Colossians 2 and 3 - Freedom from Regulations

"When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross." (vv. 13 - 14)

When we receive Christ's salvation, we are no longer under the law. We are completely free in Christ. We do not need to submit to the power and authority of the law, we submit to the power and authority of Christ in God. Does this mean we can do whatever we want? By no means. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything." So in our freedom, we need to make sure we don't give mastery of ourselves over to any earthly thing. We also need to refrain from things that would lead others into sin or that would not be beneficial to us or to others.

Paul continues in Colossians 3 "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things... Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry... You must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (vv. 1-2, 5-6, 8-10)

So we are free from the law, but we still need to rid ourselves of things that belong to the earthly nature and that do not glorify God.