Join It Is Written Sabbath School host Eric Flickinger and this quarter’s author, Dr. Clinton Wahlen, as they provide additional insights into this week’s Sabbath School lesson,

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/10-complete-in-christ-it-is-written-discussion-with-the-author/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=10-complete-in-christ-it-is-written-discussion-with-the-author

View an in-depth discussion of Complete in Christ in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris.
Click on the image below to view the video:

With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

Daily Lesson for Wednesday 4th of March 2026

To this day, scholars do not agree on exactly what the issues were that Paul was addressing here. What we can be sure of is that Paul’s epistle itself provides quite a bit of information on what seems to have been a Jewish-Christian divisive influence on this predominantly Gentile church (Colossians 2:13). That is, the Jewish believers were pushing things that were not necessary for the members to follow.

Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com

Clearly, Colossians 2:16 lists a number of regular Jewish practices that were apparently continued among some Jewish converts to Christianity. But even the elements in Colossians 2:18 fit the same context. Jesus criticized pretensions to humility among the religious leaders (for example, Matthew 6:1,5,7,16). From the scrolls of Qumran, we learn that angels featured prominently in some Jewish conceptions of worship. So, the problems that Paul was confronting in Colossae were most likely similar to those he confronted elsewhere.

Since Colossians 2:16 is so often misunderstood, it is important to consider it in greater detail. Notice these points:

Paul’s use of “therefore” (ESV) signals that this is a conclusion drawn from what he has already said. Previously, the need for literal circumcision was dismissed because it is the inward change of the heart that matters (Colossians 2:11-15).

“Food and drink” refer to the meal and drink offerings that the Israelites brought to the temple.

The specification of “a festival or a new moon or sabbaths” (Colossians 2:16, NKJV) apparently alludes to Hosea 2:11, where the same sequence of ceremonial days are referred to, which includes ceremonial sabbaths (see, for example, Leviticus 23:11,24,32).

Crucial to our understanding of this verse is Paul’s own interpretation: that these “are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ” (Colossians 2:17, NKJV). These ceremonial days, like the sacrifices, pointed to the work of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 15:23). The seventh-day Sabbath, in contrast, was instituted in Eden, before sin, and long before the ceremonial sacrifices of the sanctuary were adopted; therefore, it was not a shadow to be done away with after the Cross.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26a-10-shadow-or-substance/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26a-10-shadow-or-substance

Daily Lesson for Tuesday 3rd of March 2026

How often have we seen these texts, especially Colossians 2:14, misused as an argument against the law and keeping the Sabbath?

To help understand these texts, two main interpretations have been proposed by Seventh-day Adventists: First, the “handwriting” nailed to the cross is the list of charges leveled “against us,” similar to the writing Pilate hung on Jesus’ cross (Matthew 27:37; John 19:19-20). Or, second, the ceremonial law written by Moses (see Deuteronomy 31:24-26) was nailed to the cross.

When we look at the verse in its larger context, we can see that it is clearly talking about the ceremonial law.

Image © Review and Herald Publishing Assn. Goodsalt.com

Paul also refers to “circumcision made without hands” (Colossians 2:11), that is, “of the heart” (Romans 2:28-29; compare Deuteronomy 30:16), in apparent contrast to fleshly circumcision, which was one of the most important stipulations of the ceremonial law (Leviticus 12:3; compare Exodus 12:48).

Paul then connects this inward change with “putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” and with baptism by immersion. With this baptism, we identify ourselves with Christ’s death and resurrection (Colossians 2:11-12).

This conversion experience is then likened to having been “dead in trespasses” and “made . . . alive” with Christ, who “forgave us all our trespasses” (Colossians 2:13, NRSV).

The word “ordinances” (Colossians 2:14) refers to legal decrees, whether secular (Luke 2:1, Acts 17:7) or ecclesiastical (Acts 16:4). This Greek word’s only other occurrence in Paul’s writings refers to the ceremonial law, which formed a wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14-15).

Because Paul has already referred to the forgiveness of sins and the inner change symbolized by baptism, it is unlikely he would return to that topic again with a different metaphor not used anywhere else in Scripture. Rather, Paul seems to be emphasizing a similar point as made in Ephesians: that the Gentile believers in Colossae need not worry about keeping the ceremonial law, including circumcision, nor about the purity laws that went with such a commitment (compare Acts 10:28,34-35).

Clearly, Paul was not suggesting that the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross, not when elsewhere he defines sin as violation of the Ten Commandments (Romans 7:7).

<–Monday Wednesday–>

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/26a-10-nailed-to-the-cross/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=26a-10-nailed-to-the-cross

One hot July afternoon at an Oklahoma Camp meeting, I visited a friend in her tent. Just outside sat my friend’s 13-year-old daughter with a friend she had just met. This was her friend’s first camp meeting. He had come with his grandfather, who just become a Christian. He did not know what to think about all the meetings and asked my friend’s daughter, “What do you think about Jesus? What is He really all about?” My ears perked up, as I was quite interested in how she would answer.

Image © Pacific Press

I will never forget what she said.

“Before my mom and I met Jesus, we argued and yelled at each other all the time, and I could not stand my home, but now that we met Jesus we don’t yell anymore, and I love my home now.”

Interesting. She introduced her new friend to Jesus as a literal friend Who had literally changed her life, and not as some pretend theory.

I heard a radio preacher once say, “In order to be able to call Jesus your Savior, He has to actually save you from something.” He was right. Many people speak of faith almost like it is pretending. Some use a very Biblical term, “perfect in Christ,” but then they add, “but it is only by faith.” And yes, it is only by faith, but by saying “only by faith,” they seem to make it sound like faith is only pretending. When we read in Hebrews 11:30 about the walls of Jericho falling by faith, we take that to mean that the walls of Jericho literally fell and did not just pretend to fall. So when we read in Colossians 1:28, “that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus,” should we not take that “perfect in Christ” to be literal also and not just pretense?

Read how Ellen White describes the term “perfect in Christ” In the Great Controversy, page 623.
… we should seek to become perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought could our Saviour be brought to yield to the power of temptation. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But Christ declared of Himself: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” John 14:30. Satan could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. He had kept His Father’s commandments, and there was no sin in Him that Satan could use to his advantage. This is the condition in which those must be found who shall stand in the time of trouble. It is in this life that we are to separate sin from us, through faith in the atoning blood of Christ.

If faith literally made the walls of Jericho fall, then we have to believe that faith will also make a literal and practical change in the way we live our lives.

On that hot summer afternoon so many years ago, my friend’s daughter gave an example of how her faith literally changed her life, showing that faith is not just make-believe but makes things practical and literal. I am totally powerless to tear down the strongholds Satan has set up in my life, but the same faith that made the walls of Jericho come crumbling down will also make those strongholds in my life come down as well.

Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/perfect-and-complete-in-christ/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=perfect-and-complete-in-christ