Legalism verses Transformation

Legalism verses Transformation

October 17, 2021

Pastor Ronnie

Colossians 2:16-23

Legalism

Legalism means treating biblical standards of conduct as regulations to be kept by our power in order to earn God’s favor.

Transformation

Transformation is a thorough and dramatic change that results in a complete .

Transformation is focused on the work of Christ.

A Redemptive Focus: 5 Considerations

First, “Let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink.” The consumption of food and drink is in itself no basis for judging a person’s standing with God or standing in God’s family.

Second, “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels,” etc. The false teaching at Colossae had two parts: it called for angel worship on the one hand, and strict ascetic regulations on the other.

Third, the source of life and purity and growth is not through religious visions (2:18) and regulations about food and drink, but as verse 19 says, through “holding fast to the head (Christ) from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

Fourth, verses 20 and 21, “If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?

Fifth point, (verse 23) “These regulations, though they have an appearance of wisdom in promoting vigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, nevertheless are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh.”

Romans 8:13