Colossians 2:14

blotting out cancelled (Lightfoot). The act of "forgiving" is described under vivid imagery. Cp. Acts 3:19; and see Psalms 51:1; Psalms 51:9; Psalms 109:14; Nehemiah 4:5; Isaiah 44:22; Jeremiah 18:23.

the handwriting The bond, note-of-hand. The original word, cheirographon, meaning an autograph, is used often in this sense, and oftener (transliterated) in Latin than in Greek. So here the Latin Versions have chirographum decreti. What is "the bond"? The question is best answered under the next words.

of ordinances Lit., "with relation to ordinances" ;based on them, conditioned by them. "The bond written in ordinances" ;R. V. These "ordinances" (dogmata) are not ritesbut, as the Greek word always means in the N.T., orders, decrees. The reference cannot be solely to the "decrees" of the Jewish Law, for here the case of allbelieving sinners is in view. The decrees are rather that of which that Law was only one grand instance, the Divine precept of holiness, however conveyed, whether by revelation or by conscience (see Romans 2:12-15). Man's assent, however imperfect, to the lightness of that precept, is as it were his signature of obligation to "the bond"; a bond which his sin has made to be a terribly adverseengagement.

Lightfoot points out that the Greek commentators "universally" interpret the words rendered "of ordinances" quite differently; "by the dogmata, or doctrines(of the Gospel)"; the Gospel being the means of the abrogation of the Law. But this, as he shews, is (a) alien to the context, (b) out of harmony with an important parallel word in Colossians 2:20 below (see notes on that verse), (c) not supported by the usage (elsewhere in N.T.) of the Greek word dogma.

contrary directly opposed (Lightfoot). The Greek is a single compound word, giving by its form the thought of a close and grappling opposition. The broken Law becomes an active enemy of the transgressor.

and took it out of the way Quite lit., and it (emphatic) He hath taken out of the midst; from between us and God, as a barrier to our peace. "He hath taken": the tense indicates the lasting and present result of the decisive act of atonement.

nailing it tohis cross Lit., to the Cross. See Colossians 1:20 for a previous allusion to the Cross. The Lord was "made a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13), "made sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21), in other words, treated as Transgression personified, in His atoning death. He there discharged our bond, and thus cancelled it, tore it up as it were; and the tearing up is vividly described as the piercing of it with the nails which had affixed Him, our Satisfaction, to the Cross. There seems to be no evidence for the existence of any legal custom, such as the nailing up an abrogated decree in public, which could have suggested this language. It comes wholly from the Crucifixion.

Observe carefully the free use in Scripture of legal and commercial imagery to convey great aspects of the truth of our salvation.