Freedom in Christ – Colossians (Part Eight)

In Christ, we Have:

1.  Freedom from Spiritual Death (v13a)

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

2.   Freedom from Sin (v13b)

He forgave us all our sins

3.  Freedom from Condemnation (v14)

having cancelled 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.

4. Freedom from the Power of Satan (v15)

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

5.  Freedom from False Righteousness (v16-17)

¹⁶ 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.

¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

6.  Freedom from False Worship (v18-19)

¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind.

¹⁹ They have 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.

7.  Freedom from Human Rules (v20-23)

²⁰ 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: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”?

²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.

²³ 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.