Belittling the Sacrifice

Colossians 2: 11 – 15

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins^[c] of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, ¹⁴ having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

 

Wow, verse 14 jumped out at me this morning.  “And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Anyone who really knows me also knows that I like rules. I like knowing that if I follow the rules and something goes wrong that I can pass the blame along. If I follow a recipe and the food tastes bad, I don’t have to take responsibility because I followed the recipe.  Sometimes I may choose not to follow the rules, but I know when the consequences come that I got what I deserved because that is what the rules say

As I read Colossians this morning, I was very convicted.  I found myself wondering about those ‘handwritten requirements’ mentioned in verse 14.  It is one thing to hold myself  to a set of rules, but do I look to see if others are sticking to those requirements, and how do I respond when they are not. The answer I found was not pleasant. This is an area where my pride comes roaring to the surface.  I have friends and family who may struggle with some of those made up rules but have a relationship with Christ that can only pray to someday achieve.  Sadly, though I find it so easy to look down on the people I love for not sticking to the rules; rules that are nice, but certainly have nothing to do with my or their relationship with the Father.

                Jesus died for us making all the Old Testament rules about reaching Christ obsolete. The fact that I would still focus on those belittles Jesus’ sacrifice.