Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

Colossians 2:8-15 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it.

Legalism is far more than the conscious belief that “I can be saved by my good works.” It is a web of attitudes of heart and character. It is the thought that God’s love for us is conditioned on something we can be or do. It is the attitude that I offer certain things—my ethical goodness, my relative avoidance of deliberate sin, my faithfulness to the Bible and the church—that support Christ’s work and contribute to God’s goodwill toward me. - Keller

Legalism creates systems where man is trying to reach God by justifying himself by keeping a list of rules. When Christianity is really about God reaching down to man in love through Christ. - Guzik

Colossians 2:17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

White-knuckled Righteousness = working hard to get God to be happy with you.

Colossians 2:18-19 Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us. (Colossians 2:18-19 MSG)

Don’t let anyone impose on you a program of spiritual development that does not have Christ at its heart.

You are complete in Christ. This is a FACT to be enjoyed, not a status to be achieved.

Gospel Facts:

#1. You were dead

Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh,

What did it mean for (your name here) to be dead?

Genesis 2:16-17 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”

Romans 5:12-15 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned— For if the many died through the one man's trespass…

Ephesians 2:1-3 You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.

A spiritually dead person is unresponsive to God.

We were not just sinking in sin but dead in our trespasses. Unable to respond to God.

#2. God made you alive together with him

Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him,

2 Corinthians 4:6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8–10 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

#3. Your IOU was paid (You are forgiven)

Colossians 2:13-14 And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

Each of the Ten Commandments has, as it were, united with the rest to draw up an indictment against us. The first commandment says, ‘he has broken me.’ The second commandment says, ‘he has broken me.’ The third- ‘he has broken me,’ and the whole ten together have laid the same charge against each and every one of us; this is the handwriting of the law condemning every man… while he remains in a state of nature. - Spurgeon

Colossians 2:14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Romans 5:17-19 If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore just as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man's act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous