What was nailed to the cross is described as “the handwriting of ordinances"-that was against us, which was contrary to us.” Because “ordinances” sounds like “law,” some, twist the meaning of “nailed it to the cross” into Paul saying the force of the law of God ended at the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The writ of charges...
In using the words “handwriting of requirements … contrary to us … nailed it to the cross,” Paul was describing the record of our sins, the indictment that required the penalty of death.
No, the indictments against believers, the charges against believers, the legal indebtedness against believers – was what was dropped, and nailed to the cross at the Lord Jesus Christ's death, rather than the law itself, which is consistently characterized in Scripture as eternal, and good...To wit:
Romans 7 KJV
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
“handwriting,”=a memorandum of debt, "a writing by hand" used in public and private contracts.
The wages of our sins—our debt—is death (Romans 6:23 KJV). The Lord Jesus Christ was willing to pay that debt by dying in our place, thus blotting out the record of our debt and pardoning our sins.
Survey the "death warrant" against us, because of our sin/sins is the sign that Pilate had nailed to the cross upon which the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified. John 19:19-22 KJV-It was customary to publish a writ of charges against the condemned, and the board above the Lord Jesus Christ's head was inscribed with the charges for which the Jewish authorities demanded His death. Thus, it was a Roman custom, to write the name of the condemned person and his crime on a plaque to be placed above his head at the execution. Survey Mark 15:26 KJV-"superscription of his accusation."
26 And the superscription of his accusation was written over, The King Of The Jews.
The charges removed-the meaning, then, of Colossians 2:13-14 KJV, based upon the immediate and the broader context is: You gentile believers had a death sentence against you due to your sin/sins-here are the charges............... But through the dbr, everything that one time could have been held against you has been removed.
The law against believers? No, it wasn’t God’s law that was against believers; it was the sins that they committed, as defined by that same holy, good law!. "the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,"= anything written by hand, but can more specifically apply to a legal document, bond or note of debt, was against us!!!!
Paul is relaying that the LORD God has "wiped out," removed, "nailed to the cross," through the body of Christ , representing mankind's guilt, the instrument for the remembrance of sin. The legal basis of this instrument was the "binding statutes," Col. 2:14 KJV, but what the LORD God destroyed on the cross was not the legal ground, the law, for our entanglement into sin, but the written record of our sins. By destroying the record of sins, the LORD God removed the possibility of a charge ever being made again against those who have been forgiven-a dead man is not under jurisdiction to the law.
" Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us,"
The above-a handwritten acknowledgement or note of debt, something like an I.O.U. When the debt was paid in full, the handwriting was invalidated by piercing it with something sharp like a nail.
This "handwriting" was also used in the case of the crucifixion or punishment of a criminal. All the charges of which the person had been found guilty, were written on a piece of parchment, and nailed to the cross on which the person convicted of those crimes would be crucified. Everyone could then see why he was hanging there and what he had done to deserve such a cruel punishment.This written indictment/charge/accusation are seen in John 19:19-20: accusations that were hung on the cross, on which the Lord Jesus Christ hung:
19 And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was Jesus Of Nazareth The King Of The Jews.
20 This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.
The "accusing witness," so to speak, against the sinner, the record book of his sins, the certificate of debt, or book of debt, was removed/nailed. The Lord Jesus Christ has "erased" it, removed it out of the court, out of the witness chair of the accuser. Not only is this record of our sins removed, but it is also "nailed to the cross" in the sense that the Lord Jesus Christ took our sins upon himself, and paid the penalty for them...Survey 2 Cor. 5:21 KJV.
When we talk about "nailing it to his cross", that is not the law itself, but the curse of the law, or the penalties for disobeying the Law. It was the penalty of the broken law which He rendered inoperative, not the law itself.
In that time period when a man was charged with a crime the charges against him were written down on papyrus. If he was found not guilty the papyrus was then washed down with water, removing or blotting out those charges against him, to confirm his acquittal. This abolished the written charges against the man. This is the what is referred to in "blotting out of ordinances against us" that were nailed to the Stake, not the Law itself.
The law is still God's standard of righteousness and all the requirements for the broken law remain unchanged, apart from Him.
Again-the penalty which a lawbreaker had to pay--it does not signify the laws that are to be obeyed--only the penalty.
The certificate of debt was wiped away and nailed to the cross.
Moreover, pardoning someone for committing a capital crime, doesn’t do away with the law that was broken. If anything, it shows that the law carries force, for without the pardon, the criminal would die!
In the same way, the law of God carries force since breaking it (committing sin) requires the death penalty. The law is that powerful, that important. It is holy. People aren’t saved from that which was against them (the death penalty) by doing away with the law. What saves people from death is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in the place of those who trust 1 Cor. 15:1-4 KJV.
In fact, the wording Paul employed Colossians 2:13-14 KJV showed that the law of God continues to carry great force. By saying the penalty demanded under the law of God was nailed to the instrument that killed the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was showing that the law of God was still in force, still requiring death for sin.
By contrast, if the law had been brought to an abrupt end by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, from that point on, nothing would be “against the law”-duh! Nothing could be called “sin.” Of course, we know that is not true. Sin exists, which means the law that calls it “sin” also exists!
The Lord Jesus Christ nailed to the cross what was contrary to him...
Ephesians 2:15 KJV "the law of commandments contained in ordinances;"
Colossians 2:14 KJV "the handwriting of ordinances"
Hebrews 7:16 KJV "the law of a carnal commandment"
Hebrews 9:10 KJV "carnal ordinances;"
What the Lord Jesus Christ abolished was carnal/fleshly commandments and ordinances, and hand written ordinances=that is the context..= the decrees of exclusion established by men, which were rooted in enmity between Jew & Gentile,such as “touch not, taste not, handle not”(survey Colossians 2:21 KJV), man-made social class/caste system set in place by Oral Torah, and Jewish leaders, attempting to keep a social and religious difference between Jews and Gentiles. Ordinances/decrees were laws that were man-made. Paul was referring to man-made orders, in this verse through the term “ordinance”. These “ordinances” were, yes, indeed hostile/”hate”/”enmity”, as they restrained anyone other than “Jews” worshiping God. These ordinances made a clear separation between Jew and Gentile, by elevating one above the other, to an “elite status,” to the extent where gentiles were looked down upon, scorned, and disassociated, by Jews everywhere………..
Shuck this deleting "the handwriting of ordinances" of Colossians 2:14 KJV, replacing it with "law/ordinances," thus perverting, corrupting the scriptures, making it look like Paul says that Christ blotted out, made void, the law/ordinances, making it look like Paul is saying that the law/ordinances are contrary/against us, not for our benefit, instead of Paul saying that the sin debt/IOU was blotted out, as that is what is contrary to us, against us, as Paul asserts that the law is perfect, good, holy, just, spiritual, not void, in Romans 11, and the problem is with man, and the sin debt/IOU for breaking a good, holy, spiritual law, not the law itself.
Again...When we talk about "nailing it to his cross", that is not the law itself, but the curse of the law, or the penalties for disobeying the law. It was the penalty of the broken law which He rendered inoperative, not the law itself.
In that time period when a man was charged with a crime the charges against him were written down on papyrus. If he was found not guilty the papyrus was then washed down with water, removing or blotting out those charges against him, to confirm his acquittal. This abolished the written charges against the man. This is the what is referred to in "blotting out of ordinances against us" that were nailed to the cross, not the law itself.
The law is still God's standard of righteousness and all the requirements for the broken law remain unchanged, apart from Him. B
"nailed to the cross" is the penalty which a lawbreaker had to pay--the certificate of debt was wiped away and nailed to the cross.
To the naysayers:Tell us how believers can be charged with the sin of rape, murder, stealing,..... if the law was abolished. Go ahead.
And notice I said "charged," not convicted, to anticipate any convoluted answer.
If there is no law against rape, murder................... how can a believer, be charged with the sin/crime?
How can an unbeliever be charged with murder, rape.................if there is no law, defining it is an offense, sin?
And there are literally thousands of preachers, that, in error, assert that the LORD God did away with His "holy law and then abolishes it," citing Colossians 2:14 KJV. Colossians 2:14 KJV does not say that the LORD God did away/abolished the law-it says that "the handwriting of ordinances" was blotted out-this is not a reference to the law, that was blotted out.
If the law was blotted out/did away, everyone would be saved:
1 John 3:4 KJV Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
So, one of the definitions of sin is " the transgression of the law."
With me?
Now:
Romans 4:15 KJV because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Romans 5:13 KJV (for until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Thus, since sin is the transgression of the law, and, if it is true that there is no more "God's holy law," then, where there is no law, there is no transgression, whereby anyone can be accused, and sin cannot be imputed, if there is no law. Secular wise, for eg., if there is no law against speeding/going over a certain speed, no one can be charged with speeding/breaking a law-there is no law against speeding-no transgression.
Shuck this "the law was abolished/did away" assertion, and certainly not employ Colossians 2:14 KJV, in making this "argument," as "the handwriting of ordinances" is not a reference to "God's holy law."
Survey....
"Not imputing their trespasses unto them"
Paul must have been drunk, stoned, for no one can commit a "trespass," if there is no law against it.
And Paul did not write, "The just shall live by faith," to assert that the law was done away.
Through the law, is the knowledge of sin, and still functions, to bring the lost to Christ-today, as it did in Egypt, as it always has:
Romans 3:20 KJV Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Galatians 3 KJV
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Read it-"that"
Again...
Romans 3:20 KJV Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Galatians 3 KJV
24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. 25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
If the law no longer exists, then the law no longer leads others to Christ, as the school master, since it no longer exists, and that others cannot know what sin is, since the law no longer exists.
The Ten Commandments, part of the law of Moses, which many, in error, say is abolished, are for the specific purpose of defining sin. This law, which defines sin, is described by Paul as being as "holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good"(Romans 7:12 KJV).
