He Nailed It

“You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made 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. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.” [1]

The Christian Faith is grounded in one great truth—Christ Jesus conquered death, hell, and the grave through the sacrifice of His own life. The death of Jesus was not an accident, nor does His death even qualify primarily as a judicial murder (though He was indeed murdered). Nevertheless, behind the travesty of justice perpetuated by religious leaders in Judea acting in concert with the Roman overlords was the fact the Christ Jesus surrendered His life as a sacrifice because of our helpless condition. I suppose it appears as a conundrum for some that we can say that Jesus’ life was taken from Him, and yet confess that He gave His life as a sacrifice.

Jesus our Lord met the onslaught of wickedness at the Cross, conquering all hell, and all that the wicked one could throw at Him. Isaiah saw what was to take place seven hundred fifty years before it occurred. The mighty court prophet wrote,

“Surely he has borne our griefs

and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken,

smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.”

[ISAIAH 53:4-6]

“The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” That final strophe points forward to what would take place at the cross when the Son of God offered His life as a sacrifice. The Father caused all the evil, all the wickedness, all the brokenness that marks each of our lives to be poured out on His Son. This is a vivid verbal picture which has been prepared for us; each of us can understand what is taking place when we read those words. Every sin that has stained my life, every sin that has marred your life, was taken up by Jesus. At the Cross, He nailed it! And we were set free by His sacrifice. In Him, we are free to be all that the Father desires us to be. We are forever freed from sin.

The observance of Easter is not a celebration of the death of Christ Jesus the Lord. Had the Saviour sacrificed His life and then been buried, it would perhaps be a moving story, but it would be a story that would have been quickly forgotten before being lost in the dim reaches of time. However, it is precisely because Jesus, Who is the Son of God, conquered the tomb that we remember Him. He gave His life and then rose from the dead! Without His sacrifice, there would have been no resurrection; and without His resurrection, His death would ultimately have been meaningless.

WHY MUST JESUS DIE? “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made 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. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” [COLOSSIANS 2:13-15].

This text opens with the acknowledgement that each of us was dead before God. Underscore in your mind that all people, regardless of what others may think of them, were dead in the brokenness of their fallen condition. Each person stood condemned as sinful before Holy God. This was the universal condition of all mankind, and that includes all who are now redeemed. For those among us who are lost, those who have never received the Risen Saviour as Master over life, spiritual death properly describes their fallen condition. It doesn’t mean that they don’t walk and talk in the physical realm, it means that they are unconscious of God, they are dead to Him.

The spiritually dead are aware there is a God, but they do not know Him. Knowing that God exists is not the same as knowing God. You know that the Prime Minister is real, but none of you actually know the Prime Minister. There is no one among us who can pick up the phone and call the Prime Minister. That is the situation we meet in the spiritual realm. People know about God, but people don’t know God.