Colossians 2:14-15
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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in the cross.
On several occasions in recent years we have gone through a refinancing of our home mortgage. If you’re like me you dread that process even if you know it will save you money. I dread going through the whole application process, finding and then sifting through all my financial records, seeing my credit score, then signing a gazillion documents.
But at some point in the process, on one of the dozens of pages legal documents you have to sign, the lending company will make very clear the exact amount of money you will owe them over the life of the loan. And once you sign on the dotted line, you become indebted to the lending company for the duration of the terms of the loan, and that debt will be repaid one way or another.
While it may not be clear to us upon first reading, but that’s something like what Paul is talking about in Colossians 2.
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.
The phrase Paul uses here, “…having canceled the written code,” is very interesting. He uses two words that are used only once each in the entire New Testament, and both words have to do with contracts in the ancient world. By “written code” Paul is referring to a handwritten legal document that was often associated with debt of some kind. It simply meant that one party had the right to expect complete repayment from another party.
But the word translated as “canceled” is also unique. It meant to blot out or completely obliterate something, and was specifically used to refer to what happened when the wax seal on such a legal document was rubbed out or smeared so as to make the document invalid.
So, here’s what Paul is saying: Imagine every sin you have ever committed; sins of commission and sins of omission; sins of action, thought and attitude; recorded and written into a legal document. I picture that document having a lot of pages; and a lot of fine print. But it’s all there. On the last page your debt is totaled up and there, on the bottom line, is what you owe.
It’s a big number; a number you can’t repay in a thousand lifetimes; and you know you’re in trouble.
And just when you reach for the pen to sign for the debt; just when you have that sinking feeling that you are signing your life away; there is another who scrawls across the document in his own hand, “Paid in full.”
You blink once, twice, as it slowly sinks in. Paid in full. No more debt; no written legal document; no more anxiety or fear; all of it canceled, eliminated, obliterated, gone.
Can you imagine?
Better yet, can you see this is what Jesus did for you?
Brian Coffey
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