Colossians 2:15-17

"[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross]" Colossians 2:15.

The word "spoiled" is a Greek verb APEKDUOMAI, and means "to divest wholly oneself, or despoil". One of the words that made up this compound Greek word meant "to strip." Paul is saying is that Jesus totally despoiled or stripped satan and all his powers. For a Christian, satan is now naked and powerless. It was a term used for the disarming of a defeated foe.

The picture is that of a Roman general who has won a really great battle, and is allowed to march his victorious armies through the streets of Rome and behind him followed the kings and the leaders and the peoples he had conquered. They were openly branded as his spoils. Paul shows Jesus as a conqueror enjoying a kind of cosmic triumph, and in his triumphal procession are the powers of evil, beaten forever, for everyone to see" satan's only weapon against us is deception (Eph. 6:11, 2 Cor. 11:14, Col. 1:13, Mat. 24:4).

The word "shew" means "to exhibit". satan and his forces are forever on display as a conquered foe. Those who are not yet convinced of satan's defeat are still subject to bondage because of their fear (Heb. 2:15). The Phillips Translation renders this phrase as, "...he exposed them, shattered, empty, and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act!"

What is the "it" that Jesus triumphed in over satan? The answer is that "it" was the law ("the handwriting of ordinances that was against us". The devil used "our failure to fulfill the law" as a club to beat us up and convince us that God would never accept us. In a sense, the law was one of satan's greatest tools for separating us from God. But Jesus used the very thing that satan had used to minister condemnation, to condemn satan. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law and used it to satisfy all God's demands for justice by bearing our sins. The just died for the unjust and thereby liberated us from the jurisdiction of the law.

16. "Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath."

There are still many Christians whom have not reached the point in their faith... Not reached the point in understanding of Gods' Word, concerning the law, who will try to use the law to condemn us, just as satan tries to.

17. "Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ."

"Shadow of the things" is a philosophical term from Plato meaning "the real unseen world" versus the world shadows and ideas in which we live. A philosophy to distinguish the real world from the false and what is real is only a shadow of the real we can't see. Here, in verse 17, it refers to the O.T. being a type and shadow that testified to Christ. All of the sacrificing of animals, sprinkling of blood, circumcision, etc... the very long list goes on... but, all of those things represented only a shadow-like image of what being "in Christ Jesus" means to us and for us now.

We will pick back up with verse 18, next time.

I love you.