The Law Was Nailed to the Cross

Colossians 2:13-15

Often at an execution, the Romans would nail a list of a criminal’s offences to the cross he was about to die on. What a great picture this presents for us today! Only in this case, it was not the sin of the man on the cross nailed to it, because of course Jesus was without offense; the list of crimes nailed that cross were OUR offences.

God’s moral law remains the standard that must be met in order to meet the standard of the Lawgiver Himself. Yet, none of us can meet that standard all of the time, for the course of our entire lives. I can only speak for myself in saying that before I got out of bed this morning I sinned. I opened my eyes and immediately grumbled about the fact that the reason my eyes were open is because I had to go to work. Grumbling is a sin, correct?

Hence, none of us can meet the perfect standard of behavior to attain our salvation. I hope we all understand that, upon our repentance and faith, our crimes against God are also nailed to the Cross of Calvary.

What does this mean for believers today? Friends, put away the rulebook. If you are, quit striving to fulfill God’s moral law in order to reach God. You cannot succeed. Allow yourself to be set free from this bondage and do the things God has called you to do.

 

All Things Created By Him and For Him

Colossians 1

The heresy that Jesus Christ is not fully human and also fully God is far from new, and Paul already had to combat this issue in some of his writings, in this case the church at Colossae. There is nothing new under the sun as we are told, and I have repeated this often myself.  The idea of Gnosticism was creeping into some of the teachings at Colossae, and Paul wrote this letter to deal with this issue.

Friends, Jesus Christ was God in the flesh when He walked the Earth, and He remains so even today. In our verse today we see two things revealed by the Holy Spirit. First, Jesus is/was before all things; He is the pre-existent, eternally existent Creator of all that does exist. Second, by Him all things continue to consist. In other words, Jesus remains the one who literally keeps the things in this universe working together as they were designed to(by Him, incidentally.) The very instant He removes His hand from our universe it would cease to consist and immediately spin into disarray.

Like every heresy that attempts to undermine the full humanity and full Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, this one has only one goal; that goal is to convince fallen humans that Jesus was NOT sufficient and that we have to add a little something to grace and His work on the Cross of Calvary to become saved and to stay saved. Specifically here was the teaching that some could elevate themselves to a higher state of spirituality than others. This is a teaching straight from the mouth of Satan himself, and he is the father of lies. Friends, you need Jesus plus…..nothing. You can receive this today, and rest on it for the rest of your earthly life and on into a glorious eternity. Will you today?