CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Colossians 2:14. Blotting out the handwriting.—“Wiping out the old score,” as we might say. All that bond which was valid against them Christ had for ever rendered nugatory whilst they confided in His salvation. Against us, which was contrary to us.—We have here the author of those hot protests against work-righteousness. The threatening aspect of the law is expressed in this reiteration. The law not only menaces wrong-doers; it proceeds against them with punishment. Nailing it to His cross.—The bond is discharged and may be filed. We are reminded of St. Peter’s equally bold expression: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body [to, and] on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24).
Colossians 2:15. Having spoiled principalities.—R.V. “having put off from Himself.” The authorities are divided between the A.V. and R.V. The English reader must not conclude that he has again the word and idea of Colossians 2:8. The apostle says that Christ had flung off from Himself the powers of wickedness. As these Colossians needed no intercessions of good angels, so, on the other hand, they need fear nothing from the maleficent powers of darkness, now vanquished.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Colossians 2:13-14
The Transition from Death to Life.
In relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to death, the spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of man is held captive in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and the divine law—at once its judge and gaoler—has declared its condemnation to death. The great Mediator offers Himself a ransom for human sin. He is accepted. The sentence of condemnation is cancelled, and spiritual liberty proclaimed.
I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and spiritual death.—
1. Man is in a condition of spiritual insensibility. “You, being dead in your sins” (Colossians 2:13). The dead know not anything. They are as unconscious as the dust in the midst of which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest scenes appeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly depicts the moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to the relations and interests of the outer world, and at the same time dead to the grandest spiritual realities. He is insensible to the character and claims of God, to the sublimest truths, to the most ravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is lovely in nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to the highest moral beauty.
2. Man is in a condition of moral corruption.—“And the uncircumcision of your flesh” (Colossians 2:13). Death unbinds the forces that brace up the body in life and health, and leaves it a prey to the ever-active power of corruption. The flesh is the carnal principle—the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates that it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the loathsome, putrid fruit of a nature spiritually dead—the outworkings of a wicked, unrenewed heart, through all the channels of unchecked appetites and passions—moral putrescence fattening on itself. No description of sin can surpass the revolting spectacle of its own self-registered results.
3. Man is in a condition of condemnation.—
(1) The divine ordinances record an indictment against the transgressor. “The handwriting of ordinances that was against us” (Colossians 2:14). A handwriting imports what any one writes with his own hand, and is usually applied to a note of hand, a bond, or obligation, as having the signature of the debtor or contracting party. The primary reference in the terms used is to the Jews, who might be said to have signed the contract when they bound themselves, by a curse, to observe all the enactments of the law (Deuteronomy 27:14-26). Ordinances, though referring primarily to the Mosaic ordinances, include all forms of positive decrees (ordinances) in which moral or social principles are embodied or religious duties defined. Man everywhere is under law, written or unwritten; and he is morally obligated to obey it. That law has been universally violated, and its ordinances and sanctions are against us. We are involved in legal condemnation; we owe to God what we can never pay.
(2) The divine ordinances are hostile towards the transgressor. “Which was contrary to us” (Colossians 2:14). We are often painfully reminded of our broken bond, as the debtor is often distressingly reminded of his undischarged obligation. Our peace is disturbed, our conscience troubled, our prospects darkened. The sense of condemnation pursues us in every part of life; and haunts us with visions of terrible vengeance to come.
II. That the believer is raised into a condition of spiritual life.—
1. Spiritual life begins in the consciousness of liberty. “Having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). Sin enthrals the soul in an intolerable bondage, and smites it with a deathly blow. There is no return to life until liberty is bestowed. Forgiveness confers that liberty. Pardon is the point at which spiritual life begins. The sense of liberty is the first glad thrill in the soul of a new and nobler life. The pardon is ample; it is all-comprehensive—having forgiven you all trespasses. Every legal barrier is removed. All guilt is cancelled. Every stain is purged away. Every vestige of corruption disappears. The divine mercy triumphs in the prompt, generous, loving, full forgiveness of sins.
2. Spiritual life implies a freedom from all condemnation.—
(1) The indictment recorded in the divine ordinances is cancelled and abolished. “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross” (Colossians 2:14). Every assurance is given to the trembling believer that his guilt is pardoned and his condemnation removed. The handwriting is blotted out—as it were, cross-strokes are drawn through it; and that all suspicion it may again become legible, may be allayed, it is added, “and took it out of the way”; it is entirely removed. But lest, haply, it should again be found and produced, it is declared—it is destroyed, torn, nailed to the cross, and so made utterly useless ever to witness anything against the believer. “Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held” (Romans 7:6). The handwriting against us is removed and destroyed by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. There we behold the cancelled sentence torn and rent by the very nails that pierced the sacred body of the world’s Redeemer.
(2) Freedom from condemnation is effected by the cross. “His cross.” Much as the doctrine of salvation through the vicarious sufferings of Christ may be misunderstood and despised, it is the only method by which pardon can be bestowed, condemnation removed, and spiritual life imparted. “Christ hath reedeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.”
III. That the transition of the soul from death to spiritual life is a divine work.—“You hath He quickened together with Him” (Colossians 2:13). God only can raise the dead. He who first fashioned us in His own image, who raised from the dead Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, rescues man from the gloomy domain of spiritual death, and inspires him with a new and holier life. It is a life of blessed union with the divine. Its activities are spontaneous and Godward in their tendencies. It has the power of growth and endless development. Its aspirations are the purest and noblest. It is intensely individual. It is the movement of the divine in the sphere of the human, not defacing or destroying the human, but exalting and perfecting its worthiest traits.
Lessons.—
1. All men are dead in sin.
2. Law condemns but cannot deliver.
3. Pardon of sin is the gateway of spiritual life.
4. Pardon is obtained only by looking to the cross.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Colossians 2:13. Death and Spiritual Life.
I. Man by sin is spiritually dead and disabled from exercising spiritual acts.
II. Man is quickened into spiritual life by virtue of the resurrection of Christ.
III. Spiritual life is obtainable only by the pardon of sin.
Colossians 2:14. The Handwriting of Ordinances—
I. Describes our condemnation.
II. Must be cancelled in order to pardon.
III. Cancelled by the sufferings on the cross.
IV. Is blotted out against us when we accept the Crucified.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Colossians 2:15
The Triumph of the Cross.
The apostle has shown the worthlessness of the Jewish ceremonies and the galling tyranny of their yoke. He has exposed the emptiness of the philosophy that was of human fabrication, with its illusive theories about angel mediators, its vast accretions of conflicting traditions, and its intolerable impositions. He has declared that they are all transfixed to the cross—torn, lacerated, illegible, cancelled—and exhibited there as a spectacle for the perpetual consolation and assurance of the believer. And now the apostle, rising with the grandeur of his theme, compares the scene of the cross to the splendid triumph of a Roman general, in which the captives taken in battle were led in gorgeous procession through the city as substantial trophies of the victor.
I. The triumph of the cross was over the powers of evil.—“Principalities and Powers.”
1. The existence of evil is a painful fact.—We meet with it everywhere and in everything. It mars the beauty of external creation, and loads it with a burden of unutterable woe. It flings its shadow over the brightest sky, transforms the music of life into a doleful monotone, and translates the softest zephyrs into sighs. It impregnates man’s moral nature, deflects the purest principles, shatters the noblest powers, arrests the loftiest aspirations, and drags the soul down to the lowest hell.
2. Evil is embodied in invisible and potent personalities.—They are here called principalities because of their excellency, their deep penetration, vast knowledge, and exalted station. They are called powers because of their ability, the mighty influence they can wield, and the terrible havoc they can work. Their dominion extends over the whole realm of sin. They exist in vast numbers (2 Peter 2:2; Jude 1:6), but they are inspired and guided by one great master-spirit—the prince of the power of the air. They are animated and bound together by one spirit—a spirit of bitter hatred and savage hostility towards God, and of contemptuous scorn for His authority. They are eager to obey the slightest behest of their malignant leader.
“He spake: and to confirm his words outflew
Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs
Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze
Far round illumined hell: highly they raged
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,
Hurling defiance towards the vault of heaven.”
These hosts of evil spirits are the great foes of man with which he has incessantly to contend (Ephesians 6:12). The struggle would be hopeless had not Christ defeated them.
II. The triumph of the cross was achieved after severe conflict.—“Having spoiled.”
1. The conflict was continuous.—It was fought from the earliest period between Satan and man, and the day was lost. The woeful issues of that conquest are with us to-day. The battle has been raging ever since. The enmity existing between the serpent and the seed of the woman is still active. The symbols and foreshadowings of the great strife appeared on many occasions during the Mosaic period. But when Christ assumed our humanity and stepped upon the field as the great Captain of our salvation, the conflict reached its climax.
2. The conflict was fierce.—Hosts of demons swarmed around the solitary Warrior, and with incredible fury sought to gain a victory over the human nature He had assumed. Again and again they rushed to the attack; but each fresh assault ended with a new defeat. In the wilderness He was tempted by Satan; but the arch-tempter was compelled to retire, baffled and conquered. Through the voice of His chief disciple the temptation was renewed, and He was urged to decline His appointed sufferings and death (Matthew 16:23). But Satan was again foiled.
3. The conflict was deadly.—Then came the final hour—the great crisis when the power of darkness made itself felt, when the prince of this world threw his last fatal shaft and asserted his tyranny (Luke 22:53; John 12:30). The closing act in the conflict began with the agony of Gethsemane; it ended with the cross of Calvary. The Son of God expires on the accursed tree. But, lo! strange reversal of all human conflicts—the moment of apparent defeat is the moment of victory! By dying Christ has conquered death, and wrested from the enemy his most potent weapon of terror. The principalities and powers of evil, that clung around the humanity of Christ like a fatal Nessus tunic, were spoiled—torn off and cast aside for ever. Evil assailed the great Redeemer from without, but never penetrated Him as it does humanity. In the act of dying the crucified One stripped off and flung to the ground the great potentates of evil never more to be in the ascendant.
III. The triumph of the cross was signal and complete.—
1. It was signal. “He made a show of them openly.” The overthrow of the principalities and powers of evil was boldly declared to the universe. They were declared to be liars, traitors, deceivers, usurpers, and murderers! It was not a private but a public victory, in which the universe was interested, and in which all men may well rejoice. The victory of mankind is involved in the victory of Christ. In His cross we too are divested of the poisonous, clinging garments of temptation, sin, and death—we spoil, strip off, put away from us the powers of evil, and are liberated from the dominion of the flesh.
2. It was complete.—“Triumphing over them in it.” Christ proved Himself on the cross the Conqueror of death and hell. Here the paradox of the Crucifixion is placed in the strongest light—triumph in helplessness, glory in shame, the vanquished become the conqueror. The gloom of the convict’s gibbet is transformed into the splendour of the victor’s chariot. In the cross we see the greatest triumph of our Immanuel—the law fulfilled; God’s moral government vindicated; death robbed of its prey; Satan, “the prince of this world” cast out; principalities and powers dragged in procession as captives; a show of them boldly made; the imprisoned world set free; and the final victory over every enemy assured.
Lessons.—
1. Christ has conquered the powers of evil.
2. To the believer ultimate victory is certain.
3. Keep up a brave heart in the fiercest conflict.