Colossians 2:13-23

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken 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. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have 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 elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely 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.

1. LOSE THE LEGALISM (16-18) 

Most of us read through this passage and think Paul this doesn’t relate to me today? But notice that Paul talks about two areas, diets and days (16). Their religion was hung up on calendars and calories, their righteousness was based on what they consumed and celebrated. Food had to be Kosher, especially on certain days (new moon or monthly observances, and weekly on Sabbath). What about us, we’re not Jewish or first century Christians? But before we’re too harsh on them, let’s remember that as Americans we have more holidays than the Jews. Congress has officially designated most days of the year as some sort of holiday. February 14th Valentine’s Day, 15th Singles Awareness Day, 16th Do a Grouch a Favor Day, Monday is Random Acts of Kindness Day and Thursday is Cherry Pie Day! Legalism rears its ugly head when we take our holidays more seriously than the things they are commemorating.

Resist the Lures of Legalism, refuse to judge by externals, Paul says, “Let no one condemn or judge you!” What’s wrong with legalism?

A. It Gives Favor to the Wrong Person (17)

Legalism is a shadow, Jesus is substance, a shadow has no reality; the reality is what makes the shadow. Jesus Christ is the reality to which the shadows pointed. For example, there is no need for Christians to observe the Passover. “Christ our Passover. When we focus on rules and regulations we stop focusing on the Redeemer. The Messiah becomes replaced with Me and instead of calling attention to His finished work it becomes about my frantic work. This is not only idiotic its idolatry, it says that Jesus’ work on the cross is not enough. Legalism removes the Lord. You want to know why you are so tired and empty after all your effort, you are chasing shadows instead of the Savior. 

B. It Puts the Focus in the Wrong Place

• It Demeans and destroys Life in the Church – You end up with a police state mentality. Instead of Jesus we have judging. We spend our time patrolling instead of praying, we become police men instead of peace makers, we sentencing people instead of sharing His provision  
• It Dims the Light of the Church – The world is turned off by our legalism, instead of shining the love of Christ, we are shining the laws of man and not many are drawn to that. Here’s what they hear: “Cut that hair, put out that cigarette, turn off that radio, don’t read that book, sing this song, read this version of the Bible, pray this way. Instead of pointing people to the perfect One we point people to our preference. We communicate that they need to measure up, to be more like us like we are there! It’s not about trying it’s about trusting, it’s not about conforming to my way but the will of the Father. Instead of leading to a real relationship it leads to faking and maintaining appearances because you really can’t afford to be honest about your faults and struggles. So you fake it but the world is not fooled they have a word for it Hypocrite. 

Colossians 2:13-23

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken 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. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have 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 elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely 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.

1. LIES OF LEGALISM – Vs 13-15

We tend to think others are legalistic, but that we’re not. The fact is that we’re all legalistic by nature. We tend to judge others by our own standards of what is acceptable and what isn’t. In essence, we think our sins smell better than other people’s.

Definition of legalism – strict adherence to the law, stressing of the letter of the law not the spirit.

LEGALISM = The religion of HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT. Its the attitude that I can establish or improve my standing before God by my activities. It’s not an act–it’s an attitude. It becomes about self-striving instead of surrendered serving. Our attempt to Gain Goodness, our striving to gain Salvation or Spirituality. Can’t change the inside with outward conformity, we end up living a life based “do’s” and “don’ts” instead of “DONE”. We like to wrap legalism in light, cover it with Christian terms, but we are not dressing it up we are just disguising it. I don’t care what you wrap it in if it isn’t the gift of God’s grace its wrong. 

Lies of Legalism

#1 Legalism brings love – Performance is the way to gain personal favor with God. Lie of Legalism says keeping the Law leads to love. The problem with this treadmill is that the harder you run the hungrier you become. Truth – it doesn’t lead to love but loneliness. Your love is found in the Lord, you don’t have to get its been given it’s a gift of grace.  

# 2 Legalism brings life – The harder you work the holier and happier you will be. Truth legalists don’t laugh they are not happy because they can never live up the standard of keeping all the rules, so they live with the constantly reminded of failure instead of freedom. Doing leads to dying, and the only way to life through death is in the cross of Christ vs 13 “You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins”

# 3 Performance is the way to perfection. The lie is I can be perfect apart from the provision of Christ. Truth -Legalism leads to the prison of performance and performance leads to pain. The harder you run the more run over and hurt people become. It doesn’t become better it becomes broken Vs 14 “He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.”

# 4 If I work I win – This lie leads to seeking victory to gain value. Truth – Legalism leads to loosing, Paul reminds us in Vs 15 that we win the war because of His work. Victory means its done we get to enjoy the spoils of war. 

The best defense against performance-based faith is to remember our legal standing before God.