FREEDOM

In the Movie Brave Heart, William Wallace dies fighting for freedom.  Who can ever forget the gut wrenching seen when he is being tortured and just before he dies he gives one last cry for freedom that cuts to the very core of everyone who is witness.  True freedom can only come through Jesus Christ.

Col 2:13-19 NASB  When you were dead in your transgressions and the un-circumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 

(14)  having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 

(15)  When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. 

(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. 

(18)  Let no one keep defrauding you of your prize by delighting in self-abasement and the worship of the angels, taking his stand on visions he has seen, inflated without cause by his fleshly mind, 

(19)  and not holding fast to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.

Christ gained full and complete victory over sin on the cross. In New Testament times a debtor could be taken to court and sold into slavery. Because of our great record of debt God could have forced us to spend eternity in Hell.  Aren’t you glad that God has canceled the certificate of debt that sin caused in our lives?  Through Jesus our debt has been paid in full.  God wants us to live for him as victors. If we know Christ we should not live enslaved.

Christ is the reality of which all else is a mere shadow.  Paul tells us that they were teaching that the observance of days and festivals and foods were essential for salvation.  Paul says no.

Paul does not condemn the dietary laws but they are not essential for salvation. Anytime we place extras as being essential for salvation we are going back to justification under the law and that is a shadow.  It is like looking at a picture of Jesus when he is standing right in front of you.  We must avoid setting mandates on others and find our liberty in Christ.