Colossians 2:15-23 LIVE HIGHER All charges against a sinner are taken away when that person has accepted the substitutionary work of Christ as full and sufficient payment to bring us to God. The crucifixion of Christ was a public act on His part when He "suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God." That work has been accomplished on our behalf, and as believers, our public testimony of baptism establishes to those who watch who we are and in whom we have believed. There are no additions of any kind to that great salvation that is of value in any way. In fact, any efforts to make an addition to that sacrifice our Lord Jesus Christ made are not only of no avail, but they would also be an insult to the all-sufficiency of the One who paid the supreme price.
No longer is a sentence pronounced on us because of the food we eat or what we drink, nor because we do not participate in the special religious day and festivals, others think make them more holy. Monthly observances are often connected with worshipping idols, animals, the moon, and the sun. Some immoral practices took on a religious connotation because they we considered a "celebration of life." We, as Christian believers who know the Lord Jesus Christ personally, are free in Christ. "Let no man judge you" doesn't mean we are to take aggressive action against legalism. It means we are no longer in bondage to the law and things associated with the attempt at law-keeping. The shadows fade because of the reality we have in Christ. Eating special foods or abstinence from food is linked with the natural man, not the spiritual. Such bondage was a foreshadowing of the reality of the blessings we have received by God's grace.
"Let no man beguile you" by promoting mysticism as a means of coming to God. They suggest that we are disqualified from receiving the blessings of God if we do not show visible evidence of humility in some outward form. Those who are mystics will declare you to be unworthy of any contact with God unless you feel some kind of pain through self-denial. False humility is just another way of saying I am responsible to get to God my own way and thus denies the all-sufficiency of the Savior. True humility is awed by the greatness of God and His mercy. When one's heart is filled with love for God, one's will is submitted to the purposes of God. Mock humility led people in Colossae to the worship of angels, which was false worship. True worship is the result of a consciousness of who God is and is expressed by honoring God and giving Him the respect that is due Him. Such worship is real because it is "in spirit and in truth."
The distractions of legalism and the delusions of mysticism have the tendency to enslave one who is deceived by those false teachings. Believers are not to submit to the rituals of man-made religions and lose their liberty in Christ to a shadow by demeaning the work of God into some material substance. Nor should believers substitute rules for the righteousness of Christ lived out in the lives of God's people. Self-abasement and the worship of angels being substituted for the worship of God is evidence of man's purpose to be equal with God through his own efforts or to bring God down to be on par with men. Substituting the obscure visions of the imagination for the written word of God is a human attempt to exalt self-centered men to the place where intellectual arrogance takes the place of real humility. All of those substitutes cater to the desire of men to be independent of God rather than depend on the Lord, who is the Head of the church.
There is great strength in truth, and by its nature, truth exposes errors. The Christian's position is that of one who is "in the world but not of the world." Christianity stands out against man-made superstitions that may have a good appearance but are valueless. The rules of men are not spiritual and have a tendency to draw us away from Christ and rob us of the blessings that are by faith. As those who belong to Christ, we are dead to the ordinances of human schemes. the deception that results from self-imposed pseudo-humility must be rejected. We are brought out from under the worldly elements, and there should be no connection of the living with that which is dead.
By faith, we touch, taste, and handle those things that are unseen. Such faith is in stark contrast to the rituals that promote self-centered worship motivated by human endeavor and human will. A "worship leader" is not to be one who takes the place of the Holy Spirit. By faith, we will not allow devotion to the wrong things and the wrong things to take the place of sincere devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is right for us to remember that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and to abuse this body for some so-called spiritual experience, is totally foreign to that which God intends in the lives of those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only are believers to be progressing as soldiers in an army, pilgrims on a journey, trees producing good fruit, buildings being erected, students learning the truth and a widening river - but our provisions to accomplish God's purpose for us are that we are separated to Christ, alive in Christ, free in Christ and victorious in Christ.
This doctrinal section of the book of Colossians sets the tone for the practical working out of a believer's life as taught in the remaining chapters of the book.