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Made Alive

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Made Alive

13 You who were dead, God made alive together with him, having forgiven all our trespasses, 14 by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13-14

Those who trust in Christ have been made alive in Christ.  We go from death to life in our very nature.  We don’t make ourselves alive; there is no way we could.  We were dead, and dead people don’t do anything. God made us alive and brought us to life. Notice: Together with Him. Having believed in Christ we are buried with him in his death for our sins, and then we are raised to new life with Him when he rose victoriously over death, having defeated it. That old dead sinful disposition that went to our very core, the motives and nature that ended in death He raised, changed and made alive.

Further he did this, Having forgiven all our trespasses. We are made alive in our very nature reversing the nature that we had, the uncircumcision of our flesh, and we are forgiven our trespasses.  This is both changing the tree and its fruit.  Both your nature and your actions are reversed.  Even as we start inevitably to think, “what about this or that sin, surely I have to pay the debt of that.”  Yet Paul reminds us plainly.  Having forgiven ALL our trespasses.  Not a single sin has been overlooked past, present, future by the God who stands outside of linear time. God has forgiven them all.   He has both forgiven the sins and the sinner, who admits he’s a sinner and needs rescue by believing on Jesus.

We still protest, but we are cut off by vs 14. Having canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. A written note of indebtedness that says we ought to die for what we have done. A list of charges stands against us testifying to our overwhelming guilt.  We owe perfect obedience to God our creator. The legal demands of our failing, this written record demands death.  Payment for the offense of cosmic treason to God your maker is death.  But, miracle of miracles, the record against you has been cancelled.  All debts, all demands on your life have been taken away. You have a clean slate forever if you believe on Jesus. How?

This he set aside specifically by nailing them to the cross.  God set them aside, took them off of your record, only by placing them upon the record of a Substitute.  The scales had to be balanced. For God to be both good and just, penalty must still be paid.  God’s economy has always worked this way, sins must be paid for by death.  A living being must die. Just as God graciously provided the sacrificial system under the old covenant, he provides the perfect unblemished Lamb of God as a sacrifice for our sins. Christ Himself was nailed as our record of debt to the cross. 

The hymn “It is Well with My Soul” captures it vividly: My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, was nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, O my soul!”  He has canceled our written and legal indebtedness by nailing Jesus to the cross.  Jesus took the punishment for every ounce of debt that stood against you, past present and future. 

I think periodically and often, we need to think of where we would be without God saving us.  To realize for the first time, or realize again as a Christian that I was or am under the condemnation of God and therefore separated from God.  Without Christ I am dead, without hope, without God, without life, even God’s enemy.  To realize on my own I am sunk, truly dead in my actions, my nature and heart and that the only remedy for a disaster like me is Jesus.  The only hope for life in me is Jesus. 

Why do we need to be reminded of the cost of my sin? I will try always to cast areas of spiritual death and sin in the best light, and make them pretty to present them to God.  Instead when the cross of Christ puts my sins in the true and worst light, I realize that I need Jesus more than I ever have before.  So I see that He is still my only hope in life. I need forgiveness, I’ll find it in Jesus.  I need reconciliation, motivation for obedience, life to live my day,  I’ll find it in Jesus.  Receive life from Him.  If God gave life to Jesus who was put to death for our sins, it follows that he can certainly give you life wherever you need it.

In Christ, My Only Hope, Pastor Steven

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