Colossians 2:13-14 tells us that all our trespasses, sins, and debts have been paid for. Paul writes, “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” As a Matter of fact, Paul says, everything “that stood against us with its legal demands” has been canceled. Our debts have all been paid! They were “nailed to the cross.”
I read that in Africa, witch doctors often made wooden fetishes shaped like people. They are thought to possess supernatural healing powers. When sickness overcame a village, the priest would nail something belonging to the sick person to the fetish. It would tell the spirit what was wrong and call on its power to heal. Christians don’t need fetishes on which to nail our problems. When His flesh, just like ours, was nailed to the cross, God healed us of our greatest problems: sin and death. By his wounds, we are healed.
Jesus’ earthly ministry of healing is a beautiful picture for us. Leprosy was the disease associated with death because there were no medicines that would heal it. Once a leper, always a leper. Death was the normal and expected result of leprosy. Family and friends rejected them. They were denied access to the religious rituals. They were not even allowed to live in the community. They were cast out of the city to live with the other lepers outside the camp. The God of Sinai forbids his participation in worship. The rabbis and religious leaders threw stones at him whenever they saw him in the streets. He must walk down the street with a hand over his mouth, shouting, “Unclean, Unclean!” Another commentator even suggests that other lepers rejected him. Lepers are so afraid of enhancing or promoting their own sickness that they even withdraw in disgust from each other.” But this leper comes to Jesus and finds healing. Think about that. Imagine, fingers and toes grow back instantly! Boils dry up! Eyebrows reappear, dried bleeding skin heals, muscles are strengthened, and eyes and voice clear up. Muscles and tendons are restored. The constant pain of the disease, which the leper had learned to live with, is gone. He is not just cured of a sickness. He is made alive again!
Because of forgiveness, God “made us alive again.” We all have regrets and memories that seem to return to cause us pain. They often disfigure our present and destroy the hope of our future. As I look back, I often feel that I’ve really made a mess of my life! No matter what you think about your past, you can always find complete forgiveness in Christ. Please note it’s not a second chance. It’s not even a third or fourth chance. I will ultimately fail every chance I am given to make myself righteous. I can’t imagine Jesus telling the leper to try harder. It’s when I stop trying to earn my own righteousness and accept that perfect righteousness offered through faith in Christ that I’ll find any real peace with God. Because our sins are nailed to the cross, the forgiving Power of God’s love enables us to live a new life.