Colossians 2:21-23 - Failure. Guaranteed...

"...[commands like,] 'You should not hold nor should you taste nor should you touch', which things are all unto corruption, according to the commandments and teachings of men, which is a word indeed having wisdom in self-made-religion and lowmindedness and unsparing of body, [but] not in any value toward satisfaction of the flesh."

-What we have here are some examples of man-made religion, man’s best attempts to be right in God’s eyes, and it is as old as the garden.  Recall that God told Adam to not EAT the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2.17).  But by the time Eve is attempting to clarify God’s command for the crafty serpent, it has been tweaked, to put it mildly.  Eve’s version includes an add-on prohibition - do not even touch the fruit (Genesis 3.3).  It is uncertain whether Adam added this at some point, or if perhaps Eve did it herself.  Most likely after being told not to eat the fruit Adam decided that it would be wise just to not even touch it.  Which sounds good in principle but the entire premise was then completely false.  Death would in fact NOT come by simply touching the fruit - certainly not physical death, and the serpent knew this.  Thus when Eve touched the fruit (Genesis 3.6) and did not die, her fatal conclusion that she could go on and eat the fruit with impunity proceeded straight out of that false premise.  And thus we came face-to-face with one of the fatal flaws of man-made religion - our best efforts to make ourselves right in God’s eyes are both misguided and doomed, destined to fail because the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall in the first place.

-Such was the journey of a devout young monk named Martin Luther, whose world was drowning in death and saddled with a corruption-riddled church.  He resorted to extreme measures of self-flagellation and fasting and floor-sleeping in a desperate-albeit-futile attempt to eradicate his sins and secure right-standing with God.  Eventually he discovered in Paul’s letter to the Romans the truth that justification and forgiveness of sins comes by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ - ‘the just will live by faith’ (Romans 1.17).  Man’s sincere attempts to attenuate and atone for his sins on his own are no doubt noble.  They appear to be wise for helping one to obey the commands of a holy God.  But the broader more salient point of those very commands is to show that we all fall short and are completely unable to save ourselves.  We all need a Savior Who will be our Perfect Substitute and Who will not only provide us with the forgiveness we so desperately need but will also give us the power every day to live a life that increasingly lives into what God wants and what truly pleases Him.  We are made right with God by grace through faith and we progress in righteousness by grace through faith.  We walk by faith.

-So then the question is, if these things, these ‘made-in-china-not-in-heaven’ commands are of no long-term value against indulging the flesh, what is?  Where do I find the path to victory?  How can I succeed in saying no to sin, in resisting temptation when it rears it’s ugly head?  Do-more-try-harder is a religious recipe for guaranteed failure.  The recipe for right living is not found in the cookbooks of man-made religion and self-help regimens.  As Paul will explain in the balance of this letter, success is found at the foot of the Cross, at the feet of Jesus, where the One Who successfully resisted every temptation the tempter could throw at Him boldly and finally declared, ‘IT IS FINISHED!’ 

Colossians 2:20 - Beyond decomposition...

"If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why are you being decreed as living in [the] world?"  

-Humanity has some default wiring, some fallen elemental inclinations as it relates to matters of eternity and on how to progress towards whatever goal may be associated with that, a stupefying cocktail of conflicting attitudes and instincts, among them standard ingredients of self-preservation, self-determination, self-gratification, self-agrandizement, stirred together with splashes of placation towards whatever deity or deities I may perceive as having some impact on my fate.  But chief among them is self-effort, working my way towards whatever spiritual goal I am inclined to believe lies before me.  In the end it’s all about me and what I want and am able to do in order to further that which concerns me.  I am a self-aholic, it is my default position, and it is the default position of humanity.  I go there naturally from the womb as sparks fly upward, and when various sundry spiritual guides actually encourage me to go there, it is all too easy.

-But Paul objects.  He rhetorically asks, why are you living like this?  Why are you listening to and following these teachings?  Because in fact you are dead to this.  you died with Christ, and you are dead - to self, to the world of self, to the world itself and to the way it lives.  Paul just told us that we WERE dead in our sins and were made alive with Christ.  Now he says we died with Christ.  What he is doing is introducing yet another deep spiritual truth, as Paul will now mention being dead 3 times in the next 9 verses.  They say dead men tell no tales, but in truth dead people don’t do much of anything besides decompose.  They feel nothing, they hear nothing.  They are totally non-responsive.  The challenge becomes being dead when in fact you are still very much physically alive.  How does that actually work?  once again, we are talking not about a change in temporal reality but rather a new spiritual identity.  I have a new self which is no longer all about self.  I am no longer that same old person who defaulted to me-first at the drop of a hat, running home to mama in the guise of comfortable ol’ "I’m gonna do this all by myself".  It makes no sense whatsoever for a self-aholic to even take a sip of self-effort.  There is one way up, and it is not on the wings of self...

Colossians 2:19 - Hold on!

"...and not grasping the head, out of whom all the body through the joints and ligaments supplying and bringing together is increasing the increase of God."

-It’s not ultimately about what I eat or don’t eat, what I drink or don’t drink, or what kind of special rituals holidays or disciplines I may or may not observe.  What ultimately matters most in life, what really counts in matters of eternity is, how am I connecting with Jesus Christ.  Real spiritual progress and growth which is truly of God comes only as one holds fast to Christ, Who is the Head of the body of God’s people.  Just as the growth of a regular body all depends on the head, so as it relates to things pertaining to God, it all depends on Christ.  So again, do not pay attention or defer to anyone who is not ultimately pointing you to Jesus, helping you to follow and depend on Him.  The pastor in your pulpit, the spiritual guides in your life, the people who belong to your church - if these are not spurring you on towards Christ, you owe it to yourself to consider whether you may need to find a different place to belong and serve.  Leaving a church family ought to be the option of last resort, as injurious as that is to an already-way-too-factured church, but a so-called church or other spiritual ministry which is not pointing people towards Jesus is really not a place where the Gospel can do a whole lot of advancing, either in the lives of those who belong or in the lives of those they may or may not be seeking to reach.

-but to that point, the church is like a body.  Paul merely alludes to it here without going into much detail, but he regularly uses this metaphor of a body to describe the dynamic that plays out among the people of God.  There is the head - Jesus, and there is growth, which comes form God Himself, and then there is a Holy Spirit-forged connectedness which is analogous to the joints and ligaments of the human body (don’t miss the Trinity sighting here!).  Ligaments are what keep the bones and joints of the human body from being pulled apart by the forces exerted on them by the muscles as well as outside forces (unless of course and until they may be torn apart by some injurious impact).  Elsewhere Paul attributes the similar tight connectedness of those who follow Christ to the ongoing unifying work of the Holy Spirit, and he exhorts God’s people to do their level best to guard this oneness (Ephesians 4.1-3).  God Himself will bring the increase - all we need to do is come together in love and hold on...!

Colossians 2:18 - Beware of creature-focus...

"Let no one be cheating you, wanting in low-mindedness and worship of angels, stepping in [things] which he has seen, without cause being conceited by the mind of his flesh..." 

-Have you ever been cheated?  Someone took something from you, or kept you from winning something?  Someone gained a personal advantage at your expense?  If they cheated at some meaningless game, then perhaps you are upset for a brief moment.  But in more serious matters, in the game of life, in matters of eternity, there is far more at stake.  Cheaters/false teachers can both mislead someone away from trusting in Christ for salvation, and they can also mislead someone away from experiencing the full blessings of following Christ on a daily basis.

-Here the false teachers in Colossae were emphasizing things like the worship of angels - clearly misguided altho no doubt tempting were you to actually come face-to-face with one.  But think about it, why waste any time worshipping the messenger?  Who is greater, the messenger, or the One Who sent him?  And are not angels actually sent out to serve people (Hebrews 1.14)?  Why would someone of sound mind want to devote and prostrate himself to any creature in place of the Creator (cf Revelation 22.9)?  Angels themselves bow before His throne - there is no more blessed place or posture for us than right there beside them.  Only in HIS presence is found fulness of joy, only in HIS right hand are there pleasures forever.

-Those false teachers were also advocating what Paul refers to as low-mindedness, which can actually be a good thing as long as it is not the ultimate thing (cf James 4.10, 1Peter 5.6).  There is nothing wrong with engaging in things like fasting and other disciplines of self-denial - these things can be very effective in helping me focus on Christ, but in doing so my ultimate aim must still be to do just that, to focus more closely on Christ.  Low-mindedness is not the goal - Christ is.  When I stop short at low-mindedness, in the end I make it about me.  Because as it turns out, the more low-minded I make 'me', the more high-minded I become, about me.  I get way too full of me-myself-and-I, delighted and inflated about how good I am at self-denial, puffed up about how much God must surely be high on me because of how low I am.  Silly human.

Colossians 2:16-17 - Totally free. Well, almost...

"Therefore, do not be letting anyone be judging you in food and in drink or in respect of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath, which are [is] a shadow of the [ones] about to be, but the body [is] of Christ."

-Because of all these things Paul just mentioned which are true of Christ and of those who are in Christ:

    -He is fully God

    -We are totally complete and fulfilled in Him

    -He is the head of all authority

    -We were circumcised and made alive in Him

    -We were entirely forgiven in Him

    -He has triumphed over all authority and spiritual powers

...in light of these truths we are to not let anyone be acting as our judge or to condemn us for anything we may or may not be doing.  Not for what we are eating or drinking or for whether or not we celebrate a particular holiday or how/when we observe the sabbath.  We report to Christ and in Him we are free indeed from the dictates of man-made ritual and the like which have the appearance of good religion but which in reality accomplish very little in the way of real spiritual transformation.

-These things are a shadow.  They are not the body which causes the shadow.  They give you some idea of what the substance may look like, but they are not the real thing.  Sabbaths and festivals and food or abstaining from it - works as prescribed in the mosaic law and espoused by judaizers as well as other teachers and would-be spiritual guides - these at their best should serve to point us to Christ.  And if they do not, they are at best a waste of time.  

-Now, having said all that - while we are free from the binding constraints of man-made religion, and do not need to worry about someone else trying to judge us or condemn us for something we did or did not do or for some way we may be exercising our freedom in Christ, we are not free to engage in anything that might tear down a fellow believer, that cause our brother to stumble (Romans 14.13-21), and neither are we totally free to just indulge our flesh absent that which will show of the breathtaking goodness of God (1Corinthians 10.31).  But what we are free to do is to relax and enjoy being a child of God who will never be condemned or separated from His love for anything we do or say or think or otherwise fail to do.  And we are free to pursue and enjoy and celebrate God’s blazing breathtaking multicolored goodness in all its diverse magnificence each and every day.  Not to worry about what others think or say - focus on Christ, on loving Him and on what He wants.

Colossians 2:15 - Only One...

"...having disarmed the rulers and the authorities He made a show in public, having triumphed over them in Him." 

-This is the third mention of angels in this letter.  Some in Colossae had been persuaded (or were trying to persuade others) to worship angels.  Which by all accounts would be tempting based on how they are described whenever they appear in Scripture (over and over those who come face to face with them need to be told to not be afraid, so they must be amazing and terrifying to behold).  But as Paul has already reminded us, angels rank on par with us as created beings (Colossians 1.16), and Christ is head over them (Colossians 2.10).  

-Some suggest that Paul here is saying that whatever power and role that angels had as mediators between God and man has essentially been abrogated through Christ, that this is a relegation of the good angels who are now part of the parade of triumph with the rest of the servants of God which includes us and which is led by Christ Himself.

-Others insist that Paul is refering to the fallen evil spirits (as well as anyone else) who stood in opposition to God and His people and His purposes, that they have been defeated through Christ and no longer have any power or authority over those who are in Christ.

-Either way, we are left with only One to Whom we should listen and pay attention and give our obedience and worship, only One Who has the ultimate power and authority in the universe...

Colossians 2:14 - Real Gone

"...having wiped away the against-us handwriting to the dogmas which were against us, and it He has taken up out of the way having nailed it to the cross."

-What was actually nailed to the cross was a list of the crimes of which Jesus was accused and for which obstensibly He was executed.  And it was customary for such a list to be posted on behalf of the accused.  But Paul is saying that in this case, our own list of transgressions was nailed to the cross of Christ.  He paid the penalty for the crimes of which WE are guilty and for which we should fairly be held accountable.  The penalty for those things is death - we could have been on that cross.  And in a spiritual sense we were, such that now our list has actually been wiped away, completely erased and removed.  Expunged - there is no longer any record of it!  Our crimes, our transgressions, the sins which caused us to fall short of the glory of God and which separated us from Him have been paid for, expiated, and taken out of the way as far as the east is from the west.  This is THE Good News.  Our crimes, our guilt and the shame of it all - gone.  Real gone.  That thing you did yesterday?  Gone.  Those 'youthful indiscretions'?  Gone.  That season of waywardness?  Gone.  That dark secret which lurks in your past, haunting you, try as you might to suppress and forget it?  Gone.  It's gone too, never ever to resurface or come back on you in any way.  That thing you don't even know you're gonna do next week or next year?  It's gone too.  They're all gone, wiped out by a sacred tsunami, the pure precious blood of Christ, poured out over your sins and mine.  Do you believe this?  It IS hard to believe, but believe it we must.  There is no longer any record of our sins - in God's eyes we have done everything right!  We have been forever saved, and Jesus is our Savior!  There is no one else Who could have paid our death penalty - only this One in Whom was no sin or guilt whatsoever.

-But without taking anything away from this spiritual truth, let’s be completely clear about what was nailed to the cross.  Jesus was nailed to the cross.  His hands and feet were impaled with metal spikes, no escape, and He hung on that cross, for hours, suffocating, agonizing, bloodied and humiliated, tortured until He died.  It was Jesus.  He did that for you.  And He did that for me.  How can it be...

Colossians 2:13 - Fish out of water?

"...and you being dead by the transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive you together with Him, having graciously favored us all the transgressions."

-It’s very simple, yet so sublime: you were dead.  He made you alive. 

-On the surface tho, this statement doesn’t make sense because if you are reading it you are obviously alive and generally speaking dead people don’t come back to life.  Of course this death which paul describes is primarily a spiritual state, as he is clearly writing to living, breathing human beings.  Physical death typically comes long after one is born and is a long-standing symptom of spiritual death, which as much as anything is a separation.  That greater part of us which was designed to relate to our Creator is dead, shut off to Him, and we are born in that condition.  But on that point, not only is it problematic to try and explain to dead people that they are dead, but it is especially so when we are talking about something spiritual (i.e. generally unobservable), and when someone has been born into this state it is then all they understand.  A slave who was born a slave has no understanding of what it might be like to not be a slave.  And we are talking about human beings who have been slaves to sin and death their entire lives.  We are all born into that condition.  To take it one step further, death-to-life is not a natural process, particularly not in our broken/fallen universe, nor is it even humanly possible.  There is no natural source of knowledge or power for re-animation, spiritual or physical (or any real life animation for that matter - life out of nothing).  We’re not talking about resuscitation from apparent death, nor are we talking about the accumulation of amino acids in some primordeal soup.  Only God has the ability to do such a thing, to bring forth life where there is none, or to bring it back once it has left.  Life is a miracle, physical life being a gift which we take so for granted, spiritual life an even greater gift which we can barely comprehend and which in order to resurrect cost God His one and only Son.

-How did He accomplish this?  In this case by removing the instrument of your death.  You were dead because of the transgressions - you had broken God’s law in many and sundry ways.  And He graciously forgave every. Single. One.  In Christ.

-Now of course as infants we are technically incapable of transgression, not-yet-able to make choices, to say nothing of being capable of making moral choices to disobey our Creator.  Even so we are born separated from God in spirit, inheriting this spiritual death from our parents and their parents before them all the way back to the first parents, who first chose to transgress the one thing God had asked them not to do.  And then as we grow older, transgression manifests itself naturally as surely as fish are born to swim.  You do not need to teach a child to disobey, to lie and deceive and cheat and steal, to be impatient and unkind and angry and selfish.  We all come by this quite naturally.  And yet, this is not how man was designed originally.  The mould is defective and broken.  No, we were designed for something divine, for eternity, for paradise.  For undistracted, unhindered, free and open communion with our Creator, almighty God, the thrice-holy God of wonders, the One in Whose presence are pleasures forever.  Joy unspeakable.  Breathtaking goodness.  And now He has made this all attainable in Christ.

Colossians 2:12 - Sky's the limit!

"...having been buried with [Him} in the baptism, in Whom also you [all] were raised together with through the faith of the working of God, the [One] having raised Him out of [the] dead." 

-Paul now develops this metaphor of our body of flesh being circumcised, cut away and removed in Christ.  He says coincident with this spiritual circumcision we were buried with Christ and raised up together with Him.  Which obviously did not happen to any of us in real time in any physical sense.  But Paul connects it to baptism, which of course is a physical rite, a symbol of burying the old fleshy man and my old life (which was dead to God to begin with) in the water and then coming up out of the water being raised up to a totally new life.  And the question might be, is Paul talking about physical baptism subsequent to conversion or is he talking about a spiritual baptism which happens simultaneously at the time of conversion (1Corinthians 12.13)?  The spiritual baptism is largely devoid of the symbolism, and yet if he is refering to physical baptism, what of those believers who have not yet been baptised?  Has their body of flesh not yet been buried?  

-It is possible that Paul is making the assumption that every believer in Christ has been water baptized (cf Acts 2.41, 8.13, 8.36, 9.18, 10.44-48).  However in the end we do not tie any of the monumental spiritual changes which take place in the life of those who trust in Christ to any physical ritual.  Whatever work God does in the heart and life of a believer, includng this removal of the old and making all things new (2Corinthians 5.17), is as a result of that person putting their faith and trust in Christ, in the work God did in raising Christ up out of the dead.  That is the true miracle, the wonderful impossible which raises the ceiling as high as it needs to go - there is nothing now that needs to happen in my life that the God Who raised Jesus out of the dead cannot do.  Sky's the limit.  Cutting away my fleshy old nature, burying that in Christ, raising me up together with Him in newness of life with a new heart - this is not too difficult for Him.