Today’s blog is a Valentine’s message.
One of my favorite chapters on the love of God is Colossians 2. The Apostle Paul writes about what Jesus did on the cross for us and how his death set us free from our sin and made us acceptable to God. I want to focus in on one phrase that has always had particular meaning to me.
“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;” Colossians 2:14
The Old King James English phrase “Blotting out the handwriting of the ordinances against us” drew my attention.
Writing a document in Jesus’ day required extreme patience. No erasers or delete buttons – every word had to be carefully written. If there was a mistake, the document had to be thrown away. Some corrections would be acceptable, but the paper would have to be so saturated with ink that the word or the mistake was completely blotted out so that it was no longer legible.
This is the picture that Paul is painting for us here. There was a document with a long list of sins we have committed, God’s laws we have broken, and Jesus “Blotted” out the list. He took and nailed it to His cross. His blood cancelled the evidence of our sin. It was dyed red. Amen!!
Jesus completely defeated His enemy; the one accuses us of the things we have done. Jesus rendered him powerless for all the spiritual world to see. We are now free to live for Christ, through God’s amazing love!
“You were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self. But God gave you new life together with Christ. He forgave all our sins. 14 Because we broke God’s laws, we owed a debt—a debt that listed all the rules we failed to follow. But God forgave us of that debt. He took it away and nailed it to the cross. 15 He defeated the rulers and powers of the spiritual world. With the cross he won the victory over them and led them away, as defeated and powerless prisoners for the whole world to see.” Colossians 2:13-15 ERV
God promises that He will not remember our sins and the wrong that we have done.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 10: 16-17
How can He do that?
Simple – God the Father chooses to hit the delete button; crash the hard drive; He blots them out. Why? Because He is our LOVING heavenly father.
“His love for his followers is as high above us as heaven is above the earth. 12 And he has taken our sins as far away from us as the east is from the west. 13 The LORD is as kind to his followers as a father is to his children.” Psalm 103:11-13
The page from our life’s book that has all our sins written on it has been dyed red. The handwriting is no longer visible. Thank you, Jesus, for Your shed blood!