“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 canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross” Col. 2:13-14.
Heavenly Father, we’ve been through a prolonged season of canceled events, canceled vacations, canceled flights—worse of all, “cancel-culture.” But on this August Sunday, we’re grateful for the one cancel worth celebrating, now and forever.
When we were absolutely hapless, helpless, and hopeless, you raised us to new life in Christ. When we were unable and unwilling to love and honor you, we didn’t “invite Jesus into our hearts,” you gave us a new heart. Hallelujah!
You forgave all our sins—not just the 4% we’re aware of; not just those up to the moment of our new birth, all of them in the past, present, and future. Hallelujah!
You canceled the legal debt we owed you—the demands of your perfect Law that we could never, would never love and live up to. We owed you a perfect righteousness, and all we had were two “wooden nickels” in our pockets.
BUT, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, you not only liquidated our righteousness-bankruptcy—exhausting all judgment and condemnation hanging over us; you also enriched us in Christ—counting his righteousness as ours. Loudest, Hallelujah!
The only debt that remains is our “debt of love”—our calling to love you with everything we have and are, and others as Jesus loves us. May it be, let it be, in Jesus’ name we pray, Hallelujah and AMEN.
