Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV)
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. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Paul clearly divides not just his own life, but the life of all Christians into two distinct and mutually exclusive phases. The first phase is life before Jesus. Paul defines this phase as being spiritually dead in sins and with the sinful nature “uncircumcised”, fully empowered and fully in control of the thoughts and actions in a person’s life. Such a person lives under the condemnation of the law, the written code, unable to obey it in their fleshly weakness and either beset by guilt or having a hardened conscience due to a lifetime of failure.
The other phase is life after Jesus, living in His Salvation. Now, instead of being spiritually dead, the Christian has been made alive with Christ, raised from the dead, and in possession of everlasting vitality. Instead of living under constant condemnation by a conscience that either eats them up or hardens their soul, all sins have been forgiven and the Christian is given a new start and a clean slate, as well as the determination and power to live as God’s child, a life of victory over sin, from that moment on.
As such, the law is no longer the harsh schoolmaster that was needed to convict a person of sin. Instead, it has been nailed to the cross along with Jesus. Now, instead of trying in one’s own strength to withstand temptation and to follow God’s righteous requirements in the law, and experiencing failure over and over again, real day-by-day victory over the disarmed “powers an authorities” is possible.
For such a person, the main drivers in their lives become love for God for their Salvation, and a desire to live completely for God and to please him. This changes the whole direction of their lives, as well as the orientation of every thought, word, and deed. No longer do they need an external law and rituals to be holy. They are holy because they have been made pure and alive. And their thoughts and actions become a natural reflection of that inner holiness. As Jesus said in Matthew 12:33 (NIV): “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good…”
Father, I remember so well the moment I cried out to You in the darkness for mercy. And in that moment, You brought me into your amazing light. You cleansed my heart from sin, made me alive in Christ, and transformed my life from the inside out. From that moment to this, the primary motivation for my life has been to serve You out of a heart of love and gratitude (which I also received from You!). Thank You for setting me free from a futile striving towards self-righteousness, and instead infusing me with the true righteousness that comes only from You. Amen.