The Prison Epistles
Sermon Number Thirty-Five
Details of the False Teaching (part 1)
Colossians 2:16-23
January 15th, 2006
Jim Bordwine, ThD

Introduction

Having been a pastor for more than a few years now, I have been able to observe various trends or tendencies among Christians. I have in mind characteristics that hold true regardless of various factors, such as background and denominational affiliation. These traits are, I believe, a result of our fallen natures and that's why they can be universally observed in the Church of Christ. Two of the most obvious tendencies that I've seen displayed in believers over the years are related. I'm referring to what seems to be most difficult for Christians to do when it comes to their relationship with Christ and living the life of faith and what seems to be easiest for Christians to do when it comes to their relationship with Christ and living the life of faith.

The most difficult thing for us to do is to live out our days in the freedom that belongs to us in Christ without feeling as if we owe something to God. The easiest thing for us to do is submit ourselves to lists, lists that tell us what is advisable and what is not advisable, what is helpful and what is not helpful; by living according to a formula, we make some progress in satisfying that nagging sensation in our souls that we must do something for God in exchange for our salvation. Some Christians struggle to realize and live according to the freedom given to them in Christ; they have difficulty realizing that salvation is a gift, not something given to us that places us in obligation to God. Consequently, they remain bound, to a degree, by man-made rules and regulations. There is something about our fallen natures--even as we are being sanctified--that drives us to want lists or formulas by which we live our lives.

In our recent study in Paul's letter to the Colossians, he has emphasized strongly the full sufficiency of what Christ has done for us. There is no need for anything on our part to complete or enhance or make more fruitful what Jesus did on the cross. We cannot improve our standing before God by adding to what the Savior supplied. The Colossians, however, were being told something else. They were being told by certain opponents of Paul that they needed to do more than simply believe in the finished work of Christ. They were being told they must add some of their own efforts to what He provided. In that way, they were advised, they could be sure to please God.

We know that Paul has spoken several times about the sufficiency of Christ's work. We know that he has, consequently, condemned any view that would alter the notion that faith and faith alone in the finished work of Christ saves the sinner. Up to this point, Paul hasn't given us the details of just what the false teachers were advocating. Now, the apostle provides a fuller explanation of the false teaching taking place in this congregation.

Basically, the false teaching troubling the saints in Colossae can be divided into two categories. The people were being told that they should order their lives according to several symbolic practices; and they were being told that they should have regard for man-made rules and regulations. All of this was designed, the false teachers apparently claimed, for the spiritual good and enrichment of the Colossian believers. Paul presents a different opinion.

Here is our text:

Col. 2:16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. 20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, 21 "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!" 22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)-- in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? 23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

01. Symbols instead of substance (vv. 16-19)

From the beginning, our Creator has used symbols to communicate to us aspects of truth. There were trees in the Garden, animal skins provided by God as a covering for Adam and Eve after their rebellion, a gate to the Garden guarded by angels after the fall--all of which pointed to some important spiritual truth about the relationship between God and man. In Noah's day, there was the rainbow, among other symbols, that represented a promise from God. In Abraham's time, God ordered the highly significant practice of circumcision. And who can forget that disturbing sight of Abraham poised over his son Isaac with a knife about to be plunged into the boy's chest when an animal suddenly was noticed in the brush and became a substitute for Isaac. You cannot miss in that scene, of course, a picture of the coming substitutionary work of the Savior.

The list of the symbols God has used to speak to us increases dramatically as Israel is brought out of Egypt and established as a people before Jehovah--the slaughtered lamb at Passover, the parting of the Red Sea, the water from the rock in the wilderness, the manna from heaven, the divinely-specified garments of Aaron, the God-given design of the tabernacle, and the many other rituals and observances that were part of Israel's existence. God's people were taught to learn from symbols, from types, and from things that served as pictures of what was to come. All these symbols had a proper and necessary place in revelation. Most of them served to point toward the coming of a Savior. And as the writer of Hebrews makes abundantly clear, once that Savior came, the symbols, the types, and the rituals that depicted His work ceased to be relevant.

Once the substance was here, the symbols were no longer needed and had served their purpose. But what if someone claimed that the types and symbols that pointed to an event still had to be honored and used just as always even after that event took place? That is not logical. When the reality comes, the pictures are no longer necessary. In fact, to continue employing types and symbols, to continue subjecting yourself to the shadow of what has already arrived is to show disregard for the reality itself. Symbols and types serve a purpose, but that purpose is done when the thing toward which they point occurs.

Think of a man who is in love and is separated from his bride-to-be by some great distance. All he has is her picture. So he looks at that picture and anticipates the day when they will be together. Finally, that day arrives and they are married. Now imagine someone saying to the new husband: "You know, if you really want to enjoy your relationship with your new wife, you need to keep staring longingly at her picture like you used to; you need to incorporate that picture into your relationship and give it a place of prominence. You should set aside some time every day just to sit and gaze at your wife's picture." Wouldn't that be ridiculous? Wouldn't that be a silly substitute for his wife who is there in the flesh? That picture served a purpose for a while. It kept the man in a state of anticipation and joy. It comforted him as he waited for the day of marriage. But how foolish he would be to continue adoring that picture after the marriage!

On a much more serious note, that is what the Colossians were being told to do in regard to some of the symbols and types that had been part of God's revelation leading up to the coming of the Savior. In other places in the New Testament, we read of those who wanted converts to the faith to practice circumcision. We know the apostle struck down that notion. Here in this church, even more was being demanded by Paul's opponents. Not only were they saying that circumcision was necessary to be in God's favor (as is implied in vv. 11 and 12), but they were trying to hold these Christians accountable to the Old Testament dietary laws and certain of the festivals and other special days that were part of the life of the Jews.

All those things stood for certain spiritual truths, as I said before, but now they had been fulfilled in Christ and Paul would not stand for believers being told that they must keep those laws and rituals and holy days in addition to receiving the gospel. To do so, as I stated earlier, would be to show disrespect and disregard for the reality that now had appeared; those many symbols had served their purpose and observing them was not necessary with the arrival of the One toward whom they pointed. It was wrong to feel obligated to keep what had been an obligation before Jesus came. The obligation ceased with His arrival.

Notice how Paul beings this section: "therefore." (v. 16) He is setting forth some conclusions based on what he just wrote. The apostle just described the nailing of our guilt to the cross in the Person of Christ; he just spoke of the Savior gaining victory over all our foes and over all rulers and authorities, the implication being that we are no longer bound by such things if we are in Christ. But that is precisely what the false teachers were advocating: "You remain obligated to those requirements that were in place before Jesus came. You must continue to keep those laws and you must continue to observe those festivals and special days."

In other words, they were flatly contradicting what Paul had taught the Colossians about their freedom in Christ. He taught them that faith in the finished work of Christ was all they needed. He taught them that those rituals and laws that once served to guide the people of God to the Christ were no longer relevant because they had accomplished their purpose and Christ the reality had arrived.

Nevertheless, false teachers were saying to the Colossians: "You must obey the dietary laws and you must keep all the festivals and you must observe those special days." They said this as if God still demanded conformity to those things that were meant to guide the faithful to the Savior even though the Savior had come! This was an absurd notion, but absurd or not, it was causing turmoil in this church. And remember that what we talking about here is the issue of justification, the issue of how a sinner is initially reconciled to God. This crucial matter, then, is the heart of the gospel. At stake is the purity of the message being proclaimed by Paul and the other apostles.

Paul, consequently, says "no one is to act as your judge in regard" to all those matters. The word translated "judge" is important. It is a term (krino) that means "to select, to approve, to be of an opinion, to determine, to resolve, to make a pronouncement regarding right and wrong." You get the idea conveyed by this word. It refers to giving your opinion or stating what you believe is right and wrong. There are many places where this word is used in a positive sense, but this is not one of them. Paul is telling the Colossians that they were not to submit to the opinions of others--it's that simple.

Peer pressure can be a powerful thing, especially when it is being exerted with some kind of supposed authority or with an air of superiority. Otherwise stable Christians can be manipulated into thinking that there is something wrong with their beliefs or practices just by being exposed to an over-bearing person who thinks that his perspective is correct and must be adopted by others. If he is wrong in what he believes, the appropriate response is not complicated. You don't have to get upset, you don't have to enter into debate, you don't have to look for some compromise. If he is wrong, you just don't listen; you don't allow an erroneous opinion to govern your life.

That was the case there in the Colossian church. Paul's opponents were, in a word, wrong. They were not rightly representing the gospel. So those who had believed the gospel did not need to spend any time at all wrestling with those false teachers. The nature of the gospel precluded the validity of what they claimed. The Savior presented in the gospel is complete and eating some food or not eating it, drinking some beverage or not drinking it, celebrating a feast or a new moon or a Sabbath day or not celebrating such occasions had nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with the efficacy of what the Savior did on the cross. Their standing before God was not enhanced or diminished depending on which food and drink they consumed or which religious day they decided to observe. In Christ, they were secure.

Those who were claiming otherwise were to be dismissed immediately. They were, as Paul goes on to declare, concerned with things that were "a mere shadow" of what was to come (v. 17). The substance, or that toward which all those laws and rituals pointed, is Jesus Christ. He's here and we don't need to do things that were perfectly appropriate before He arrived. Those practices have nothing to do with our faith.

I'll pause here to say a few words about keeping the Sabbath day. We are part of a tradition that puts much emphasis on keeping the Sabbath or the Lord's Day as it is more properly called. So we might wonder if Paul is saying that such observance is unnecessary. First, understand that there were other days besides Saturday under the old covenant that were referred to as "Sabbaths." Paul may not be talking about the weekly Sabbath, but of other days that specifically pointed to some anticipated aspect of the Messiah's ministry. Second, even if he is speaking of the weekly Sabbath under the old covenant, his words are still true and they do not impact our emphasis on Sabbath-keeping.

The false teachers were saying that such observances were necessary for justification before God. Our keeping of the weekly Sabbath or Lord's Day is not part of our efforts to win God's favor for justification. Our Sabbath-keeping is based on the Fourth Commandment where God instructs His people to set aside one day in seven for worship and rest, and on the authoritative example of the apostles who led the Church to fulfill this obligation on the first day of the week in recognition of Christ's resurrection. So, those who point to this verse to support their idea that Christians have no obligation to meet on Sunday are flatly wrong. They aren't taking into account the context of this statement and are wrongly suggesting that keeping the Lord's Day today is an effort to win justification before God.

We continue to find an application for the Fourth Commandment, just as we do for the other Nine Commandments. Being in Christ doesn't mean we can now worship idols, or disobey parents, or murder people, or commit adultery, or steal. Likewise, being in Christ does not negate our obligation to set aside one day in seven as God commanded and as was reinforced by apostolic example.

Now, getting back to Paul, he speaks even more strongly about what was going on in this church: "Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by ..." and he then gives us a list of what the false teachers were promoting and what they were claiming had to be done in order to benefit fully from the work of Christ and be found in a favorable position before God (v. 18). Paul uses a word (katabrabeuo), translated "defrauding," which tells us a lot about the atmosphere in this church. This word describes someone who puts himself in a position to be an umpire in regard to someone else. This wasn't a mutually beneficial theological debate going on in Colossae. It wasn't a situation where healthy discussion was going on and everyone's opinion was being given consideration. No, this was a situation in which some set themselves up as judges over everyone else and were condemning all views other than their own. They were lording it over these people and demanding compliance with threats of spiritual ruin against those who would not capitulate.

This was one of those circumstances I mentioned earlier where those who had believed the preaching of Paul were being brow-beaten and intimidated by others who stood before them as if they had authority to contradict Paul and the other apostles and require of these folks what Paul said was unnecessary. As long as this was going on, the Christians in this church were being denied what was theirs in Christ, which was freedom from having to do anything to impress God and win His favor. They were being denied the joy of living in the liberty He purchased for them by His own blood. They were being burdened with the thought that they must offer something to God in exchange for His saving assistance. They were hearing just the opposite of what Paul told them and just the opposite of what the gospel is about. Paul is up in arms for good reason! God's way of salvation was being denied and the results, if this assault were allowed to continue, would be horrendous.

The Colossians did not need an "umpire" to tell them their faith was insufficient or tell them that the work of Christ all by itself was insufficient. They did not need anyone, especially someone steeped in arrogance and self-ascribed authority, which Paul's vocabulary indicates was the case here, telling them that when their guilt was nailed to the cross in the Person of Jesus Christ more remained to be done before God would accept them.

How were the false teachers defrauding the Colossians? Paul says they were telling the Colossians that they must practice "self-abasement." Please take note of this: every substitute for the gospel, every suggested enhancement for the gospel, always involves some aspect of the sinner's personal effort. And that's the case here. The word rendered "self-abasement" (tapeinophrosune) means "humbleness of mind." Now that doesn't sound like a bad thing, does it? Isn't it good to be humble before God? Yes, but pay attention to what Paul says. The false teachers were "delighting in self-abasement." Isn't that a contradiction? The word "delighting in" (thelo) means "to love something, to like to do something." How can you delight in being humble? How can you love your humility? These are contradictory concepts. What Paul is describing, of course, is taking pride in being humble! The false teachers urged the Colossians to practice humility and be proud that they were so humble! Clearly, this was the wrong approach to God.

Further, the false teachers maintained that angels were to be worshiped. Various explanations have been given regarding just what was being taught in the matter of angel worship. Some have suggested that the false teachers hoped to bolster their pretended piety by saying we are too lowly to approach God directly, but must approach him through angels, as it were. Just precisely what was being said doesn't really matter. In the book of Hebrews and in the book of the Revelation, we are told that Jesus Christ is superior to angels and only He is to receive our worship. Moreover, Paul already stated in this same epistle that Christ is superior to all creatures. Worship of Him was not to be supplemented with the worship of angels who were only God's messengers, not God's Son and our Savior. Again, clearly the worship of angels was not the avenue to God that He Himself revealed.

Next in Paul's list of the elements of the heresy in this church is "taking his stand on visions he has seen ..." Some Christians will believe just about anything if the person speaking insists that he has received a word from God or that God "laid it on my heart." The danger of such supposed communications from God is that there is no way to verify them. The false teachers were clever. They claimed to have had visions, presumably from God, in which, again presumably, they were given their present system of theology. But remember something Paul told another group of believers: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!" (Gal. 1:8, 9)

God will never give a vision that contradicts what He has revealed concerning the way of salvation--that it is by grace through faith and faith alone. The minute someone says a word in contradiction to that gospel--and it doesn't matter if he claims to have seen a vision or to have heard the voice of God--he is to be rejected as a false teacher and his words dismissed.

Paul describes the character of the false teacher well. He comes to town acting high and mighty, ascribing to himself authority, the foundation of which is in his own mind; and he starts acting like an umpire ruling against those who believe in salvation by grace through faith alone while elevating his own works-oriented opinion as if it is superior. And, claiming to have seen visions, which the average peon in the church has not seen, he struts around "inflated without cause by his fleshly mind" and he is not holding onto the only thing that really matters and the only thing that truly saves and the only thing that brings genuine growth and the only thing that supplies strength, which is Jesus (vv. 18b, 19). This is no gospel, it is the invention of a depraved mind. This is not a philosophy that will enhance what Christ supplies, it is a denial of the sufficiency of His work.

That word "inflated" (phusioo) means "to be puffed up, to bear one's self loftily." Can't you just see one of these false teachers walking around like he owns the place and like everyone should be grateful to him for showing them the way and for correcting the theology of that simpleton Paul? Keep this in mind: whenever something is added to the gospel, in which we're told that our salvation is all of Christ with no help from us, pride and self-elevation are inevitable. As soon as the sinner starts thinking that he has contributed something to his salvation, his humility before God will vanish and his flesh will fill his mind with thoughts of self-importance. Only the pure gospel, which tells the sinner that he was hopelessly lost when the Son of God came for Him, keeps the sinner where he needs to be, and that is on his face contemplating the mercy of God.

Trust in the symbols of salvation and incorporate them into your life, the false teachers said, and God will receive you. Trust in the symbols of salvation, instead of Christ the substance and Him alone, the apostle Paul says, and you will never know God. And there is yet a second category of false teaching going on in this church and it has to do with living by man-made rules rather then according to the liberty found in the Savior. And we will take this up next time, Lord willing.

Application

As we close, I want to impress upon you the truth that you have the substance, not the shadow. By this I mean that you have received Christ by believing the gospel. And in receiving Him, you have all that is necessary to stand before God in a state of forgiveness and eternal acceptance. If anyone were to tell you that the gospel that you have believed or the Savior in whom you have placed your trust is insufficient, I hope you would respond by immediately dismissing that notion and by pointing to the Scriptures in which we are assured of God's saving love in Christ and in Him alone.

As sinners, we are justified before God and found acceptable in His sight only when we believe that Christ and Christ alone has saved us by giving Himself in our place. That conviction brings freedom from worrying about impressing God or somehow doing something to win His favor. We have all we need in Christ. That's what God promised and that's what He has given--a full and complete salvation. It is a gift, not something we earn. It is wholly sufficient, not something that awaits our contribution.

It is our privilege to enjoy the status gained for us by our Savior, not trouble ourselves with thoughts of inadequacy. We are inadequate, and that's putting it mildly! We don't have what we need to approach God and we don't have what we need to receive forgiveness for our transgressions. The question of our inability to save ourselves is settled! That's why we have a Savior--a Savior who is perfect in every way and a Savior whose life was of infinite worth, a Savior who gave that life for us. In regard to your redemption, you don't owe God anything. He's not expecting more. In His Son, you belong to God forever. Realizing this truth is where a happy and productive Christian life begins.

Let's pray...

Conclusion

No one who places faith in Christ has to struggle with worries about being accepted in God's sight. No one who believes the gospel has to struggle with questions about what more God requires. There is great freedom in Christ--freedom from condemnation, freedom from anxiety about our sin, and freedom from that most monstrous notion that we must somehow give something to God to be saved.

This sacrament is an assurance to you and you receive it every week. This sacrament reminds us that the price for our souls has been paid and paid in full. In terms of your justification before God, this sacrament signals a finished work, not a work in progress. It declares to us that Jesus did in fact give Himself in our place and God accepted His life for ours.

The Scripture says:

While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins. (Matt. 26:26-28)