipped for dealing with their sinful inclinations
than the rest of the heathen world. So when someone presses you to
adopt some religious practice, to perform some spiritual duty,
to engage in something that promises to please God, look to the word. Remember the legalistic mindset
never sleeps. Examine it carefully, whatever
is being suggested to you. If there’s no such process or
practice clearly articulated in Scripture, then you’re likely
already under a legalistic assault. You’re already resisting, you’re
already, pardon me, resting in your faith alone in Christ alone. And you already enjoy the triune
God’s work in your life. You already possess eternal peace
and comfort that only God can provide. Rest in that. Would you humble yourself before
him?