"The Cross: Our Certificate of Debt Paid in Full"

Colossians 2:[13-14]--"And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."

These verses proclaim the incredible sin-debt that we owe God that we can never repay. We are indebted to God because of our sin nature. We are dead in our trespasses because of our sin nature not; not merely because of the acts of sin that we commit. We are hopelessly, spiritually dead in our sins, therefore God has to make us alive through Christ that we may recieve eternal life. It is only God who initiates and exerts His power to make us alive. We do not have the ability to make ourselves spiritually alive. Without God dragging us to Himself and giving us the desire to come to Christ we would not have come to Him. Our sin nature is for self. It is unnatural for us to come to Christ and want anything besides what's in our own best interest. Therefore, only through God's power, justice, and unfailing love will we ever come to Him.

Circumcision in the Old Testament was an outward sign of the cleansing of sin that came from believing in God. With this in mind I believe that "The uncircumcision of your flesh" in this verse--is an inward sign refering to the cleasing of our hearts. Our hearts need to be cleansed because we have a corrupt nature. Once we come to Christ our hearts are cleansed and sanctified through Him. Henry's commentary says, "An unsanctified heart is called an uncircumcised heart." I believe Paul is saying here that before we come to Christ we are dead in our trespasses because we have unsanctified hearts that have not been regenerated. We have to be given a new nature through believing in Christ's death on the cross and resurrection; only then do we become alive in Him.

Romans 6:[5-6]--"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

Through Christ's death he paid the debt for our sins. No one except Christ could pay this debt because only He lived a sinless life. All of us have sinned and cannot keep God's laws therefore we needed Christ to pay the debt for us.Through Christs sacrifice and payment for sins we have been completely forgiven for the debt that we owed God. Our debt has been paid in full.

Romans 3:23--"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

I have done a little research on the customs and commerce of Pauls day. It is interesting to me what Paul says in verse 14, "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Paul's words here are powerful. He is explaining how debts were handeled in those days. When a person could not repay their debt the lender would write up an itemized certificate of debt. The debtor was required to sign this certificate. It was then posted on the doorposts of the debtors house where everyone could read it. When they paid their debt in full the lender would do one of two things. He would wipe away--by marking through--the certificate or drive a nail through it to cancel out the certificate of debt.

This is what Christ did for us on the cross. God saw our certificate of debt--the sin in our lives--and cancelled out our debt by driving a nail through it and wiping out our debt. Our debt was nailed to the cross. God forgives us and declares us not guilty when we put our faith in Christ. We all owe God a debt that we will never be able to repay for violating His laws, therefore we are sentenced to death. All of our sins were put to Christ's account and nailed to His cross paying the penalty for our sins in our place, satisfying God's justice and wrath. Payment in full had to be made through Christ. When we trust in Christ we are no longer sentenced to death but guaranteed eternal life that we may live forever in God's presence. We must believe that Christ died for our sins but it doesn't end with His death, we must also believe and accept His resurrection. Christ paid our debt but this means nothing apart from His resurrection. His sacrifice means nothing if He didn't have the power to over come the grave. Jesus' resurrection proved that He had the power to make our salvation possible; to remove our sin and the penalty for it. May we always live for the Glory of our risen Lord. Praise God everytime He looks at me He doesn't see my sin but the precious, prefect blood of Christ covering me.

Lord, Thank you for your mercy, power, justice, and for loving me enough to draw me to Yourself. Without you I am nothing. Thank You for the sacrifice of Christ that I may come into your very presence. Thank You for cancelling out my sin-debt by driving the nails through Christ. Thank You for the liberty, hope, and freedom I have in Christ. Christ, thank you for making me to be a partaker of your life, that I may be one with You. Please live your life through me. Thank you for this fresh glimpse of Your glory.

Serving Our Lord Together,

Michelle Harrison