From Colossians Chapter 2:14 Colossians 2:14 (NIV) 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. Mans concept of the law is twofold. ⇒ Some men see the law as a list of rules that God has led great religious men to write down in either the Bible or other religious books. ⇒ Other men see the laws of God as unwritten laws that are rooted in the nature of man and the world. Man just instinctively senses what is right and wrong and he is to live as his instinct tells him (cp. Romans 2:14-15). Man just senses the handwriting of laws against him—laws that condemn him when he goes contrary to what they say or what he senses. Note the word handwriting (cheirographon ). It actually means a legal note or debt, what Barclay calls a charge list or a list of charges against man (The Letters to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, p.170). The point is this: man senses the list of charges against him. And he should sense the wrong he has done, for it is his violation of Gods law that condemns him to eternal death. Only as he senses and acknowledges his transgressions will he ever turn to God to save him.Think how many people are defeated, discouraged, and whipped by the guilt of their transgressions. How many are bowed down ever so low and depressed, feeling unworthy and unacceptable before God. How many are crushed because they feel they have just failed God so much. No matter how much they have tried to keep the law—to do good—they have failed. Therefore, God would never accept them, or so they feel.Christ stands opposed to mans idea of the law. It is true, man shall face God in his own righteousness and be judged by the law. If that is the way he chooses to face God, he will be allowed to stand before God in his own righteousness. Man can claim a righteousness by law. In fact, there are only two ways to face God, and law or self-righteousness is one of the ways. But note: no person can ever be acceptable to a perfect, sinless God unless the person is perfect and sinless. And no honest and thinking person is going to claim to be perfect and sinless. Therefore, no person will ever be acceptable to God by law or self-righteousness. However, this is the glorious message of this verse. God has provided a way for the law and the list of charges against us to be removed. That way is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has taken the law or list of charges against us and nailed them to His cross. This means two things. Christ took the law out of the way for man. How? Christ kept and fulfilled the law perfectly. He lived a sinless life as a Man upon earth. By so doing He became the standard or the higher law for man. Man is now to look to Jesus Christ and follow Him as the standard of life. The law is set aside out of the way. Christ has now fulfilled the law and become the standard for men. (See Deeper Study #2—Matthew 5:17.) Christ nailed the law to the cross. That is, Christ bore the judgment and punishment passed down by the law upon man. Christ took the judgment of the law upon man and paid the penalty Himself. How was He able to do this? By keeping the law perfectly. In obeying the law perfectly Christ became the Pattern and Ideal for all men. As the Ideal Man, He embraced and covered all men. It is His righteousness that is the ideal righteousness; therefore, His righteousness covers all men. It is His death that is the ideal death or the ideal bearing of judgment; therefore, His death covers all men. It is His life that is the ideal life; therefore, His life covers all men. (See note—• Matthew 5:17-18.) When a person trusts Jesus Christ as his Savior, God removes the list of charges against the person. How? By Christ—by the cross of Christ. When Christ died upon the cross, He actually bore the guilt and condemnation of the charges for the person. Therefore, the person stands guiltless and sinless before God—all because Christ took the list of the charges and nailed them to the cross with Him when He died.Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil (Matthew 5:17). For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3). Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Galatians 3:13). But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Galatians 4:4-5).
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 21:47:47 +0000
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