The Cancellation of the Cross
He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14 NASB)
I can’t seem to get enough of this truth…He made you alive together with Him -Jesus, the victorious living Savior, still true man and true God. How it does my heart good to hear this every day, to be reminded of my state of being with Jesus. To share life together with Jesus on earth while waiting my eternal abode in heaven. This certainly helps keep life’s struggles, disappointments and set backs in the right perspective. This phrase catches the essence of the Lenten season and the aim of our 40 days of reflection otherwise overshadowed the rest of the year.
By the time a person comes to the end of this brief passage, he or she ought to be convinced of the extent and assuredness of the Lord’s making us alive. We see how He has made us alive. Yesterday we noted that it was having forgiven us all our transgressions. Today we see further confirmation of how He has made us alive with Him…having canceled out the certificate of debt.
You might be saying, “What certificate? I didn’t know there was one held against me. While the English term certificate is used what is literally expressed by Paul is the handwriting that is held against us in decrees speaking up from this paper.
Think of it this way, there is a mortgage on your soul for your sins. The same is true of me. This is not a friendly accounting document. Like the servant in Jesus’ parable owing ten thousand talents to his master, there is absolutely no way any of us can pay off this certificate of debt. But Jesus did. He cancelled it…totally wiped it out…paid it off…obliterated it…removed it out of our lives. How? He nailed it to the cross!
Think about that. As sure as Jesus was nailed to the cross, so too has the debt owed for your sins, my sins been nailed there as well. When those Romans soldiers nailed Him to the cross, they were unsuspecting servants of God who unknowingly were nailing their own certificates of debt, the Jewish leaders’, mine, and yours to the cross with Him. Do you believe Jesus was nailed to the cross of Calvary? Then you should also believe He nailed the total price you owe to God for your sin there as well. Now that is something to rejoice.
Are the sins of your past and even today getting in your way? You might wonder; “Where is that certificate now? Can it ever be held up against me again?” Friend, it’s been cancelled. You could spend the rest of your life looking for it as some kind of Indiana Jones character searching after some lost artifact. The difference is, this certificate of debt will never be found because it is not lost, it has been cancelled. This we know and receive by faith.
We live in a world of technology yet fearing we might lose something we may want to reference later on. So we are constantly “backing up” our files, programs and other documents using various memory devices. Not so your transgressions. God hasn’t backed up this certificate so that He might print off a copy in the future and wave it in front of your face the next time you sin. No not at all. He doesn’t want to dig it out, because He has chosen a different route:
“FOR I WILL BE MERCIFUL TO THEIR INIQUITIES, AND I WILL REMEMBER THEIR SINS NO MORE.“ (Hebrews 8:12 NASB)
