The average “Christian” hasn’t even begun to get a grip on how greatly Satan has deceived the world, yes, even the professing “Christian” world – and their ministry. Most seem to think the apostle Paul mocks or puts down sabbath observance in Colossians, chapter 2, verse 16. Paul is not telling believers to abandon anything in that verse, or that we are freed up from any practice. He is simply saying let no man judge you in such matters. We prevent others from judging us when we do the right thing. What if Paul said, Let no man judge you in respect to stealing, or lying, or fornication?” He would not be saying the 8th, 9th and 7th commandments had been abolished and were no longer in force. He would be saying the opposite. He would be urging us to keep those commandments! And when he writes: “Let no man therefore judge you…in respect of an holyday…or of the sabbath days,” he is not saying the 4th commandment has been abolished and is no longer in force. He is doing the opposite! He is urging us to keep that commandment. Never forget that Peter warned that Paul wrote some things hard to understand if one is unlearned in the scriptures, failing to consider the revelation of all of Holy Writ, and if a person is spiritually unstable, sinning one moment, repenting the next.
Notice, in the Colossian text, how Paul says the cross succeeded in “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that were AGAINST US, which was CONTRARY to us” (See verse 14 of Colossians 2). This language could never be used of God’s sabbath! For God’s Word plainly declares “the sabbath…is HOLY unto you” (Exodus 31:14). “God BLESSED the seventh day” (Genesis 2:3). Keeping the sabbath PLEASED God (See Isaiah 56:4). God COMMANDS us to call the sabbath “A DELIGHT!” (See Isaiah 58:13). Anyone who says the sabbath was, or is, contrary to us or called a “yoke of bondage” in scripture is either grossly deceived or horribly ignorant of the scriptures. The ordinances that were against us were the ADDED laws, those laws called “the works of the law” – not God’s holy Ten Commandments.
Notice the context of Colossians 2. The “mystery” to which Paul refers in verse 2 is the hidden mystery of how the Messiah was God’s sacrificial Lamb. The apostles themselves did not understand this until after Christ’s resurrection. Paul then writes “ye are complete in Him” (verse 10). We need offer no further sacrifice. He was cut off for us (verse 11). His sacrifice was sufficient (verses 12 and 13). All ordinances governing sacrifices and offerings have been blotted out, repealed (verse 14). “Let no man therefore judge you in (respect to) meat (offerings), or in drink (offerings), or in respect of an holy day, or the new moon, or of the sabbath days (when such offerings would ordinarily be made)” (verse 16). Don’t you see it? Paul is not setting aside sabbath observance with the words he writes in verse 16. He is merely saying no offerings or sacrifices need to be made on such days!! God help you to understand is my prayer.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley