Colossians 2: 13 – 15: The price is paid.

These things are true of every Christian:

  • There’s been a great change (13): You are no longer what ‘’you were’’. (See John 5: 24: ‘’I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.’’ You were dead, but you aren’t any longer! (See 3:1; Ephesians 2:1-11). Conversion (or ‘regeneration’) was God’s work; God’s initiative. It is not something anyone can boast about. We didn’t make ourselves alive. ‘’When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive – right along with Christ.’’ The Message.
  • There’s been a glorious removal (13b, 14: This is a vivid way of saying that because Jesus was nailed to the cross our sin debt has been cancelled.)What a precious truth is found in just six words: ‘’He forgave us all our sins…’’ A verse in the famous hymn, ‘It is well with my soul’, says: ‘’My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought; my sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul.’’ There are things that we have done which could continue to haunt us. But Jesus has decisively dealt with every sin at the cross. Someone said, ‘’God buries our sins in the deepest sea, and puts up a big sign: ‘No Fishing!’ ‘’. In using the words ‘’our’’ and ‘’us’’ Paul identified himself with the people he was writing to. He didn’t stand aloof from them. He recognized that he too was a sinner in need of God’s grace. When a criminal was crucified, a placard was nailed to the cross above where he hung, itemising his ‘sins’; his misdemeanours. (You may remember how this worked out in the case of Jesus: Matthew 27:37. Jesus had committed no crimes, but they had to charge Him with something. So He was crucified on concocted charges.) Paul writes here that the charges ‘’against us’’ were ‘nailed’ to Christ’s cross. What an incomprehensibly merciful thing Jesus did for us by His dying! ‘’Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant cancelled and nailed to Christ’s Cross.’’ The Message.
  • There’s been a gigantic win (15): ‘’ He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.’’ The Message. The Bible teaches that when Jesus died on the cross He overcame Satan and all the evil powers in the universe (see also Hebrews 2:14, 15. As David cut off Goliath’s head with the giant’s own sword, so Jesus used Satan’s weapon, death, to defeat him.) Jesus exposed to the universe the utter helplessness of the principalities and powers. Paul uses the picture of a conqueror’s triumphal procession in which prisoners of war were displayed to magnify the Victor’s prowess. As we saw yesterday, Jesus’ victory has massive implications for our own daily struggle with personal evil. We share in His win as we lean on Him. Praise God, we our out from under the domination of sin and the devil. We don’t have to be bullied or dictated to any longer.

Prayer: Lord help me to realise that these things are true of me, because of you.