Colossians 2:14 tells us that all our trespasses, sins and debts have been paid for. As a Matter of fact, Paul says, everything “that stood against us with its legal demands” has been cancelled. Our debts have all been paid! They were “nailed to the cross.”
I read that in Africa witch doctors often made wooden fetishes shape 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 to nail our problems to. When 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.
As a result we have new life! That’s what verse 13 says. 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 start fresh in Christ. Many of us leave behind much pain, hurt, and a terrible reputation. I once read in the “Daily Bread” that a “bad reputation doesn’t have to be permanent.” Because our sins are nailed to the cross, the forgiving Power of God’s love enables us to live a new life and he’ll give us “grace and power to build a new reputation.”
That we have had a bad start, doesn’t mean we have to have a bad finish.
Chuck
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses…, God made alive…having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us… nailing it to the cross.”