This is Part 10 of a 15 part Bible Study on the book of Colossians.
Compiled and written by Norma Becker – a true woman of God and God’s word.
FREE – Printable e-book version
Part 10- Christ’s Sufficiency
“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).
The false teachers’ preaching was full of theological errors. They were also preaching the error of legalism. So, the idea of Christ’s sufficiency is explained further by mentioning three things Christ has done for us:
Spiritual Circumcision
“In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ” (Colossians 2:11).
In Paul’s time there was the problem that many of the Christian Jews still thought that Gentile converts had to become Jews if they were to be counted as Christians – that is, they had to follow the Jewish laws because it was a commandment to Abraham and his descendants. This ceremony showed that they belonged to the chosen race. They had a special relationship to God.
Here in Colossians, the rite of circumcision is used as an illustration of spiritual truth. In Abraham’s time, it was a physical operation that was performed with human hands. Here it is salvation that is an operation of God on hearts of believers. It takes a heart that has repented and cuts away the old life that does things on their own strength. In Him, in union with Christ, believers have true circumcision – that is, they have found in Him the reality symbolized by Mosaic circumcision. Again, the Old Testament symbolizes things that would be explained in the New Testament.
Baptism
Verse 12 goes on to talk of baptism. When you receive Christ as Savior, you receive, or are baptized, with the Holy Spirit. Then there is a believer’s baptism that is just a picture of salvation. In the New Testament, water baptism followed conversion; it was not a means of salvation but a picture of death to the old way of life, burial with Christ, and coming out of the water depicts the resurrection by the power of God to live a new life.
“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 2:38).
“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4).
Just as circumcision was symbolized in the Old Testament, so was water baptism.
“…God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:20-21).
This was during a time when the world was so corrupt that God was sorry He created man. He sent a flood to destroy everyone but Noah and his family. This “going through water” was a symbol of leaving the old life and starting a new life.
Cancel the Written Code
Just as when the Israelites gathered to finally cross the Jordan into the new land – the Promised Land – they crossed water in going from their old life of to their new life of promise.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).
Before we accepted Christ, we had our backs turned to God. Even at our best, we did not love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. We were spiritually dead and separated from God because of our sin – our sin of wanting to do things our own way.
Now we are spiritually alive with Christ. This new life came when God forgave all our sins. Verses to back this up are:
“As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:1-4).
“You Gentiles by birth – called the uncircumcised by the Jews, who call themselves the circumcised (which refers to what men do to their bodies) -remember what you were in the past. At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God’s chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God’s promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God. But now, in union with Christ Jesus, you who used to be far away have been brought near by the sacrificial death of Christ” (Ephesians 2:11-13).
Colossians 2:14 goes on:
“…having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.”
This written code was the legal demands of the Old Testament law.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather through the law we become conscious of sin” (Romans 1:20).
In the Old Testament, the people knew that they could not keep all the laws that God had set out; because of the laws, they just knew where they had failed. That is why God had the provision of the Day of Atonement where once a year the people would offer a special sacrifice for their own sins and also the high priest would offer a sacrifice for the sins of the people and the nation.
In New Testament time, when a person was crucified, they would nail a plaque to the cross that said what that person was accused of. Christ’s plaque said, “King of the Jews”; the ones over the two others probably said, “thief” or whatever else they were accused of.
This written code with its regulations was like a certificate of debt or a bill of indebtedness that we all have. As we read on a lot of billboards, “The wages of sin is death.” (spiritual death) There is no way we can buy or work our way out of this indebtedness. So Christ took this bill of indebtedness and nailed it to his cross. So instead of, “King of the Jews,” His plaque should have read, “Sins of the whole world.” He was saying that all of our sins were now His sins and He would die for them. Now the debt was paid.
Selfish Desires
When I talk of the sins of mankind, or our sins, I am referring to our self-centeredness; our wanting to run our lives our way and not God’s way; our having our backs turned from God; not loving Him with all our heart, soul and mind.
Christ’s death completely satisfies God’s demand that spiritual death is the result of sin. When God forgives our sins, our record is wiped clean. This is also talked about in Romans 3:21-25:
“But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”
Romans 3:19-20 says:
“Now we know that everything in the Law applies to those who live under the Law, in order to stop all human excuses and bring the whole world under God’s judgement. For no one is put right in God’s sight by doing what the Law requires….”
Colossians 2:13-14:
Let’s look at the Living Bible for a translation that is a little easier to understand:
“You were dead in sins, and your sinful desires were not yet cut away. Then he gave you a share in the very life of Christ, for he forgave all your sins, and blotted out the charges proved against you, the list of his commandments which you had not obeyed. He took this list of sins and destroyed it by nailing it to Christ’s cross.”
“So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law” (Galatians 3:24-25).
Colossians 2:15:
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
By fulfilling the demands of the Law, Christ disarmed the demonic powers and authorities that He mentioned in Colossians 2:10 that says:
“and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.”
Power of the Resurrection
Christ’s death was a public happening and because of His death and resurrection, He has conquered the power of Satan. Similar to the conquerors in olden times, who chained their prisoners to the chariot and made them run alongside in a public parade, so too Christ has doomed Satan publicly.
Legal Demands
Verse 16:
Now Paul is saying believers are delivered from these evil powers that are behind the following legalistic rules about foods and festivals.
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Colossians 2:16).
There were some in the church at Colossae, even as there are some today who attempted to set themselves up as judge over those who did not follow certain laws that dealt with food and observance of certain religious days.
Paul says Christ, by His death, has done away with these legal demands; to look to them is to prefer the shadow to the real thing – that is Christ. The false teachers were even saying that salvation was gained by keeping laws and rituals and that the Old Testament laws are for true Christians.
Shadow of Something More Permanent
The Levitical law did prohibit certain foods and also required observance of certain days and festivals, but they only served as a passing type or shadow of something more permanent to come.
The ceremonial laws of the Old Testament are referred to here as “shadows” because they symbolically depicted the coming of Christ; therefore, the law only had significance in relationship to Christ to whom they pointed.
When God brought the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt and led them to Mt. Sinai, (this was the start of the Jewish nation) He had this all planned from the time He chose Abraham down by the Persian Gulf and said, “Follow me.” From there He was dealing with one family up through Abraham’s son Isaac, and then his son Jacob, and then Jacob’s 12 sons. It was this group of people that were in slavery in Egypt. After He led them out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai, it was here that He gave the people all the laws that would set them apart from all the people in the surrounding nations.
Why He chose Abraham and his descendants, I don’t know. All I know is that he was a righteous man. But God wanted a people through whom the Messiah would come, through whom His word would be passed down, and He wanted a group of people that would show the surrounding nations what God could and would do for a people that would obey Him and also what He could and would do to a people who disobeyed Him.
The feasts and festivals that God outlined for His people to observe were only shadows or types of the Messiah that was promised.
Christ Replaces the Shadow
Now Christ is revealed and the shadow is gone. Instead of outward observance, believers should focus on faith in Christ alone; however, our worship, traditions and ceremonies can help bring us close to God, so we should never criticize fellow Christians whose traditions and ceremonies differ from ours.
More important than how we worship, is who we worship. We need to focus on the triune God. We must have unity in the essentials, and charity and love in the non-essentials.
Regarding some of the food restrictions, for today we have to look at the New Testament. Acts 10:9-15 describes a vision that Peter had:
“He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. Then a voice told him, ‘Get up, Peter, kill and eat.’ ‘Surely not, Lord,’ Peter replied. ‘I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.’ The voice spoke to him a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”
Food Sacrificed to Idols
In 1 Timothy, Paul is talking about those who say we need to abstain from certain foods:
“For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving” (1 Timothy 4:4).
However, there are times when we might give up eating or drinking something. In the New Testament time, there was a problem of eating meat that had been offered to idols. The would offer meat to an idol in one of their ceremonies and then would offer it for sale in the market. Believers were having a hard time knowing whether they should buy this meat or not.
In Romans and Corinthians Paul talks about the fact that there is freedom in Christ; however, Romans 14:13-21 says:
“Make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean. If your bother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”
1 Corinthians 10:23-33:
“Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible – but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.
Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, ‘This has been offered in sacrifice,’ then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience sake — the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?
So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God — even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.”
Everything belongs to God, and He has given us all things to enjoy. We are to do all things for God’s glory, even our eating and drinking. Nothing we do should cause another to stumble. We do what is best for others, so that they might be saved.
We should keep this as a guiding principle: “Is this action glorifying God?” or “How can I honor God through this action?”
New Moon Festivals and the Sabbath
“What about Sunday?” Does that mean I don’t have to go to church? The Jewish Sabbath was given to the Jews as an obligation; it was one of the laws that set them apart from the nations. The Sabbath command is the only one of the l0 commandments not repeated in the New Testament.
However, Christians celebrate Sunday as a time of worship because it is the day Christ arose from the dead. The early believers met on Sunday, the first day of the week. Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit indwelt believers, was on the first day of the week. Offerings for the Lord’s work were to be gathered on the first day.
We need one day to worship God and to build up our faith and Hebrews 10:25 says:
“Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage on another….”
The local church is where we are discipled. Observing Sunday is not a way to salvation, it is a way of growing as a Christian.
Pride and False Humility
Then he goes on in verses 18-19:
“Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow” (Colossians 2:18-19).
The false teachers were claiming that God was far away and could only be approached through various levels of angels. They were proud of their humility. This false humility brought attention and praise to themselves rather than to God.
These people had a self-made religion. At that time in Colossae, the false teachers were trying to deny the significance, or reality of the body, by saying that it was evil, but their desire for attention from others showed that, in reality, they were quite obsessed with their physical self.
If certain individuals – whether pastor, priest, author or lay person – set themselves up as spiritually elite by claiming to have a special access to God because of visions, revelations, prophecies etc, they are putting themselves above others who cannot make such claims.
At Colossae, as sometimes happens now, this took the form of judgment or condemnation. Paul says don’t allow yourselves to be condemned by these people. If you hear someone who seems to delight in or be proud of their humility, you can be sure they are all puffed up by their own human way of thinking.
Have you heard of the fellow who wrote the book, Humility and How I Obtained It ? If you truly have it, you don’t realize it.
He says that these people are relying on their own human way of thinking and have stopped holding on to Christ. True humility means seeing ourselves as we really are from God’s perspective and then acting accordingly.
As in verse 19, this type of person has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Man-Made Rules
These false teachers were not connected to Christ, the head of the body of believers. Christ is the true head of the church – and us – we are the ligaments and sinews – and under His control the entire body is nourished and held together – in unity – and that is the way God wants it to grow.
“Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-24).
Since you have died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, again the depiction of death to the old way of life or to the supernatural powers of evil in the world, why are you still being guided by man-made rules and ideas?
These rules were man-made – sometimes they are based on God’s laws but taken out of context. We cannot reach up to God by following rules of self-denial, by observing rituals or even by “practicing religion.” Paul isn’t saying that all rules are bad – God’s rules are fair and just – but not even keeping God’s rules and laws will earn us salvation.
Man-made religions focus on human effort, but Christianity focuses on Christ’s work.
Verse 23:
“Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
To the Colossians, the discipline demanded by the false teachers seemed good, and legalism still attracts many people today. Following a long list of religious rules requires strong self-discipline and can make a person feel and appear moral. But religious rules can’t change a person’s heart.
Apparently many in Colossae were putting up a good front of being spiritual by self-imposed worship, their false humility, and harsh treatment of the body but it didn’t keep them from giving in to their sensual desires. We can see that still happening today.
Christ also talked to the Pharisees about this same thing:
“You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men” (Matthew 15:7-9).
Christian freedom doesn’t come from restraining desires by rules and regulations but from the death of wrong desires and bringing to life good desires by means of Christ being in you and you being in Christ.
Christianity is not attained by what we do, but by what Christ has done.
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