Colossians 2: Living in the Freedom Christ Has Won

Introduction

“Let no one judge you.” Claudeth Hitchman, a pastor at Kensington Temple in London, takes these words from Colossians 2:16 as her starting point. Her message is part of the “Living Well” series, which looks at the principles of the kingdom for a life that flourishes. The previous week was about the victory of the cross. This time, the theme is freedom.

The book of Colossians, she reminds us, is about our identity in Christ: “Do we understand who we are? And do we understand what this identity calls us to live out?” Christ bought our freedom. The danger is letting ourselves be caught again in the trap of human rules that no longer have any spiritual value.

After the message, the pastor answers questions from the congregation: anger toward God, staying steady through the seasons of life, grace used as an excuse, culture and Scripture, and women's calling to ministry. This article follows the message, then those exchanges.

Message Outline

1. Don't Let Anyone Judge You by Shadows

Colossians 2:16 says not to let anyone judge you over eating or drinking, a feast day, a new moon or a Sabbath day. One Bible version puts it this way: don't let anyone set rules for you, criticize you, judge you or condemn you over what you eat or drink.
At that time, many religious feasts and ways of living existed side by side. Believers were pressured to eat this, not drink that, and worship in a certain way on a certain day.
Verse 17 says these things were a shadow of what was to come. “Who can touch my shadow right now? You can't.” These rituals were only a foretaste of the reality.
Every feast and every offering had a purpose in its time. But Christ came and fulfilled the law: “It is finished.” Keeping the Sabbath is not a sin, but it is no longer necessary, “because the Lord of the Sabbath lives in us.”

2. When Human Rules Hold You Captive

Verse 18 speaks of a human, fleshly way of thinking. These rules belong to the flesh: what you choose to eat, how you celebrate. “None of these things has any spiritual weight.”
Claudeth Hitchman talks about her early days in the faith. In her first church, she was told she had to wear a hat, based on the verse that asks a woman to cover her head, and that she couldn't wear trousers, since a woman must not wear a man's clothing.
“I don't wear a hat. I don't like it, and I looked ridiculous.” She had arrived in trousers, feeling comfortable. Suddenly she felt stiff, “bound by rules and regulations.”
Over the years she came to understand: a woman's hair is given to her as a covering, and the trousers she buys are made for women. The compromise she reached with her pastor back then: trousers during the week, never on Sunday. “That was progress.”
“Legalism can look like truth,” and that is why it is appealing. We already belong to Christ: “We can relax a little with our Father.” Honor him, serve him, worship him, but do it freely, with your own personality, your own hairstyle, your own way of dressing.
A doctor may ask her to eat less sugar at her age: that is a matter of health. The problem is changing the way you eat because someone claims it is the only way to be a Christian.

3. False Visions Cut You Off from God

Verse 18 also warns against those who cling to their visions. One version renders it this way: they put their hopes in their visions. They think they have received something from God, turn it into a religion and demand that others follow.
The pastor mentions an entire group who believed a man's supposed vision, traveled to a Caribbean island, drank a substance, and all died together. “What does it take to believe one person's false vision to the point of going to that extreme?”
“The only thing we are called to follow is the truth found in God's Word.”
Being trapped by human rules, laws and visions disconnects you from the truth. And that disconnection produces chaos: “Why is the world in chaos? Because it is disconnected from God.”

4. Stay Connected to the Head

Verse 19 describes those who don't hold fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, supplied and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with the growth God gives. Living in freedom means growing in Christ.
“If my arm were cut off right now, could it pick something up from the floor?” Detached from the body, it dies, because it is no longer connected to what is alive.
In verse 15, Christ stripped the powers of their authority. The pastor applies this to everything that used to hold us in chains: the flesh, religious rules, everything that is fleshly and evil. He bought our freedom. On that basis, we are encouraged not to be caught in the trap again, to stay connected to the Word and the Holy Spirit, and to be led by the Spirit rather than driven by human demands.
John 15 says the same thing: “Remain in me, and I in you.” It is a relationship that goes both ways. The branch cannot bear fruit if it is cut off from the vine: “For apart from me you can do nothing.”
Whoever does not remain in Christ is thrown out like a branch and withers. That is where the works of the flesh and of religion described in verses 16 to 18 lead.
“Remain” means to stay in a place, to be present and to stay there. We are in Christ, seated with him in the heavenly places. The purpose of staying attached to the vine is to bear fruit.

5. How to Stay Present With the Lord

First, what the congregation is doing that very day: gathering to hear the Word and understand Scripture better, then sometimes discussing it together after the service.
Next, personal time. Every night as she falls asleep, Claudeth Hitchman plays an audio recording of her Bible. This year she is going through it in chronological order and is nearly at the end: “It's not about doing just one thing, but about finding how the Word can get into you.”
Worship at home matters too. When you get back from a day of classes or work, do you settle in front of the television, or do you talk to the Lord for a little while? Do you invite him into the place where you are?
“He is the vine, one great vine, and we are all branches.” Stay together, learn together, walk together, support one another, carried by the one who takes care of us.
One last warning: some churches attract young people by promoting power, wealth and appearance; others set up barriers, such as forbidding women to preach. “Be careful of what looks like truth but is religion and is false.” Our identity is in God's Word and in Christ alone.

6. Freedom Is Not Doing Whatever You Want

The congregation's first question: what is the difference between being free in Christ and doing whatever you want? Doing whatever you want feels good, until trouble arrives. Then you turn to the very things that led you there. It looks like freedom, but these are traps, and their goal is to keep us far from Christ.
Freedom in Christ has limits, the pastor doesn't deny that. But it comes from being the person God made you to be, stepping into your calling and fulfilling your purpose.
Before her conversion, she wanted to be a pop star and joined several bands, “even though I couldn't really sing.” After becoming a Christian, she thought she had to give everything up. Later she had opportunities to travel, to sing, to act a little. Today she is still on a stage, but for something else: “It's about doing something that gives life to someone.”
God knows better than we do what is good for us, like parents who say “don't touch the fire” or “be home before 11 p.m.” We get annoyed, then we get burned, or we find ourselves in danger on the street at two in the morning, and we realize they were right. Christ knows what is best for us, “because he made us.”
Can grace be used as an excuse? Yes, when we tell ourselves: I can do what I want, God will forgive me. But when you love someone, you don't get up every morning looking for ways to break their heart. We are no longer under the law, but we are in a relationship with him, and that relationship makes us hold on to his instructions. “It's the relationship that makes us live under grace the right way, without taking advantage of it.”

7. Questions From the Congregation: Anger, Seasons, Culture, Calling

Angry with God. Someone loves God but is upset with him. The pastor tells the story of the death of a friend and colleague, at age 43, who had been believing God for an extraordinary future. For two years, without realizing it, she stopped talking to God and stopped praying: “I was just functioning.” Someone told her: “You are angry with God and you need to repent.” Her advice: ask God's forgiveness, give him your disappointment and let him come back into your life. “He is waiting for you. His arms are open.”
Staying steady through the seasons. A marriage, a baby, an elderly parent to care for, a job on an oil rig: priorities change, but not the relationship with God. What becomes religion is telling yourself: I used to pray for an hour at six in the morning, I can't anymore, so I'm far from God. During a season when she couldn't read the Word, she could still worship, wherever she traveled. “Relax. Make sure you receive the Word one way or another every day. Prayer will come back.”
Seeing men as God sees them. To a woman who is afraid of men, she offers a question: “Is he a son of God? Then how should I treat him?” For women who have been hurt by men, part of the healing comes through praying for those who did the harm, looking at them as sons of God.
Culture and Scripture. The Bible asks us to honor our parents. The first place to go is prayer, to discern what is tradition. She tells the story of young Hindu women who came to Christ and were baptized. To her parents, one of them replied that she would go to the temple so as not to dishonor them, “but I will only pray to Jesus.” It is about living at peace with everyone as far as possible, and asking God for a way through, like Esther in a palace that was not her world.
Women and preaching. For the pastor, some instructions in Corinthians are understood in light of the culture of the time. She points out that man and woman were created equal, both in the image of God. She refers to Pastor Malcolm Duncan, who can show from Scripture how God uses women as well as men.
Her own calling. “I never asked for a position. I let God lead me.” She struggled to accept being appointed head of pastoral care, and then to plant a church with another woman because there were no men to do it. “I'm only obeying God, and by obeying him, I grow and he uses me.”
Holding on to your calling. Her advice: read the lives of women who served before us, like Amanda Berry Smith, a Black preacher in nineteenth-century America; look at Deborah, Esther and the women of the Bible; surround yourself with mentors (she has at least seven); join a church that welcomes growth and questions. “Did God call me? Then I will keep moving forward and overcome.”

Key Takeaways

The rules about eating, drinking, feasts and days were only a shadow. The reality is Christ, who has fulfilled the law.
Legalism can look like truth. What belongs to the flesh has no spiritual weight and must not rob you of your freedom.
Only God's Word is to be followed. Human visions and rules cut you off from the truth and lead to chaos.
Living free means staying connected to the Head, like a branch to the vine, in order to grow and bear fruit.
Freedom in Christ is not doing whatever you want: it is a relationship that lets us live grace without taking advantage of it.

Personal Application

Which human rule, learned along your journey, still makes you feel “stiff” before God?
Where do you go for truth: God's Word, or other people's opinions and visions?
How does the Word get into you each day in the season you are living, even if your rhythm has changed?
What happens when you come home in the evening: the television, or a moment with the Lord?
Is there a disappointment or anger toward God that you need to hand over to him so he can come back into your life?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Colossians 2:17 mean when it speaks of a “shadow”?

For Claudeth Hitchman, the feasts, new moons, Sabbaths and food rules had a purpose in their time, but they were only a shadow. The reality is Christ. He fulfilled the law, and the Lord of the Sabbath lives in us: these practices are no longer necessary to belong to God.

Does being free in Christ mean doing whatever you want?

No. Doing whatever you want looks like freedom, but it leads to traps whose goal is to pull us away from Christ. Freedom in Christ comes from being the person God made you to be and stepping into your calling. It has limits, like the instructions of parents who know better than their children what is good for them.

How do you stay attached to Christ according to Colossians 2:19 and John 15?

By staying present with the Lord: gathering to hear the Word, reading or listening to it every day, worshiping God at home and not only at church, and walking with other believers. Like a branch, whoever stays attached to the vine bears fruit; whoever is cut off withers.