Introduction
Forgiveness is one of the most liberating words in the human vocabulary — and the most liberating act in the history of the universe. Colossians 2:13-14 uses a striking image from the ancient legal world to describe what God has done with the record of our sins: He took the document that listed every charge against us and nailed it to the cross. This sermon unpacks that image and shows what complete forgiveness means for the believer.
In the ancient Roman world, a debt record (cheirographon) was a handwritten acknowledgment of a debt — a legal document that testified against the debtor. When the debt was paid in full, the creditor would nail the document to a post as public testimony that the obligation had been discharged. Paul uses this image deliberately: the 'handwriting of ordinances that was against us' — the record of our sin — has been nailed to the cross of Christ. Paid in full. Cancelled. Done.
Sermon Outline
I. The Problem Acknowledged — "dead in your sins"
Sin is not merely a list of bad actions. It is a condition of spiritual deadness — alienation from the life of God, bound under condemnation, unable to respond to God on our own. The person who does not see themselves as spiritually dead will not appreciate the magnitude of what God has done.
And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
Ephesians 2:1
II. The Action of God — "hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses"
And with this new life comes total forgiveness: 'having forgiven you all trespasses.' The word 'all' is comprehensive. Not most trespasses. Not the trespasses you can remember. Not the ones that are not too serious. All of them — past, present, and future sins are covered under the forgiveness of God in Christ.
This forgiveness is not provisional. God does not take it back when we sin again. It is the settled declaration of God about the justified sinner: forgiven. The record is cleared.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:12
III. The Instrument of Forgiveness — "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... nailing it to his cross"
'Nailing it to his cross' — this is the public declaration of the cancellation. When Jesus was crucified, the charges against Him were nailed above His head (the titulus). But in the spiritual reality, the charges nailed to the cross were ours. The sin debt that was against us was transferred to Christ and discharged at the cross.
This is the definitive answer to every accusation against the believer — whether from Satan, from others, or from their own conscience. The charges have been nailed to the cross. They cannot be raised again. 'It is finished.'
Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Romans 8:33-34
Conclusion
The believer who truly grasps Colossians 2:13-14 is free — not from the obligation to obey God, but from the condemnation of failure. Every sin, every failure, every shameful page of their history has been nailed to the cross of Christ and cancelled. God will never raise it against them again. Walk in that freedom — not to sin more freely, but to serve more freely, knowing that the debt has been paid and the record has been destroyed.
Invite anyone still carrying guilt for past sins to give that guilt to God — to believe that the debt has genuinely been cancelled and to walk out of this meeting in the freedom of the forgiven.