Reality vs. Religion

One of Satan’s greatest strategies to keep us away from God is to make us religious. Now that may sound odd. You wouldn’t think that the devil would want you to become religious. But he does.

Because being religious is all about trying to reach God on your own terms. But being a Christian is about letting God reach you on His terms. And the two ways are diametrically opposite, and they lead to two completely different destinations.

We come today to a passage in the book of Colossians where Paul warns the young believers in Colosse about the peril of substituting religion for a warm and living relationship with God. He says “It’s real easy to get off the tracks and to begin to think that spiritual reality is found in the practice of certain religious duties or disciplines. And you can become hung up on doing those things instead of pursuing that warm, vibrant relationship with Christ that God wants you to have.”

There were many false teachers around Colosse in the first century A.D., just as there are today—teachers who want to take you away from the simple Gospel of faith in Jesus Christ. They want to get you involved in an elaborate system of rules and rituals that are supposed to make you feel good about yourself, and to make you look very spiritual in the eyes of others.

So in light of that peril, Paul reminds us that as Christians, our spiritual reality is found in Christ. Look at Col. 2:13…

Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Paul reminds us of four things that happened to us in Christ—four things that affect our relationship with God—because of what Christ did on the cross.

1. God made us alive with Christ. - v. 13

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

When you put your trust in Jesus Christ to be your Savior, you identify with him in his death, burial, and resurrection. When Jesus died on the cross, God regards you to have died. When Jesus was buried, God regards you to have been buried with him. And when Jesus rose from the dead, you rose from the dead, too. So you are now a new creature with a new life because of what Jesus did.

2. God forgave us all our sins - v. 13

Have you ever experienced what it means to be truly forgiven? The relief, the freedom that that brings!

Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in his psychiatric hospital that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them could walk out healed the next day.

3. God cancelled the written code that was against us - v. 14

…having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.

As sinners, we stand under the condemnation of the Law of God. But when Jesus died on the cross, he took the punishment that the Law called for against us. So that means that the Law no longer has anything to say against us. We are no longer under its dictates. The penalty has been paid. Justice has been satisfied, and we are free. It is as though when Jesus was nailed to the cross, the Law was nailed there too.

God cancelled the debt we could not pay because Jesus paid the debt he did not owe. But Jesus not only cancelled the Law’s penalty, and took away our sin, and provided for our forgiveness when he died on the cross.

4. God disarmed and disgraced the dark powers that held us - v. 15

And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

This is a picture that would have been familiar to anyone living in the Roman Empire. Whenever a Roman general fought and won a great victory against the barbarians on the fringes of the Empire, the government would hold a triumphal procession in his honor.

The general would lead that parade, sitting astride a white horse. Next would come his soldiers, marching proudly, under their banners and standards. Then would come the spoils of battle, valuable objects and trophies that had been captured in battle. Finally, bringing up the rear, would come the prisoners of war in chains—a public spectacle, humiliated and defeated.

This is what Jesus Christ did to Satan and his dark powers when he died on the cross. The moment of Satan’s greatest triumph actually turned out to be the time of his greatest defeat, as Christ broke his power and publicly exposed him and showed him to be powerless.

So Paul has shown us four great truths—new life; sins forgiven; debt cancelled; and enemy defeated—all because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Now the point he is making here is that these things are true. This is reality. This is what has really happened in the spiritual realm. Your relationship with God is predicated on these things which have been accomplished for you by Christ. Your relationship with God doesn’t depend on what you do, but on what Jesus Christ has already done.

THEREFORE—do you see that word in verse 16? It’s important. It means that everything that follows is going to refer back to what he’s already told us.

Therefore, don’t retreat to the shadowy world of RELIGION. Don’t go back to thinking that your relationship with God depends on something other than these accomplished facts.

Now religious people tend to come in three varieties: there is the legalist; there is the mystic; and there is the ascetic. And Paul talks about each of them here. Let’s look at the first warning he gives us, in v. 16.

1. Don’t retreat to the shadowy world of religious legalism. - v. 16–17

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

There were a lot of teachers in Paul’s day who were saying that you couldn’t really be a Christian unless you adopted the Jewish law. And the Jewish law was concerned with diet and days. If you were going to observe the Jewish Law, you could only eat certain foods.

There was a man in the church in which I grew up who would never eat pork. This man was a Christian, he was a Sunday School teacher, he was a leader in the church. But he would never touch pork or ham because he believed that since God had forbidden the Jews in the OT from eating pork, that applied to Christians as well.

He didn’t understand the teaching of 1 Corinthians 8:8, which says that “food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.”

There are other Christian denominations today which make a great fuss over days. They believe that you must worship on Saturday because Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath.

They fail to understand that Jesus did away with the Jewish Law. Christians who are trusting in Jesus do not need to concern themselves with the prohibitions of the Jewish Law. Paul says “do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

The various rules and regulations of the OT Law had an educational purpose. The Law was like a schoolmaster that helped to train and discipline Israel in the childhood of the nation, preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. Now that Jesus has come, however, the schoolmaster is no longer needed. But some people cling to the Law anyway, thinking that it will make them more spiritual.

A few years ago, the mayor of New York City was Ed Koch. And when Ed Koch was the mayor, whenever he was out in public meeting people, he’d always ask them “How am I doing?” That was his trademark—How am I doing as mayor? Do you think I’m doing a good job?

And religious legalism is an attempt to answer that same question in the spiritual realm. How am I doing in my relationship with God? How am I doing spiritually?

Religious legalism promises to provide you with a way of measuring your spirituality. If you’re keeping these rules and regulations, then you must be doing okay. The outward externals indicate the inward condition of your heart.

Ahh, but that’s wrong—that’s a fallacy. Just because you are keeping certain days and eating certain foods doesn’t mean that your heart is right with God. Jesus spoke to that very subject in Matthew 15:11 where he said:

“What goes into a man’s mouth does not make him ‘unclean,’ but what comes out of his mouth, that is what makes him ‘unclean.” Because what comes out of a man’s mouth reveals what’s in his heart.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were strict religious legalists. They were punctilious in keeping the law. But Jesus condemned them in Matthew 23 when he said…

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

Legalism actually inflates the ego. It leads to self-righteousness. Our human nature thrives in doing religious duties. You see, the flesh is weak when it comes to doing truly spiritual acts of righteousness. But it is very strong when it comes to practicing religious rules and regulations. That’s why legalism is popular with many people, because it lets you measure your spiritual life and even become proud about it.

But legalism is just one of the religious traps you might fall into. There’s another form of religion which is tempting as well…

2. Don’t retreat to the shadowy world of religious mysticism. - v. 18–19

Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

The other day I happened to be watching the Weather Channel when suddenly an ad caught my attention. A young woman was sitting in a warm living room setting. There was a nice fire burning in the fireplace. And this attractive young woman was talking very earnestly about spiritual things. She was urging me not only to read the Bible, but to read the Book of Mormon as well. She told how the Book of Mormon told the story of the spiritual history of the ancient peoples of America, and how much it had blessed her life, and how much it would bless mine too if I read it.

And there are lots of other people today who, like Joseph Smith the founder of Mormonism, claim to have had a special revelation from God that supplements or supersedes the teaching of the Bible. They may be very sincere and persuasive in their approach. But they are very misguided.

Religious mysticism is any approach to God which is based on something other than Jesus Christ. A dream, a vision, a mystical experience, an encounter with an angel—any authority other than the Word of God which points to Jesus Christ. These things are delusions and diversions which lead us away from the truth.

Jesus Christ is the one and only Mediator between God and man. The person who seeks to come to God through angels or saints or some other way may seem very spiritual and very sincere and very humble. But he is actually not humble because he is not willing to submit to the authority of God’s Word. Actually he reveals a subtle kind of spiritual pride that substitutes man-made traditions and experience for the Word of God.

Then there is a third form of religion that can tempt us…

3. Don’t retreat to the shadowy world of religious asceticism - v. 20–23

Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

The word asceticism comes from the Greek word askesis, which means “training”. Religious asceticism is a form of spiritual training. It is when you adopt a strict regime of self-discipline or self-denial—a list of “do not’s” that are supposed to help you renounce bodily appetites in order to become more acceptable to God.

Back in the early centuries of the church, this seemed to be more of a temptation than it is today. There were people back then who went to unbelievable lengths to put down their bodies, their physical appetites, their desires, thinking that in doing so, they were gaining more favor in God’s sight.

For example, there was Simon Styllites, a monk who lived for 36 years on a little platform on top of a 60 foot pillar—no sanitary facilities, no shelter, completely exposed to the elements. And Simon became world famous. People came from all over Christendom to hear him preach from the top of his pillar. They thought he was really spiritual because he had willingly chosen to live such a harsh lifestyle.

And in the early centuries of church history, people began to view ascetics as a sort of “spiritually elite” class of people. (The practice of celibacy among the Roman Catholic priesthood has its roots in this outlook, by the way. It was thought that by remaining celibate, by renouncing sex, that priests would prove themselves to be more holy.)

But Paul says that this kind of bodily discipline, this kind of harsh physical self-denial, doesn’t do you any spiritual good. Oh, it may look good from the outside—it may have the appearance of wisdom and humility. And it may even do you some good physically—it might make you hardier and healthier. But it won’t make you any holier because it lacks the ability to change the heart.

Only the power of Christ in your life can give you victory over the flesh. If you are a Christian, Jesus Christ is living in your life and he wants to replace those old desires with new desires.

A Christian doesn’t need law on the outside to control his appetites because he has new life on the inside. And in the next two chapters of the letter to the Colossians, Paul is going to explain to us how that new life operates.

But in the meantime, he warns us that religion—whether it be in the form of legalism, or mysticism, or asceticism—is a great temptation. It looks good on the surface, but it cannot bring change on the inside. Only Jesus can do that.