Colossians 2:14 - Exposition

Having blotted out the bond (that was) against us with (or, written in ) decrees, which was opposed to us ( Ephesians 2:14-16 ; Romans 3:9-26 ; Romans 7:7-14 ; 2 Corinthians 5:19 ; Galatians 3:10-22 ; 1 Corinthians 15:56 ; Acts 13:38 , Acts 13:39 ). The ancients commonly used wax tablets in writing, and the flat end of the pointed stylus drawn over the writing smeared it out (expunged) and so cancelled it (comp. Acts 3:19 ; Psalms 51:9 ; Isaiah 43:25 , LXX ). "God," not "Christ," is the subject of this verb, which stands in immediate sequence to those of Colossians 2:12 , Colossians 2:13 . It is the receiver rather than the offerer of satisfaction who cancels the debt: in Ephesians 2:15 (comp. Colossians 1:22 ) a different verb is used. χειρόγραφον ("handwritten;" a word of later Greek, only here in the New Testament) is used specially of an account of debt, a bond signed by the debtor's hand (see Meyer and Lightfoot). This bond can be nothing other than "the law" ( Ephesians 2:14-16 ; Acts 13:38 , Acts 13:39 ; Romans 3:20 ; Romans 7:25 ; Galatians 3:21 , Galatians 3:22 , etc.); not, however, the ritual law, nor even the Mosaic Law as such (as Meyer contends), but law as law, the Divine rule of human life impressed even on Gentile hearts ( Romans 2:14 , Romans 2:15 ), to which man's conscience gives its consent ( Romans 7:16 , Romans 7:22 ), and yet which becomes by his disobedience just a list of charges against him (so Neander and Lightfoot; see the latter on Galatians 2:19 ). Exodus 24:3 and Deuteronomy 27:14-26 , indeed, illustrate this wider relation of Divine law to the human conscience generally. τοῖς δόγμασιν is dative of reference either to καθ ἡμῶν or to the verbal idea contained in χειργόραφον . The former explanation (that of Winer and Ellicott) is preferable. The Greek Fathers made it instrumental dative to ἐξαλείψας , understanding by these δόγματα the doctrines ( dogmas ) of the gospel by which the charges of the Law against us are expunged. But this puts on δόγμα a later theological sense foreign to St. Paul, and universally rejected by modern interpreters. In the New Testament (comp. Luke 2:1 ; Acts 16:4 ; Hebrews 11:23 ), as in classical Greek, dogma is a decree, setting forth the will of some public authority (comp. note on δογματίζω , Deuteronomy 27:20 ). The added clause, "which was opposed to us," affirms the active opposition, as "against us" the essential hostility of the decrees of God's law to our sinful nature ( Romans 4:15 ; Galatians 3:10 : comp. Romans 7:13 , Romans 7:14 ). The emphasis with which St. Paul dwells on this point is characteristic of the author of Romans and Galatians. ψπενάντιος occurs besides only in Hebrews 10:27 ; the prefix ὑπὸ implies close and persistent opposition (Lightfoot). And he hath taken it out of the midst, having nailed it to the cross ( Colossians 1:20-22 ; Ephesians 2:18 ; 2 Corinthians 5:19 ; Romans 3:24-26 ; Romans 5:1 , Romans 5:2 ; Galatians 3:13 ; Hebrews 1:3 ; John 1:29 ; 1 John 4:10 ). A third time in these three verses (12-14) we note the transition from participle to coordinate finite verb; and here, in addition, the aorist tense passes into the perfect ("hath taken"), marking the finality of the removal of the Law's condemning power ( Romans 8:1 ; Acts 13:39 ): comp. the opposite transition in Colossians 1:26 , Colossians 1:27 . The moral deliverance of Colossians 1:11 is traced up to this legal release, both contained in our completeness in Christ ( Colossians 1:10 ). The subject is still "God." Cancelling the bond which he held against us in his Law, God has forver removed the barrier which stood between mankind and himself ( 2 Corinthians 5:19 ). Christ's place in this work, already shown in Colossians 1:18-23 (in its relation to himself ) , is vividly recalled by the mention of the cross. And the abolition of the Law's condemnation is finally set forth by a yet bolder metaphor— "having nailed it to the cross." The nails of the cross in piercing Christ pierced the legal instrument which held us debtors, and nullified it; see Galatians 3:13 (comp. Galatians 2:19 , Galatians 2:20 ); Romans 7:4-6 . προσηλώσας may suggest the further idea of nailing up the cancelled document, by way of publication. At the cross all may read, "There is now no condemnation" (compare the "making a show" of Romans 7:15 ; also Romans 3:25 ; Galatians 3:1 ). (For Romans 7:11-14 , compare concluding remark on Colossians 1:14 .)