His words fly in the face of those who say we have a free will. Without Jesus, our so-called freedom is doing whatever we want, running our own lives apart from God. The Bible calls that sin and sin is ordering our lives. This is why the Bible tells me:
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)I could make a list: eating after I’m full, watching TV when God is telling me to do something else, becoming angry about something and letting the sun go down on my anger, putting off praying for another person’s request, blah, blah. My friends say that too much focus on sin is not good, and they are right, but what is the alternative? To me, if I am not obedient, then I need to repent and do what the Lord says, focusing on His forgiveness and goodness.
This is simple, but as today’s reading says, legalism or living by rules is natural, a big part of that old nature. It causes me to seek assurance or recognition based on my own works instead of on Christ. It can also cause me to shirk what I should be doing because I feel inadequate and unworthy.
Legalism is motivated by pride, fear, unbelief and a sense of duty — all slave drivers. So is the way it can lead me to judge others by rules (theirs or mind) instead of loving them as brothers and sisters in God’s family.
This passage is long, but when slavery calls, I need to read and re-read it:
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 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 2:6–23)PRAY: Jesus, what arrogance to think that my choices for life are better than Yours. While You do use a rod and staff to direct me, it is far better than the whip I carry to motivate myself. Thank You Jesus for wanting and securing my freedom and for being my Shepherd.
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