7) To Cancel The Legal Demands of The Law Against Us

Christ Suffered and Died . . .

To Cancel The Legal Demands of The Law Against Us

And you, who were dead in your trespasses . . .

God made alive together with Him,

having forgiven us all our trespasses,

by canceling the record of debt that stood

against us with its legal demands.

This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Colossians 2:13

What a folly it is to think that our good deeds may one day outweigh our bad deeds. It is folly for two reasons. 

First, our good deeds are not that good. Our good deeds are defective, because we don’t honor God in every way as we do them. Do we do our good deeds in joyful dependence on God with a view to making known His supreme worth? Our good deeds are often flavored with selfishness and self preservation. God says in the Bible that our good works are like filthy rags! (Isaiah 64:6)

The second reason it is folly to hope in good deeds is because there is no Scripture in any faith, where God has attempted to list the scoring system of how many and what type of good deeds will outweigh bad deeds, and by how much amount. Do we earn 5 points by giving alms to the poor and 15 points when we help an old lady or a blind man cross a busy road? Does telling a lie make you lose 20 points or 40 points or 2 points? The bottom line is that there is no Scripture anywhere in any faith, where God has listed the exact calculation by which He will balance out the good and bad deeds of each individual. So, it is a serious deception to base our salvation on  'karma' or list of good deeds.

So, if God loves us and wants us to be cleansed of our bad deeds, what do we depend on? 

If we are going to be saved from the consequences of our bad deeds, it will not be because they weighed less than our good deeds. God has a totally different way of saving sinners. There is no hope in our deeds. We cannot earn brownie points before God's eyes by being goody goody!!

There is no salvation by balancing the records; of our good and bad deeds. There is only salvation by canceling the records. 

The record of our bad deeds (including our defective good deeds), along with the just penalties that each deserves, must be blotted out—not balanced. This is what Christ suffered and died to accomplish. The cancellation happened when the record of our deeds was “nailed to the cross” (Colossians 2:13). 

How was this damning record of my bad deeds( including defective good deeds) nailed to the cross? Parchment was not nailed to the cross. Christ was. So Christ became my damning record of bad (and good) deeds. He endured my damnation. He put my salvation on a totally different footing. He is my only hope. Faith in Christ is my only way to God. 

Lets pray: 

"Dear Father, thank You for making a way for me to be totally forgiven. My sins were not just pushed under the carpet and forgotten. They were nailed to the cross on which Your Son took my punishment. Father, I thank You for saving me from the foolishness that my good works are good enough to save me. My salvation is purely because of the sacrifice of Jesus. There is no other name, under Heaven, by which a man can be saved, but the name of Jesus. Thank You very much. Amen."

Lets worship: with the song In Christ alone by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend   

The so-far mentioned reasons for why Christ suffered and died can be followed at http://knowing-christ.blogspot.com/:-

6) To show His own love for us

5) To show Grace for sinners

4) To achieve His own resurrection from the dead

3) To learn obedience and be perfected

2) To please His own Heavenly Father

1) To absorb the wrath of God

Be blessed,

Meghna and Ashish

(inspired by 'Fifty reasons why He came to die' by author John Piper)