Author:James (Steve) Clay, MABC, LPC
Each of us has a way of thinking and living that grows out of what we believe will make us right, make us happy, and make us secure, something that will give us identity and purpose. We all seek treasure, satisfaction, and security. Our natural tendency is to seek this apart from God. By this, however, it not meant that God is necessarily excluded from our lives, but rather that if He is considered at all, He is used instead of worshiped, and manipulated rather than trusted. The question about the seeking is whether this will be found in God or something else that might involve God, but isn’t God. Among these things we call “something else” are religious systems—ways of dealing with reality without giving up self-reliance and pride.
Now, you might be thinking that this is true of unbelievers, but never believers. I wish this were true, but to the contrary, believers often attempt to “improve” themselves through “systems” as well. As one of Paul's purposes for writing the book of Colossians, he was attempting to combat this erroneous, sin-oriented tendency of ours. He resolutely set forth to proclaim the deity, the glory, and the splendor of Christ and the sufficiency of the salvation He provides. Paul presents Jesus as God-man, divine in every measure, creator and sustainer of all that is made, and yet made human to take on sin and redeem for Himself a people for His own good pleasure.
Chapter 2, verses 8 through 23 are a marvelous description of Christ’s sufficiency in all things. Verses 16 through 23 are significantly important in regard to this issue of religious systems for self-improvement.
Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God. If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matter which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
Let’s identify the religious systems mentioned in these verses. All are still common today, even, and maybe especially, in our churches. Let’s also see their characteristics and inadequacies, learning to identify our unwitting use of them, in order that we can repent of them, cling more boldly to Christ, and walk in Christian freedom and growth.
The first of these is legalism. Paul writes of legalism in verses 16-17.
Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
Paul mentions several things in this text that refer to the Lord’s prohibitions and instructions to the Jewish people in the law. The phrase “in regard to food or drink” refers to dietary laws (example Leviticus 11). However, Jesus was very intentional to say that what food we put in our bodies is not the real issue, but rather what is in the heart, from which sin proceeds (Mark 7:14-19). Simply observing the dietary prohibitions does not deal with man’s problem. It is deeper than “doing the right thing”. Two other interesting texts that deal with the issue of religion-wrought eating and drinking are Romans 14:17 and Acts 10:9-16 (also see 1 Corinthians 8).
Paul also mentions issues regarding Jewish celebrations and special days. He says that concerning these, as well as issues of eating, no one should be allowed to act as judge. Why? Because God’s intent in these was to point to Christ, not replace Him. They are shadows, not the substance. A shadow has no reality in itself; reality makes the shadow—and Christ is the reality! These were pointers to Christ, especially in revealing how utterly impotent we are to keep the heart of what they represent. We need something far better than law or we are in deep trouble.
What Paul is denouncing in this text is legalism. Legalism could be defined as a religion of self-achievement based on personal merit and human works. It tends toward rules for the sake of its own perpetuation, while simultaneously belittling or ignoring grace. Legalism minimizes the effects of sin, which it reduces to behavioral acts, ignoring the root issues of the heart. Because of this, it strips Christ of glory by reducing the work of Christ in dealing with sin. People who work out of legalism are often-times lone ranger Christians who see little value in biblical community. They attempt to put people in bondage in following their own religious expectations, while they themselves are alternately puffed up with pride or living in despair over their inability to keep the rules.
In our contemporary Christian culture, legalism can be seen in our attempts to keep a list of activities to which we slavishly adhere. When we fail to keep the list, we feel we’ve done something wrong and won’t have God’s blessing. Many try to have “quiet times”, not so they can know and love the Lord more deeply, but because they think it is necessary to “make them better.” Moral improvement becomes the goal; managing sin is pursued. Often is the case that legalism is linked with fear of man and pride. People memorize verses in order to impress others in their religious social circles, or have their quiet times so they aren’t embarrassed when an unwise teacher asks his class who are having them. Inappropriate movies are avoided not so much because their love of Christ would be diminished, but that they won’t feel guilty or that they will have reason to feel superior to others. Notebooks full of text written during Bible studies where love of learning is tied to anything other than Christ is legalism. Attending conferences without the intent of growing in love and worship of our Savior and other people breeds pride and self-sufficiency (1 Corinthians 8:1-3). It is a problem deeply embedded in us all! Legalism tries harder, attempts to do great things, without giving consideration to the insidious workings of the heart. Legalism bypasses repentance, the seeking of humility, and the gracious workings of the Spirit. The imperatives of Scripture are emphasized without a balancing or even basis of indicatives. What Christ did for us in providing our justification is not highlighted as a feature of sanctification, but rather a “it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get busy.” Many times it focuses on the erroneous proposition that we are now debtors to God, so we have to pay Him back for what He has done. How absurd is that?! We’ve all heard sermons that attempted to manipulate people toward action on the basis of debt rather than the inspiration of love and worship. We must always be humbly seeking the Lord to reveal the workings of our heart in this tendency. It is hugely important, because legalism destroys fellowship with and worship of Christ, it puffs us up, leaving us unable to love others well. It blinds our eyes to spiritual reality as it eclipses the glory of Christ. O Lord, help us, we pray!
Christianity is not about our getting better. It’s not about self-improvement. We don’t get better by reading our Bibles, fasting, memorizing scripture, avoiding sin and going on mission trips. We just don’t get better—that’s not Christian growth. Growth is transformation—from fools to wise, from self-reliant to deeper dependency, from hiding from to drawing near to God and others; from self-worship to God-worship; from blindness to sight. It’s about valuing God more and more and seeing self. It about gaining self-knowledge in order to more deeply appreciate and be thankful for the redeeming grace of God. It about gaining sight to see the immeasurable power of God in our behalf. Seeing Christ as our treasure by faith and seeking after Him is the goal of growth in godliness. Legalism impedes all of these
The scriptures are clear that Christ is the end to rule-keeping religion (Romans 10:4; Galatians 5:1; Titus 1:14-15). He came to sever the root of sin that lies deep in the heart, over which we have no power. Paul says in Romans 7 that the law is good, but becomes an instrument of death when it is wielded as a means of self-improvement. Attempts to keep the law as a means of becoming better has no power, says Paul, against what is deeply wrong with us (verse 23). Law-keeping cannot change what is broken in us—our love of self, our lack of love of God, our misguided and foolish minds, etc. Only Christ can do that through the power of His Spirit and the renewing of our minds through Him. Paul writes about this further in Romans 8:1-4:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So, Paul warns us in Colossians not to allow others to be our judge in these matters. Why? Because in doing so, we get caught up in the pernicious web of legalism. We can never be too concerned enough about the tendency toward legalism in us. Let me suggest a book for further reading at this point. It is Christless Christianity by Michael Horton. Moreover, let us rejoice in the fact that Christ has set us free! Let us daily meditate on the gospel. Let us seek know how we belittle God in our self-reliant activity and humbly seek Him for repentance. Let us be confident that He hears the humble prayer of His contrite child and know that He delights to set us free.