Year Two, November 5

You Have Been Filled In Him1

The portion of scripture that we are about to read should be well understood and taken very seriously. It pleads for the purity and simplicity of the Christian faith and inflicts heavy blows on those various human additions that are wrongly tagged on to the simple gospel. We need to stand fast to the plain, simple gospel of Jesus; because to adorn it is to deface it, and to add to it is to dishonor it.

  

Colossians 2:8-23

8See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (There are those who pretend to be wise and want to improve the gospel. They might as well dream of adding brightness to the sun or fullness to the ocean.) 9For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, (What more can be needed? How can his gospel be improved?) 10and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.

We have all things in Jesus. We have no use for Jewish rites or the traditions added by the Roman Catholic Church and others. We are dead and buried to all of these. Our baptism teaches us that. By faith we are risen from all dead ceremonies into a new spiritual life, a life that does not need human ceremonies to support it. We should beware of those showy rites that many celebrate, but which deface the gospel of Jesus.

13And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Christ on the cross has conquered sin and ended the ceremonial law. Let us not return to the bondage from which his death has set us free.

16Therefore 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. 17These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (We are free from all human laws that deal with holy days and fasts and ceremonies. They are mere shadows while Jesus is the true reality.) 18Let 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, 19and 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. (How plainly the angel worship of the church of Rome is condemned here! What have we to do with adoring angels when we are already members of a body that has a divine head?)

20If 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?

Why tie yourselves with the world’s commands when you are dead  to all of them in Christ? Jesus gives you liberty, why put a new yoke on your shoulders?

23These 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. (Human rules about celebrating different days and avoiding certain kinds of food appear to be wise and to promote humility. They may seem to work, but in reality they fail to do so. Christians are under the law of liberty and should refuse to be enslaved by man-made rules. We have only one Master and that is Christ. It is enough for us to obey his will and hold on to the liberty that he has so dearly purchased for us and so graciously given to us.)

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¹ Colossians 2:10