No condemnation
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
Col.2:16-17
D8.1 The reality has come
The OT law was only a temporary provision until Christ came. It foreshadowed the plan of redemption that the Godhead had prepared before teh foundation of the world. When Christ came He fulfilled it to theĀ letterĀ and became its end for righteousness to all that believe.
This means that all the sacrifices, the festivals and the whole of the ceremonial system is now ended. These were just shadows, Christ is the fulfilment. They have no merit in them at all. We can not obtain favour with God by keeping any of the OT law and ceremonies. To trust them is, as Paul says in Galatians is to fall from grace.
Christ is the reality of all the OT speaks why seek after teh shadows once more?
D8.2 Let no one Judge
Christ has died, God has justified us. For those justified by faith in Christ through His blood, there is no more any condemnation. Because of all that no one, not even the devil can lay any charge against us. The exhortation then is that we are not to allow to judge us, we are not to let anyone to be our judge. Likewise we are not to be judges over anyone else. God’s people are not to lord it over one another.
These points will be reappear again in the next section.