FREE TO FOLLOW CHRIST
Colossians 2
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”
It makes sense that once we get onto the right road we should follow it. The issue is to find the right road.
Paul tells us that in Christ, “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Christ is not another clue to the mystery of life and we need to follow all the clues in our hands. Christ is not only the solution to our condemnation under the wrath of God, he is also the key to our redemption and sanctification. We need to follow only him and set aside all others that may try to have a piece of us.
One of the most widespread notions about spirituality is that we should impose a harsh discipline over our bodies in order to overcome the hold sin has over us. After all, it is the only way we can come up with to try to present ourselves to God as somewhat righteous.
“What is wrong with that?” We ask. Yet Paul hits hard at this idea because it is a road totally different from the one where we found Christ.
“Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely 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.”
But let us be clear that Paul is not telling us that anything goes. Christ indeed frees us from all the rules and regulations that religion has been teaching us from time immemorial. They gain us nothing in the sight of God and though they make us look very spiritual, they do not really free us from the grip of sin. Paul is not suggesting that we can now indulge in sinful behaviour. He is helping us to realise that the real solution is to follow Christ rather than all the ideas we learn from religion and others who have their own theories.
“These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”