Just a quick thought I had …
One of the recurring issues I hear about is that the Old Covenant is still valid because Jesus had said that He didn’t come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it, and that until Heaven and Earth pass, not a jot or tittle would pass from the Law until all be fulfilled. How is that possible if the Old Covenant is no longer in place?
The other day I was reading Colossians slowly, trying to absorb each thought Paul was delivering. I came to the passage about legalism in Colossians 2:16-23, and I stopped in my tracks –
“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. “
The first word that made me curious was “rudiments”. In the Greek it is “stoicheion”, which mean to put or to go in a row, as in a series. Basically it means the primary principles that other things are based on … or in a word, the rudimentary elements. Paul is in a discussion here about the Old Law so it is obvious that these “rudiments of the world” are pointing to the carnal ceremonial elements of the Mosaic Law. Okay, I don’t want to get over complicated here – this is just about the carnal ordinances of the Law – I got it.
The next word that reached out and grabbed me was “the world”. This word is Kosmos, or cosmos for all you Carl Sagan fans. This is an interesting word in that it means that which pertains to space, the sum total of the material universe, all the beauty in it, and all the persons … but not time! Are you with me so far? This is huge! Not time!
If I am reading this passage from Colossians correctly, it is saying that all the carnal ordinances that constitute the covenant of death that Paul repeatedly disavowed (see: http://www.revivalfire.org/covenants.htm) are not supposed to affect us because we are no longer in the Kosmos. We are outside time! When we received Eternal Life, something more than a warm feeling happened to us – our soul transcended the dimension of Time. The Law hasn’t passed away – it’s still valid in the carnal world and will never pass away and it still stands as a testament of judgment against all flesh – but we are no longer part of that world. We are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, we don’t live in that old system, and so therefore we are no longer subject to those old ordinances that Christ nailed to His Cross.
Wow. I was stunned. When we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we passed from death unto life and left behind the ordinances of touch not, taste not, handle not. We no longer have to put the blood of bulls and goats on our right ear, our right thumb, and our right toe. We don’t have to keep the dietary laws or the festivals that foreshadowed Christ and the New Testament. We don’t have to deal with the sacrifices of dead animals.
The Old Law is still there and still valid as a condemnation to all who live in the Kosmos, but we left the building when we got saved! We are no longer creatures of Time. We are free.
