Facts and Factors

From the doctrinal, the Apostle now turns to the practical, from theology to morality, and he proceeds to show the utter impossibility of any Christian doing that against which he had been warning and speaking so strongly. He does this on two grounds. They had “died with Christ” (2 :20), and had been “raised with Christ” (3:1). On the proper meaning of these two spiritual facts, their entire practical life turned.

I. The Safe Position (v. 20)

The Christian is here described as having “died with Christ from the rudiments of the world.” The tense of the word “died” implies a definite time in the past. This, from the standpoint of God, was when Christ Him¬ self died on the cross, but so far as the believer’s own life was involved, it took place the moment he received Christ, as his personal Saviour. Death always means separation, and this is the reason why it is described as “from the rudiments of the world.” It is important that the believer should recognise this death with Christ as an absolute fact, and not as something to which he is to submit for the purpose of obtaining an experience of it. It is an absolute, an accomplished fact, whether he experiences it or not. There are several statements in the New Testament to prove that when Christ died the believer died also (Rom. 6:8, 11; Col. 2:11, 12).

The words “with Christ” show that Christ Himself is also regarded as having died “from the rudiments of the world.” This seems to mean, first of all, that as He was “made under the law” He was of course under obliga-Facts and Factors, 2:20-23 tion to fulfil the law during His earthly life, but that when He died this obligation necessarily came to an end. Furthermore, His death was the fulfilment of these requirements in the sense that He was the reality to which they all pointed, so that His death was their abolition. It is for this reason that the Apostle is so strong in insisting upon the believer dying with Christ, for if Christ died from these rudiments, they can no longer be of any authority over the believer. Nothing is to interfere with the perfect liberty of the Christian in his union with Christ, for in Christ he died to sin (Rom. 6:2), to self (2 Cor. 5:15), and to the law (Gal. 2:19).

If it should be said, as it has more than once been questioned, that this reference to ordinances seems to reflect on baptism and the Lord’s Supper, the obvious reply is that these do not come under the same rule, because they are in no sense “rudiments of the world” or intended for the purpose of providing and guaranteeing salvation. They are Christian ordinances for use by believers as solemn pledges and assurances of grace, and provide just that touch with the material world which is a help, not a hindrance to spiritual life. The very simplicity of the ordinances, the only two in the Christian Church, clearly proves the impossibility of associating them with the Apostle’s warning, unless of course they are used in the wrong sense to imply a guarantee of salvation. It may also be pointed out that pure and true Christianity has always been exceedingly simple, and free from elaborate ceremonial, because it is a universal experience that ceremonial is apt to lead the soul from Christ and involve it in a complexity of legalism.

II. The Solemn Protest (vs. 20, 22)

Based on this fact of the Christian having died with Christ, the question is naturally and forcibly put, “Why do ye submit to the yoke of ordinances?” Christ had set them free from these things and they ought not to be capable of desiring to be again in slavery. The three prohibitions (v. 21) are apparently some of the requirements insisted on by the false teachers. As Maclaren says: “These three prohibitions are not Paul’s but are quoted by him as the kind of rules and regulations which he is protesting against.” Thus the Apostle puts them on their guard against these false teachers and shows that in the natural processes of eating and drinking all such things will perish by being used up. This constitutes their unimportance in regard to the spiritual life, and indeed they are characterised by being merely human and temporary, St. Paul quoting to this effect from Isaiah 29:13. It is significant that he shows how the teachings of men were being observed, even while God was being disobeyed. Thus these observances against which he was writing were merely human inventions, and, as a writer well puts it, the special force of this appeal is: “Ye who are in union with Christ, how can ye receive mere human precepts which contradict His will?”

III. The Spiritual Powerlessness (v. 23)

Furthermore, in submitting to these false methods of living, the Christian was really doing what was absolutely useless for spiritual power and blessing. These ordinances had nothing but a mere appearance of wisdom and were of no real value in remedying the indulgences of the flesh or destroying sin in the life. They constituted a religious service which was purely gratuitous on the part of the worshipper and one that was not sought or recognised as acceptable to God (v. 18). They were of the nature of will-worship, and while they made a pretense of great godliness and were garbed in the robe of humility, they were essentially marks of pride and really set aside the

Facts and Factors, 2:20-23 finished work of Christ on our behalf. It is important to remember that severity of treatment meted out to the body has no power to remove and destroy the appetite or passions of the soul. Asceticism may try to prevent indulgence in sin but it is really incapable of overcoming evil. Thus it is futile as a remedy for any form of wrong, and the only way of dealing aright with the body is to regard it as part of the personality of the believer in union with Christ, and therefore by reason of that union, as dead to sin and alive to God.

Looking back over the entire passage from verse 8, it is seen that there is a threefold peril. They are warned against being deceived (v. 8), against being judged (v. 16), and against being defrauded (v. 18). There is still the same danger today. False religions, false philosophies, and false systems continue to do their utmost to bring the believer into bondage, and on this account we are to heed the solemn words found here.

But the protection is made as clear as the peril, and this is found all through the section, in union with Christ, our Head. Lightfoot points out that the discoveries of modern physiology have given the Apostle’s language great distinctness and force, which even his own contemporaries could not have understood, for “at every turn we meet with some fresh illustration which kindles it with a flood of light.” Christ as our Head contains wisdom for us. Christ as our Head conveys grace and power to us. Christ as our Head controls our lives and enables us to do His will. This is the force of the prayer in chapter 1, where wisdom, strength and the knowledge of God’s will are all included. The more we can realise our assured union with Christ, and the more we yield ourselves by faith and surrender to the Lordship of Christ as our Head, the more effective will be our practical life, both in opposition to what is evil and in furtherance of what is good.