OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US THE GIFT OF HIS SON TO FREE US FROM THE LAW OF SIN AND DEATH

In the book of Colossians chapter 2 verses 11 - 23, the Apostle Paul explains the new paradigm of the kingdom of God where the strictures of the law that governed and judged Israel were only shadows of the law of love that govern those who are part of the family of faith.

Whereas the law instructed us of our sinfull nture, once we were dead with Christ and risen with Him, we are no longer in need of an instructer of our sinfulness but rather in need of a living and active connection with the head of the body who is the risen Christ who triumphed over the entire hierachy of the kingdom of darkness. 

Because our old worldly nature was nailed to the cross and we are risen with Christ and not of this world, we are no longer in need of the laws and traditions that govern men according to the principles and requirements of this world.

Rather, having been translated to the kingdom of our Lord, we are in need of the life of Christ from which we are nourished and rightly guided in the ways of the Spirit.

The trappings and advantages gained in the world through hypocrisy, vanity and idol worship are no longer applicable to those who live in Christ and have held fast to Him.

Having gained freedom from imposition of the law, it is pointless to adhere to its strictures and it certainly has no power to keep us from the indulgences of the flesh.

11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. 18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Amen.

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