The Finished Work of Christ
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. (Colossians 2:16-17)
Inside the Colossian church was a self-appointed jury that looked out on others with judgment upon their spiritual lives. There was an Inner Ring claiming the inside scoop on true spirituality. The truly spiritual path was paved by the law, abstaining from certain food and drink and observing certain days: festivals, new moons, and the Sabbath.
The false teachers set the boundaries of true spirituality around these doctrines and judged others accordingly. There were sincere believers inside the church, and they were unnecessarily burdened. Paul wanted them to know that the judgment they felt heaped upon them was wrong. They do not have the right to pass judgment. Only God can judge, and he has already passed his judgment on these Christians on the cross of Christ.
As Paul said in Colossians 2:14, God forgave our trespasses and canceled our debt by nailing it to the cross. Jesus was perfect in every way. He never sinned. But on the cross, Jesus was judged for our sins as if they were his sins, as our substitute. This is why the cross is called the great exchange. All our sin was placed on Jesus, and in return, all his righteousness was granted to us. So now it is not only just as if we never sinned but also as if we have always obeyed.
If that’s true (and it is), who is left to judge these Colossians? If God has judged and acquitted in Christ, there is no higher court of appeal. That’s Paul’s point. No one can judge you now because, in Christ, you have been judged and found not guilty by grace. That’s not only true when you first believe, but it remains true for the rest of your life. Every day, you are as free as if Jesus died for you yesterday.
Now, in fairness, perhaps the false teachers would agree Jesus paid for our sins, but they still held to a certain path as the way to true spirituality. But that is only a new law. Like the Old Testament law, it’s only a shadow of the things to come. As Paul said in Romans 7:4, when Christ died, “You also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead.” If we have died to the law, what good is it to live to it again, as if it can give something Jesus can’t?
Paul says these false teachers are merely chasing shadows. They’re after the old age, but the new age has come. The law was a shadow of the good things to come (Heb. 10:1). The substance belongs to Christ. He is the fulfillment of the law, and we have that fullness now in him. As Herman Bavinck said, “What the law demands of us is given us in the gospel for nothing.” If we already have the gift of full obedience to the law imputed to us by Christ, why then go back to the law as if it can add something to that finished work?
The problem can be boiled down to one word: legalism. Legalism is the idea that we earn favor with God through works. Obedience is important. God requires it. But it does not gain us favor with him. We have all the favor we will ever need in Christ by grace. Our works add nothing to that, any more than the works of your children add to your love for them. You love them because you love them, and for those in Christ, God loves you because he loves you.
Maybe you’re a child with many siblings, and you know your parents love you, but you’re the black sheep of the family. No way your parents love you like your all-star brother or sister. I doubt that’s true, but let’s just grant for a moment it is. Is that how God loves? With degrees of affection? No. He loves you as he loves Christ. The doctrine of the adoption of God means we are adopted as sons and daughters in Christ. As Jesus prayed in John 17:23, “You…have loved them even as you have loved me.” You have the fullness of God’s love and favor in Christ freely and fully.
But legalism says you don’t. Legalism establishes requirements of moral conduct beyond what the Bible teaches and then sets the boundaries of true spirituality and acceptance dependent upon adhering to those requirements. In its ugliest form, legalism forces that theology on others. The only way someone is fully “in” is to fully obey their rules, and faith becomes a side-bar issue. Works are what really matter. This is what happened to the Colossians. Legalists were excluding Christians from the Church. The problem is, they aren’t in charge. Jesus is.
One of my favorite phrases is “the finished work of Christ.” When Jesus died on the cross, he did not say, “My part is done, now your turn.” No. He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Jesus lived the perfect life we failed to live and, on the cross, atoned for all our sins to set us right with God now and forever. He finished that work and was raised on the third day. What Jesus has accomplished and filled up on our behalf, he does not also ask us to do to earn his favor. What God has deemed finished, let no man continue.
God asks us to obey him, yes, but out of his fullness of grace, not as a path to it. We obey because we are loved, not to be loved. We obey because we have spiritual life in him, not to gain it. True spirituality is found in Christ alone, in communion with him, in living inside his gospel promises, in going into the gospel deeps, not in eating or drinking the right things or observing the right days, but in loving the Savior and following him only.
