Fully Forgiven in Christ: A Study of Colossians 2
Most of Paul's letters were written to churches that Paul himself had begun. The church in Colosse, however, had heard the gospel from Epaphras (Col. 1:7), who had probably come to faith during Paul's ministry in Ephesus. Epaphras carried the gospel up the Lycus River valley to Hierapolis, Laodicea, and Colosse.
Epaphras told Paul about the faith and love of the believers in Colosse, but Paul also learned that some false teachings were bothering this young church. Paul wrote them a letter to better ground them in the Christian faith.
In chapter 1, Paul prays for their wisdom, understanding, and Christian life (1:9-14). He reminds them of how great Christ is, and that they have been reconciled to God through him. Paul reminds them that he is working hard to teach everyone about Christ. This lays a foundation for what Paul wants to say in chapter 2.
Paul's work for the churches
"I want you to know how hard I am contending for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (2:1-3).
Apparently the Colossian Christians wanted to understand mysteries, to have wisdom and knowledge — but they were so eager to have special teachings that they were listening to false teachings. But Paul's sufferings and labors were evidence that he was teaching not for his own benefit, but to benefit others. He is the one who had the true wisdom and the true understanding of the mysteries of Christ.
"I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments. For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit and delight to see how disciplined you are and how firm your faith in Christ is" (2:4-5). Paul is not worried that these people will abandon Christ — but they do need some doctrinal guidance.
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness" (2:6-7).
The Colossian Christians had already been taught about Christ, and what they had already learned was enough. They needed to continue in that, and strengthen that, rather than trying to add strange doctrines to it. Christianity is not a search for the mysterious and the exotic — it is a simple faith in a Savior who died for us. It does not need to be complicated with extra ideas.
"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ" (2:8). The ancient world had a wide variety of religious ideas and philosophies. Many of them offered special mysteries for the select few. Others were taught by traveling philosophers who tried to show how sensible and practical their ideas were.
In contrast, Paul taught salvation through a crucified man. He taught that God existed in this man who was killed, and that God had brought the body back to life. (Most other religions taught that physical bodies were inferior and not worth saving.) Paul taught that this Christ would return on some future day to bring all bodies back to life and to judge the entire world.
In other words, Paul's gospel did not depend on human wisdom — in some ways it defied human wisdom. It had a wisdom of its own. It did not depend on principles that most people already agreed with. It did not depend on clever arguments. It depended on Christ alone, on who he was and what he had done.
Gospel wisdom is backwards. Most religions try to figure out what people's problems are, and from that, figure out what they need to solve those problems. But the gospel has a reverse logic. It begins with what Christ had done, and from that, it discerns what the human problem really is, and what it is that we need to be saved from. Once we see that the answer is Christ, we are better able to ask the right questions.
Life with Christ
"In Christ," Paul writes, "all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority" (2:9-10).
If we have Christ, we do not need any other ideas added on. Christ is superior to everything else, and all Christians have fullness in Christ, and he is fully God. Through belief in Jesus Christ, we are already joined to God. Paul is pounding the point that Christ is not only supreme, but also sufficient. Paul then begins to explain the practical significance of this.
"In Christ you were also circumcised..." (2:11). On several occasions, Paul argued against people who said that Christians ought to be circumcised and to obey the laws of Moses. It seems that someone wanted the Colossian Christians to be circumcised. That isn't necessary, Paul responds, since you have already been circumcised spiritually, through your faith in Christ.
How were they circumcised? In Christ -- "with a circumcision not performed by human hands." Physical circumcision could only symbolize the removal of sin, but Christ performs the reality in our lives, making the symbol unnecessary. "Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ." Through Christ, we are cut free from the rule of the flesh. The reality has been achieved, so the ritual is not needed. When we have Christ, we have enough. We do not need to add physical circumcision.
Paul further adds that Christians have "been buried with him [Christ] in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ" (2:12-13).
These are the results of faith in a Savior who is fully divine. The old person, corrupted by sin, is dead and buried. Paul is speaking spiritually and figuratively. Through faith in Christ, we are united with him, and what he has done is effective for us. He died for us, for our sins, so that our sins are no longer counted against us. He has paid for them.
In the death of Christ, our sinful self (spiritually uncircumcised) received the wages of sin. And in the resurrection of Christ, we also live with new life. What God did in Jesus Christ, he also did it for those who have faith in Christ. One practical significance of this is that our sins are fully forgiven. We do not need to do anything extra to kill them, pay for them or make up for them.
Paul elaborates this point — the heart of the gospel — when he writes that Jesus Christ "forgave us all our sins, 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" (2:13-14).
The "written code" comes from a Greek word used for a note of debt. Paul is using this monetary illustration to again make the point that our sins are effectively and completely taken away in Christ. Those sins have no power over us; sins cannot impose regulations about what we have to do, because they were removed on the cross of Christ — gone. Christians do not need extra rules to deal with sin — we have Christ.
"Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross" (2:15). Paul again uses the phrase "powers and authorities," probably referring to something the false teachers were teaching. Perhaps they were saying that Christians should do something to please or get help from some mystical powers. Paul is saying that Christ has conquered them all. When we have Christ, nothing else has power or authority over our lives.
The power called sin has no authority over us. We do not need special rituals to break that power — what we need is Christ, who has already triumphed over that power. And he has done it in public. There is no special secret involved. All we need is faith in Christ, and our old sinful self is considered dead, and our new life is with Christ.
Christ is the reality
Paul begins the next verse with the word "therefore," because it is a logical result of what he has just said. Because our sins are fully removed in Christ, we should "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" (2:16).
The false teachers were saying that food and drink would somehow help people deal with sin in their lives. Whether they were saying a person had to avoid certain foods, or that a person had to eat certain types of foods, does not matter. Food and drink have no power to take away sin.
Paul is saying that we are fully forgiven in Christ, and we should therefore not let anyone judge us or criticize us about what we eat and drink. Of course, we cannot prevent what people think about us, no matter how careful we are. What Paul is saying is that we should not accept their judgments — we should not believe that our standing with God depends on food and drink regulations.
Similarly, because we are fully forgiven in Christ, we should not let others judge us with regard to festivals, new moons or Sabbaths. These, like circumcision, were part of the Jewish religion. Apparently the false teachers of Colosse included a mixture of Judaism in their heresy.
But how could people in Colosse observe festivals, new moons, and Sabbaths? They could not do any of the sacrificial rituals in Asia Minor. Even Jews in Jerusalem did not think of sacrifices when they thought of how they observed the weekly Sabbath. Ordinary Jews observed the weekly and annual Sabbaths by not working. The false teachers were saying that this cycle of annual, monthly and weekly observances would help the Christians deal with sin in their lives.
That's not true, Paul said. Abstaining from work does not help anyone deal with sin. It does not forgive past sins, nor does it give power to avoid sin in the future. Sin was dealt with completely by Jesus' crucifixion, and as a result, we should not let others judge us by what we do or don't do on various days of the calendar.
Those days "are a shadow of the things that were to come" (2:17). The Jewish worship days were a shadow, a silhouette, of things to come. Paul does not elaborate about whether these days had any predictive value. He does not say how the new moons were shadows. He does not comment on how accurate a picture these days gave. He could see, however, that most of the people who kept such days did not accept Jesus as the Christ.
No matter what Paul meant by shadow, no matter whether the things to come are past or future, the result is clear: these days had no effect on sin. We should not let others judge us regarding any portion of these days — nor should we judge others. As far as sin is concerned, these days are irrelevant.
Paul then makes this contrast: "the reality, however, is found in Christ." The Greek literally says "but the body of Christ." This part of the verse has no verb, so we need to add one. Translators usually add the verb "is," because Greek often omits the verb "is." It was also common in Greek to contrast shadow and body as terms for picture and reality. The meaning is simply that food, drink and days are shadows, but the reality is Jesus Christ. Christ deals with sin in reality; foods and days can do it only in picture. Paul is saying that Christ is important; the shadows are not.
Some have suggested that we should add a different verb: Don't let anyone judge you by food and days, but [let] the body of Christ [judge you]. It is true that Paul sometimes uses "the body of Christ" to refer to the church, but Paul does not say that we should let the church judge us. He has just explained that our sins are fully forgiven in Christ; he is not going to reduce that idea by saying that we should let the church judge us. This is not in his thought or in the context. His point is that Christ is the reality that foods and days could only hint at.
Moreover, most people who say that we should let the church judge on this matter, have ironically rejected the judgment that the church has already given regarding foods and days.
Beware restrictive philosophies
Paul ends this chapter with a warning about those who teach that religion consists of restrictive rules: "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" (2:18).
The false teachers, in addition to ideas about circumcision, foods and days, seem to have had some strange notions about angels. They claimed unusual visions. They claimed humility, but it was a wrong sense of humility, since they were leaving Christ out of the picture. "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" (2:19).
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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
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This article was written by Michael Morrison in 1999 and updated in 2011. Copyright Grace Communion International. All rights reserved.
Paul then repeats one of his main points: "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: `Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!'?" (2:20-21). The Christian life is not lived by worldly wisdom. The things that sound good to religious philosophers are often wrong. We do not live by those regulations, but by Christ. We do not need regulations to help us deal with sin — we have Christ.
These restrictive rules, "which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. 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" (2:22-23).
Rules about avoiding certain foods, or avoiding work on certain days, may sound good and wise. They might make it look like we have power over our bodies, but they cannot break the power of sin. Only Christ can do that, and he has done it fully and effectively on the cross.
