June 7 - Colossians 2:13-15
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Sometimes it seems like an impossible task – blending the freedom God has given us from sin and guilt over the next sin we might commit or might already have committed. Most preachers, Christian authors and speakers spend quite a bit of time reminding us of our sinful lives and teaching us about how to live lives free of sin.
I read a lot of blogs, even more books, listen to speakers, teachers and pastors, follow them on Twitter and Facebook and some days there are so many different commands being given to me by all of them, I feel drowned in a morass of guilt – whether I’ve done anything wrong or not. There is absolutely no way that I can be the person that they all think I should be. Each one has a different ruleset by which the world should live and act, each has a different outlook through which they view sin and the world, each has a different manner in which they communicate their interpretation of scripture.
While all of them are absolutely right (most of the time) and absolutely passionate about their love for Christ and for His church; it can be overwhelming.
Then God brings me back to a verse like this and reminds me that it’s not about any of those teachers, it’s about Christ’s sacrifice. It really isn’t even about my sin or my life and the way I live it; it’s about Christ’s gift to me.
Jesus doesn’t just forgive us the sins we remember or have pointed out to us, He doesn’t just forgive the sins that are obvious, He doesn’t forgive only the heinous sins. Jesus Christ forgave ALL our sins. He canceled the written code – the regulations. All of those things that stand in front of us, taunting us with our failure to achieve perfection, are taken away by Jesus. They were nailed to the cross with Him.
I love these verses in Colossians! He made a public spectacle of them! He didn’t make a public spectacle of us. He doesn’t expect us to crawl up on that cross with Him and face shame. He did that for us. It is not about us. It is all about the triumph of Jesus on that cross, about the fact that He lived to teach us how to live and then He died to give us life.
I will come back to the feet of Jesus every single time, leaving behind the pastors, speakers and teachers who think they need to crawl into my heart to make me see the error of my ways. There is one man who wants to do that for no other reason than that He loves me eternally and it is in Him that I find not shame and guilt, but freedom and redemption.
“When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
Sometimes it seems like an impossible task – blending the freedom God has given us from sin and guilt over the next sin we might commit or might already have committed. Most preachers, Christian authors and speakers spend quite a bit of time reminding us of our sinful lives and teaching us about how to live lives free of sin.
I read a lot of blogs, even more books, listen to speakers, teachers and pastors, follow them on Twitter and Facebook and some days there are so many different commands being given to me by all of them, I feel drowned in a morass of guilt – whether I’ve done anything wrong or not. There is absolutely no way that I can be the person that they all think I should be. Each one has a different ruleset by which the world should live and act, each has a different outlook through which they view sin and the world, each has a different manner in which they communicate their interpretation of scripture.
While all of them are absolutely right (most of the time) and absolutely passionate about their love for Christ and for His church; it can be overwhelming.
Then God brings me back to a verse like this and reminds me that it’s not about any of those teachers, it’s about Christ’s sacrifice. It really isn’t even about my sin or my life and the way I live it; it’s about Christ’s gift to me.
Jesus doesn’t just forgive us the sins we remember or have pointed out to us, He doesn’t just forgive the sins that are obvious, He doesn’t forgive only the heinous sins. Jesus Christ forgave ALL our sins. He canceled the written code – the regulations. All of those things that stand in front of us, taunting us with our failure to achieve perfection, are taken away by Jesus. They were nailed to the cross with Him.
I love these verses in Colossians! He made a public spectacle of them! He didn’t make a public spectacle of us. He doesn’t expect us to crawl up on that cross with Him and face shame. He did that for us. It is not about us. It is all about the triumph of Jesus on that cross, about the fact that He lived to teach us how to live and then He died to give us life.
I will come back to the feet of Jesus every single time, leaving behind the pastors, speakers and teachers who think they need to crawl into my heart to make me see the error of my ways. There is one man who wants to do that for no other reason than that He loves me eternally and it is in Him that I find not shame and guilt, but freedom and redemption.
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