Colossians Lesson 12 Week 2
Colossians · JD McCulley · Jul 20, 2014
Colossians (2014), No. 29
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926434462135

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, we are in Colossians chapter 2, working through verses 11 through 14. Of the 11 questions that you have for this lesson, we've covered the first 5 last week. So that was fun. We are now turning into the 13th and 14th verses here. So by way of review, why don't we just go ahead and read Colossians 11 through 14. I'll do that for us here.

And we'll get started with question number six. And in him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with him through faith in the work of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us of all transgressions, having cancelled 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. So verse 13 is where we're really Honing in on question number six here, we're beginning just that continued thought that Paul had with regards to moving from a lot of the theological error of the Gnostics, and then dealing with more of the practical errors that the Colossians were challenged with in terms of What do we do with the law? How do we deal with this situation? We've got the Gnostics here, we've got the Jewish law over here, we kind of mix it all together, we call that syncretism. And so Paul is wanting to correct areas of syncretism and set straight the mind with regards to certain areas of confusion in this area of the law.

And so he brought up circumcision, we talked about that last week, and now he moves on to some positional truths that are pretty amazing, and amazing for us as we read them today, but also the Colossians, it was very timely in terms of what they were struggling with.

So, question number six. what benefits are there in being brought into association with Christ's death? Christ's death. So in the verse 13, when you were dead in your transgressions, moving on, in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made you alive together. So let's talk about death in this verse just from the perspective of who is Paul talking to in verse 13? And what is the death in the very first instance of this verse? And then we'll get to the privileges of having died with him as a believer. So who's he talking about here? He's talking about the death of the old man. He says, when you were dead in your transgressions. Dead. In a collection of believers.

Okay. And is that a present state or a former state? Former. Former state. So they were dead. What does dead mean? Separation. Not annihilation? Are you sure? Well, if you were to take this as annihilation, it would be difficult, considering the fact that they were there listening to him. But there is a school of thought that looks at death in terms of annihilation, and I'll bring that back up when we talk about the flip side of this. These Colossian believers were dead in what?

What are transgressions? Is that the sin nature? Sins. So that's the result of the sin nature. He's saying you were in a state of separation because of your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh. We've already talked about circumcision. What is the uncircumcision of your flesh? Let's just review that real quick. What does that mean? You were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh. That refers to the sin nature? The uncircumcision of the flesh, were they separated from the sin nature at that point? Not when they were dead. Maybe, I'm not sure. We were spiritually severed?

Yep, that's the result of Colossians 2.11. But here he's saying, remember when you weren't? Right? Remember when all this was reversed?

But, then he says, comma, he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us of all transgressions. So we've got this issue of they were dead in their transgressions, but we know that we are also associated with him in his death. So the question asks, what are the benefits of being brought from dead in our transgressions to alive with him? We'll talk about that phrase, alive with him, in a moment.

What are the benefits? Some of you have written down a few thoughts. Identification with Christ? Why is that valuable? Why is death necessary to achieve identification with Christ? What are the consequences of sin? Death. Somebody's got to die. And you were separated. You were condemned. Before having believed in what Christ did on your behalf, through death, burial and resurrection, you were condemned. You stood condemned because of your transgressions. Your sin nature produced nothing but transgression. So you stood condemned under the penalty of death. So what are the benefits of being associated with Christ's death?

He forgave us our sin if we believe in him. Say that one more time. He forgave us our sin if we believe in him, so then we... Well, we know forgiveness comes up in verse 14. Definitely one of the possessions a believer has. Yeah, Matt. We're no longer separated from God. We can have communion with him, I guess. We can talk with him now. I think that's right. I think that's right. Okay. What do we call that?

Big theological word. Substitution, right? We have a substitute. So, if Christ died for us but was not our substitute, would that be of any benefit to us? How can he be our substitute then? Okay, baptism, that's a previous verse, talked about that for sure. Why does the Lord require death in order to pay for sin? What? Why death? Pay the wages, which is death, because it is justice. Okay, that's an interesting thought.

Well, God is just, right? So let's write that up here. And if God was 100% just without any other character of his nature, what would he do to every single believer? Just like that, right? So is God wholly just? Would he be just to leave us in our condition of condemnation? He would be just. What is the other character attribute of God that prevents him from doing that?

What? Mercy and grace. Okay. I think that love covers a lot of those different aspects. So we've got mercy and grace all being tied to the character. So here you have these two different character attributes. One says, I have a holy righteous standard.

And because of your sin nature, because you're in the first who? In the first Adam, you stand as one who has broken righteousness. You've fallen short of, we call them transgressions, we call them sin, falling off the path of, not hitting the mark of. So because of your sin, and because of my justice, I must condemn your sin nature.

With what? Death. Why death? That's really the question we're asking. Why? Why not some other way? Well, a saint must die in order to have new life. So Christ had to die so that we could have new life. Okay. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. Okay, that's interesting. Why death? Because God is holy, righteous, and good.

No sinner No person who has ever committed sin can ever be in his presence at any time, ever. And so if it's just left there, then all of creation is condemned because you cannot be in the presence of a holy God if you are in any way associated with sin at all. He can't accept you. And so the reason that death is so important is that you have to leave the environment of death and end up in the environment of life in order to be in his presence. You cannot go there. One of the questions I always ask, if Christ only died as a substitute to pay the penalty of your sins and you are now a forgiven sinner, do you have a right to be in the presence of a holy God? The answer is no, you don't, because you are still a sinner. So you have to be separated from the whole sin creation in order to be acceptable to God. Does that make sense? No. Don't say that again.

Let me go at it a different way. When Adam sinned, because he was the head of the race, he took the entire race into condemnation with him. First Adam. First Adam. Right. We are all born and united to the first Adam. That's how we come into existence on the planet. Does that make sense so far? What's that? I was just checking. Yes. Okay.

Now, no one from the first Adam race can ever be acceptable to God in his presence because they are by definition sinners. Not only do they commit sins, but they are this thing called a sinner. And if you are a sinner, you cannot be in the presence of God. So, what did God do?

When Christ died on the cross, he took us with him and we were separated from the Adamic race, the condemned race. The first Adam. The first Adam. We were buried and then resurrected in Christ. Now this new race of humanity, which is Christ as the head of it, is totally acceptable in the presence of the Holy God. So it isn't so much of what you do, it's really where you are. Location is everything. You either are in Adam, which means you'll never be in association with God, or you're in Christ, which means you'll be united to him for all eternity.

Does that make sense? Yes, thank you. Yeah, I guess simpler is going back to why death? It goes back to the definition of the word separation. We have to be separated from our old Adam. The flesh is associated with the sin nature. Death means separation. Somehow we have to be separated from that. And that's where all of the sin nature is. It's associated with the flesh. And so death, the co-crucifixion, is how we get separated. There has to be death for separation. The flesh is associated with Adam and the sin nature. The only way is death.

Then, you know, I go in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. So the separation takes us away from Adam and where? He places us into Christ. Are we always separated from something? Whether in the first Adam or the second? Yes. Okay.

So that's maybe a better way to say it because we think of death and we usually think of it as being the positive separation from the sin nature, but we sometimes forget that we were dead in our transgressions too. So if we say it this way, when we were born into the sin nature, because of Adam's choice as the head of man, we were separated from God. And it is only by a death that we can be separated from the sin nature. And so you're always separated from something. You're either separated from God and you stand in condemnation of the three-part penalty of that, separation from Him for in terms of eternity, the second death, which will be your body, and so you have these different aspects of death or separation that you are born into, but then that gets reversed with the trust that a person has in Christ's death. Now here's a follow-up question. We're asking about benefits. If all Christ did was die, and we were identified with his death, is that enough to be in the presence of God? So what are the benefits of death then? What are the benefits of separation?

Not considering anything else that happened. That we're covered in his righteousness? Okay, not yet. We just died with him. Okay. Covered in his righteousness comes in a different aspect of identification. But let's think about death. Yeah. That removed the sin barrier. We can now be reconciled. God can now reconcile us to himself. Okay, so God sets aside, or does He actually, I should never say it that way, God pays for the sin debt.

But he doesn't just pay for it and leave it be, does he? Because there's some terms that are going to come up here in a little bit called certificate of debt and decrees and that will help us understand this just act that the Lord did on our behalf and we'll be able to bring out some analogies of how that worked and also some Roman perspective on certificates of death and so forth.

But isn't it just if you believe in Christ, if you have faith, I thought that's all you needed. That's all you need, but do you just need to have faith in Christ's death? Is that the gospel? No, Mary Olson is right. Alright, so, we're breaking, and this is kind of a little bit of a trick question that I'm bringing in to my initial thought here, only to help you think that death is not the only part of this. but it's an essential piece.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. So, the shedding of blood is absolutely necessary. And we need... Go ahead. Sorry to interrupt, just a question. You said earlier that in our death, we're crucified with Christ, that we've been separated from our sin nature. Then why do I keep on sinning? That's a good question. Let's go there, for now. Let's ask this question.

Why do you think that God positions us in Adam to begin with? Why does he allow that? Why do you think he allowed us to be positioned in death, in other words, separation from him? He gave us choice. Choice for what? To believe or not to believe. What's the value of that? Why is that valuable?

Why not just force everybody to do what he wants them to do? Because we wouldn't have free will then. He gave us free will. Okay. If God made that choice for you, And you'd have no part in it. In other words, we're not talking about merit, we're talking about faith. It is an action that a person places on an object, but it's unmeritorious, biblically speaking.

So, if God did not allow you to have faith, in what He provided to you in terms of your sin nature, or your being placed in Adam to begin with, would you have any part whatsoever in this world in terms of coming to know Him? So do you think that God allows us to begin in a state of the first Adam in order for us to experience genuine relationship with Him? Because he could have just force-fed it down your throat, right?

Okay, but you read the Bible, and then you get stronger in your faith, and then you have to believe in the resurrection? Yeah, totally. Well, I think that the resurrection is part of the gospel, so when I say, what are we believing in? I say gospel, and by that I mean the three parts and components of it.

Mike, you had a thought? The reason that I think that we are all born in Adam is to recognize that Adam being the head of the race, all of his characteristics are my characteristics. He's a sinner, I'm a sinner. He's a human being, I'm a human being. Everything that's true of him is true of me.

And you learn that after you become a believer. The reason I think that's so important is that when you become a believer, You now change men. The head of who you are now and your race of men is now Christ. And so you can say the same thing, that what's ever true of Christ is true of me because I'm from him now. And I think that's where the real advantage is, is that nothing of Adam comes over in terms of my position and in terms of who I am. and what Christ is.

Does that make sense? I think so. Let me ask the follow-up question. Why do you think God allows the sin nature to indwell us, which was your question? after salvation. So why did He allow us to understand who we are in Adam? Understand our separation because of our transgressions?

Well, we couldn't have experienced grace otherwise. We'd never understand grace. We'd never understand how the Lord made an opportunity for us to trust Him to solve the problem. So we would never have a Savior if we weren't needing salvation. But then it gets more personal, especially for us as believers. Why do you think God allows the sin nature to indwell us after salvation? Why is this pesky sin nature still bugging me every single day? Why? Why does God allow that? I don't know why he does it.

You have a thought though? My thought was, so it's attached to our human bodies, and whenever we go to heaven, that's when we lose the sin nature. That's all. Yep, well that is true. But why in the meantime is this sin nature still attached to our bodies? Because we said it's not annihilation. And a point was brought up last week that we have to differentiate between this school of thought called One Natureism, which says it was annihilated. And if you have any sin in your life, you probably were never saved in the first place, and you're not experiencing the one nature spirit that the Bible talks about. And that's not what the Bible talks about. In fact, there's so many instances where Paul talks about the challenge, O wretched man that I am, but thanks be to God. So why does God allow the two nature thing to happen in our life until we are separated from this body?

Yes. Because, I mean, I think, to remind us of our weakness, to remind us that we depend on God. If He had taken everything away, then we would be, what, the same as He is, without sin? At some point. But in between, you're exactly right. You said the word grow, I think, and you said need, or you mentioned something about the need. Anybody have any further thoughts? I think she's right on.

The thought I've always had about that question, which is just a great question, is that if you think about the way God does things, and why he does things, he does everything for his own glory. And I think to have a race of people on the earth who are believers, who, by faith, live in dependence on the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ himself, generates more glory to him than if he'd have done it the other way. So who is the focus? Where is the focus as a believer who is still dealing with the deposed monarch we talked about last week, yelling out commands for you, chained up, has no authority over your life, but still is demanding from you, Where's the focus, if that's allowed? It should be on Christ. Should be on Christ, that's right.

So do you think that the answer might be something along the lines of all that you said, God allows this sin nature to indwell us so that we do not focus on self-centeredness but Christ-centeredness? Because we're unable to deal with that sin nature. Our human nature cannot battle it out. And that's where we all were at one point. When we first became believers, we were going to pull up the bootstraps and we're going to get her done. That's us trying to tame the sin nature. And it's a failed attempt, and we know that the Lord doesn't see that as having any value at all. And that's effort. When Verne says, don't do it, the Nike phrase, just do it, he's like, don't do it. Don't do it at all. And what he's talking about is, you don't try to tame this sin nature, because that's self-centeredness.

So He leaves the sin nature in your life until you are transformed into glory with Him by physical death. He leaves it there so that your needs and your focus are all centered around Him. He is your life. And that's essential for us, because if He translated us instantly into His presence, there would have been missed opportunities for us in terms of learning who He is and how He works. It's intimacy, really. I mean, it is a benefit to have the indwelling sin nature in your life today, according to the Lord, so that you can become more intimate with Him and learn how He works in your life as you trust Him.

And as you said, Paul said, wretched person that I am, we can all say that, and I'm going to do that. Because, you know, you just sometimes screw up big time. That's right. You do. Even though you don't want to, you know, that's our nature. It is. It's the nature of It's us trusting the sin nature, isn't it? Right? We all know what that's like.

So number seven. Question number seven. What do you think being raised with Christ gives you as a believer? So now we're talking about the second part of the gospel. So death. We'll assume that death and burial are one and the same here. And then resurrection. So what do you think being raised with Christ gives you as a believer? Grace. Okay. Why? Because he died for us and it's only by his grace that we have that position with him. What does resurrection mean? New life. To be raised up in new life, newness of life. So if that's our working definition, what's the benefit of us being identified with Christ and his resurrection?

Well, it gives me peace. Okay. Why? It's a wonderful feeling because I know where I'm going. Do you always feel that way? I have to remind myself. Whether you feel that way or not, does it change the fact that you were raised with him in your life? No. It doesn't. Okay.

So one of the benefits is that you can feel a sense of joy and peace, but it's not that that is always the case, right? But does it change the fact that you still stand in that newness of life? So we're talking position, condition here. So one of the benefits is a feeling of joy and peace.

There's definitely that. Let's get a little deeper. The verse of the hungry heart today says that we have escaped the corruption that is in the world. So we might still, or we do still have a sin nature. And yet we have escaped that aspect of human rights.

Okay. We were separated from the consequences of sin when we died with him. When we were identified with him at his resurrection, what were we given that allows us to be in his presence? His righteousness. Thought? Go ahead. His righteousness is what I say? His life? His life? I think this goes back to it's our union with him now. We have the intimacy that we have with him.

You talked about separation before. We were separated from that intimacy, that ability to come before him boldly, to come before him and say, Abba, Father, all that. In the flesh we don't have that. New life, we have the intimacy with him, we have the union, John 17, all that that we have in him, that's what we have right now. And we didn't have that, we were separated from that before. And now in new life, we have the ability to come before him intimately.

Do we get new life from just death? Being identified with Christ's death? No, we get separated from the sin nature. But we need the resurrection in order to have the divine life. That's what you're asking. Resurrection is where we get the new life. That's right. The new life in Him, which gives us that union, that there's no separation now between us. So now when the Lord looks at you because of the resurrection, what does He see? Christ. Christ's life. He sees Christ's life. That's exactly right.

So without Christ's resurrection and our being identified with Him in that, we would have no life. We would be separated from the sin of nature, but we would have no new life. You see how important the two are? Wouldn't the burial indicate then that it was definitely a death?

Absolutely. Yeah. And burial is tied to this idea of baptism, so it's the identification with going down and coming up, so the immersion concept behind baptism. So the burial is the middle ground between the two, and it definitely points to the legitimacy of death, right?

One of the other things that comes to mind when I think about what we have in the resurrection, our new life, this hit me. shared several times is, when you look back in Genesis when Adam and God were walking in the pool of the garden and walking together, how good is that? That is great. And walking in fellowship with him.

But what always struck me was the fact, God says it was not good for him to be alone. And I was like, wait a minute, you're fellowshipping with the God of the universe. What do you mean alone? But it was on a different level. It was the creator and the creation. And that made sense, finally, that there was a separation, actually, between them. There was a creator and the creation. And how he could say it was not good for him to be alone when he's walking. What more do you need? And yet he said it was not good to be alone.

So what we have now in our identification or our resurrection and new life in him is we have that intimacy now that Adam never had. And that's the unbelievable part of an identification now is we have an intimacy that we can go Abba Father and have a relationship as the deity with the God of the universe. And that's the difference now from where Adam ever could have been to where we have now, which is intimacy that Adam could never have. We have an intimacy that is on a whole other level.

We are allowed to stand in the presence of God positionally because of our being given Christ's life. I think that standing in the presence of God You have to associate that with what is Christ standing before God? How does he stand before God and what is his acceptance? What is his position there?

And ours is exactly what his is. It isn't that we were given some of his life so that we can sort of sneak in and stand in line. The exact same acceptance that the Lord Jesus Christ has with God, we have. Because of the life that we have, the resurrected life that we have in Him. So positionally, we have that exact same standing as Christ. What about physically?

Is there another resurrection? So, how many resurrections are there for us? Just two. What's the first one? We're raised with Christ. So positionally we've been raised. Will we be physically raised? Will we ultimately be transformed? I think we could call that the second resurrection that we experience. Just a little bit further thought there. Number eight. Before we were believers, we were separated from God.

Now we are made alive together with him. What does alive together mean? I like this statement. What is alive together? Christ in us. Absolutely. We are in Christ. Is that right? It is right. Ephesians 2.5 says that very thing, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ. Is there life outside of Christ? No. Not at all. Why isn't there? That's a good question.

You have to distinguish I think between life, which is associated with God in existence, We sometimes look at life as just existence, like my dog exists, he's got a dog life. Adam exists, he's got a damned life. When the Bible talks about life itself, it refers only to the life of God, His life. He's not only the giver of life, He is life. And so we as believers are in the one who is life.

Does that make sense? If death is separation, what is life, biblically? Union. You like that word? Is that a good definition? What's the word? I didn't hear it. Union. Okay, thank you. Identification. They're both states that can't be undone. And that's what's so important about them. Say that again. Say that again.

Are you talking about death and resurrection? Or life and death? What states are you talking about? The two lives you were talking about. Two lives. They mean you're united with Christ. and you have eternal life, you have the life that he wants for you as God's child, as an ambassador. So maybe to kind of take what you're saying and put it into a different way of saying it, can you reverse The death, your co-death, co-burial, co-resurrection, and now co-life in Christ, can that be reversed?

Why? Are you sure? Why are you so sure? Why can you not reverse it? Can't you not believe it anymore? Because it's Christ who did it, not me. Oh, alright. That's a good answer. If you didn't do it in the first place, she said it was Christ who did it in the first place.

Did you die? Were you buried? Were you rose again alone as if you accomplished all of those things that satisfied God's justice? Did you do that yourself? You took advantage of what Christ did and were co-buried, co-rose, and so forth, but you were not the doer. It was not your righteousness that satisfied God. It was Christ's righteousness all along. So nowhere in the Bible do we see a reversal of God saying, all right, well, back in the tomb, back up on the cross, back out there where you used to be. You can't undo death. You can't undo it.

It's a separation. Well, why does the ceiling come in? The ceiling of the Holy Spirit would guarantee that, wouldn't it? Like the ceiling? I'm just kidding. Absolutely. I mean, there are a number of different ministries that each of the persons of the Trinity play in terms of our security. And the Holy Spirit ceiling is one of them, for sure. I think the word together is very functional here, too. In my mind it incorporates relationship, fellowship, completeness, walking with the Lord. It's not that I'm made alive just by myself, but I'm together. How did that togetherness happen?

Look at 1 Corinthians 7.23, just real quick. We're talking about death, we're talking about the resurrection but 1st Corinthians 7 23 it's a short short verse but I just thought it was an interesting one. Someone read it. You were bought at a price for not becoming slaves of men. You were bought. You chose to be bought. You were bought with a price. What was the price? Death. Whose death? My death. And our death with Him. You were bought.

We don't see anywhere in the scripture where we get hauled back to the slave markets of sin and sold back into slavery permanently. We see that deposed monarch saying, come on back! Let's get chained back up over here where I'm at. You know, it was comfortable here. At least we got three meals a day. You know, they slid it under the door. But at least we got that, so come on back. But in 1 Corinthians 7 it says you were bought with a price. You have no business going back to the slave markets of sin because that's not where you stand any longer. You can go play there.

And we do. But it's not our place. I wish I could think of a verse, but there's one verse that says, you're talking about not being able to reverse your salvation, where it says that we may deny him, but he cannot deny himself. That's speaking to believers. He's not going to change your position. Mike, do you know that verse? If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2.13 If he can't deny himself, and we are in him, we cannot be denied. So stop thinking that you can be denied, because you are not who the Lord looks at any longer. He sees Christ's life. He doesn't see my life, or your life. He sees Christ's life, and he'll never deny his own life. It's a great verse. So what else in this verse, talking about 13, He made you alive together with Him, and what's the next part of that? He forgave us all our sins. Forgiveness. We possess complete and total forgiveness. So not only are we allowed to stand in his presence, not only do we have his life, but everything in the past has been forgiven.

And that sets up verse 14. So let's use the term forgiveness, and by the way, that term forgiveness has the word The word for grace, charis, it's actually embedded in that word as well. And so forgiveness is again a gracious component of what the Lord did on our behalf. And we talked about how it was accomplished in previous verses, but here you're in a state of forgiveness, which charis omai, and that charis part is a component of the word grace. So we could say one of the most important accomplishments of God's grace is His forgiveness. When we think about grace, and we think about our forgiveness, that's a connection that needs to be made there.

That's a component of His grace. I think from a divine standpoint, the word forgiveness means to separate the sinner from his sin, or to separate the person from his sin. And I think that you have to understand identification to understand how that all transpires. But there is a separation between what I've done and who I am. Well, let's talk about how that forgiveness took place. Question number nine, what is the certificate of debt and the decrees? So what's the deal with the certificate of debt? Why does Paul bring that into this conversation? Okay, what aspect of the law are we dealing with in verse 11?

The Jewish ceremonial law. Yeah, definitely. I mean, circumcision was part of that, right? We talked about how in Jewish tradition, circumcision was held at a higher level than even keeping the Sabbath. And so they were definitely dealing with aspects of the law that would have made it very appropriate to talk about the certificate of debt. So how did the Jewish world view a certificate of debt?

How was it used? What was the point of it? I think there's a financial and also a judicial. Okay, so we've got a financial. What's another instance of the certificate of debt being used? Well, they looked at the law as if they kept it and they would be blessed. So we've got a financial and a judicial. From a financial standpoint, if you look at Philemon 18 and 19.

Let's read that real quick. This is Paul talking about the same kind of concept here. Well, similar. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, and turning into those things which he hath not seen vainly buffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding to the head from which all the body by joints and bands have a nourishment ministered and knit together. That's not it, sorry. That's not it? No. I appreciate it.

We were just all getting schooled on some other kinds of thoughts there. I'll read it. Philemon 18. But if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account. I, Paul, am writing with my own hand. I will repay it, not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well." So, what aspect of the certificate is he talking about here? A financial, and it's between two men, right? What about in Colossians 2 verse 14, What is the certificate of debt referring to?

Who are the parties here? Huh? The father and the son. Is it the father and the son? Who has the debt and who is the debtor? I have the debt. A man outside of Christ has the debt. Okay, it's my debt and who is it owed to? So did God. Because we just talked about transgressions, you were dead in those transgressions, and then he moves on to talk about having cancelled out the certificate of debt.

So the way the Jews viewed certificates of debt is that from a judicial standpoint, when you were accused of a crime, there would be a certificate of debt that was drawn up for you. And on that certificate, every certificate of debt, excuse me, that's a hard word to say ten times in a row. Every certificate of debt had two sides to it, right? It was a ledger, essentially. So you've got your ledger and you've got your debt and you've got your credit.

So if you were a criminal, in Rome, and you were accused of theft, you'd have a certificate of debt drawn up that says theft, consequences, five years in prison, and it was nailed to the door of your prison cell. So you walk by and say, hey, this guy screwed up, he's accused of theft, he's got five years, there is no credit until what? At the fourth of five years was served, the certificate of debt was cancelled and he went on his way. So what does the certificate of debt look like for the unbeliever?

What do you have here? Oh man, you got sin, sin, sin, sin, all because of sin, nature. And what are the consequences? Eternal death. Is this making sense? He says, this is your certificate of death. and it's been cancelled. How is this thing cancelled before the Lord?

What went over here? Right? So here, we have the righteousness of Christ. And you know what? When we believed, that credit side of our certificate was filled in completely, and it cancelled this whole thing out. And it was marked on paid. So now, your certificate of debt after having become a believer is completely cancelled out, the righteousness of Christ has credited it to the point that God says, in my justice, I see you as having paid the penalty for what you deserved underneath this certificate of debt.

Does that make sense? It's paid in full. There's no portion of it, there's no little sin over here that didn't get paid by the righteousness of Christ having died in your place for you, having been buried and rose again, giving you newness of life and also cancelling out your certificate of debt. Doesn't that mean that debt to the law is taken care of?

We're dead to the law. So the law's place is to condemn. So the law is what accuses man and separates their understanding of who they are from what God's demands are. Without the law, you would not know what sin was, right? So the law is used to understand the sin debt.

It's massive. It's all 613 of them. What about the word decrees? And how are they hostile to us? How are these demands that return debt on our certificate, how are they hostile and what are they? I think we already said it. It's the law. And why are they hostile?

Romans 3.19. Let's read it.

Someone grab Romans 3.19.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks for those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. Who paid for and satisfied the entire law? Now, can the law, can it be satisfied for a person and them never have their certificate of debt cancelled? Can a person understand that Christ paid, but not have their certificate paid in full? Well, if they don't believe. They don't believe. So, they have, literally, we use that, the free gift of God, they have this available to them. And all they have to do is believe that Christ paid for it, and that becomes their certificate.

So in God's justice, in the judgment throne of the Lord, you do not stand condemned any longer. You will never appear before Him dealing with this sin issue or the decrees against you, the hostility that the law produced in your heart will never be a question in the judgment room of God for you as a believer. You will never stand condemned. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Our judgment, the Bema, if you will, is not dealing with this certificate of debt at all. It's dealing with reward or loss of. that has nothing to do with the certificate of debt and the decrees that stood against you at one point.

What did he do with it? End of the verse. Nailed it to the cross. What was up on that cross when he died? Our sins. Physically, what was nailed on the top of the cross when he was up there? King of the Jews. That was his... What wasn't that his? That's what he was accused of. What did he nail on top of that thing? He nailed millions upon millions of paid certificates of debt. And ours was there with it. He nailed it to the cross. It was a busy cross, wasn't it? There was a lot going on there. This last question, when Christ rose from the dead, what did he leave behind?

Any thoughts? This question is a thinker. It's like, how would I go with this? What could I say to this? I think that it's interesting. I looked at what in this verse is left behind as a possession for me. The Holy Spirit? Well, for sure. Because we see spiritual circumcision in these verses. We see spiritual baptism in these verses. We also see a life given to us. We made a life together with Him. And we also see forgiveness. Just in this verse, we see possessions that were left for us and that are made known through the working of the Holy Spirit?

Absolutely. Did you have any further thoughts on that, Mike? Anything that was not of God, which included the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was left behind so that we might enter into that fullness. Anything that was not of Him stayed there. Okay. So that's what you were thinking there. So were we left behind? No. We are alive together with Him.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Book of Colossians and just the ability that we have to set our minds above on things that are true of us now. That we can look at these passages and understand how we are identified in your death, burial, and resurrection. And we know that through faith, Lord, we enjoy all of the gifts of grace that were made possible through the Lord Jesus. And we thank you. Thank you so much that you would be willing to pay for our certificate of debt and cancel it out in full so that we can stand before you, accepted in you, in your life. Just pray that we would come to a clearer understanding of that as we continue to think through the book of Colossians. It's your name we pray. Amen.