“Lifeless in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh” (Col. 2:13) is just not essentially the most nice strategy to describe somebody’s previous. This, nevertheless, is exactly the analysis that Paul gave the believers in Colossae. The Colossians had been sinners in opposition to God, deserving His simply punishment; they usually—just like the Ephesians—had been “strangers to the covenants of promise” (Eph. 2:12) wherein the Jewish folks discovered hope. In different phrases, the Colossians wanted forgiveness however had no apparent expectation of receiving it. They had been pretty much as good as lifeless and in want of a radical intervention.
And but “you,” Paul provides, “God made alive” (Col. 2:13). The intervention got here—not from human beings however from God Himself, who stepped in to right the issue. The Colossians weren’t saved by discovering faith. They weren’t saved by a brand new philosophy. They weren’t saved even by good works. God saved them, forgiving their sins and bringing them to life spiritually.
How did God do that? As Paul goes on, he explains what God has finished in three footage.
The Slate Wiped Clear
Paul begins with the image of a slate cleaned, a canceled document of debt—within the phrases of the King James Bible, “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was in opposition to us”:
You, who had been lifeless in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive along with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the document of debt that stood in opposition to us with its authorized calls for. (Col. 2:13–14)
In Paul’s day, folks wrote on papyrus or vellum, and the ink they used was not everlasting. It may very well be wiped away. It was attainable to take a sponge and wipe a document clear.
God has a regulation that’s expressed in His Phrase and mirrored on the human conscience—even on the consciences of those that by no means heard the regulation (Rom. 2:14–16). Each human, aside from Christ, has disobeyed the regulation and accrued an unlimited debt of guilt. A day is coming when God will settle the accounts.
However, Paul says to the Colossians, our debt of sin is like an IOU that God takes and tears up. Christ has paid the debt, settled the account, and disposed of the document. And that is what occurs for all who imagine in Christ and put themselves in His arms. We’ve got no energy to clear the debt ourselves, however He’ll do it for individuals who come to Him in religion.
The File Nailed to the Cross
Paul’s second image recollects the discover that was nailed to the cross when Jesus died, declaring that the explanation for His execution was that He was “The King of the Jews”: “This he put aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). In God’s windfall, that placard proclaimed that He was dying within the place of the folks and for them—and never for Jewish sinners solely however for all sinners (Eph. 2:14–16).
Our debt of sin is like an IOU that God takes and tears up.
As Paul says elsewhere, “For our sake God made him to be sin who knew no sin, in order that in him we’d change into the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). The believer’s debt is eradicated as a result of on the cross, Jesus Christ paid the debt. He suffered the punishment for our sins, and He allowed us to have all of the credit score of His personal righteousness.
The hymn author put this eloquently in “It Is Nicely with My Soul”:
My sin—oh the bliss of this wonderful thought!—
My sin, not partly however the entire,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no extra.
The cross, removed from being a spot of despair and defeat, has change into a spot of pleasure and triumph for individuals who imagine. It’s there that Jesus took sin on His personal shoulders and made it attainable for us to obtain life and forgiveness by way of religion.
The Conquer the Enemy
Lastly, Paul affords the image of victory: “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open disgrace, by triumphing over them in him” (Col. 2:15).
Jesus triumphed within the cross. He handled the forces of evil arrayed in opposition to Him and in opposition to God’s folks. Devil is an accuser who needs women and men to die of their sins. On the cross, nevertheless, he has been struck down. He isn’t but annihilated, however he’s definitely and irrevocably defeated and humiliated.
The cross, removed from being a spot of despair and defeat, has change into a spot of pleasure and triumph for individuals who imagine.
A Roman triumph was a parade in honor of a victorious common. The overall would lead a procession displaying the trophies of his victory, not least of all his vanquished foes, stripped and chained. The folks would look on and say, “There’s nothing to worry from these troopers anymore—not after what our common has finished to them.”
That’s the image Paul employs. Christ has gained the victory; the forces of evil have been, are being, and shall be put to disgrace. Subsequently, the Christian can say,
When Devil tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt inside,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an finish of all my sin.
After we place our religion in Christ, the satan should still lash out on the conscience and accuse us, making us doubt our standing with God. We are able to say, “My Lord Jesus has wiped the document clear. You can’t accuse me. Christ has paid my debt, He has born my sin, and He has defeated you.” As a result of for the believer, sins are forgiven, the slate is cleaned, that previous stack of debt has been nailed to the cross, and the enemy has been disarmed.
That is excellent news! And it’s excellent news for individuals who will come to Christ in religion, rejecting sin and placing their future in His arms. Anybody—male or feminine, younger or previous, Jew or gentile—could come to Him and say, “Pricey God, thank You for sending Your Son to do for me what I might by no means do for myself. I admit that I’m sinful. I imagine that Jesus died in my place. I include empty arms and a needy coronary heart, and I ask You to rework my life and make me the individual You propose for me to be.”
This text was tailored from the sermon “Triumphant Forgiveness” by Alistair Begg.
