Must Get Rid of All Ordinances Against Us

I was so bitter.

People could make me so mad, and the hurtful things which had been done to me, sometimes I just could not forgive.

I could not let go for some reason.

The cycle of pain, anger, frustration then resolutions to  try harder, just drove me to such terrible states of despair, that I had no idea what to do.

Since learning fully about the Gospel of Grace, for there is no other Gospel, I have learned so much about God's goodness, and how He has met every need for me in Christ and Him Crucified.

It took me a long time to accept this truth, that I did not have a feeling problem, as much as a knowledge problem, and this knowledge problem was attached to the fact that I did not really understand what Jesus did for me at the Cross.

I lived in a household where the Ten Commandments were posted on the wall, or where I was taught to live my life in accordance with the Twelve Steps. Ten and Twelve cannot replace what the One on did for me at the Cross.

He took all my sins -- all of them -- then gave me His life and standing -- all of it.

For this reason, because of how much God loves me through His Son Jesus, Paul prayed:

"16Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power," (Ephesians 1: 16-19)

We need to know and believe the great inheritance which we have in Christ Jesus.

We cannot know what we have in Christ if we do not know that we are in Christ, and that Christ has given us all things through His death on the Cross.

The part that matters a great deal, however, rests specifically on the truth that the Ordinance of the law have been fulfilled, and thus are rendered inoperative:

"13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:1 3-15)

There is so much in these verses, which we cannot ignore, yet we end up being ignorant of, if we insist on going with the counsel of the ungodly so prevalent in man-made self-help movements.

We are dead in our sins. Our flesh speaks of uncircumcision, in that no good thing dwells in our flesh, in our self-efforts to be righteous before God.

We are dead, and Jesus gives us life. We have sin, and Jesus died on the Cross for our sin, granting us His righteousness, a perfect standing before God the Father.

All our sins have been forgiven, paid for in the Body of Christ Jesus, and as a result, Jesus' death puts to silence any condemnation, because through His death on the Cross, He fulfilled the law, both moral and ceremonial, for the law is a composite whole, and the ministry of condemnation is graven on stones, the Ten Commandments.

Plus the fact that all of mankind has a knowledge of good and evil, of right and wrong, which he cannot keep in his own strength (Romans 2: 15)

We need to understand that we are freed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3: 13) and that we are no longer under any tutor (Galatians 3: 23-25)

Yet to this day, church people, Christians, children of the living God insist on bringing themselves under the Ten Commandments or the Twelve Steps in barren attempts to create holiness through what they do.

Pau responds:

"20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances, 21(Touch not; taste not; handle not; 22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men? 23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh." (Colossians 2: 20-23)

The writs and codes of man cannot fix the evil in men's hearts, the sin in our flesh which we cannot undo through our own efforts, much like a dirty man trying to clean himself with a cloth soiled as soon as he touches it.

In fact, Isaiah prophesies about man's righteousness:

"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64: 6)

Not us righteousness, but a plurality of righteous acts are like filthy rags to God. Wow! And not only that, but we fade away as leaves.

This leaf reference reminds us of the first attempt by man to make himself righteous, with fig leaves, which not only did not work, but only magnified their shame, as they sought to hide away from God as soon as they heard His voice walking in the garden.

In Jesus Christ, we are not just freed from any sense of shame about our sins, or the sin in our flesh, but there are no more demands against us, as the law, as administered to the Jewish People before Christ Jesus, has been finished, fulfilled, and now forever put away:

"In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." (Hebrews 8: 13)

Not one bit of our effort or law-keeping can make us righteousness, and we certainly cannot produce holiness on our own. We are called to live by faith, not by works, and by His faith, not our own, for that would be another work of our flesh.

Let us get rid of all ordinances, and by doing so, we free ourselves from every bondage in our lives.

Hallelujah!