20 If 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?23 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 indulgence of the flesh. Colossians
2:20-23
As followers of Christ, there is a
higher standard we are called to live by. We are to be holy and the standard is
perfection. We quickly recognize we can never be perfect and holy on our own…we
need a holy, perfect person to do that for us. Cue Jesus. Trying to impose
regulations to make us into “good” people diminishes what Jesus did for us.
Living according to God’s will and
commandments is something we do as a
result of being a saved, forgiven, redeemed Christ follower. It isn’t what
we do to become saved, forgiven or redeemed.
Relationship
comes before obedience, not the
other way around. We don’t obey all of the laws, rules, commandments and then
seek God. We seek God first, and as a result
of the relationship, we have a desire to do what pleases Him. We begin to
recognize that as our Creator, His plans are good for us and we want to grow
closer to Him and obey Him.
Do not handle, do not taste, do not
touch, do not… Legalism is the vice Paul
is addressing here.
Beyond diminishing what Jesus did for
us as Christians, it diminishes our message to the world about Jesus. What
would you say are the loudest voices non-Christians hear from Christians? I
suspect it would not be the message of Jesus, but rather the “do nots.” It doesn’t do much to stir a
desire to find out more. And it isn’t the way Christianity is intended to work.
Interestingly, Paul calls these things
human precepts and teachings. But aren’t these the things that God gave Moses
to give the Israelites as ways to live? And Paul was a follower in the
strictest sense, so of all people he would recognize this. Paul knows when
Jesus came on the scene, everything changed…
Jesus says…
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. Matthew 5:17
God never changes. Jesus didn’t abolish the law. He did
something better, He fulfilled it. Something we could never do. Remember the
visual from an earlier passage of our log of sins being nailed to the cross
with Jesus. The law also was nailed to the cross with Jesus. He cried out, “It
is finished.” The law was fulfilled. The perfect lamb was sacrificed. The debt
was wiped clean.
Obedience
minus relationship is just legalism. The more we impose Christian regulations on fellow Christians as
well as people who have not accepted the love and grace of Jesus, the more we
preach a false gospel and turn them off from the only One who can create a
change in them.
When we preach a message of obedience before
relationship, we are turning God-ordained ways of living into human precepts
and teachings. This is what Paul is calling out.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preaches a way of living that becomes
more of an internal heart issue than an external law issue. Things like,
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall
not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say
to you that everyone
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and
whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. Matthew 5:21-22
And…
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall
not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say
to you that everyone
who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Matthew 5:27-28
Rules alone – the flesh alone – can’t solve a
heart issue. As Paul says, they have the appearance of wisdom, but are of
no value when it comes to making us right with God.
The “do/do nots” aren’t what make us better Christians, or what will turn an atheist into a Christian. Rather, they are the outcome of living in closer relationship with the One who created us and who saved us. Once we are given new life, we don’t want to want to go back to our old way of living. We want to obey because we love, not obey to hopefully be loveable and loved.
Grace is hard for us to accept. It goes against the
grain of our culture where we work and strive to achieve success. And it’s a
tricky thing, because we like to have some standard by which we can measure
success. We like the checklists to know if we are doing okay. We want
parameters to help us understand if we are doing things right. But these things take an elevated role and ultimately
mock the work of Jesus.
The more
we focus on us and how we are doing, the less we focus on Jesus. We need to
seek first – seek always – Jesus, not a check list.
We don’t have
to be cleaned up and perfect to come to Christ. We come to Christ and He does
the work for us. Then with love and gratitude, we desire a deeper relationship
and obedience.
More than hearing our list of dos and don’ts, the
world needs to hear about the love of God. The finished
work of Jesus.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous
person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows
his love for us in that while we
were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8
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