Answer # 68

Many assume that ordinances mentioned by Paul refer to various elements of God's law. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The word for "ordinances" in these passages is translated from the Greek word dogma, which refers to human laws and decrees - the "commandments and doctrines of men" (Colossians 2:22).

These human ordinances included both the restrictive talmudic decrees burdening the Jews and the ascetic, oppressive "touch not, taste not" ordinances bound on the gentiles of Colossae.

Both sets of these human ordinances - Jewish and gentile - contributed to feelings of prejudice, animosity, suspicion and separation between Jews and gentiles who were being called into God's Church. These human ordinances acted as a "middle wall of partition" that Jesus in fact had abolished through His supreme sacrifice.

"For he [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us" (Ephesians 2:14).

But in Paul's day many newly begotten Christians still suffered from the burden of their former teachings. Remember, the Jews had a "wall of partition" in the court of the Temple, which separated them from the gentiles. The threat of the death penalty hung over those who might transgress. On the other hand, the gentiles were under the sway and influence of pagan philosophers with their restrictive "blue laws".

Colossae was known for its ascetic society. The pagans judged their Christian neighbors for their freedom in eating the various meats ordained by God, for drinking wine and for keeping the weekly and annual Sabbaths in the joyous manner prescribed by God. Pagans were taught that they could receive release from their guilt by doing penance - through abstinence, fasting and even self-inflicted punishment. All such nonsense has no spiritual efficacy or benefit. Paul spoke out against these human standards and judgments. "Beware lest any man spoil you through [human] philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ" (Colossians 2:8).

Christ came to pay the penalty for our sins - to release us from the penalty of sin and cleanse our conscience from all guilt.

He abolished the ascetic ordinances of the gentile philosophers as well as the Talmudic traditions, which were yokes of bondage. He made it possible for both Jew and gentile to become spiritual Israelites, children of God (Galatians 3:29), living in freedom under the perfect law of God (James 1:25).

Jesus Christ did not do away with any part of God's law. He said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).

Yes, to fulfill, to observe, to keep - to set us a perfect example as to how we ought to live. We are to "walk, even as he [Jesus] walked" (I John 2:6). The apostle Peter wrote that Christ left us "an example, that ye should follow his steps" (I Peter 2:21).

God's law is good and for our benefit: "Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever" (Deuteronomy 4:40).

Jesus Christ did indeed do away with the ordinances of man, but the law of God is binding on us more than ever. We are to keep it in the spirit as well as the letter. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them" (John 13:17).