(NKJV) Colossians 2:14 “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;”
(CEV) Colossians 2:14 “God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses. He took them away and nailed them to the cross.”
To the world the Cross was a terrible defeat, but it was the Greatest Victory the world has ever known, because Jesus Carried away all our sins, burdens, illnesses, etc – we should be happy because we are not going to hell.
Even in the natural: when someone is arrested and brought into court, the prosecutor says, ‘The charges against you are…’ They hope their lawyer can get the charges dismissed.
Well, God has a record of every sin we have committed from the womb to the tomb. It details all the bad decisions we’ve made, the hateful acts, the unforgiving attitudes, the prejudice, the greed, the lust, the lies; He has Recorded them all. But we have never seen that record, nor has anyone else. That’s because ‘He Forgave all our sins. He Cancelled the record of the charges against us and Took it away by Nailing it to the Cross’ (Colossians 2:13-14 NLT). Knowing full well that the price for our sins was death, ‘Christ suffered for our sins once for all time…he died for sinners to bring you safely home to God’ (1 Peter 3:18 NLT). Notice the words ‘forgave’ and ‘cancelled the record’ of the sins we have committed. The Cross is like a trading post. There, at the point of believing Faith, God Takes all your sins and puts them on Christ’s Account, while at the same time taking all Christ’s Righteousness and Putting it on our account. Now let’s dissect it:
First, Jesus Cancelled the record of our debt, in the same way a legal pardon cancels the penalty for a crime. In the day and time Paul wrote this, a person could be arrested or enslaved to pay off financial debts. They could also be enslaved as punishment for committing a crime. The image Paul is portraying to us is a person’s financial debt being erased along with the legal consequences. A believer no longer lives under the threat of punishment or enslavement to sin.
Second, Jesus “Set Aside” our sins as believers. This is a separate action from the legal or financial allegory. Declaring someone “pardoned” does not necessarily mean they are “welcomed.” However, according to Paul, those who put their Faith in Christ have their sins Removed from His sight. The failures of a saved believer are no longer a barrier between them and God. God’s Forgiveness not only means freedom from the eternal punishment of sin, it means we can have a living relationship with God, now.
Third, for the believer in Christ, the death of Jesus on the Cross is sufficient Payment for all sins. Paul uses a graphic allegory here, of sin itself being Crucified (Nailed to the Cross). In that era, crucifixion was not merely a brutal form of execution, it was a sign of absolute rejection. There were many other ways to execute people at that time, but crucifixion carried a sense of shame and disowning. So, when God Crucifies sin, He is not merely killing it, He is completely and utterly ignoring it and cutting it off. Above all, Jesus Defeated satan in an Open Combat, then He Stripped him the authority that he got from Adam & then He Gave the Authority to us – He forgave us all our trespasses.
Is there a limit to God’s Love? If there is, David the adulterer never found it. Nor Paul the persecutor of Christians. Nor Peter the liar. Nor the thief on the cross. And you won’t find it anywhere either. When Jesus cried from the Cross, ‘It is finished,’ God wrote ‘Paid in full’ over every sin you would ever commit. The word ‘justified’ simply means ‘just-if-I’d-never-sinned’. How good is that?
When Jesus was Nailed to The Cross, all our debts were wiped off, Amen.
