Colossians Chapter 2:

Colossians Chapter 2:

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving...

10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

It is little understood, but in reality there are no carnal ordinances in the new testament. None. That is what this passage is conveying to us. To say that we are "complete in [Christ]" means exactly that. If we are in Christ then we have all that we will ever need, because we HAVE CHRIST! He is enough. There are no ceremonial ordinances that lead us to Christ. That was the purpose of the old covenant for the Jews, as the apostle Paul says elsewhere: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Gal. 3:24,25). We as Gentiles were never under the law, and we were never intended to be. The only thing that leads us to Christ is faith, and faith in Jesus is the only thing that keeps us going and keeps us growing in him. That is the significance of verses 6 and 7 in the above cited passage. We began in Christ by faith, and faith is the only way we can continue in him and with him. To add any surplus of natural ordinances to that is actually to take away from faith and godly regard for what Jesus suffered and died for. Paul definitively states in verse 14 above that Jesus nailed all of the ceremonies of the law to his cross, thereby taking them away. After saying that we are complete by being in Christ, the apostle goes on to explain. We are circumcised by Christ, not by some man with a knife. We are baptized by Jesus, not by some man with a pool of water.

We are not subject to meat and drink rules, nor are we subject to 'holy days' like the Sabbath days, as Paul mentions in verse 16. The reason for these things is stated in verse 17, where he tells us that all of those things were symbolic ordinances that Jesus has fulfilled; and now HE is the very substance that those symbols were pointing to. All carnal ordinances pertain only to the flesh, which is to say they only effect the body. But Jesus died and rose from the dead so that he could effect our spirits by means of giving us his Spirit to indwell us. This is what Paul was saying in another place: "This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:2,3) The Galatians had been duped by false teaches into thinking they had to keep carnal ordinances in order to be complete, and Paul was telling them that they could not perfect, or complete the work of Christ in them by observing natural ceremonies. As he told the Colossians, they were already complete by being in Christ. The short of it is that God did not send his Son from heaven to suffer what he suffered, to establish a mix of Christ and the old testament. The old testament delivered no one from sin, nor did that covenant impart eternal life to anyone. Ever (Heb. 10:4; Gal. 3:21). Jesus has accomplished both, and in so doing he has BECOME the new testament. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty [from sin]" (II Cor. 3:17).

When Jesus went back to heaven and sent back the holy Ghost at Pentecost, he established the new covenant by coming to reside in the hearts of men through the Spirit. In fact his baptism of the Spirit, which was promised by John the Baptist, as well as by Jesus; is the experience of faith that puts us into Christ (Mk. 1:8; Acts 1:4,5; I Cor. 12:13). Pentecost is also where he BECAME the entire fulfillment of every symbolic ordinance that had gone before him. That understanding was given to Paul for the Gentiles, who had never been partakers of the old covenant. The believing Jews continued in many of the things of the ceremonial law because it had been a way of life to them for almost fourteen hundred years. Nonetheless as Gentile believers, faith in Jesus and being filled with his Spirit, is as complete as we can possibly be. To add natural ordinances to that equation is to subtract from our completeness in Christ, because we are giving godly respect to something that is lifeless, that is apart from the one who died and rose to give us the life of his Spirit (Jn. 10:10: Rom. 8:2). That is in fact exactly what Paul told the Galatians: "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace" (Gal. 5:4). So let's be "complete in him" for real, and throw all of the dead weight overboard. I don't know about you, but God's life dwelling in me is plenty enough.