He Nailed It!

Text: Col. 2:13-14

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.

From the early fifties through the sixties Helen Roseveare served as a missionary to the Congo. In the early sixties as the Congo was going through a tremendous amount of unrest and rebellion there were some of the rebel soldiers who came to the hospital that she had founded. They took her out, raped her, and then they tied her to a tree. They took a book that she had been writing for eleven years about the growth of Christianity and the impact of missions in the Congo (she had one copy that was not complete) and put it on the ground in front of her and burned it. A few years later she returned to the Congo and as part of her ministry and some of these same men had been wounded and were brought to her. She realized and understood that it was her responsibility to minister to them, give them the gospel and forgive them just as God for Christ’s sake had forgiven her.

This is a tremendous testimony and an example of the reality that whatever may happen to us it is not something that God hasn’t foreseen and that His grace is sufficient to handle it. Whatever sins we may commit, whatever sins might be committed against us, God’s grace is sufficient. There is no reason for more shame, no reason for guilt for anyone who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the core of the gospel is the fact that we have complete and total forgiveness because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

Positional Penalty (Held in Hopelessness)

Spiritual death is not the result of our decision, but our inherent Disposition

But the focal point isn’t on personal sin, it isn’t there to rub the unbeliever’s nose in the fact that he is this dirty, rotten, stinking sinner and he had better repent of all of his sins before he can experience God’s grace. But he represents the fact that this is a problem, the unbeliever is spiritually dead.

It doesn’t mean for your trespasses and sins or because of your trespasses and sins. It says you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

John 8:24 “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

The debt we Owed, was an Overwhelming Obligation

So this is a written decree. It is the idea that this is a formal, legal document that indicts the sinner.

There is an indebtedness that we have as a sinner that is really the indictment against us as unbelievers, those who are unbelievers and unrighteous. There is an indictment against us from the Supreme Court of heaven that has to be dealt with or eradicated.

The focal point is grace, the sufficiency of Christ, that we have forgiveness and we need to realize that, first of all in terms of justification and salvation by trusting in Christ as our savior because He has already eradicated that certificate of debt at the cross.

Life after Death was made possible by the sacrifice of Life for Death

That is what this is all about: how God can regenerate us, can solve that personal problem of being spiritually dead and how that is able to be changed because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

Death doesn't spell Done in the presence of the Deliverer

Positional Sanctification(Moving by the Miraculous)

“You are just a sinner and you have to repent of all that sin or you are never going to have salvation.” That is legalism; that is not an understanding of the grace of God at the cross. Personal sin is not the issue in salvation and gospel presentation.

Spiritual death is only Solved by the Sovereign Solution.

Whatever sins we may commit, whatever sins might be committed against us, God’s grace is sufficient. There is no reason for more shame, no reason for guilt for anyone who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, because the core of the gospel is the fact that we have complete and total forgiveness because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross.

We have Complete debt Cancellation all because of what Christ did at the Cross.

It is that this certificate of debt or this indictment against us is completely eradicated, removed, destroyed at the cross. That is how He forgave us, by cancelling or removing this certificate of debt.

forgiveness= The word is used in finance to indicate cancelling a debt, erasing a debt, removing a debt. It means to remove something completely, it is not there anymore.

This has tremendous impact, not just in terms of some important points of doctrine and theology but because it comes home to us not only in our own personal mental attitude when it comes to facing problems in our life related to shame, guilt, sin, but also in order for us to understand how we are to imitate God in forgiving one another as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us.

Positional Glorification (Triumph over Tragedy)

Not that the sin issue isn’t relevant to the gospel or a gospel presentation but what this passage tells us is that the focus isn’t on the sin, the focus is on the message of forgiveness. It is positive, it is optimistic, it is looking at the reality that Christ has dealt with the sin problem at the cross and that is not the issue or the focal point of the gospel message.

So this is a written decree. It is the idea that this is a formal, legal document that indicts the sinner. This is what is eradicated or removed so that it is no longer the issue.

So the way He took it out of the way was by nailing it to the cross. So it happens at the cross; sin is dealt with at the cross. Sin is not dealt with ultimately when we trust Christ as our savior. That sin was already dealt with, paid for, completely eradicated for every human being at the cross. This helps resolve the understanding of unlimited atonement. But the payment of that doesn’t apply it to the individual; it is not realized in the experience of each individual until they trust in Christ, and only at that point are they made alive together with Him.

But the point in all this is: if Christ did all of this to solve these massive cosmic problems caused by sin, if Christ’s death is sufficient to solve all of that then whatever problem we are facing in life is just miniscule by comparison. And Christ is sufficient for that problem. Only in our exclusive and complete trust in Christ can we truly glorify God in solving whatever those problems are in our life.

He Nailed IT....