BLOTTING OUT THE HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES THAT WAS AGAINST US

From verses 8 to 19, Paul issues three warnings. In verse 8, he writes, ‘Beware lest any man spoil you’. In verse 16, he states, ‘Let no man therefore judge you’. In verse 18, he warns, ‘Let no man beguile you’. The apostle issues these warnings because he realizes that his readers were in danger of being captured, v. 8, condemned, v. 16, and conned, v. 18. The word ‘spoil’, v. 8, means to ‘carry off as spoil’, W. E. Vine, and this was the objective of the philosophers. They wanted the Colossians to forfeit their completeness in Christ and become captured by philosophy.

The answer to this attack is Christ and, in verses 8-15, Paul presents three vital doctrines to these believers concerning Him. Firstly, there is ‘Fullness in Christ, vv. 8-10. Secondly, they have Fellowship with Christ, vv. 11, 12, and, thirdly, they have freedom through Christ’, vv. 13-15, R. C. Lucas.

There are at least two commonly held suggestions relating to the opening phrase of verse 14. Some suggest it is set against the practice of the Romans to nail to the cross of a convicted law­breaker the details of their crimes. Others suggest that it refers to an IOU - a person’s admittance of debt. As long as an IOU existed there was a record of an inability to pay and that note condemned the debtor.

At Calvary, there was no visible record of crimes nailed to the cross of Jesus, for ‘this man hath done nothing amiss’, Luke 23. 41. However, there was a record nailed to that cross, not by men but by God. Those ordinances refer to the law; a law which set out God’s irrevocable standard - a standard that all men have miserably failed to achieve. As a broken law, it condemned us. It was contrary to us because it exposed our guilt, offered no hope and demanded our punishment.

Whichever suggestion we follow, the outcome is the same - we are totally in the clear. As for the debt, it has been erased and the IOU has been removed. As for the broken law, Christ has dealt with that - its demands have been satisfied by One who became the believer’s substitute on the cross.