Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:13-14 March 29, 2013) This week a long time friend made a comment that made me stop and think. He said, I think about the coming kingdom of God almost every day of my life. He talked about how much of his devotional time was spent looking forward to the coming earthly and heavenly kingdoms of God. While I believe in a coming kingdom on earth the truth is that I don t think about it all that often. I do think about heaven more often but not almost daily. However, as I reflected on his comment I realised that there is something I do think about most days of my life. It is not something yet to come. It is something that has already happened. It is the event we pause to remember this morning. It is the cross of Christ. This morning I want to share with you why I think of the cross of Christ so often. Why it is so central to Christians. Why Christians the world over pause to reflect on the cross of Christ on this day. Lyle read for you Colossians 2:8-15 but it is two of those verses that I want to focus on this morning. Two verses that should make your heart sing. Verses 13 and 14. Let me read them for you: And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made [you] alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. These verses tell us three things.
What we once were What we now are What saved us Have a look at these wonderful truths with me. Verse 13: And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. Here we learn: What we once were Dead Outcasts You were dead in your trespasses. Every man, woman and child is either dead in their trespasses or were once dead in their trespasses. This is a dying world filled with dying people. God created Adam perfect. He put him in a perfect world. He gave Him everything life, dominion, a soul mate, fellowship with the Almighty Himself. But Adam turned away from all God had given him. He chose the path of rebellion. And so has everyone who followed. As Paul put it in Adam, all sinned. Every one of us walked in the footsteps of Adam We have rebelled against God. We have said no to His gracious ways. We have chosen to make ourselves King. We have followed our own wisdom. And the path is death. The moment Adam sinned He began to die. Spiritually, physically, relationally, emotionally. Illness, war, enmity, strife, death and ultimately hell a place where the glory of God condemns the sin of man for all eternity.
That is or was all of us. Last week I heard a commentator referring to Julia Gillard after the failed coup attempt. He said, She is a dead woman walking she just doesn t know it yet. He was talking about electoral death but it could refer to eternal death. That comment fits the world they are dead men and women walking they just don t know it yet. They have rebelled against the Holy Creator. God is perfect and Jesus told us we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. One sin leads to death. That is why Paul tells us that we have all sinned and fallen short. Every one of us is dying. As you get older it becomes more evident. I am in my 50 s. I have a daughter getting married. My mum s health is not so good. Whether we like it or not, our time here is limited. Some have good health and prosperity. Others do not. What we all have is a certainty that one day we will grow old and die. But that is not the only death. Hebrews 9:27: Just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. The second death. The books are opened and next to every one of us is a judgment guilty. We have all failed. You know you have failed. You have not gone close to the standard God requires. You were dead in your trespasses. More than that you were dead because you were an outcast dead in the uncircumcision of your flesh. The Bible uses circumcision as a sign that you are a part of the people of God. Our sin shows us that we are uncirmcumcised outcasts not part of the family of God spiritually dead. Almost thirty years ago the Spirit of God opened my eyes to the reality of the holiness of God and the reality of my immense sin. I can still remember the horror of realising I had sinned against God the helplessness that I could do nothing to undo that sin the certainty of judgment. I knew what I was a dead outcast.
But here is something that has surprised me. I may not walk in all the sins of my youth but the longer I am a Christian the more I understand how holy God is and how desperately sinful I am. The more I realise just how lost and how helpless I am. Not the labours of my hands Can fulfil Thy law s demands; Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for sin could not atone. We were lost and unable to do anything about it. But, the end of verse 13: God made [you] alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses. What we now are Alive Family As a doctor, I have seen a number of dead people. I have seen people die in front of my eyes. I remember the helplessness all our great medical expertise and we were completely helpless to prevent death. And when they are dead there is nothing we can do. No one can raise the dead. The dying person could not halt the onset of death. Their friends, doctors no one could stop the onset of death. And when they were dead there was nothing they or anyone could do. But not God. He takes us dead men and women walking already spiritually dead becoming physically dead heading for the land of the dead and He makes us live. He makes us live spiritually now and He will raise us physically on the last day. That is the other great truth of Easter the resurrection of the body. There is a wonderful passage in Ezekiel 16 where God describes how He gave life to Israel. Ezekiel 16:3 7: Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.
Israel was like baby abandoned to die. It cannot save itself. And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! I said to you in your blood, Live! I made you flourish. That is us. We were dead in our trespasses and sins and God said to us live. Ephesians 2:4 7: But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. We are made alive and we are forgiven we are reconciled with God restored we are adopted and made sons and daughters family. We who were outcasts are brought near and made sons. Sin erects an impenetrable wall between us and God. It kills us and stops us enjoying God. In Christ, God takes down that wall makes us live and says you who were once an outcast are now My son. The parable of the prodigal son shows us what happens. God forgives us. God declares kill the fatted calf my son was dead but is alive again. We still die once but not the second death. Now when the books are opened instead of guilty we see forgiven. Instead of hell we have heaven. How can this be? Here we come to the wonder of the cross. What saved us Christ s Cross How are we made Living Family? Verse 14: By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. What a great picture. When the Romans crucified a criminal they nailed a list of their crimes to their cross so all could see what happens when you defy Rome.
Of course when Jesus was tried He was found to have committed no crime. Pilate declared I have found in Him no guilt deserving death. And so Mark 15:26 tells us what they nailed to His cross: And the inscription of the charge against him read, The King of the Jews. That was His only crime King of the Jews. What about us you and me? What would be the list of our sins the record of our debt against God and His legal demands? On the final day when the books are opened what would be the list of sins rebellions against God that would condemn us? Your list might include a few or more likely many of these of these: If you sat down to think through your list of sins no doubt it would be pretty long. These would just be a start the tip of the iceberg. If you spent a week thinking about every transgression you have committed against a Holy God and His Law more and more failures would come to mind. Then when you have your list go and ask your wife, your husband, your kids, your friends they will have a bunch more ones you never even knew you had committed. You will say really that s me? And they will say Oh yeah! But that list is not the end. If you could see the final list the list when the books are opened you would be stunned at the length, depth and frequency of your sins against God. Sins you had no idea you had committed. Thoughts, actions, inattentions. And yet your soul does not need 80 years of near constant sin to condemn it. In an entire lifetime:
One flash of pride or greed or lust or bitterness or anger or jealousy and you are lost forever. All we need is one minor sin. What we have is a litany of ongoing continuous sin of the highest order. The list of my sins is great. I stand with Paul I am the chief of sinners. I am ashamed of my sin against a Holy God. But here is the great news of Good Friday. Because of the cross our record of debt mine yours all in Christ the record of every sin that stands against us or will stand against us is cancelled or as some translations rightly put it are destroyed how? by nailing them to the cross. This is just a poetic way of describing what happened at the cross. Every sin is nailed to the cross and we bear them no more. Have you got your list of sins? Picture yourself there at Calvary. Your incredibly long, shameful list. Your crimes. Your sins against God. Not just the ones you have committed but the ones you will commit. You nail them to the cross where the Lord of glory is dying. He who knew no sin became sin for us. He paid our penalty. And written across every sin on your list Forgiven! Paid in full by the blood of Christ. How does this happen? The wages of sin is death.
Adam was told that in the day that he ate the forbidden fruit he would die. He ate the fruit he died spiritually, physically, relationally, emotionally. But God also made Adam a promise. He promised that One would come who would undo the curse, crush Satan, redeem man. There is one way and only one way for us to escape God s wrath. The blood of bulls and goats could not deal with sin. Only one blood can truly deal with sin. Hebrews 9:28: Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. It is through His death that our sins are destroyed. I think that here we come to the glory of Christianity. The glory of the cross. The heart of Christianity. No other religion or philosophy has a way of dealing with sin against a holy God. Only Christianity answers the great question of how sin is dealt with. Rising above the mysteries is love. John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And it is not just God sending Jesus Jesus made it clear that He chose to die He chose to lay down His life. John 10:11: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The key to the destruction of the sins against us is our union with Jesus. Scripture teaches that when we come to Christ we become united with Jesus forever. We are in Him He is in us. What happens to Him happens to us. In my mind I picture myself being placed inside Jesus covered by Jesus. This means that when the wrath of God falls on Jesus my sin is punished. When Jesus hung on the cross I hung there in Him. As His blood was poured out as His life was given up my sin was paid for. Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. As Jesus was crucified I was there.
And as Jesus died and was raised I died to sin and was raised to newness of life. Romans 6:6: For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. The result is that Jesus shed His blood to pay for my sins. His life for my life. 1 Peter 2:24: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. God s justice is satisfied blood is shed life for life and since we are in Christ His blood pays for our sins. As Jesus died for those in Him every sin committed past, present and future is wiped away. The record of debt against us is wiped clean set aside. I know I am a sinner. Sometimes I am nearly overwhelmed by the magnitude of my sin before a holy God. Sometimes I think how can God forgive me? And here is the answer this verse says that in the cross all our trespasses are forgiven every record of debt is wiped out. That is why this is a day to rejoice and celebrate. Over the years I have met men and women who worry that their sin is too much for God to forgive. Divorce, adultery, homosexuality. Some have worried that they have committed the unforgiveable sin. Some have struggled with habitual sin. And they wonder can the cross save me? This verse says if you trust Christ if you are in Christ then every sin you can think of is on that list that is nailed to the cross and is forgiven by the blood of Christ. Every sin in your past. Every sin today. Every sin tomorrow. If there is a sin you think is too big picture yourself writing it on the paper nailing it to the cross and seeing God write paid in full by the blood of Christ.
When the books are opened in eternity your list of sins will have written over them paid in full by the blood of Christ. Earlier in the service we sang It is Well With My Soul. The third stanza sums up this passage: My sin oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! When you think about your past or even present sins. Remember what the blood of Christ does. My sin, not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! I love Good Friday because the focus is on the cross. The kingdom that is yet to come will be amazing but no cross no kingdom. Heaven will be awesome but no cross no heaven. Without the cross none of us would be there to enjoy it. That is why I think on the cross most days. The weight of my sin would crush me apart from the cross. But Jesus did come to this world. He did die for the sins of the world. He does offer forgiveness. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That is what we celebrate this morning. Perhaps some here this morning are not Christians. For you the great question is this what can wash away your sin? What can make you right with God? What can give you hope and a future? Every one of us has sinned against a holy God. We have turned from him. We have lusted and coveted and lied. And the wages of sin is death. On your own it will be your blood your life who will pay the penalty for your sins. But if you are in Christ His blood His life His death on the cross will avail for your sin.
Jesus cries. Trust Him. Join Him. This day follow Jesus and let His blood avail for you. Nail your sins to His cross and receive His forgiveness. Brothers and sisters those in Christ there is a message for us too. The Bible reminds us that Jesus death dealt with our sin once and for all. It will never again be counted against us. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made [you] alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. How did Jesus take away our sin? 2 Corinthians 5:21: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. At the cross, God took our sin and transferred it to Jesus. And God took Jesus perfect righteousness and transferred it to us. What this means is that when we had faith in Jesus every sin past present and future is washed away. That is why the cross is the highlight of Christian worship. That is why the cross must be a truth we reflect on day by day and thank God for without ceasing.