8. Colossians and the Law

JERRY RECTOR | Physician

The book of Colossians also has a purpose of refocusing the emphasis of these Gentile Christian churches back on the gospel from other elements that would lead them away from that which brought them life. In the first chapter Paul reviews the God-ship of Christ emphasizing his role as both our Creator and our Redeemer. Then in the second chapter, Paul expresses his concern for avoiding teaching and doctrine that would detract from the Gospel of Christ that he described in the first chapter. Verse 8,

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. 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, 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.” 

This is an interesting aside concerning circumcision, which was the entrance sign into the community of Jews. Any gentile desiring to convert to Judaism had to first be circumcised before they could even worship in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Notice how this ritual is replaced by a new ritual—baptism. Baptism now becomes the entrance sign into the community of believers. Another interesting feature of the verse is the stated aim of this new life in Christ—the “putting off of the sinful nature.” Now, we recognize that this process will not be complete this side of eternity. Paul himself lamented the persistence of his sinful nature in Romans 7:14-20. But replacing the sinful nature with a God-centered nature is our goal through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

This shows again that the New Covenant still does emphasize moral living, clean hearts, works if you will! But with this huge difference that moral living is not the basis for our salvation or righteousness. The Old Covenant really did not focus on the heart. If the system had worked with obedience and resultant blessing from God, than there surely would have been more joy. But Israel rarely kept their side of the bargain, and so never experienced the full potential of blessings as God’s chosen people. This led the prophets to lament the lack of heart in their worship. They expressed God’s sadness as Israel went through the motions of their traditional worship, yet did not have changed hearts. The sacrifices really meant nothing if trust and love was not being developed between God and the people.

But Jesus’ life and death changed all that. Not only were the Israelites of old saved by his sacrifice, but we also can live with that assurance of salvation. So, people ask, why would we want to take on Jesus’ nature and have a change of heart? How could we not want to be like Jesus, given what he has done for us? It is an attitude of gratitude! What motivates the Christian to follow Christ’s example? The Holy Spirit, which enters our hearts as we accept the gift of salvation. For some people this is an instant process of a life turn-around. For many, it is likely a more gradual process, perhaps starting in childhood and developed by Godly influences. But the effect is the same. The desire to serve God does not come from our humanity. It, too, is a gift from God! No one can boast. 

Some would go back a few sentences and say, “Aha, following Christ’s example means keeping the Sabbath like He did!” First of all, I would point out that no Adventist, or any other Sabbath keeping Christian, keeps the Sabbath like Jesus did. Prior to His ministry, he followed the traditional forms of worship including sacrifices and education. Even during His three-year ministry, He observed the special festival feasts, paid the temple tax, and encouraged the ritual cleansing for lepers When he healed lepers, he told them to present themselves to the priests for inspection and reinstatement of their “clean” status.

There are never any directions found in the New Testament for how to “keep” the Sabbath outside of the rest of the Jewish system of worship. No wonder there is a huge variation in how individual Adventists and other Christians “keep” it. Adventists do take much of their Sabbath instruction from Ellen White, believing that her opinions on how to properly “keep” the Sabbath were inspired, and thus an appropriate addition to the Bible. But if Christians are basing doctrine solely on the Bible, you will not find directions on how to “keep” the Sabbath. Given the number of both Jewish and Gentile converts to Christianity, this would surely have been an issue requiring clarification if Sabbath worship was being taught and emphasized by the Apostles; and many subjects are clarified and emphasized, but Sabbath is not one of them. So, Sabbath-keeping Bible students are then forced to go back to the Torah and look for the Sabbath instructions given to Israel. These include: 

1. Not going out of one’s place – staying at home except to worship in the temple (Ex 16:29)
2. Not to bake or boil (Ex 16:23)
3. Do not build a fire (You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day. Ex 35:3)
4. Keep it from sundown to sundown

Even allowing for differences in time period, these directions, if observed, would certainly change how the majority of Adventists eat on Sabbath and spend the Sabbath hours. They’d be eating cold food at home. Furthermore, consider regions closer to the poles. The sun does not come up much or at all during the day in winter, and is never completely gone in summer. If the nation of Israel were Eskimos, the Sabbath laws may have been a bit different. But instead they lived much closer to the equator making sundown to sundown a practical way to measure the hours of this God-centering ritual. This underscores the evidence that weekly seventh-day worship was tailored for the Jews in their time period and in their area of the world. It was a part of the covenant between God and the nation of Israel. 

Most Adventists I’ve talked to tell me that Sabbath-keeping decisions are personal ones, reflecting how the Holy Spirit leads them to keep it. And this seems to differ widely by culture and region of the world. The conclusion is this: it doesn’t matter how you keep it as much as the fact that you believe in it and are trying to keep it to the best of your ability. This is a very large gray area, of course. And to have it be so gray, in an issue that most Adventists believe has a bearing on one’s salvation is unthinkable to me. Furthermore, if indeed Sabbath-keeping will one day be the only way to avoid the mark of the beast and be among the final group of saved people at the end of the world, then I surely want to know how God wants me to do it. But the New Testament is silent on the subject. 

So what was Christ’s example? Love one another as I have loved you. He who would be first among you should be the servant of all. Let there be no end to your forgiveness. Father, not my will, but yours. Shatter your worship conventions – without me, they are a white-washed tomb.

Back to Colossians 2 picking up at verse 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, 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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” 

What did Paul mean by the term “written code?” In other translations, it is translated “ordinances,” from the Greek word “dogma.” It is used in a similar verse in Ephesians 2:15,

“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments (entole) and regulations (dogma)” Eph 2:14,15. 

This is a clear reference to the Old Covenant contained in the Pentateuch, again, including the Ten Commandments, as there is no Biblical basis or example for separating the Ten from the rest of the Law. And in Col 2:14, what else could it mean? I can’t think of another “written code” that Paul could be referring to, especially in the context of the whole chapter. What I take from this verse is that Jesus, through his death, introduced a new system of worship. Call it what you want, but I would call it the New Covenant. The old system of worship, the Old Covenant, was fulfilled by Christ’s life and death, and we should no longer measure our religious experience by its rituals and rules. That doesn’t mean we don’t have something to refer to when looking for a moral standard. We have the principles contained in the Old Covenant and in addition the life and teachings of Jesus. The very event that fulfilled the Old composes the New. They are therefore intimately related, but beware of the tendency to keep using the Old as your frame of reference. Remember Gal 4:10?

“You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you…” 

And Gal 5:4,

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” 

This is also addressed in Romans, and we’ll look at that shortly. 

No judging for a Sabbath day

This has all been building up to verse 16 of Col 2,

“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. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.” 

Here Paul is specifically addressing diet (clean/unclean) and drink (alcohol, I suppose) restrictions, as well as the whole Jewish system of holy worship days, including the weekly Sabbath. This uses the same format as that found in Galatians 4, just in reverse order. Instead of “days, months, seasons,” it is seasons (religious festivals), months (new moons), days (a Sabbath day). We discussed this in the last chapter, and there can be no mistaking the reference to the Sabbath. Paul does not say it is wrong to worship on Sabbath, but makes it clear that this type of specific worship direction is not the focus of the New Covenant. Nor are the exacting dietary restrictions to be carried over to the New Covenant. And he warns the Colossians, and us, to be careful not to lose our focus, which must be on Christ who is the reality of all worship.

This entire system of worship, based on the weekly Sabbath, is a “shadow” of things to come, and fulfilled in Christ. How could a church doctrinally ignore the feasts and other rituals while retaining the weekly Sabbath? This is a powerful passage, and does not require much elaboration. It speaks clearly for itself. Certainly Adventists have tried to explain it away, since it doesn’t fit into preconceived theology. But I haven’t seen a strong explanation. There is much evidence throughout the Bible that seventh-day worship is not the focus of New Covenant worship. Colossians 2 is a strong part of that evidence. 

Just like Galatians, Paul then discusses what does constitute New Covenant living. First, what characteristics to “put to death” (Col 3:5) and then what to “clothe ourselves with” (Col 3:12). Then in conclusion,

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Col 3:15-17.

This seems to describe worship services, but the emphasis is on the state of the heart, not on what day the worship occurs on. †