PT-3 "Legalism" (Col. 2:16-17)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/29/2017 9:19 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                        Focus:  PT-3 Legalism

Bible Reading & Meditation                                             Reference:  Colossians 2:16-17

            Message of the verses:  “16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”

            We have been talking about legalism for these past two Spiritual Diaries, and we continue to talk about this in our SD for today, as we talk about the Sabbath day.  Now we know that the Jewish people worship on the Sabbath day which is Saturday, and this is a part of what is in their law.  However the Colossian believers were not Jewish, but were Gentiles and so the Gentile believers worshiped the Lord on the Lord’s Day, which is Sunday because this is the day that Christ arose from the dead.  When we studying the book of Revelations a couple of years ago we read the following about the apostle John who wrote “10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day.” John was worshiping the Lord on the first day of the week even though he was probably the only one who was at this worship service.  Now as we think about the Jews worshiping on the Sabbath day we must remember that even after the Jews came to Christ that some of them still worshipped on the Sabbath day, but it is possible that many of them began to worship on the Lord’s Day as well.  You see that Sunday was a day when many of the Jews worked, as it was like a regular work day for them so it would have been difficult for them to worship on the Lord’s Day.  However that was for the Jews not the Gentiles and we can see that the false teachers were trying to bring these types of things into the Gentile church telling them that they needed to do this as a part of their salvation.  Before we move on I want to quote one more verse to show that the early church meet on the Lord’s Day:  “7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight” (Acts 20:7).

            We have been looking at a number of items that John MacArthur writes about in his commentary to show “There is convincing evidence for that in Scripture,” that worship on the Sabbath for NT believers is not binding in the New Covenant.  Since we have looked at the first three reasons already I want to move onto the fourth reason: “we find no hint in the Old Testament that God expected the Gentile nations to observe the Sabbath, nor are they ever condemned for failing to do so.”  The Jews in the OT were suppose to be different than the Gentile nations in order for the Gentile nations to see this difference and then because of it have a desire to know the God that the Jews worshiped. 

            The fifth “there is no evidence of anyone’s keeping the Sabbath before the time of Moses, nor are there any commands to keep the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.”  I think some get this mixed up because of the creation week where God rested on the last day of the week, but did not require people to do this until the law was given.

            Sixth, “the Jerusalem Council did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers (Acts 15).

            Seventh, “Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but never about breaking the Sabbath.”

            Eight, “Paul rebuked the Galatians for thinking God expected them to observe special days including the Sabbath) (Gal. 4:10-11).”

            Ninth, “Paul taught that keeping the Sabbath was a matter of Christian liberty (Rom. 14:5).”

            Tenth, “the early church Fathers, from Ignatius to Augustine, taught that the Old Testament Sabbath had been abolished and that the first day of the week (Sunday) was the day when Christians should meet for worship.  That disproves the claim of some that Sunday worship was not instituted until the fourth century.”

            Now as we look at verse seventeen we read “17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”  All of the things that we have been looking at are but a shadow of the things that were to come, however they were fulfilled in Christ.  The book of Hebrews is a good example of the OT laws that were a shadow of what Christ fulfilled and many commentaries on Hebrews have that word shadow in their title.  MacArthur gives us a few examples of things that were shadows that Christ fulfilled.  John 6:41 “Therefore the Jews were grumbling about Him, because He said, "I am the bread that came down out of heaven."”  1 Corinthians 5:7 teaches us “Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”  MacArthur writes “What justification could there be for demanding that Gentiles observe the Sabbath when God has granted them eternal rest (Heb. 4:11)?  Any continuing preoccupation with the shadows once the reality has come is pointless.

            “Paul’s point is simple:  true spirituality does not consist merely of keeping external rules, but of having an inner relationship with Jesus Christ.”

3/29/2017 9:58 PM