13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:13-14
Think back to your life before you became a follower of Jesus. Did you feel alive? Of course you did. You felt like just about every other living and breathing human being. You breathed, you ate food, you slept. Just to look at you, people would consider you a "normal" person.
According to the scripture above, Paul informs the Colossian Christians they were dead in their sins, but God had made them alive in Christ. Paul is letting them know here, they were at one time absent from God's forgiveness, and deserving condemnation.
But the verse continues and lets us know it is God who makes us alive with Christ. We have been forgiven of our sins and God has canceled all charges against us. I love that last line ....."he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross."
Without the cross and all the events surrounding it, we would still be dead in our sins. Without Jesus taking all that condemned us and "nailing it to his cross," we would be left with the debt of our sins and no way to pay it. We stood with what Paul called the "charge of our legal indebtedness."
At the cross, with his dying breath, the penalty for our sins was placed on Jesus. He took our place in dying, he became all that separates us from God, and our debt was paid. That's why we call him our Savior. He saved us from the condemnation we deserve.
Read the verses above several times and let them sink in. Stand in awe as Jesus takes your sin and death sentence on himself. The more I read the verses, the more I understand my need to bow at the foot of the cross and daily offer praise and thanksgiving to God for the gift of his Son.
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