Let none therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in matter of feast, or new moon, or sabbaths,
Paul has just said that the cross cancelled the record of debt that stood against us. Now he draws the practical result: rules about food and holy days, once given by God Himself, have no hold on a believer's conscience.
Three times in this chapter Paul puts up a caution sign, and each one points at a different danger.
The Apostle's warnings seem to fall under three headings. Look at verses 8, 16 and 18. Each opens with a word of caution about the activities of men. Those activities run in different directions, but all are hostile to the truth. The first danger comes from philosophy, the second from Judaism, the third from superstition.
The word "therefore" points back to what the cross did to the whole system of legal rules.
The cross blotted out our sins truly, but it did more: it also blotted out the whole system of legal ordinances that stood against us. The law itself was not blotted out. Far from it — the death of Christ vindicated and magnified the law. On the other hand, we died out from under the law in His death. We are now under grace, and all the old legal ordinances no longer stand. Verse 16 gives samples of them. The word translated "blotted out" is one "used for annulling a decree of law."
The rules ended at the cross, so anyone who presses them now has no claim on you.
Do not allow anyone to put you again under these legal ordinances, for the death of Christ has ended them.
The items named cover the year, the month and the week. Each one was a picture of something still to come.
Take eating and drinking, or ordinances about the year, month, and week. The Apostle takes particular care to speak not merely of feast or new moon but of sabbaths. Remember that these things are only pictures of the body — the real good found only in Christ. In fact, these times and seasons point mainly to what God will give His people later on. The new moon was a striking picture of Israel renewed after fading away. The sabbath pictured the rest of God, which He will yet enjoy and share.
A festival was a day set above other days. Bringing such days back is no small matter.
A "holy-day" — it is worth calling it that, since the name shows its meaning — was a day God had made to be regarded above another. That day, and the foods, drinks, various washings, and outward ordinances of Judaism, all had their time and use. "The body is of Christ." In Him we have what they were designed to picture. If I take them up now, I take up the shadow and not the substance; it is a mere shadow, but by setting it up again, I make it the real thing and deny Christ.
The shadows were accurate as far as they went. But they could not show the whole.
It was true that the instructions about new moons and sabbaths, and the rules about food and drink, came from God. They really were shadows of things to come. The body, however, of which they were true shadows, is of Christ. As shadows they were correct, outlining truth about the One who has come. But they could not even hint at all that He is… Why turn to the shadow after the substance has appeared?
Freedom from another's judgment is real, and it comes with a responsibility.
We have everything in Christ, and nothing outside of Him: completeness in the presence of God, and perfect deliverance from all that we are in ourselves, and from everything that is or could be used against us. What perfect liberty! We need to see that we use it in a holy way, but it is a perfect liberty.
The pressure Paul described has not disappeared; it has changed clothes.
Someone may ask what these things have to say to us today, since no active Judaizing party is at work in the church now. The answer is that they are still very much to the point. There is not much active Judaizing because the professing church itself has been so largely Judaized for centuries… The word here is not exactly "sabbath days," but "sabbaths" — covering sabbaths of all kinds, whether of days or of years.
The sabbath named here is not the day Christians gather.
They prove that the Lord's day occupies a place that is quite unique, quite heavenly, quite divine. But they equally prove that the Jewish Sabbath and the Lord's day are entirely distinct. The New Testament keeps the two days as distinct as we keep Saturday and Sunday.
- Cross — The cross annulled the decree of legal ordinances. That work is finished, so no one may put it back on you.
- Shadow — Food, drink, festival, new moon and sabbath were God-given outlines of what was coming. "Sabbaths" here covers every kind, days or years.
- Substance — Shadows could sketch Christ, but never show all He is. Taking one up again makes the shadow the real thing and denies Him.
- Liberty — Completeness in Christ brings perfect liberty. Use it in a holy way.
- Today — The same pressure survives in a church long since Judaized. The Lord's day stands apart from the Jewish sabbath, as distinct as Sunday from Saturday.
which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ.
Some people were pressing Jewish food rules and sacred days on the believers at Colossae. Paul does not call these things worthless — he calls them a shadow, an outline cast ahead of a Person who has now arrived.
The rules about food, new moons and sabbaths were not human inventions. They came from God, and they really did sketch what was coming.
It was true that the instructions about new moons and sabbaths, and the rules about food and drink, came from God. They really were shadows of things to come. But the body, of which they were true shadows, is of Christ. As shadows they were correct, and they outlined truth about the One who has come. Yet they could not even foreshadow all that He is. Judaism could never give those raised in it the full truth about Christ.
Older translations read "the body is of Christ," where the ESV has "the substance belongs to Christ." The word does not mean a physical body. It means the solid reality that casts the shadow.
"Body" here is plainly substance in contrast to shadow — that is, "All that was shadowed had its origin as well as its fulfilment in Him," as has been well said.
One writer pictures it from daily life. The shadow arrives first; then the person does.
I am standing at a street corner, waiting for a friend. The sun is shining behind him as he comes round the corner. The first thing I see is his shadow. I have the body, the Person, and I am occupied with Him. What a Person! Where is there room for food and drink, and the sabbath?
Israel's calendar was prophetic. The monthly and weekly cycles pointed to blessings God still intends to give, and one writer marks off the Lord's day from all of it.
The new moon was a remarkable type of Israel being renewed after fading away. The sabbath was the type of the rest of God which He will yet enjoy and share... The Jew had the shadow, and by God's grace he will have the things to come under the new covenant by and by. We are given the substance of Christ now. It is a question here of Jewish days. The Lord's day has nothing to do with Judaism; it is not only separate from that system, but in contrast with it.
These ordinances had their time and use. So what happens if someone takes them up again now?
The food, the drink, the various washings, and the outward ordinances of Judaism had their time and use. "The body is of Christ." In Him we have what they were designed to picture. If I take them up now, I take up the shadow and not the substance. It is a mere shadow, but by setting it up again I make it the real thing and deny Christ.
This is not only an ancient problem. Writers trace the same mistake in religion today.
The Colossian believers faced this snare, and it has developed into the ritualism of our day... Sadly, Christendom has fallen into this snare. In turning back to the shadows it has lost much of the Substance.
Refusing to live under the shadows does not mean throwing them away. Once a believer knows Christ, the old ceremonies start to speak.
Now that the body, Christ, had appeared, the shadow received a meaning and an interest. By itself it had been uninteresting and unbearable. We can now use the shadows with profit to show the reality: the many riches of the graces of Christ. This is so because "the body is of Christ." But to impose them again as duties would deny Christ.
Commentators differ here. Some take "body" in the wider Colossian sense of the body joined to Christ as Head, stressing that it did not grow out of the old system at all.
The body is not a development of the shadows. Neither is it a product of man's philosophy — "the body is of Christ." The body is derived from Christ...
- Shadow given. The food rules, new moons and sabbaths came from God. They outlined what was coming, but an outline cannot show all that Christ is.
- Shadow explained. "Body" means substance, not shadow. Everything the old system pictured has its origin and its fulfilment in Christ.
- Substance owned. The shadows pointed to blessings still to come for Israel. Believers have the substance, Christ Himself, now.
- Shadow refused. Setting the ordinances up again treats the outline as the reality, and so denies the One who has come. Commentators trace today's ritualism to this step.
- Shadow reread. Kept in its place, the old picture displays the riches of Christ. Use it to show the reality; never impose it as a duty.