Colossians 2:16-23
What makes a Christian? Can a Christian only be described by the rules he keeps or the events he attends? How could others prove that you are a follower of Christ?
"He doesn't drink, smoke, chew, or hang out with girls that do."
"These things," Paul says, "have an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body."
"Well, he attends church at least 75% of the Sundays in a year."
Paul wrote, "These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ."
What makes a Christian--what ought to be the proof that you are a follower of Christ--is that we "hold fast to the Head"--Christ. With Christ, you and I died to the curse of the law. To make Christianity a check-list of do's and don'ts is to forget the heart that holds fast to Christ. Such things have an appearance of wisdom, "but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh."
The only way for our sinful natures to be curbed is to hold all the more tightly to Christ--not to the checklists of self-righteousness. We can get so focused on doing this and not doing that that we forget Christ who freed us from such slavery. Only the satisfaction found in the beauty of Christ will stop our sinful hearts from seeking satisfaction in the things of this world.
The substance of those things belongs to Christ. Those things are only of worth insomuch as they direct us to pursue Christ all the more. He is the beautiful treasure. Rather than seeking such legalistic, outward religiosity, Paul says (in chapter 3) to seek the beauty of Christ--"the things that are above, where Christ is seated...For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ." We live a certain way and act a certain way and think a certain way and do certain things and don't do certain things, not because of self-imposed religiosity, but because the beauty of Christ exudes from us--"let Christ dwell in you richly" (3:16).
