Colossians 2:13-15
1. The problem was as bad as it could be.
2. The problem is due to sinful rebellion.
“Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe”
Rom. 5:20-21
3. The problem alienates us from God, ourselves, and others.
4. The solution is as deep as we could imagine—and deeper still!
2Cor. 5:17-18
5. The solution heals our relationship to God.
The forgiveness of sin is the legal and relational reality that stands underneath our release from death. (1Cor. 15:54-57)
Reinhold Niebuhr in The Kingdom of God in America (1937), criticized the social gospel movement, describing its message as, “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
6. The solution lifted legal debts.
ἐξαλείψας / exaleipsas
χειρόγραφον / chirographon
7. The solution shames the devil.
Christ saves shamed sinners and embarrasses a proud enemy.