Under grace, the believer’s life is not about keeping the law. Instead, for members of the Church, the Body of Christ, life is lived in a personal relationship with our living Head, Jesus Christ, and in the freedom we have in Him.
Chasing Shadows
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
“Which are a shadow of things to come…” (Col. 2:16-17a).
“Therefore” introduces a conclusion that stems from the context of believers being “complete in Him” (v. 10), and Christ “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (v. 14).
In light of these truths, Paul teaches the church under grace to “Let no man therefore judge you.” Since the Colossians were complete in Christ and free from the law, they were to let no one sit in judgment of them for living by grace and in their freedom from the law. They were not to allow anyone to have power over them concerning keeping the law, nor permit such mistaken opinions and beliefs to influence their conduct.
Paul was reminding the church that we are not responsible to man for our conduct but to the Lord. No person has a right to impose the law on us as a burden when Christ has made us free from it. Our salvation is all Christ by grace, and so is our spiritual growth and walk. Our salvation, spiritual growth, and walk are not by Christ and the law, but in Christ alone by grace.
When Paul told the Colossians not to let any person judge them “in meat, or in drink,” he was referring to the prohibitions concerning food and drink within the dietary regulations of the law of Moses. Under Jewish law, God declared certain foods to be clean or unclean (Lev. 11:1-47).
Under grace, however, there are no such prohibitions on food. We are free from the law’s restrictions concerning food. God has cleansed all food today (Acts 10:9-16), and the dietary regulations of the law are no longer in force under grace. We should “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink” today, because “every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused” (1 Tim. 4:4).
Paul continued, “Let no man therefore judge you…in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days.” Here Paul refers to the annual, monthly, and weekly observances and celebrations commanded under the law.
“An holyday” refers to the festivals of Israel, one of the seven annual feasts of the Lord under the law (Lev. 23:1-44): the Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Weeks or WaveOffering (Pentecost), Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah), Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (Sukkot). These feasts are still observed by those who practice Judaism today, and the days are noted on some calendars.
“The new moon” refers to the observances and sacrifices on the first day of each month in accordance with the law (Num. 28:11-14). “The sabbath days” refers to the weekly observance of the seventh day, in which they refrained from all work (Ex. 20:8-11), plus the special sabbath days associated with the feast celebrations.
Christ has blotted out all these observances that were once mandatory under the law and has taken them out of the way. It is unnecessary and even wrong for us to observe these things under grace.
These things of the law “are a shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17), and, as the writer of Hebrews notes, “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things” (Heb. 10:1). A shadow is not the real thing and has no substance. It is an image cast by a real object of the same form. The reality is what makes the shadow.
David Dykes told the following:
“When I was growing up in L.A. (Lower Alabama), we usually had four or five dogs and cats to claim as our pets. By virtue of being the oldest child, my older sister, Judy, demanded the right to name all our pets…We had a dog that was part German Shepherd which Judy named Rex. While Rex was a ferocious looking dog, he was a big chicken at heart. He was scared of everything. None of our pets ever came inside; they were ‘yard pets.’ But once when it thundered, Rex was so frightened he broke through the screen door and came in and hid under the table!
“His bark wasn’t worse than his bite, because he seldom barked…and he never bit. However, there was one thing that could make Rex bark. Sometimes when a bird or a flock of birds flew over on a sunny day, Rex often chased their shadows on the ground. I can recall watching as one bird flew around in a circle with Rex chasing the circling shadow on the ground, barking the whole time. Poor Rex—he never figured out the shadow wasn’t real.
“Sadly, there are many wellmeaning Christians who are doing the same thing. They are chasing shadows.”1
Paul didn’t want the Colossian believers chasing the shadows of the law or to be influenced to prefer Jewish observances over Christ. For both the believing and the unbelieving, it is a tragedy to substitute the shadows of ritual and religion for Christ while missing Christ Himself. Paul did not want believers, under grace, complete in Christ, and delivered from the law, to be influenced to live by the past observances and ordinances of the law. These things were merely “a shadow of things to come,” when we have the reality.
“…but the body is of Christ” (Col. 2:17b).
Christ is the “body” (Col. 2:17) or the substance of the shadow; He is the reality casting the shadow. Christ is the One to Whom the shadows pointed. The shadow of the law and its ceremonies prophesied, by way of type, many things about Christ’s person and work before His first coming, and He fulfilled those things perfectly as the body, substance, and reality of the shadow.
Having Christ, our walk under grace is not in keeping the external rules of the law, which were a shadow of Christ, but having an inner relationship with Christ Himself by grace. That relationship is carried out in our freedom from the law, being guided and led by Christ’s grace instruction for the church, which is found in Paul’s epistles. The law has been taken out of the way, and Christ alone is sufficient for our Christian lives.
Hold Your Head Up!
“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
“And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (Col. 2:18-19).
The first problem Paul dealt with was preferring the shadow of the law over the reality of Christ. The second problem was preferring inferior beings over the Head.
In Colosse, men who had a “voluntary humility” were leading believers astray and away from Christ. Voluntary humility refers to humility in an ironic sense—an artificial, selfimposed form of modesty. Their false humility was expressed in the “worshipping of angels.” In other words, in their feigning humility, believing themselves unworthy to appeal directly to God, they were instead worshipping angels and appealing to God through them.
In their attempts to establish support and authority for themselves, it seems clear that these men claimed to have seen visions of angels or from angels. However, Paul set the record straight by writing that they were “intruding into those things which he hath not seen” (Col. 2:18), meaning that they had not really seen anything. Like they faked their humility, they had fabricated the accounts of their visions. And while they made a show of humility, Paul says, they were actually “vainly puffed up” by their fleshly minds, engaging in self-aggrandizement.
In their pride and false teaching concerning the worship of angels, these false teachers were “not holding the Head” (v. 19). Christ is the Creator and Lord over all angelic ranks and orders (1:16-18). He “is the Head of all principality and power” (2:10).
Christ is supremely worthy of our worship, not angels.
Previously in this epistle, Paul wrote, “And He is the Head of the body, the church” (1:18). To worship angels is to misunderstand the Headship of Christ over the church. We must not substitute anything for Him. As our Head, Christ is Lord over the church. He alone is the One we worship, serve, and hold fast to in the Body of Christ. He is held in His rightful place when He is held supremely above all. We are in our rightful place when our relationship is directly with Him.
We cannot live the Christian life without the Head. If we do not hold fast or cling to the Lord in our personal relationship with Him, we will lack what Christ supplies in our Christian lives. But as we do hold fast to Christ, we cling to the One, “In Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:3), the One in Whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (2:9).
Paul tells us the Head is that “from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God” (2:19).
God the Son supplies His Body, the church, with spiritual nourishment, life, and strength. He knits together and nourishes the bonds between members of the whole Body. Paul’s mention of “the joints and bands [ligaments]” demonstrates the connection of the members of the Body to one another and how the members work and move together in coordination and depend on each other.
It is through Christ that the Body “increaseth with the increase of God.” Spiritual nourishment and growth come to the church, not from the law, but from our Head and our connection with Him. As we hold fast to Him, and the closer our walk and relationship is with Him by faith, the greater will be our increase and growth in becoming more like Him.
Elementary, My Dear Watson
“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
“(Touch not; taste not; handle not;
“Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
“Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh” (Col. 2:20-23).
“Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world,” being “dead with Christ” refers to our spiritual baptism (Rom. 6:3-4) and that we were crucified with Christ (Gal. 2:20), while “the rudiments of the world” refers to the law of Moses. In Galatians 4:3, Paul wrote, “Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.” The word “elements” in Galatians and “rudiments” in Colossians 2:20 are translated from the same Greek word, and both usages refer to rule- and ceremony-based religion. The Mosaic law is definitely that and is rudimentary and elementary compared to living for Christ under grace.
The law governed Israel through a system of commandments, rules, rituals, observances, and requirements that she attempted to keep through her own efforts but continually failed to uphold. Under grace, our lives are governed by grace, faith in Christ, our freedom in Him, the internal strength of the Holy Spirit, and the written Word of God, rightly divided.
In Colossians 2:20, Paul reminds the church that, when we died with Christ, we died to the law (Rom. 7:4,6). We are free from the law, and that being so, Paul wondered, “why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances…?” To submit to the ordinances of the law does not sanctify our Christian lives under grace; Christ does that. We should not go back to the law when we are dead to it in Christ. Holding fast to Christ in our relationship with Him is how we increase and grow spiritually under grace.
Speaking of the ordinances, Paul wrote that these ordinances of the law say, “Touch not; taste not; handle not” (Col. 2:21). This sounds like a parent’s refrain with young children! Don’t touch that. Don’t put that in our mouth. Don’t handle that. “Do not, do not, do not” is the refrain of legalism.
It’s been said well that “The essence of legalism is trusting in the religious activity rather than trusting in God. It is putting our confidence in a practice rather than in a Person. And without fail, this will lead us to love the practice more than the Person.”2 This is the true danger of legalism.
Some of the Colossian believers were following the law and applying its restrictions to what they should eat, touch, or handle. But Paul said that these things, under grace, “all are to perish with the using,” or they fail in their purpose, even as we try to comply with them. To deny ourselves things in accordance with the law does not restrain the flesh and does not have the value it might appear to have for one’s sanctification.
The Colossians were being persuaded to subject themselves to the ordinances of the law “after the commandments and doctrines of men.” Bad teaching was leading the Colossians astray, causing them to follow the law when they were under grace. To live by the law is to operate completely contrary to the grace of God that is the rule of life during the dispensation of grace.
There is a lot of bad teaching today that puts people under the law, but we need to take our stand on the fact that, having died with Christ, we are free from the law. And in our freedom from the law, we are to live by grace through faith in Christ.
Paul then gave a strong indictment against legalism in verse 23: “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.”
As to one who tries to follow the law and practices rigid self-denial, Paul wrote, “Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom,” meaning that they have an outward appearance of wisdom and spirituality. But it is just the appearance of wisdom and not real wisdom. They do this through their “will worship.” Will worship is self-imposed, fleshly worship and the attempt to serve God through one’s own willpower in an attempt to keep the law. It is not worship of God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24), according to God’s truth for today.
In their “will worship” and in the “neglecting of the body,” they have “a shew of…humility.” People who deny themselves in this way give the appearance that they are humble and pious. They have a show of humility, but it is only a show. It is not genuine humility. It’s pride.
Lastly, Paul says that all of this is “not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh,” meaning that it has no value in truly controlling the flesh. Believers often try to be spiritual or to appear spiritual through outward things. The thought process is that the more they deny themselves, the more they impress God and other believers.
However, spiritual growth and maturity come through faith in Christ and living by grace in the power of the Spirit. As we keep our focus on the Lord and the grace of God, the ways of legalism fall away. Our freedom under grace today is about living in the glory and blessing of our personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
1. David Dykes, “When I Was Growing Up In L.A. (Lower Alabama) We…” Sermon Central, October 9, 2006, https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/29263/when-i-was-growing-up-in-l-a-loweralabama-we-by-david-dykes.
2. Jack Deer, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1993), p. 151. https://sermons.logos.com/