The Highway Forums General Discussion Theology Discussion Forum Col 2:16-17 with regards to Sabbatarian views

It's funny when a verse comes to your attention (at least a particular aspect of it) that you have not seen before.

"Therefore allow no one to pass judgment on you in questions of eating or of drinking or with respect to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day -- which things are a mere shadow of those that were coming, but the object casting the shadow is to be found with Christ." (Hendriksen's commentary)

Surely, there is no question regarding the sufficiency of Christ in salvation. Hendriksen didn't address this but can someone derive from using these verses that the 4th Commandment has been abrogated.

Yes, someone could conclude from this Colossian passage that the 4^th commandment has been abrogated... but they would be in error.

The passage isn't addressing the moral law, i.e., the Ten Commandments but rather the ceremonial laws regarding the observation of festivals and special days which more specifically had been distorted in the teachings of the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. These are referred to by Paul as "philosophy", "vain deceit" and "traditions of men", the origin of which are further deemed "the rudiments of the world" in verse 8. (cf. Hendriksen p. 109)

Further, Paul didn't write, "or the sabbath day", but rather "or a sabbath day" as many of our English translations render it. But the Greek actually is "of sabbath days" (plural), which I understand to mean those weekly festivals celebrated by the Jews according to the Old Testament and rabbinic tradition. In short, Paul is rejecting these OT elements along with their ascetic interpretations of their observance which had come down through the centuries of which believers in Christ were no longer bound. The context should be closely noted as the mention of "sabbath days" is inextricably bound to "festival" and "moon" (cf. 1Chron 23:31; 2Chron 2:4; 31:3).

In His grace,

A great number of folks take this passage to mean that the 4th commandment has been abrogated, but as Pilgrim rightly points out, the "sabbath days" involved are explicitly connected to festivals & new moons - religious holidays the observance of which God had commanded in addition to the weekly sabbath in the Mosaic covenant. The extra holidays, being ceremonial, have been abrogated, but the weekly sabbath is a creation mandate & moral law for perpetual observance, hence the 4th commandment.

CovantininBlood,

re: "The extra holidays, being ceremonial, have been abrogated..."


Maybe so, but I don't see where Colossians 2:16-17 says that.

Perhaps this article will help you understand: Law - Civic, Ceremonial, Moral.

Pilgrim,

re: "Perhaps this article will help you understand: Law - Civic, Ceremonial, Moral."

I don't see where your link proves that the need for the observance of the things mentioned in Colossians 2:16 has been abrogated as CovantininBlood asserts.

Perhaps CovantininBlood will have some defense for his statement.

Covenant in Blood does not assert that there is a need to observe the " feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day" mentioned in Col. 2:16. His point was exactly the opposite. It doesn't! It is the Fourth Commandment that has not been abrogated. Hope that helps.

chestnutmare,

re: "Covenant in Blood does not assert that there is a need to observe the ' feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day.".


I didn't say that he did.

That's unfortunate that you didn't grasp the principle set forth by the author concerning the 3-fold aspects of the law and either their perpetuity or their abrogation (fulfillment).

Let's look at the passage itself for it gives the answer most clearly:

Paul's overall purpose for writing to the churches at Colossae was to warn them of and reject the false teachings of the Judaizers and Pharisees. Thus, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and out of the teachings he received directly from Christ, gives a list, a partial list to be sure which is enumerated throughout his other writings, of those things which must be disdained and totally rejected for they destroy the gospel and the truth of free grace.

He relegates these regulations, i.e., 'additions' to the gospel [at best] as 'shadows of things to come', i.e., they are at best out of date, long ago discarded by God himself. Even when God was still using them in the old covenant He employed them only as "a shadow of the things about to come," to be superseded by these things when they arrived, i.e., by the great realities themselves, the actual substance or "body." What these substantial things are, and how all of them are "Christ's," i.e., belong to Him, Paul has already set forth at length in 1:13-23 and 2:9-14. They are certainly tremendous. The old shadow has completely faded away before them.

It is therefore correct to say that all those regulations (additions to the gospel) have been abrogated, for they have been fulfilled in Christ of whom they all pointed.