Apr 26
5
Old Testament Reading: 1 Chronicles 23:24–32
“These were the sons of Levi by their fathers’ houses, the heads of fathers’ houses as they were listed according to the number of the names of the individuals from twenty years old and upward who were to do the work for the service of the house of the LORD. For David said, ‘The LORD, the God of Israel, has given rest to his people, and he dwells in Jerusalem forever [or perminantly]. And so the Levites no longer need to carry the tabernacle or any of the things for its service.’ For by the last words of David the sons of Levi were numbered from twenty years old and upward. For their duty was to assist the sons of Aaron for the service of the house of the LORD, having the care of the courts and the chambers, the cleansing of all that is holy, and any work for the service of the house of God. Their duty was also to assist with the showbread, the flour for the grain offering, the wafers of unleavened bread, the baked offering, the offering mixed with oil, and all measures of quantity or size. And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the LORD, and likewise at evening, and whenever burnt offerings were offered to the LORD on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, regularly before the LORD. Thus they were to keep charge of the tent of meeting and the sanctuary, and to attend the sons of Aaron, their brothers, for the service of the house of the LORD.” (1 Chronicles 23:24–32, ESV)
New Testament Reading: Colossians 2:16-23
“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— ‘Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch’ (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” (Colossians 2:16–23, ESV)
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Please excuse any typos and misspellings within this manuscript. It has been published online for the benefit of the saints of Emmaus Reformed Baptist Church, but without the benefit of proofreading.
Introduction
In Colossians 2:16-23, Paul addresses the false teaching that was present in the church of Colossae head-on. Notice, he divides the false teaching into three categories. In verse 16, Paul says, “let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.” In verse 18, he says, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions…”, etc. And in verse 20, he says, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations… according to human precepts and teachings?” Each of the three sections begins with either a command or exhortation: let no one pass judgment on you; let no one disqualify; do not submit to man-made regulations. And the whole passage is brought to a conclusion with the statement found in verse 23: “These [teachings] have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.” So you can see that Colossians 2:16-23 is a unit made up of three parts and a conclusion. This passage is very rich, and so I’ve decided to focus my attention only on verses 16 and 17 this morning. Lord willing, we will return to consider the rest, or at least more of this passage, next Sunday.
Text
“Therefore…”
Notice, our text begins with the word, “Therefore…” This is an important observation. It indicates that Paul is building off of what he said in the previous passage. It’s as if he says, Therefore, given all of the truths I have just expressed to you, I now say this.
And what are the truths that Paul has just expressed? He has commanded us not to be taken “captive by empty and deceitful philosophies— philosophies rooted down in human tradition, according to the elementary principles of the world, and not rooted down in Christ” (see Colossians 2:8). After this, he explained why true wisdom is found only in Christ. “For in [Christ] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Colossians 2:9, ESV). And in Christ, believers are filled (or completed), having been spiritually circumcised (the body of sin has been removed by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit), and united to him in his death and resurrection (water baptism is a sign of this). Though we were once dead, spiritually, in Christ we have been made alive. In Christ, our sins are forgiven. The record of debt that stood against us, along with its legal demands, has been nailed to the cross of Christ and taken away. More than this, those united to Christ by faith have also been set free from bondage to the Evil One and his dark kingdom.
“Let No One Pass Judgment On You…”
“Therefore…”, in light of who Christ is and in light off all that Christ has done in you and for you to free you from bondage to sin and death, “let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16, ESV).
When the Apostle says, “let no one pass judgment on you”, it is not a suggestion, but a command. Paul commanded the saints in Colossae not to allow anyone to pass judgment on them. The Greek word translated as “pass judgment” (κρίνω) means “to make a judgment based upon the correctness or value of something—‘to evaluate, to judge’” (Louw-Nida, 30.108). And the saints in Colossae were instructed not to allow anyone to do this to them. They were to reject those in their midst who attempted to stand over them and to judge or evaluate the correctness or value of their behavior.
Question: When Paul says, “Let no one pass judgment on you”, does he mean that there is never a time for judgment within Christ’s church? Does he mean that there is never a time for the members of the body of Christ to judge another church member? No, that cannot be what he means, for Paul uses the same Greek word in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6, and there he is not forbidding judgment, but commanding that it be done.
In 1 Corinthians 5:3, Paul says, “For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing”. Verse 12: “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?” Verse 13: “God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you.” So you can see that Paul here commands the church to judge its members. But what are they to judge? They are to judge in matters of sin. It is the “evil person”, that is to say, the “morally corrupt, evil, or wicked person (πονηρός, Louw-Nida, 88.110) who is to be judged and purged from the congregation.
The word “judge” also appears in 1 Corinthians 6:2-3. There, Paul is talking about settling civil disputes within the congregation. Again, he commands that Christians judge, saying, “When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life!” (1 Corinthians 6:1–3, ESV).
So then, there are times when Christians must judge fellow church members, and in such cases, it is right for church members to submit to the judgments of their fellow members, with the elders in the lead. Paul’s words here in Colossians 2:16, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you…” cannot be applied to judgments rendered in church discipline cases involving unrepentant sin, that is to say, violations of God’s moral law, or to disputes amongst church members requiring mediation.
“In Questions Of Food And Drink…”
What, then, does Paul mean when he says, “let no one pass judgment on you…” The context makes it clear. Paul says, “Let no one pass judgment on you” specifically, “in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16, ESV).
Clearly, the false teachers in Colossae—those who were promoting empty and deceptive philosophies, rooted in man-made traditions and the elementary principles of the world—were passing judgment on the saints in Colossae regarding food and drink, and festivals, new moons, and Sabbath days, and Paul commanded the saints in Colossae not to submit to their judgments.
But what standards for food and drink were these false teachers seeking to impose on the Colossians? What were the festivals, new moons, and Sabbath days that these false teachers expected the saints to observe? This must be a reference to the ceremonial laws of the Old Mosaic Covenant. In particular, these false teachers were seeking to impose the Old Covenant dietary laws and religious calendar on these New Covenant saints, and Paul said, Do not allow it. Let no one pass judgment on you as it pertains to these things.
As you may know, under the Old, Mosaic Covenant—the Covenant that God made with the people of Isarel, through Moses, at Mt. Sinai, after God redeemed them from Egyptian bondage, and before he brought them into the promised land (in about 1,600 BC)—many laws were added to the moral law, which is summarized in the Ten Commandments, and imposed upon the people of Israel (see Galatains 3:19), for as long as the Old Covenant remained (see Jeremiah 31:31-34; Galatians 3:23-29). The moral law, which is summarily comprehended in the Ten Commandments, was at the very heart of all the laws that God gave to Israel, but in addition to the moral law, God gave them civil or judicial laws to govern their nation and ceremonial laws to distinguish them from the nations, to govern their worship, and to prefigue the Christ, who would one day come into the would through them.
As you may know, some of the ceremonial laws given to Old Covenant Israel had to do with food. If you are following along with the yearly Bible reading plan that we provide for you, then you read Leviticus 11 yesterday—timely indeed! Leviticus 11:1-2 says, “And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, ‘Speak to the people of Israel, saying, These are the living things that you may eat among all the animals that are on the earth…” As you continue reading through that chapter, you will find classifications of animals that the Israelites were permitted to eat, and others that they were not permitted to eat, but were to regard as unclean. The chapter concludes with these words: “This is the law about beast and bird and every living creature that moves through the waters and every creature that swarms on the ground, to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten” (Leviticus 11:46–47, ESV).
The Old Mosaic Covenant also contains laws about drink. For example, Numbers 6:1-4 says, “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When either a man or a woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink. He shall drink no vinegar made from wine or strong drink and shall not drink any juice of grapes or eat grapes, fresh or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or the skins” (Numbers 6:1–4, ESV).
To be very clear, these laws regarding forbidden food and drink were added to the moral law when the Old Mosaic Covenant was made. These laws were given to the people of Isarel, through Moses, at Mt. Sinai, after God redeemed them from Egyptian bondage, and before he brought them into the promised land. These ceremonial laws did not exist before this (1,600 B.C.). In other words, Abraham, Issaic, Jacob, and all of the faithful who lived in their day and before them were not subject to these laws. And even after these laws were given by God to Israel and through Moses, they were not binding on the other nations of the earth. They were for Israel only. The Philistines, Assyrians, and Babylonians sinned against God in many ways, but they did not sin against God when they ate the flesh of pigs. And, as we will soon see, these laws were given to Israel only for as long as the Old Covenant remained. But everyone knew that the Old Covenant order would not remain forever, for God spoke through the Old Covenant prophets concerning its end and the establishment of a New Covenant, which would be substantially different from the Old. As the Prophet Jeremiah says, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:31–32, ESV).
These dietary laws that God imposed on a particular people (Israel) for a particular time (while the Old Covenant order remained) are no longer binding on the people of God, therefore. This explains the vision that God showed to the Apostle Peter, a Jewish Christ follower, living under the New Covenant. In Acts 10:9, we read, “The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’ And the voice came to him again a second time, ‘What God has made clean, do not call common.’ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven” (Acts 10:9–16, ESV).
I can understand Peter’s hesitancy and confusion. He had lived his whole life under the Old Mosaic Covenant and the dietary laws of Leviticus 11. Being a member of the Old Covenant, he was right to obey God’s law. But all of that had changed with the passing away of the Old and the arrival of the New Covenant. Peter and the rest of the Apostles had to learn this lesson. It was especially important for them to comprehend that the civil and ceremonial law of the Old Covenant had been fulfilled, and thus taken away, as the gospel of Jesus Christ spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth (see Acts 1:8). As the Gospel began to bear fruit among the Gentile nations, it was especially importinat for the Apostles of Christ all of whom were Jewish, to understand that the dividing wall of hostility that once separated Jews and Gentiles had been broken down. And how did God break this metaphorical wall down? He did it through Jesus Christ, by “abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both [Jew and Gentile] to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility” (Ephesians 2:14–16, ESV).
These dietary laws that were imposed on the Jews under the Old Mosaic Covenant did not bring peace between Jew and Gentile. To the contrary, these dietary laws separated Isarel from the Gentile nations. They prohibited table fellowship. This was good and right for a time, for the Jews would have to remain set apart from the nations until the Christ was brought into the world through them. Now that Christ has come, the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that once divided has been abolished and taken away. “Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, therefore (Colossians 2:16, ESV).
“Or With Regard To A Festival Or A New Moon Or A Sabbath.”
After this, Paul says, “or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath” (Colossians 2:16, ESV). What is Paul referring to here? He must be referring to the religious calendar that God gave to the Jews under the Old Mosaic Covenant.
Three things are mentioned: festivals, new moons, and sabbaths.
Festivals
Festivals are feast days. If you wish to learn about the feast days of Old Covenant Israel, you may go to Leviticus 23. Verses 1-2 say, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the LORD that you shall proclaim as holy convocations [meetings or assemblies]; they are my appointed feasts” (Leviticus 23:1–2, ESV).
At the very heart of these feast days is the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath. Leviticus 23:3 says, “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places.” The weekly Sabbath was, of course, not new to Isarel, for it had been established at the time of creation, is for all people, and was observed by the Hebrews before the giving of the Old Mosaic Covenant (see Exodus 16:29). It is mentioned in Leviticus 23:3 because, of all the holy days, it is most fundamental. Again, it was given, not first to Israel at Sinai, but to Adam at the time of creation. And when it comes to the law of Moses, the command to remember the weekly Sabbath day and to keep it holy is found, not only in the laws that were added to the moral law, but at the heart of the moral law itself—it is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. When it comes to holy days and the time for corporate worship, the weekly Sabbath is most fundamental, and so it is mentioned first.
Then, in Leviticus 23, other feast days are added. In verse 4, we read, “These are the appointed feasts of the LORD, the holy convocations [assemblies], which you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight, is the LORD’s Passover. And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the Feast of Unleavened Bread to the LORD; for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall have a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work. But you shall present a food offering to the LORD for seven days. On the seventh day is a holy convocation; you shall not do any ordinary work” (Leviticus 23:4–8, ESV). In verses 9-14, we find commandments regarding the Feast of Firstfruits. In verses 15-22, we learn of the Feast of Weeks. In verses 23-25, we hear of the Feast of Trumpets. And finally, in Leviticus 23:26-32, we learn of the Day of Atonement:
“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the LORD. And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God. For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people. And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath” (Leviticus 23:26–32, ESV).
New Moons
Next, Paul mentions new moons. Israel had a lunar calendar, and so a new moon (when the moon is not visible to us) marked the beginning of a new month. According to Numbers 28:11-15, special offerings were to be made at the tabernacle, or later, temple, on these days:
“At the beginnings of your months, you shall offer a burnt offering to the LORD: two bulls from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old without blemish; also three tenths of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil, for each bull, and two tenths of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with oil, for the one ram; and a tenth of fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering for every lamb; for a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD. Their drink offerings shall be half a hin of wine for a bull, a third of a hin for a ram, and a quarter of a hin for a lamb. This is the burnt offering of each month throughout the months of the year. Also one male goat for a sin offering to the LORD; it shall be offered besides the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.” (Numbers 28:11–15, ESV)
Sabbaths
Finally, Paul mentions Sabbaths, or days of rest and worship. In Colossians 2:18, the Greek word for Sabbath is plural. The NKJV says, “Sabbaths”. The NET, KJV, and AV say, “Sabbath days”. I prefer these translations over the ESV which says, “a Sabbath” because they are more clear about the plural number, and I think this helps the reader to understand that Paul is not referring to the weekly Sabbath, which was instituted by God at the time of creation and given to Adam and Eve and, through them, to all humanity, but to the “Sabbath days” that were added to the weekly, seventh-day Sabbath, and given to the Jews under the Old Mosaic Covenant. Perhaps you noticed that some of the feast days of Leviticus 23 included Sabbath days that were to be observed in addition to the weekly Sabbath.
In brief, when Paul said, “Let no one pass judgment on you… with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath days”, he was referring to the religious calendar that God gave to Israel under the Old Mosaic Covenant to govern their corporate worship. Like with the dietary laws, this calendar of holy days was a part of the ceremonial law that God gave to them for a time. Notice, these were days to assemble, to worship at the tabernacle, and later, the temple. These were days to offer up sacrifices to God. In fact, they are mentioned together in 1 Chronicles 23:30-31, which we read at the beginning of this sermon. That passage is about the Levitical priesthood whose job it was to serve at the temple. It says, “And they were to stand every morning, thanking and praising the LORD, and likewise at evening, and whenever burnt offerings were offered to the LORD on Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days, according to the number required of them, regularly before the LORD” (1 Chronicles 23:30–31, ESV).
To those who would attempt to use Colossians 2:16 to teach that there is no longer a weekly Sabbath day under the New Covenant, I would say the following ten things:
1) You are forgetting that the Sabbath was not instituted under the Old Covenant, but at the time of creation.
2) You are forgetting that the Sabbath was given, not only to Israel, but to Adam, and to all humanity through him.
3) You are forgetting that the Sabbath was given as a sign of eternal Sabbath rest, or life in glory, and we have not yet taken possession of that.
4) You are forgetting that when Israel was first commanded to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy under the Old Mosaic Covenant, the command was grouped with the summary of God’s moral and unchanging law—it is the fourth of the Ten Commandments.
5) The moral principle at the heart of the fourth commandment is that a proportion of time is to be devoted to the worship of God, and at creation, God established that it would be one day out of every seven.
6) The day on which the Sabbath is to be kept is symbolic. The seventh day symbolically agrees with the substance of the Covenant of Works and the Mosaic Covenant. In those covenantal arrangements, work or obedience would lead to rest. But the first day Sabbath agrees with the terms of the Covenant of Grace. We rest in Christ and his work, and from that place of rest, our obedience does flow.
7) The New Testament teaches that Sabbath-keeping remains for the people of God (see Hebrews 4:9).
8) Under the New Covenant, a special day of the week clearly remains. It is called the Lord’s Day (see Revelation 1:10).
9) There is a good reason for why the Sabbath day was changed from the seventh to the first day of the week. Christ was raised on the first day. On that day, the new creation began.
10) The early church (see John 20:1, John 20:19, Acts 20:7, etc.) and the church throughout the ages have assembled for worship once per week, not on the seventh day, but on the first day in remembrance of Christ’s resurrection (He is risen, he is risen indeed!).
No, Colossians 2:16 does not teach that the weekly Sabbath has been abrogated. What it teaches is that, like with the dietary laws of the Old Covenant, the seventh-day Sabbath, along with all of the feast days, new moons, and Sabbath days that belonged to the religious calendar of the Old Mosaic Covenant, has been taken away and is no longer binding on God’s covenant people. And this is why Paul said, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or Sabbath days” (Colossians 2:16).
“These Are A Shadow Of The Things To Come, But The Substance Belongs To Christ.”
But why have these laws been taken away? There are a number of ways to answer this question. We might say, they have been fulfilled by Christ, and thus taken away. We might say, the Old Covenant is gone, and the New Covenant has come—we have new laws, therefore. We might also point to the change in the priesthood. The Old Covenant had Aaron and his sons as priests, but Christ is our High Priest, and he has come in the order, not of Aaron, but of Melchizedek. And as Hebrews 7:12 says, “when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well” (Hebrews 7:12, ESV). All of these answers are good and true. But I love the way that Paul puts in verses 17: “These [Old Covenant ceremonial laws] are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:17, ESV).
Paul spoke of these Old Covenant ceremonial laws in the present tense for two reasons. One, when he wrote, they were still being practiced. The temple stood in Jerusalem, the Levitical priests ministered there, and these laws were still being observed by those who did not receive Jesus as the Messiah. Two, these ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant will be with us always as they are preserved for us in the pages of Holy Scripture. They are there to the present day. Though they are not binding on us, they are to be read and understood.
How are we to understand the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament? Paul refers to them as a shadow of the things to come. The Greek word (σκιά) refers to a “faint archetype which foreshadows a later reality—‘foreshadow, faint prototype, shadow’” (Louw-Nida, 58.65). When God gave these laws to Israel through Moses, he did not intend for them to be observed as if they really brought salvation to those who observed them. No, they were intended to be viewed as signs that pointed forward to the one who would really accomplish our redemption, Christ Jesus the Lord.
When a man walks in the sun, his body casts a shadow on the ground. There is a relationship between the shadow and the man’s body. Something can be known about the man’s body from the shadow that is cast on the ground. But it the man’s body, and not the shadow, that is substantial. The body may exist without the shadow, but not the shadow without the body. And when that man comes home and his wife and children run to greet him, they do not embrace his shadow, but his body.
This illustrates the absurdity of submitting to the ceremonial laws of the Old Covenant now that Christ has come. The Old Covenant saints were blessed to have the shadow of Christ in the ceremonial laws that God gave to them through Moses, but we have something far greater than these shadow laws—we have Christ himself. He is the body (σῶμα) that casts the shadow backward in the history of redemption. Why embrace the shadow, brothers and sisters? Embrace the substance! And “the substance belongs to Christ” (Colossians 2:17, ESV).
Doctrine
The doctrine Paul teaches here in Colossians 2 is what we call the doctrine of Christian liberty. In Colossians 2:8-15, Paul established that Christ has set us free. Here in Colossians 2:16-23, Paul warns those in Christ not to be taken captive by empty and deceptive philosophies rooted in man-made traditions and not in Christ. In Colossians 3:1 and following, Paul will teach that in Christ we have been set free to serve the Lord.
Chapter 21 of our Confession of Faith is entitled, Of Christian Liberty And Of Liberty Of Conscience. Listen to what it says.
Paragraph 1 is about what Christ has set us free from. “The liberty which Christ hath purchased for believers under the Gospel, consists in their freedom from the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath of God, the rigour and curse of the law, and in their being delivered from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin, from the evil of afflictions, the fear and sting of death, the victory of the grave, and everlasting damnation: as also in their free access to God, and their yielding obedience unto Him, not out of slavish fear, but a child-like love and willing mind. All which were common also to believers under the law for the substance of them; but under the New Testament the liberty of Christians is further enlarged, in their freedom from the yoke of a ceremonial law, to which the Jewish church was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne of grace, and in fuller communications of the free Spirit of God, than believers under the law did ordinarily partake of.”
Paragraph 2 warns against being taken captive by the commandments of men. “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in any thing contrary to his word, or not contained in it. So that to believe such doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience; and the requiring of an implicit faith, and absolute and blind obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.”
Paragraph 3 clarifies that we have been set free in Christ to serve the Lord. “They who upon pretence of Christian liberty do practice any sin, or cherish any sinful lust, as they do thereby pervert the main design of the grace of the Gospel to their own destruction, so they wholly destroy the end of Christian liberty, which is, that being delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, we might serve the Lord without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our lives.”
Suggestions For Application
I’ll conclude this sermon with a few suggestions for application.
Firstly, it is vital that we reject any form of teaching that seeks to impose Old Covenant civil or ceremonial laws on the New Covenant people of God. False teaching of this kind may be more prevalent than you realize. Dispensationalism, Christian Zionism, and Theonomic forms of post-millennialism all err in that they fail to recognize the shadowy character of the Old Covenant civil and ceremonial laws, and their abrogation now that Christ, the substance, has come.
Secondly, as Christians, we ought to read the Old Testament Scriptures. But as we do, we must read them in the way that Christ and his Apostles have taught us to read them, namely, as pointing forward to the coming of Christ. All of the prophesies, promises, types, and shadows of the Old Testament find their “yes” in Christ (see 2 Corinthians 1:20). Indeed, the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms speak of Christ, and they find their fulfilment in him (see Luke 24:44).
Thirdly, as we consider our freedom in Christ and heed the warning of the Apostle to refuse to be taken captive by philosophies rooted in human tradition and the elementary and earthly principles of the Old Covenant, let us remember that Christ has set us free so that we may obey his commandments. And what are his commandments except the moral law and the positive laws of the New Covenant? They may be summed up like this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27, ESV).
