Keeping First Things First: Resisting Rules
Jesus, Post-Resurrection part 4
Colossians 2:11-17
Wildwind Community Church
May 14, 2006
In the first 10 verses of Colossians Paul confronts a danger that would keep believers from standing firm in their faith – that danger is what Paul called empty philosophies. We discussed that last week. This week I want to move on to the second danger Paul points out, which is what he calls religious legalism.
Now unless you are pretty familiar with the Bible, parts of this are really going to be confusing for you, so please just absorb what you can and wait for me to answer your questions – I think I already know what they are!
Text is 2:11-17, but we’ll start in verse 9 to get us into it.
Colossians 2:9-17 (NIV)
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 11 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, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 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, 14 having canceled 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. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16 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. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
There are few drives stronger in human beings than the drive to know the rules. Even people who hate rules want to know what they are so they can break them!
Rules tell us our limits. They give us boundaries. They secure some of us against a suspicion we have that there’s something in us that might rage out of control were the rules not clearly laid down, along with the consequences for breaking them.
When new people come to this church for the first time, they have this vague sense of discomfort, despite how hard we try to make them feel comfortable. Whether they understand this or not, that discomfort comes from not knowing the rules. Rules tell us what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Rules let us know what kinds of things will help us fit in, and what kinds of things will mark us as outcasts. Rules draw lines of comfort and safety and familiarity around us. Rules tell us what things are done, and how, and when, and by whom, and where, and how often. Rules tell us what things are NOT done so we know what to avoid so we don’t end up feeling foolish. What do I do with my chair after service? What do I do with my children when I get here? How should I dress for church?
People in our culture are instinctively nervous around those who do not respect the rules. Rule-breakers and rule-haters make people feel insecure and unsafe. Rule-breakers and rule-haters often wind up either as criminals or as visionary leaders: this includes both good ones – like Martin Luther King, and evil ones, like Hitler. It’s not unusual that they wind up dead, like say Martin Luther King or Hitler. Or Jesus. People are suspicious of rule-breakers. We need to know what to think and how to think, and the rules help us know that. So we don’t know what to think about people who don’t seem to respect the rules.
The human need for rules is so deep that everywhere humans go, they make rules. Our legislature debates and creates new laws every day in this country. The answer to every problem seems to be to draft a law that will make something else against the rules.
You take two people stranded on a desert island where there are no governments, no rules, no laws – nothing telling them what to do. I assure you that within a day or two, they have drawn lines around their own possessions, or drawn a line to divide the land in half, or set up rules for who hunts for food on what days. Human society could not survive without rules. The need for rules comes from our instinct to survive.
So there’s nothing wrong with rules in themselves. But something very dangerous happens when we bring this need for rules into our understanding of God. You know what pops up when rules get their hands on spirituality? RELIGION! Hear me – religion is what pops up when rules get their hands on spirituality.
Religion is the do’s and don’ts of spirituality. Wear these clothes. Listen to this kind of music. Say these words. Avoid these places. Do these things. Don’t do those things.
When the dos and don’ts get out of hand and reach a place where they themselves seem to have become the point, that is called legalism. This is what Paul warned about. Legalism is more concerned with keeping rules and appearances than with the genuine and urgent work of moving lost people toward a relationship with the living God. You could define legalism as rules for the sake of rules. Legalism takes outward things and makes them markers of things that are inward. Legalism says, Good Christians do all these things and don’t do all those things. Legalism always makes lists of rules and always focuses on things that are easy to see. Legalism never pays attention to things like greed and pride and lack of love, because they don’t take the form of behaviors that are easy to see.
So legalism can’t see the heart. It cannot make allowances for the new Christian who just came from a life of drinking and swearing and partying, for whom constant swearing is still very much a habit. That person might be far more dedicated to Christ and far more excited about his faith than many people who have been believers for a long time, even though he still swears a lot. Legalism sees swearing and all those external things, but it does not see the grace that God has poured into the life of a person.
Legalism says, “You swore. You are a rule-breaker. Shame on you.” “You set foot in a bar. You are a rule-breaker. Shame on you.” You became a Christian and have not stopped smoking cigarettes. You are a rule-breaker. Shame on you.” Legalism is what cost some of you your relationship with God years ago, because you attended a legalistic church and you quickly realized in that place that you didn’t fit in. And what’s the message you carried out of there? That you are not good enough for God. Legalism always draws clear lines between the religious haves and have-nots. Legalism determines who cuts the mustard spiritually and who doesn’t, and it enjoys communicating that to the have-nots. “You’re not good enough because of A, and B, and C, and D.”
Let me read you my favorite account of legalism in the Bible.
Matthew 12:9-14 (NIV)
9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue,
10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?"
11 He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out?
12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath."
13 Then he said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other.
14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
It was against Jewish law to work on their Sabbath – their day of worship – which was Saturday. Healing is considered work. So here’s this guy in front of Jesus on a Saturday with a withered hand, and Jesus has to decide whether to heal him. The Jewish leaders asked, “Is is lawful to heal on the Sabbath.” That was a rhetorical question. They knew it was not lawful to heal, and they knew Jesus knew it was not lawful to heal. They just wanted to see whether Jesus would follow the rules or not. Notice what Jesus does. In verse 12 he says, “It is lawful to DO GOOD on the Sabbath.” See it’s not about healing and how you may define healing as work. It’s about doing what is good, and that’s okay every day of the week. But it’s verse 14 that really shows you the spirit of legalism. Here’s this poor guy with a withered hand – probably had it all his life. He encounters Jesus. Jesus heals this man’s hand, right there in front of those teachers who oppose him. They actually stood there and watched this man’s hand transform from crippled and twisted and withered to healed and fully functional – they witnessed the change with their own eyes. And in that moment, did they drop to their knees and say, like the apostle Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Did they acknowledge Christ’s Lordship and divinity, having witnessed this miracle with their own eyes? No. Verse 14 records that they went out and plotted how they might kill him.
You figure some of those leaders might have had sick wives, sick children, maybe been sick themselves? Probably. Do you think that had they brought their sick wives and sick children to Jesus, he’d have healed them? Of course. But they weren’t thinking about that, they just wanted him dead. Why? Because he healed on the Sabbath. He broke the rules. He was a rule-breaker and deserved to die. Legalism is what blinds our eyes to the transforming miracles of God and transfixes us on the rules. What’s most interesting about this passage is it shows us that under Jewish law, God himself could not cut the mustard. Apparently Jesus didn’t make the cut of who was and was not good enough for these people. All of you here today who have been beat down by legalism in the church, who have encountered legalists who have bludgeoned you with their rules, God knows your pain. Jesus himself suffered and died at the hands of people who looked down on him and figured he wasn’t good enough because he wasn’t a rule-follower. But God loved him. And God loves you too.
Let’s get down to the legalism that was eating away at the Colossian church. Our text begins in verse 11, but I’m starting at verse 9 here just to get us into this.
Colossians 2:9-13 (NIV)
9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.11 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,
12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 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,
In our last series on the book of Titus, we talked a little about circumcision, so I don’t want to go back into that, but circumcision was, and still is, a Jewish sign of commitment to God. So Paul writes to the Colossians saying, “Don’t get concerned about the circumcision thing. It’s not an issue here.” When he says you were circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, what Paul is saying is that just like circumcision removes flesh that is extra baggage and not needed, so Christ comes along and gets rid of extra baggage in our lives – that extra baggage in this case is what Paul refers to as our sinful nature – the sinful state we live in before Christ cleans our hearts.
As I said before in our Titus study, this thing about circumcision was a major issue in that time. Lines were drawn in the sand over who was spiritual and who was not based on whether or not they were circumcised. It was heavy stuff. And Paul takes that outer symbol and says, “It doesn’t matter whether you have extra physical skin on your body. What matters is whether you have allowed Christ to remove that dead weight of sin you are carrying around. If you have done that, circumcision is not necessary. And if you haven’t done that, circumcision will not help you at all. This issue you feel so strongly about – it’s irrelevant. It’s not circumcision that sets you right with God – it’s repenting for your sin and asking God to give you a new heart.
Colossians 2:13-17 (NIV)
13 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,
14 having canceled 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.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16 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.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Here’s what I really want to leave you with today. When was Christ able to forgive our sins? When He canceled the written code. What was the written code? It was the Jewish law – a set of over 600 rules about what people had to do in order to be spiritual. Almost no one could keep these laws, and therefore almost everyone felt distanced from God and that God did not love them. The law showed how impossible it was to reach intimacy with God by following rules. There are too many rules. That’s why the law was against us and stood opposed to us. Jesus canceled the written code – He declared that we no longer have to live by all these rules. And made a way for us to connect to God through the death on the Cross for us – Jesus took all of our sin on Himself – He paid the price of death that sin requires – and marked our debt to God PAID. So no more written code. No more trying to reach God through religion – a system of rules that sound spiritual but are just throwing us back into those laws that choke us and condemn us. Jesus died to free us from all that.
I love verse 15. Verse 15 says that when he died for us on the cross, Jesus disarmed the powers and authorities. You know what the powers and authorities are? All the organizations and institutions that want to preach something other than relationship to God through Jesus as the way to heaven. You know what all these other systems have in common? They are characterized by rules. People naturally drift toward all kinds of rule-based religions. That’s because our human nature loves any religion that does not require the death of human nature – and that’s exactly what Christianity calls for. Not simply good deeds to cover over our sins – not simply a set of rules to give credence to our vices – not simply a set of observances to lend the appearance of piety to our chaotic and selfish lives – Christianity calls for daily, incremental change in the way we think, feel, act, make decisions, and conduct social relationships. Christianity says all the rules aren’t the point. It calls for a much higher standard. We don’t get to throw good deeds out the window – instead Christianity says our good deeds don’t matter a bit without faith in Jesus. We don’t get to act like prayer and church attendance and Bible-reading aren’t necessary – instead Christianity says all that stuff doesn’t matter a bit without faith in Jesus. Doing or not doing things will not save us. We are saved only through Christ.
I do not believe the greatest threat to Christianity in the world today is secularism or humanism or any of the
--isms we talked about last week. I believe the greatest threat to Christianity in the world today is Christianity that has lost touch with a living relationship with Christ and substituted the keeping of laws and rules. When that happens, churches produce legalistic, immature people, and legalistic immature people backstab and gossip and argue and complain and criticize. In John 13:35 Jesus says, “By this all people will know you are my disciples – IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.” When the world sees pettiness and gossiping and backbiting among Christians in the church, they do not see that we love one another. And because they do not see that we love one another, they do not identify the church with those who are disciples of Christ. Since they do not see us following the commands of our Master, they cannot see the Master’s presence in us. So Christianity to them is nothing more than the outward things – go to church, say your prayers, avoid anything that looks fun, blah, blah, blah. What a shame!
Colossians 2:16-17 (NIV)
16 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.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Paul says don’t let anyone judge you. In other words, if you’re trying to follow Jesus, and you’re having a hard time with swearing, don’t let anyone convince you you aren’t a Christian because you struggle with swearing. If you’re trying to follow Jesus and you don’t think it’s important to dress up on Sunday mornings, don’t let anyone cause you to question your faith because of that. If you’re following Christ and believe you need to be in bars where lost people tend to hang out, so you can reach them, then get out there. You are accountable to God and the body of Christ for your character and behavior whether you are in bars or in churches or anywhere else, because community means accountability. So be where God needs you to be.
Let’s finish up this chapter.
Colossians 2:18-19 (NIV)
18 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.
Don’t let anyone who delights in false humility disqualify you for the prize, in other words, don’t let them convince you that you are not loved and accepted by God, and that you are forgiven and led by Jesus, if you have asked him to forgive and lead you. What is false humility? How can you know it when you see it?
The Greek word translated humility here literally means lowliness of mind. Humility should bring about lowliness of mind, but as Paul writes, the Gnostics ideas about spirituality caused their minds to “puff up” and actually become arrogant. So again we see Paul saying, “Acknowledging Christ as supreme Lord over all will produce real life change – the best the others can do is fake it.”
Colossians 2:19 (NIV)
19 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.
20 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:
What does it mean to be a Christ-follower? It means to die to the basic principles of this world. To leave your former way of life behind, to abandon the way you used to think about and see the world. It means to leave religion behind and embrace relationship with the true and supreme God.
Paul ends on his “proof is in the pudding” note here.
Colossians 2:21-23 (NIV)
21 "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"?
22 These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
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.
So Paul here again states, “This is not REAL. It does not have the power to produce real life change – it lacks value in restraining the sin in you.” It’s an empty religious system that does not contain within itself the power to deliver on its promises, therefore all the rules that have sprung up around it APPEAR to be godly things, but they are the opposite of that. They are taking you AWAY from God because this whole system was formulated by people who have lost touch with the Head – with God.
Spiritual dangers – last week we talked about empty philosophies that lack the power to deliver on their promises. This week it’s religious legalism. All pointing to one thing. It’s not about a system, it’s about a relationship with Jesus. It’s not about rules, it’s about a relationship with Jesus.
