You Have Died with Christ, Col, 2:20-23
Colossians 2:20-23 · Vern Peterman · Nov 28, 2004
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 46
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262316127986

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

The passage that we have to study this morning is a really good one. They're all good, but this one is really good. And there are several reasons why this is a really good passage. As a matter of fact, it's especially appropriate for now. This passage will address food, and we're right at the proper season to talk about that. And that's one reason it's an especially good passage. But there's also some really, really good news in this passage.

I mean, we're talking really good news. No, no, no, no, no, no. Really good news. You know what I mean now? I mean, really, really good news. Alright. Are you ready for the good news? You died. That's the good news. You died. But that's not all. It's got even more in it. See that place right there? You don't live there. That's the other good news. Really good news. You get up in the air quite a distance. There we are there. There where the little circle is there. We're not there.

Now, let's take a look at the passage. These verses will finish up chapter 2 of Colossians. And what we'll do as we proceed through these is we'll look at it in kind of three sections, okay? Verse 20 and 21 initially, then verse 22 and then verse 23. And you're not going to believe it, we're going to start at the beginning. All right. Now, one of the things we find in Scripture is that important things are often repeated, and this is no exception.

Romans 6.8 says, now if we have died with Christ, okay?

We see in the passage here, Galatians 2.20, if you have died with Christ.

We look at Colossians 3.3, you have died.

And we go on there, Romans 6.6, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, and then that's not all, Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. Consistent, repeated message, because it's important. Now, of course, you remember having been crucified with Christ.

You remember that, don't you? Oh, memorable experience, I'm sure. Remember that? Okay, well, neither have I. The world tells us that we're to verify things by what we sense physically or, if not that, by what we can feel. It's what you feel that counts, right? Or by some unique validating experience. Ah, that's it. Or to ask everybody else what they think is actually true. Of course, you'll want to do that.

Scripture, however, is God's revelation of what is true spiritually. God tells us as believers to put our faith in the spiritually revealed facts about our past, present, and future. What we see then is Scripture is founding our faith in the spiritually revealed facts, those facts that have been revealed by God. That's the sequence that Scripture puts in place.

You have probably noted that the world has been screaming for decades, okay? Base everything on your feelings. Remember, 1977 was a banner year for this message, okay? Debbie Boone did a top-of-the-chart song, okay? You Light Up My Life. It can't be wrong if it, what? feels so right. Huh? Anyway. Feelings are the measure of things.

That was also the year that the movie, the first one, Star Wars, was released. And what did Obi-Wan tell Luke? Trust your feelings, Luke. And so you find this message that the world keeps coming across with, trust your feelings. But that turns it upside down, doesn't it?

The message we see consistently in Scripture is put your faith in the facts. That's the foundation. spiritual facts are those revealed by God, and those facts center upon Christ. That's what we see in these passages. Let's look here at this passage, starting with the first couple of verses. Verse 20 starts off with, if, okay? Nice place to begin there. And one of the things to remember as we look at this passage, the if, or as the King James puts it, underscoring the logical statement there, wherefore if, okay? The if, isn't putting into question, well, have we really died with Christ or not? Okay? It's not asking the question in the sense of doubting it.

It is inviting people instead to think through the logic with Paul. Paul could have just said, look, you've died with Christ. Deal with it. Okay? Instead, what does he do? He says, look, think this through. If you've died with Christ, then these are the consequences. It makes logical sense. That's the way he's going. He's inviting them to be involved in the thinking process. That's what he's doing. Now, what he's going to lay out here is the if statement.

If you have died with Christ, You see, if you look at it, our spiritual history is not hypothetical. It is the basis on which he's going to come to a bunch of very practical and real conclusions. The if-then statement isn't just an exercise in logic for your logic class. It is an exercise in thinking things through about what counts eternally. The difference in distinction is huge.

Now, he's inviting the believers to think through the conclusion there. Now, here's this little tiny word, too, that King James has from, and as it turns out, the King James actually conveys the Greek apo, the best there. You have died with Christ away from, okay, from the elementary principles of the world. This is communicating the separation that we have as believers. Believers have no relationship, okay, to the things that formerly called the shots in their lives? None. That relationship is dead. You've died in relationship to, you've died away from those things which formerly called the shots.

Now, we pointed out before in going through Ephesians 2, being dead means separation. There's Ephesians 2.12.

You were dead at that time, excuse me, you were at that time separate from Christ, being alien. and Ephesians 4.18, which we haven't got to yet, we will, excluded from the life of God, and Colossians 1.21, which we have talked upon, you are formerly alienated. These words draw upon these two Greek words here, separate from, isolated from, you were separated from the life of God. Being dead means separation, not annihilation, termination, and cessation. Separation. Death as separation is taught in a number of New Testament passages. We've looked at some of them. This will add some more to the list here.

Obviously, the one we're looking at right now here is in Colossians 2.20. Died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. Notice that the dead statements here are dead in relationship to. That's what's being underscored consistently. We're going to see it as we continue on in Colossians 3, 5 and 20.

Underscored again, died to sin, died with Christ to the world. It is in multiple relationships to things of this world to which we are dead. It's not only Paul's statement, 1 Peter makes a similar statement here, died to sin and lived to righteousness. This being dead to is a consistent message in the New Testament.

Now, dead to the elementary principles, that's the stoichia that we've been talking about for several weeks here. Remember here that the stoichia, according to ancient mythology, were the angelic spiritual powers. These were gods of the planets, gods of the seasons, gods of the elements of the earth. They were involved in magic and astrology, earth religions and Gnosticism, things we've got today. They had amulets to ward off the evil spirits. That was all what Paul is referring to as the stoichia here. All the things that people come up with that are spiritual, in a sense, but their man's concoction, and it is exactly what the Colossians were being sold. These angels supposedly required conformity to the laws and their worship and asceticism.

Remember, asceticism is denial of certain bodily comforts or requirements. You want to eat that? Ah, asceticism says you cannot. You want to be comfortable? Asceticism says you may not. You want to have this? Asceticism says no, you may not have that, or anything else.

That's what they were being sold on, and the stoichia, these spirit beings, these angelic creatures, they were being told in Colossae, required this behaviour. Now, here's for example an amulet from the time. This is a rooster-headed, snake-legged enguifeed. And by the way, I would not recommend calling anybody twice your size a rooster-headed, snake-legged enguifeed. They won't know what it is, but they won't like it. Okay.

Someone would wear this amulet in the New Testament era, they'd wear this amulet, and as they would, this amulet would call upon these angels, you'll see, Michael and Gabriel mentioned in the Bible. The other two are names they made up. But those would be some of the stoichia that you would be told, according to the Colossian false teachers, that you had to call upon.

People did whatever they thought would make the angelic powers inclined to them. Whatever is going to keep the evil spirits away so that I don't have anything bad happen to me. And people in the New Testament world were constantly in dread. constantly fearful of these stoichia that they might be offended or bothered in some way. And you've got to keep the evil spirits away and keep the stoichia on your side.

Now, there are lots of examples of this kind of belief. Examples from Josephus, for example, wrote about Solomon doing spiritual exorcisms. There's nothing in the Bible about that, but that was some of the mythology that developed. They had Jewish pagan magical documents They had special names you had to list. And some of the things that we read about were they would sell amulets and magic spells in the marketplace, as we see here in Ephesus.

Now, what Paul is telling the believers there, they've died to the influences that the world thinks are top priority. And we may not have rooster-headed, snake-legged anguipedes, or maybe you do, I don't know, We've got things that this world is telling us, call the shots. We've got things that this world bows down to in our culture that say, this is what's really important. The world stands at attention for those things that it considers ultimately important. All these motivations come from fear and greed and fleshly admiration and adoration and even selfish ambition.

Having died to those influences as believers, we have no relationship to them. These things that this world says, ah, that's what really matters, we've died to it with Christ. Now, elementary principles of the world in verse 20. The elementary principles of the world, or the rudiments of the world, these are these stoiche, which we first saw in Colossians 2.8, and we'll see again here for the last time in Colossians 2.20.

Why? Ah, now he's starting to come to the other half of things here. He's simply carrying on the other half of this logical argument, the question. Why, if you've died with Christ, to these things? Now, here's the then. Then why would you do this? What would be your reason for doing that? Whether Paul asks a logical question, or whether he is giving us a statement of imperative. You must do this. In either case, he is asking us to draw consistent conclusions based on our relationship to this world to which we've died, based on our position in Christ.

It's a question of worldview. You see, this world is going to view things from the standpoint that this world is what's certain, and this is real, and this is what we know, In the spiritual realm, it's great, but you really can't be too sure. Who knows? Who knows what that's all about? This is substantial and real and certain. The spiritual world, who knows? It's uncertain. Spiritual things are thought of as vague, tenuous. The picture he gives us here, however, is that the spiritual realm and what has happened there, what has happened to us in dying with Christ, that's certain. That's known. Whereas what this world has, we've died to it. Not only is it uncertain, yes it is, but we've died to it. We've died in relation to it.

Everything that scripture portrays is based out of the spiritual realm as what is solid, as what is certain, as what is real. It's the spiritual that is real, it's the physical realm that isn't. It's the spiritual realm where we have died with Christ, where there's reality. That's the basis, and not the physical realm, as the world keeps coming up with.

Then, he uses a quick little pair of words, as if. As though, in the King James, Paul is playing out the false assumption. If you actually play out this false assumption, what does that mean? It means you live in the world. But he's saying, well, wait a minute.

As if you live in the world, why, as if you live in the world, do you submit to these decrees? So here we are, or are we? You don't live here. As if we live in this world? No. We don't, spiritually. So that's what he's telling them. We've got this world, doesn't matter what the place is, what its influences are, we've died to it. Our relationship to it is cut off.

Instead, you've died with Christ, having been crucified with him. Here's your address. There it is. Have anybody asked for your address? Here, I'm seated in the heavenlies. You have multiple references you can point them to. As if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees? This dogmatizo is the word, and I don't know what it sounds like. It's either a dog and a mozzo, or a dog and a mosquito, but however way you look at it, The word goes like so.

It's a word we looked at as dogma in Colossians 2.14 and Ephesians 2.15, referring to the individual ordinances of the law.

Now, since it's passive voice, if it were active, it would say giving the individual ordinances. Since it's passive, you're submitting to them. You're being under the individual ordinances of the law. He says, why would you put yourself under, would you be in subjection to, would you be on the receiving end of these individual ordinances of the law? Now, what comes up? He says, such as, alright, here it is, he's giving examples.

Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Now, the first thing we've got to get out of your mind, This is what atheism is doing. This is what atheism is doing. Atheism is saying, don't touch this stuff. Atheism says if you really want to be holy and please those powers, those angelic powers, the things that control this world, so they think, then you've got to not handle this. You've got to not eat that. You've got to not touch this. Now, don't you feel holy?

That's what the ascetic answer is. That's what the answer was that was being sold to the believers there at Colossae. Just don't, whatever it is. I've heard it said sometimes of Christians, well, I can tell you're a Christian, you just don't. Well, the ascetic teachers were making that their theme. The truth is, as believers, that's really not our message, is it? It's not just don't, don't, don't.

It's who we've died with. You see, asceticism and the law walk hand in hand, and it goes like this. The law says, see, I'm pretty good. Asceticism says, yeah, it's just my body that's bad. We've got these laws, and we just need to really enforce them with teeth, because the body is just bad, bad, bad, bad body. That's the way the ascetic looks at it, and that's what they're being sold. I'm really good at heart. It's the body that's bad, so we're going to be really mean to it.

Just nasty to the body, because the body's awful. 1 Timothy, Paul writes to Timothy, and he's telling him, as Timothy's in Ephesus, not too far away from Colossae, but the Spirit explicitly says, Paying attention to deceitful spirits and the doctrines of demons. I mean, that sounds terrible, doesn't it? What does that look like? What on earth are doctrines of deceitful spirits and demons? You know what it is?

Don't. Don't. Don't. Verse 3. Don't do this. Don't do that. That's the doctrines of demons. How about that? Boy, amazing. It's interesting, every major world religion has some element of it, either currently or in its past, that embraces asceticism. The idea we're going to go and take away, we're going to deny ourselves this and deny ourselves that, we're going to take a vow not to eat this, say that, do this, go there, touch this, whatever it is. No, don't, don't, don't. That's the spiritual answer. Even the Jews had the Essenes, which were a group that did very much the same thing.

Ultimately, though, food is not the issue. It's a nice thing to know this time of year, right? Certainly foods may be related to a person's personal health. There are food issues that can come up, and food may become a spiritual issue, especially among brothers or even within the heart of a believer.

But spirituality is not in the food itself. There is no spirituality to be gained because, hey, I ate turkey. Or, I didn't eat the turkey. There is nothing automatically spiritual about it. 1 Corinthians 8.8, Paul lays it out this way. Food will not commend us to God, for we are neither the worse, spiritually speaking, if we do not eat, nor the better, spiritually, if we do eat. It's neutral. It doesn't make any difference, guys. You're not going to become more holy You're not going to become more holy if you do.

Three hoppings, you might have more than holes anyway. Okay, verse 22. All these things, the things that you don't handle, don't touch, don't taste, refer to things destined to perish with use. You eat it, you know, it's no longer food, and it's gone. He says it really is not the issue. It's not the issue. It's not the issue.

You do that in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men, things that people cook up as the answer. Paul has two main points he makes about these ascetic ordinances. All the material things of this world aren't going to last. The food that you decide to eat or not eat, they're of this old creation. It's going to pass. It's the way things are here on planet Earth. They're not going to matter. They're not going to be the thing that makes the difference.

These ascetic regulations, these things that say, don't, don't, don't, may be man's best guess as to what the angelic powers supposedly wanted, but they don't do any good. Now, in 1 Corinthians, again, Paul's addressing a similar issue. He talks about the body. Is the body bad, bad, bad? Is that really the issue?

He says, 1 Corinthians 6.15, Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? It is not simply a matter of telling this body, bad, bad, bad.

As a believer, the Lord has place and purpose for this. At times, I'd like him to get on with the next stage, but nonetheless, there's place and purpose for this. Now, in verse 23, he says, okay, he's giving us assessment of these matters. He's going to tell us two things about these restrictive ascetic practices as we get into this verse.

How they look, simple enough. What their value is. Alright, easy enough. How they look, what their value is. That's a pretty good assessment. He says it has the appearance of wisdom in self-made religions. Observe the source. What's the source of the religion? Self. Uh-oh.

That's a problem. The source of the religion in this don't, don't, don't, the body's bad teaching that's coming in Colossians is self-made. And it's self-abasement. Look, this bad, bad body gets told, don't do this, don't do that. Down, down, down. If I just push the bad, bad, bad body down, that'll fix it. Nope. Self is doing it, isn't it? Here I get self again, not the answer. Severe treatment of the body. Look at what gets impacted. Are you spiritually impacted? No. Self has cooked up an answer, and its answer is this thing. Wrong source, wrong solution, wrong answer, wrong area of contact.

Something else that may have been an impact here, in that area around Colossae, there was a deity named Attis, who worshipped Attis would go and whip themselves. We don't know exactly whether that was involved here, but even if it wasn't, it would be a message to the people of Colossae that this was normal behavior. Oh yeah, that's a spiritual thing to do. Beat yourself. That's the message that they would get.

About the time Nancy and I were married, I was amazed because here in University Avenue in Palo Alto, and Nancy and I both had a fair amount of history in Palo Alto, California, a few blocks away from the edge of Stanford University, there was a police bust. The storefront was a massage parlor, and in the back was a self-torture chamber, and you'd pay a fee. I know you're chuckling, but these people weren't. I mean, they're crazy. You would pay a fee and then you'd go in the back room and use their racks and whipping machines and all sorts of things to give yourself pain.

The list of clientele, primarily Stanford professors, lawyers, and Palo Alto Silicon Valley businessmen. So in case you think that this is an ancient phenomenon, something where, hey, beating ourselves up, and torturing ourselves and stretching ourselves on the rack and thumbscrews and all that stuff is some ancient problem. People, even today, somehow think that this is going to fix things.

It isn't. Now, here's Paul's assessment. Remember, he said, here's how it's going to look, and he gave us the point there, and he says, now, here's its value. Ready for the assessment? No value against fleshly indulgence. You've taken the body and said, bad, bad, bad body. What has it done spiritually? Absolutely zip. It sounds like you've done something. It's absolutely worthless. It's useless. You see, the flesh is the flesh is the flesh is the flesh is the flesh. You see, you can give the flesh all at once.

That's a good choice. Or, you can certainly allow it only limited kinds of expression. Sure, go ahead and do that. You can put it on a self-improvement program if you like. Ah, better flesh! It might even look pretty good for a while, sort of. You can restrict its intake in ways large and small, and its output. You can make the body look really good for a while. I've tried, believe me.

Or you can abuse the body that it's in. But the bottom line is the flesh is the flesh is the flesh. The flesh is still, by nature, exactly what it is. It's completely unchanged. You can dress it up, you can make it look like a poodle, but it's still exactly what it is. One of the things that is important to remember, too, the flesh is not something to play games with. That is why the Lord has dealt with us in the way that He has. He has not taken the flesh away, He has simply said, I am the power that will overcome the flesh.

Don't try to do it yourself. So the statement would be, don't try this at home, right? Just like the bear and the wolf you saw before, it's ominous, it's ferocious, and it's powerful. Deal with it properly, and that means not by yourself, not yours to do. The problem with the teachers of Colossae, the false teachers, they were saying, we can handle this bear. We can handle the wolf. We've got just the right solution. Don't feed it. Not enough. You see, here's the problem.

Just like this iceberg where you see a little bit at the top, looks pretty big, but the mass of it is underneath. This is the part of the flesh we see. The part of the flesh we don't see, is much bigger and much more ominous and has very deep roots. The external and human-centered teachers, the false teachers of Colossae, came along with a superficial solution. They were only looking at the smaller part that you could see, thinking, if we get on top of that, we've got it. In truth, it's no solution at all. It doesn't even begin to touch reality.

So here's Paul's assessment. He's told us this, not because he's just some really negative fellow, but because he's telling us what is of value in dealing with fleshly indulgence. And that's what he's going to get to next here. As we look at this passage here, what Paul has done is to lay out, here is the logic for you as a believer.

Because you have died with Christ, all the things that this world, Paul says, you have no connection to them. The things that are really the problem, their solution, don't, don't, don't, doesn't even begin to address. He said, what you need is something that is more than just superficial wisdom. You need something more than man's cooked-up, self-made solution. And that's what he said.

We don't have to go down the world's path spanking the body and saying, ìBad, bad, bad body!î and trying to self-concoct solutions. We don't have to mix up things that in the end are absolutely useless. We don't have to go down the world's path spanking the body and saying, ìBad, bad, bad body!î and trying to self-concoct solutions. We don't have to go down the world's path spanking the body and saying, ìBad, bad, bad body!î and trying to self-concoct solutions. If you've got a broken arm, do you want the doctor to give you an ointment? No. You want something that really deals with the problem.

That's exactly what Paul is spelling out for them. You have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world. You, instead, have a relationship with Jesus Christ. The measure of the teachings is the believer's position in Christ. That's the bottom line.

Paul starts off in Colossians 2.20 by telling the believers that they died with Christ.

As we get into Colossians 3.1-4, he's going to return to that point again and add in whom and where our life is. Because as important as it is, and it's really good news that we've died, we are also alive. And to whom we are alive and the source of that life. is ultimately critical.

Our position in Christ isn't just heavenly, but is immensely practical for right now, answers for right now, dealing with things as they really are, not playing games as the false teachers were doing. As we look at the Lord and behold Him through His Word, we're going to be growing into that eternally fixed position. We talk about position here quite a bit, and for good reason. is because that's the direction we're growing. We need to know where we're growing.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord. As we look here, the things that this world thinks calls the shots, we have no need to pay any attention to. And the world's cooked up, concocted solutions that are useless, regardless of appearance, we don't need to bother with them. We instead have died to all those things. And as we'll see as Paul continues on, our life is in you. And our place is not of this earth. We thank you for that. Thank you for all you've done. In Jesus' name, Amen.