Week 16: Day 2

Intro: Hey everyone, I’m Nathan, and today I get to share with you all one of my favourite passages of scripture Colossians 2:13

Bible: When 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, having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Thoughts: Usually when the Bible uses multiple metaphors to explain a single point, that point is worth deeply digging into to enjoy and be transformed by the richness and juiciness contained in it.

This passage is packed with strong visual images that you can’t help but picture of death, cancelled debt, burial, circumcision, (maybe don’t picture that one), and resurrection. It seems like something pivotal and important has happened, but what is it exactly?

Well, first we have to recognise the underlying message being shown to us, that we were dead and in debt. Fundamentally, this refers to us being spiritually separated from God. Whether you’ve recently become a Christian or you feel like you always have been, we naturally have a tendency towards sin. But sin isn’t just a record of the bad things we have done it is itself described as a spiritual force, which means we give ourselves over to the power of sin.

But here we’re reminded that God has done something special for us. God came down in the person of Jesus and deliberately died for us so that in that death, everything that was supposed to be ours, our sin and our debt, could just be taken away. Everything we’ve done wrong against Him or someone else? forgotten about and forgiven. All the power that sins and fear had over us? Broken.

It seems incredible, almost unbelievable that God would do that for us, it can lead us to think ‘why’? Why would he do that for us? And the answer is, because he honestly just loves us, and he wants to see us made alive in Him and enjoy Him!

And if you’re like me, I know what you’re thinking, ‘sounds great, but in reality, I still sin on a day to day and what does that mean? What’s amazing about this passage is that it doesn’t say, now that God’s done this if you ever sin, you’re on your own. No, we can constantly come back to this passage and be reminded that our debt has been cancelled, cancelled for good. When Jesus said, ‘it is finished’, he meant it. We don’t have to live under the shame of our sin. Not only that, but we can see the power of sin has been broken in our lives when the spiritual powers and authorities were defeated at the cross.

That reality is amazing, but sometimes I can read over that and just think it's cool. Often, we need a spiritual eye-opening to see how beautiful this is and to live in the freedom of that. And just like you, I’m on the journey of getting more blown away by this too.

Prayer: Father thank you so much that you sent your son to cancel the debt that we owed you and to set us free from the sin that held us as slaves. Thank you that we’re free and we’re alive, help us to grow in seeing the beauty and truth of this and to live in the freedom that you won for us. Amen

Silence: There's now just a few moments of silence for you to pray, reflect on these ideas, or simply sit and be still.

Action: To help you grow in recognising how personal your relationship with God can be, just do something for God that you think will please Him and make sure no one else ever knows you’ve done it. A secret between you and God as you grow in friendship.

Outro: That's it for today's Orbit. Thanks so much for joining us - we'll be back with another reflection soon.