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As I’ve mentioned several times over the first few weeks of our study of the book of Colossians, this letter is about Jesus, plain and simple. Paul was writing to a congregation, a group of Christians, who were, many unknowingly, being swayed away from Jesus Christ. They were being swayed by a false teaching that still claimed Jesus, but had all of these other rules that went along with it. They were teaching that there were all these other things that you had to do in order to have true saving faith. And on the surface, we may say that that’s not too dissimilar from what many Christians today think, even the seemingly theologically sound ones. However, I would remind you that there is a great difference between doing things in response to God’s work in your heart and doing things in order to earn God’s work in your heart. On the outside they may look the same, but it’s the heart, the mindset, the motives that matters. When the Old Testament prophet Samuel was looking at the sons of Jesse to see which one was to be anointed as Israel’s king, the Lord told him, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature…for the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
So, Paul was having to remind these Christians that our salvation isn’t based upon the outward things, but upon what’s inward. It’s based upon our faith in Jesus Christ, which itself is a work of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of believers. Paul never condemns doing good works, but he’s trying to make sure that these people know that their good works are the responses to salvation and not the reasons for it. And honestly, that’s a very freeing reality isn’t it? And that’s exactly what Paul gives to them (and us) in our text for today. He gives us a vision of the freedom that we have in Christ Jesus and the many different avenues that that freedom takes. Now, don’t think that our freedom in Christ is limited to only these areas that Paul discusses, but what he’s doing is showing us that it’s a complete freedom, in need of nothing else added to it. The work of God is both complete in its atonement for our sins and our being sanctified and brought to saving faith.
The first freedom that we have is from enticing words and vain philosophies. Paul mentions things like philosophy, deceit, human tradition, and elemental spirits. And there’s a bit of a wide range of interpretation out there when it comes to what exactly Paul has in minds with each of these designations, but what’s important isn’t really what’s on this list, but what follows this list. Paul says that they’ve been following these things and been paying attention to all of these things and not living according to Christ. I love what the Apostle Paul says here: “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” In other words, he’s calling for anyone who would be more captivated by anything other than Christ to wake up. You don’t need anything other than Christ to be saved because Christ is the “fullness” of God. And of this fullness of God, John Calvin writes, “that God is wholly found in him, so that he who is not contented with Christ alone, desires something better and more excellent than God. The sum is this, that God has manifested himself to us fully and perfectly in Christ.” Through this fullness, we have great freedom in Christ from the things of this world.
Paul also says that we have a freedom in Christ that frees us from the judgement of others. There’s this section here where Paul talks about circumcision and uncircumcision and what it all means in the grand scheme of things. Now, sometimes we will see people interpret this as a debate similar to that which we find in Galatians over whether or not circumcision is still required of God’s people (which it’s not). However (and I’ll come back to a few things), look at what Paul says after talking about all of this. Beginning in verse 16 we find, “Therefore, let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Again, he’s saying that while there was once a distinction to be found between circumcision and uncircumcision, Christ has changed that. It’s no longer the outer circumcision that matters but the inward one carried out by the Holy Spirit. Paul knows that it’s hard for these folks to shed the notions of asceticism and pragmatism, but they have to. And the reason why they have to do away with such thinking is because, in Paul’s words, God set all of this aside by “nailing it to the cross.” Now, even though the phrase “canceling the record of debt” is used here, I don’t want anyone to think that God just absolved or waived the debt. This is a legal and financial usage of the term canceling. It’s not just canceling, but canceling the record. In other words, it means that the debt has been paid and the record restored. And because of this payment on the part of Christ, because of this restoration of our standing with God, we have a great freedom to not be constrained by the legalistic tendencies that so plagued the early church, and in some cases still do.
A third way that Christ gives us freedom comes in the area of worship. Now, let me be very clear here, I’m not talking about some biblical justification for doing whatever we want to and substituting it for worship. Nor does our text say that there is no proper way to worship God. I think that Scripture is very clear that there is a call for corporate worship, on the Sabbath, with such elements as praying, singing spiritual songs, giving alms, and the reading and proclaiming of God’s Word. What our text actually does is simplify worship. “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels…and not hold fast to the Head.” Basically, Paul is saying that any worship that doesn’t revolve around Christ or any worship that isn’t solely devoted to Christ isn’t worship at all and it’s not worth your time and energy. Asceticism (giving up earthly pleasures to a severe extreme) and worshiping angels (creatures lesser than Christ) isn’t really worship, because it’s not about Jesus. It’s nothing short of foolishness to worship something lesser than the only One who is worthy of worship. When I was a little kid, I would spend a lot of time playing card games and board games at my grandmother’s house. Now, we played by the rules, except for when my youngest cousin who was too little to understand was over there. However, she wanted to join in, so I was forced to play, even though she was just making up rules as she went along. And it used to drive me insane, because it was foolish for us to even be playing the game when we weren’t really going by any rules. It’s not monopoly if you’re allowed to just keep taking money from the bank or skip a payment just because. I sense the same frustration in Paul here. “Yes, I know that they are claiming Jesus, but it’s not really worshiping and following Christ if you’re worrying so much about earthly things and worshiping angels.” Paul is simply trying to tell them that true worship is about God alone and the revelation that we have of Him in Christ Jesus.
So, we’re free from earthly teachings, judgements of others, and empty worship. That’s what Paul’s given us thus far. And we could say that this fourth freedom that Paul gives is either a different aspect of freedom or a summation of all that he’s given us thus far. However we want to classify it, it is a freedom from the doctrines of men. Now, what do I mean when I say the doctrines of men? Do I mean things like the Trinity? Do I mean everything that is termed or coined by mankind? No! The Trinity, while never specifically called that in Scripture, isn’t a doctrine of man. The Trinity is a doctrine, a teaching, from God. What I’m talking about here are the things that Paul mentions: no touching, no tasting, and all of the other regulations that many errant religious leaders tried to place on the people of God. They may have seemed on a surface level to be honoring God, but we see clearly from Jesus’ earthly ministry that many of them miss the mark entirely with what God truly wants from us and how He actually wants us to live. We need not look any further than the numerous erroneous views of the Sabbath that existed amongst the Pharisees and the scribes and the other religious leaders for an example of this.
I love how Paul attacks such an understanding of God’s commands for us. He says, “These 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 indulgences of the flesh.” In other words, “sure, they may look like they’re doing something, but they’re pretty much worthless.” And I think that this designation of “self-made religion” is a fascinating one for us today. You see, we live in a world of self-made religions. We might even be tempted to say that we live in a time of self-made Christianities, although I think that it stops being Christianity by the mere fact that it is self-made. What I’m talking about is that audible dart that is someone saying, “Well, my Jesus” or “the God I worship.” I’m sure that many of you in here have heard those words before. They’re usually followed by someone telling us how they have taken the God of Scripture or Jesus as he’s revealed in the gospel accounts and reworked them so that they fit into the worldview of that person. In other words, they are the ones who choose which parts of God’s will are applicable and which parts aren’t based on how they view the world. You see, these folks are doing the same thing that the false group in Colossae was doing. Sure, they were still claiming Jesus, but they had so badly strayed from who Jesus really is that it really wasn’t even in the same stratosphere as true Christian worship and discipleship.
And the most terrifying thing of all is that when it isn’t true Christian faith, then it is “of no value in stopping the indulgences of the flesh.” It’s of no value for defeating sin. It’s of no value in cleansing us of our sins. And if it can’t cleanse us of our sins then we have no hope of salvation. A religion that is man-made is of no value regardless of how appealing or exciting it may seem. Go build a mansion on eroding soil or shifting sands or marshland. They may look great, but without the firm foundation that is required then all of these houses are virtually worthless. Any faith, any system of belief that isn’t built upon Jesus is worthless from a salvation perspective. And the only way in which we build our faiths, our lives, upon Jesus is by his calling us to be in submission to him. We hear his voice, and it stirs within us this want, this desire to serve him and love him and rejoice in His holy name. And so we submit, we set aside our own wants and our own desires and the things that we hold dear and we seek first the righteousness of the kingdom of God and not the righteousness of self. That’s the only way that we can overcome sin in our lives. It’s not by living perfect lives or denying ourselves everything or anything that we really control. It’s about Jesus. It’s about his death being sufficient to save us from our sins. It’s about the freedom that we have in the death and resurrection of Christ. We have died with Christ. Through saving faith we are raised up again with Him and are made heirs with Christ Jesus.
Again, don’t hear me and think that I’m saying that it doesn’t matter what we do. In fact, it matters very much what we do because it is a reflection of our hearts. If I were to ask one of my kids if they understand that running isn’t allowed in the house and they tell me that they understand but they leave the conversation by sprinting away then I know that they don’t get it. I know that while on the outside they say something, their mindset really hasn’t changed. And so I don’t want you to understand freedom in terms of some ability to do whatever we want to do and consider yourself saved. Instead, I want all of us to see the freedom that it is to be found in Jesus; to no longer be under the dominion of sin and death. We are free in Christ Jesus. However, that freedom (as it usually does) came at a great price, and that price was the life of the Son. May we all remember each and every moment of every day that the freedom that we have in Jesus was purchased for us at a great price. It’ all because of the Father’s love for His children, and our response ought to be joy, adoration, obedience, and a stirring in our hearts to share this news with everyone else.
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