In the Question Chair by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 28, 1902

In the Question Chair.

By Editor

[Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader. All correspondents should give their names and correct post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.]

852.— THE HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES.

What is meant by this expression in Col. 2: 14? also the expressions in verses 15, 17, and 20 of same chapter? I have been asked by one not of our faith questions on this point, and would like assistance from you to make it plain.

A. C. S., Trent, Muskegon Co., Mich.

ANSWER.— The “handwriting of ordinances” was something written by hand. The body of the matter of which this handwriting was composed was “ordinances” or decrees, something ordained and taught. It was something which Christ in His appointed work was to blot out, and nail to His cross; and the reason it was to be taken out of the way was because it was “against us,” and “contrary to us.”

Verse 11. In Christ the disciples have the true circumcision, that of the heart, which is effected by “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh,” even by the circumcision of Christ; that is, the circumcision which Christ requires. All this was most strikingly represented in their baptism, wherein they were symbolically (for literally they could not be) buried and raised with Christ. The time during which they remained under water was a kind of temporary death, after the image of the death of Christ. When they emerged from the water, they rose after the image of His resurrection, to a life of righteousness here and of glory hereafter. Alford says “took,” in verse 14, should be “hath taken,” and “His cross,” “the cross.” The translators fancied that the subject of the whole sentence was Christ, whereas it is God the Father. In verse 15 “having spoiled” should be “stripping off from himself,” “divesting himself of;” that is, in the cross of Christ God puts off from himself the ministration of angels, by which the law was given, subjecting them all to Christ, whose triumph they grace, as we are said to do. 2 Cor. 2: 14. Therefore angels were no more to be regarded as mediators between God and man, nor the law which they ministered, as binding.

What the apostle referred to by the “handwriting” which was “against us” and “contrary to us,” is intimated in the conclusion he draws in verse 16, as what resulted from His work of “blotting out” and “nailing to His cross.” “Let no man therefore judge you [condemn you as a sinner] in meat, or in drink” (because you do not regard the distinctions established by the ceremonial laws in regard to these things, nor regard the regulations in respect to holidays to bestow more honor upon them) or “the new moon, or the [ceremonial] sabbath days [of which there were seven which belonged to the Jewish system].” See Leviticus 23. We as Christians are released from paying any regard to anything that was typical or shadowy, pointing forward to the “body” which “is of Christ,” or the antitypical work of Christ.

To the Hebrews the same apostle speaks of the same things referred to in the epistle to the Colossians, and describes them in similar terms. He says, “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all [the way into the heavenly holy places] was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing [that is, while the earthly sanctuary still stood, and the Mosaic dispensation was still in force]; which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation;” that is till the Seed, Christ, should come. “But when the fulness of the time was come [Gal. 4: 4], God sent forth His Son.” We see by this that this scripture has no reference to the moral law, but pertains only to the carnal ordinances of meats and drinks, festival occasions, and ceremonial sabbaths, which belonged to the typical system,—a system given to the world as an object lesson to lead them to Christ. Gal. 3: 24. EDITOR.