MADE ALIVE BY CHRIST WORK AT THE CROSS!!
COLOSSIANS 2:13-15
13When 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, 14having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
2: 13-15 Before we believed in Christ, we disobeyed, rebelled, and ignored God (even at our best, we did not love him with all our hearts, souls, and minds). Every Christian, however, has a new nature. God has crucified the old, rebellious nature (Romans 6: 6) and replaced it with a new, loving nature (Colossians 3: 9-10). The mortal penalty for sin was removed when Christ died on the cross. God has declared us not guilty if we believe in Christ’s work on the cross, and we need no longer live under sin’s power and give in to sin’s compulsions. God does not take us out of the world or make us like robots— we will still feel like sinning, and often we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved, we were slaves to our sinful nature; but now we are free to follow Christ, and we can resist sin in his power (see Galatians 2: 20).
2: 14 The written code that was canceled was the legal requirements of the Old Testament law. The law demanded payment for our sin. Although no one can be saved by merely keeping that old law, the moral truths and principles in the Old Testament still teach and guide us today
2: 15 Who are these spiritual powers and authorities? Several suggestions have been made, including (1)demonic powers, (2)the gods worshiped by powerful nations, (3)angels (highly regarded by the heretical teachers of Paul’s day), and (4)the government of Rome. Since Paul did not identify who these powers and authorities were, it could be any one of them, or all four. What Christ “disarmed” on the cross was any embodiment of rebellion in the world, whether that be Satan and his demons, false idols of pagan religions, evil world governments, or even God’s good angels when they become objects of worship (as in the Colossian heresy). This disarming occurred when Jesus died on the cross, like stripping a defeated enemy of armor on the battlefield. Evil no longer has any power over believers because Christ has disarmed it. Paul had already told the Colossians, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves”
Tyndale. NIV Life Application Study Bible
ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS and know that we have been made alive by what JESUS did at the cross. And all we have too do is believe in JESUS CHRIST and what his work at the cross and the resurection, with repentance does for us being made dead to the old man and ALIVE IN JESUS CHRIST
onthewayhomeministries.org by RICHARD DEAN BROOKS