Jacob,
That is certainly the way I would interpret it, although I do not think there was a great deal of "ceremonial" observance of the day spelled out in the Law. There was much more of that in the oral tradition. The Jewish opposition to Christianity would have angrily attacked these believers (and their multitude of Gentile converts) for their disinterest in the full panoply of Jewish law-life, all the ceremonial exclusivism. Specifically, as it related to the Sabbath, we would argue that Christ changed the specific day on which Sabbath was to be observed.

We would argue, then, that the Jewish insistence that "holy convocations" to God and "rest" must be observed on the Old Testament day of designation (not to mention whatever talmudic observances were added) was not to concern the Christian in the least. Now, if God had retained a day for himself, and simply changed the specifics, then this passage in Colossians has no weight to inveigh against a NT Lord's Day, or NT Sabbath

See here, this one Colossians passage cannot "undo" an entire, broadly constructed, biblical case that establishes that there is a moral principle at stake, in that God sets both the means and the times in which he is to be be approached. The text most certainly does NOT say, "there is no Sabbath in this age." In fact, an argument can be made straight from the words of the text that "the substance belongs to Christ," is just as much of an argument that NT age Sabbath-keeping MUST be Christological, provided there be a well-founded argument for its existence.

The position Paul seems to be arguing against is a form of judaizing, of returning to pre-Christ formula out of the law. There are some who tie the Sabbath so closely to the law, even denying there is a Sabbath from creation--basically saying that a morally binding Sabbath is purely a Mosaic ceremonial ordinance (they say, since God made a Sabbath for man, and not the other way around, then man was not morally bound to observe it from the creation of the world). It seems obvious to me that the recitation of the Sabbath law in the "10", as foundational to the Mosaic Law that follows, actually underscores its moral, eternal quality.

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


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