“Having cancelled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14).
The power wielded by the cross is the power to take away our sin. The cross, and Jesus’ death upon it, is strong enough to hold “the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us”; decrees held against us because of our sin. No winds of evil are strong enough to blow that certificate off of its nail. The nail is firm. The debt forgiven.
How much of our debt is forgiven? Just look at the preceding verse, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us ALL our transgressions” (Colossians 2:13). All of our transgressions. All of our sin.
And the debt is paid, nailed to the cross, not only for us, but for the whole world who believes. “The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ “ (John 1:29). “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world” (I John 2:1-2). Christ is our propitiation, our sacrifice, who died in our place to take away our sin; not our sins only, “but also for those of the whole world.”
What incredible power! Your sins, past, present, and future are forgiven by the power of Christ’s shed blood upon the cross. How forgiven? “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘Their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin” (Hebrews 10:17-18). That is forgiven, my friend. Your sins are so far in the rearview mirror that in the mind of the Father they are remembered no more.
Christ paid the penalty for sin at the cross. “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Not to offer Himself repeatedly – as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own – for then Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, He has appeared once for all to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:24-26). Christ put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself!
The cross took away the guilt of your sin. And in its place, God gave you a new identity; holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. “Yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:22). Look again at how Jesus gave you this identity; through the death of His fleshly body on the cross.
The cross that will never lose its power has taken away your sin and declares you holy, blameless, and beyond reproach. There are no “buts” or “what-ifs” or probation period to see how your behavior pans out. If you have believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ, you have been reconciled to God and are now identified as – you guessed it – holy, blameless, and beyond reproach.