Forgiven and Freed!

…having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Colossians 2:14-15

Here Paul declares the forgiveness of sins for which the law condemned us. That condemnation is now removed by the death of Christ on our behalf. He paid for all our sins, the sins we committed in the past, the sins we are going to commit today, and the sins we shall commit in the future. Sin is no longer an issue in our relationship with God. It affects our fellowship but not our relationship. He has fully dealt with it. We need to acknowledge our sin in order to enter into the benefit of that forgiveness, but forgiveness is already there in the heart of God. What a wonderful truth! I do not think I rejoice in anything more than the fact that my sins, my mistakes, failures, unloving words, unkind attitudes, and selfish actions have been forgiven. Every day God gives me a new slate, a new unspoiled day, to live through by his grace. Our sins have been forgiven. Paul sees them as nailed to the cross, so they no longer can condemn us. The law is not done away with, but the condemnation of it is. We are made free and told Go, and sin no more.

The last step is, we are freed from the power of these evil beings: Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. These are the world rulers of darkness, the clever and malevolent beings who keep inserting into human thinking wrong ideas, dangerous thoughts, attitudes and teachings that set us at aught with one another, and make us go for one another's throat, keeping enmity and strife stirring in the human family. What has happened to them? Paul declares that when Jesus died, he seized these powers by the throat, chained them, and dragged them in triumph behind him, like a Roman general marching through the streets of Rome, his chained captives walking behind in subjugation. There is no need to give way to evil teaching or temptations, for we have a power and a person within who is superior to anything Satan can throw against us! Paul is encouraging the Colossians to see that there is absolutely no need to believe the doctrines, the teachings or the rituals that Satan will emphasize and enunciate to them.

Neither do we need to believe them! If we understand who we are in Christ and what we have in him, there is no need to be weak, faltering, or failing. We may rise up and be the men and women that God intended us to be.

Father, grant that I rise up and be the person you intended me to be, free of guilt and shame because of the victory you won on the cross. Amen.