13 When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.
I am alive, and so are you as a believer in Christ. Really alive! Verse 12 told us that we were buried and raised up with Him through faith. Paul now points out the true condition that required our “burial”—we were dead! Our “transgressions” (breeches of Law) rendered us the same as “uncircumcised” Gentiles. For Jews this would have been shocking to hear. All the externals of their religion meant nothing to God, now that Jesus has risen from the dead. Our aliveness has nothing to do with religious behavior or rituals or disciplines.
Notice the descriptions of our pre-faith condition: we were dead (vs. 13), debtors (14a) and objects of hostility (14b). God has now taken care of these things completely. We are alive, our debt has been canceled, and the hostility has been taken away!
How did this happen? It was all nailed to the cross, as it were. The imagery is that of a written decree listing out our sins being taken and nailed to the cross on which Christ died. This was once vividly illustrated at a Christian summer camp where the campers were encouraged to write on a small piece of paper the sins with which they were currently struggling. Then, one by one, they walked up to a makeshift wooden cross and taking a hammer and nail, they fastened the “decree” to the cross. As each camper stood there watching, the cross was towed away on a trailer, symbolizing that the “debt consisting of decrees against us…He has taken it out of the way” (14). What a powerful picture of the illustration God has given to us of what took place on the cross.
Christ’s death was not just an example of suffering for wrong done. Nor was it meant to be a sentimental act of love, showing Christ’s commitment to the truth, or to be a catalyst of non-aggressive resistance to worldly religious authority imitated by the likes of Mahatma Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr. It was far more than that. Our Lord’s death provided death and resurrection for all who would believe on Him. That was not just symbolism, but reality. We are now alive, no longer spiritually in debt, our enemy the devil has been disarmed in his accusations against us—all because of what Jesus has done!
Lord, I am overwhelmed when I think of what You have accomplished for me. Eternity will not be long enough for praising You.
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