13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 (A)having wiped out the [a]handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 (B)Having disarmed (C)principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

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Footnotes

  1. Colossians 2:14 certificate of debt with its

13 When you were dead in your sins(A) and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you[a] alive(B) with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,(C) 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness,(D) which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.(E) 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities,(F) he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them(G) by the cross.[b]

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Footnotes

  1. Colossians 2:13 Some manuscripts us
  2. Colossians 2:15 Or them in him

11-15 Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

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