Photo take by B Smith from the Kitchen Door
314-2 – Christ Above AllJuly 17, 1977
Henry F. Kulp
Colossians 2: 12 - 16 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
First of all here we see circumcision, the cutting off of useless flesh, and that means the cutting off of all human good, All human activity. Rejecting anything that man can do to help himself to be saved. It means the rejection of all rituals, all rites, all ceremonies.
1/ Then we have baptism, prior to this we have been talking about the words, “ in Him “. Christianity is union with Jesus Christ, and how can we have union with Christ? By cutting off the flesh and being baptized into the Body of Christ. This cannot be a rite, a ritual, or a ceremony. Anyone who says it is, is being blasphemous for it is this baptism which unifies the believer with Jesus Christ.
2/ It is important that we see that this is not an experience of any kind. It has nothing to do with aesthetics. Feelings have no part here—no feeling whatsoever. It is not connected with speaking in tongues. So this baptism has nothing whatsoever to do with feelings.
3/ HAVING BEEN BURIED WITH HIM BY MEANS OF THE BAPTISM, BY WHICH MEANS WE HAVE BEEN RAISED UP WITH HIM THROUGH FAITH IN THE OPERATIONAL POWER FROM THE SOURCE OF GOD.
4/ Remember it is the baptism—the important one. It is the one baptism.
Ephesians 4: 5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
The certificate of indebtedness.
5/ This baptism is a dry baptism and it is a real baptism. For it is an actual union—identification with Jesus Christ.
6/ Verse 14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Now we come to a very important passage that few understand. The words, blotting out, in the Greek are X-AH’LAY-FOFE It means TO BLOT OUT, TO OBLITERATE, TO RUB OUT, TO ERASE. This word is a gambling term. Throughout all of Greek history this word spoke of a gambling debt. When a person has a gambling I. O. U. against him, there is the concept of pressure.
Take today, a man who owes money he cannot pay, especially if he owes it to the syndicate, they will collect it one way or another and not to his benefit. They know and use cement shoes and river bottoms. Or hit men. So the concept of this verb is PRESSURE.
7/ The I. O. U. will be described in the next word—handwriting. Let us talk about the
I. O. U. It could be, I. O. U., God perfect righteousness – I. O. U. to be a perfect individual, a saint, and, of course, I cannot pay this debt. Or I. O. U., God, a perfect life, and it is impossible for man to pay this debt, it is a hopeless debt. Everyone is born into this world, with a hopeless I. O. U. to God.
8/ Let us look at the word, handwriting, CAIRO-GROF-ON and it means, I. O. U. Literally it means, PUTTING YOUR NAME ON A PIECE OF PAPER, AND THE AMOUNT YOU OWE TO SOMEONE ELSE. So, we owe God. When Adam sinned, he put the whole human race in debt to God. We are all born with this I.O.U. of sinlessness of absolute righteousness, and we can’t pay it. So this debt goes back to Adam, and we know the hopelessness of this debt, because we sin and we prove that we are in debt. Our everyday sins prove that we owe this I. O. U. to God.
9/ If you want to see the foolishness of man, take the nation Israel. They are in the wilderness, and God speaks to Moses and Moses speaks to man.
Exodus 19: 5 - 8 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord.
And God said, if you will do something I will do something, and the Israelites in the 8th verse say, all that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. They were not cognizant of this
I. O. U. The law was given to prove to man that he owes this I. O. U.
Romans 3: 19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
That all the world may become guilty before God. The word, hand-writing, is literally THE CERTIFICATE OF INDEBTEDNESS, and the word, ordinances, is the word DOGMA. Something we have to do. You will notice people always want to do something and the law is doing something. But the law is against us, it is contrary to us.
10/ Romans 7: 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
The word, ordained, is not in the original, and I think I can supply a word that makes it have sense. The commandment which I thought was life, I found death. There was a time when Paul thought that keeping the law would bring him salvation. So Paul, evidently means that the commandment that people think is good because God gave it, is able to give them life. But it doesn’t, it brings death.
11/ Remember, these ordinances were against them. Not for them. And then I find the word, contrary, comes from a word that means ADVERSARY and it means an adversary that is too much for you, and one that you cannot overcome. What do the two words mean? One means it was against you and would condemn you. The other means that it has too much strength for you—it can overcome you. The word, contrary, is an ADVERSARY WHO IS HOSTILE.
12/ AND TOOK IT. That the Greek is I-ROW and it means TO LIFT UP AND CARRY OFF and it is in the perfect tense, so it means He removed it permanently. He removed the law permanently as far as we are concerned in this day and age.
13/ How did He do that? He canceled the law by nailing it to His cross.
14/ Did you ever know that when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross, He Himself nailed something to it? When they were driving nails through His hands, Jesus was nailing to the cross the I. O. U. which is against every man. The law is against every man, and the debt that we have incurred in Adam is against every man. Death is everywhere.
15/ It is said that in Roman times a debt was a crime. It was not so long ago in England that a debt was a crime, and they had debtor’s prison. A man who had a debt was always in danger of failing to pay. If the time came, that he could not pay, then he and his family would become slaves. It was a glorious time when a man’s debt was paid and he could say he was clear. Often a man wanted all his neighbors to know that he was no longer in danger of servitude, so when the debt was paid, he took the old canceled debt, nailed it over his door, and all his neighbors knew he was a free man.
Let us look at the cross, and we know we are free—we can see that it was nailed to the cross. Again we may understand what it means, the expression, nailing it to His cross. It was customary under Roman law when criminals were executed by crucifixion—to write out a copy of the law they had broken or to indicate the nature of their offense on a placard and nail it above the victim’s head. The reason for that was that all might know how Rome executed vengeance upon those who violated her criminal code.
Matthew 27: 37 And set up over his head his accusation written, This Is Jesus The King Of The Jews.
Pilot wrote out the inscription to be placed over the head of Jesus Christ and it was in three languages—Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, and notice what it says—the accusation. That all might know why the Lord Jesus Christ was publicly executed. This is Jesus of Nazareth, The King of the Jews.
As people read this they understood that He was being crucified because He had made Himself a king and was thus disloyal to Caesar, but as God looked upon the cross, His Holy eye saw, as it were, another inscription altogether.
Nailed above His head were the handwriting of the ten ordinances given at Sinai – the ten laws that are given against us that we can’t keep, and in so doing, He permanently removed them. We are not under them, they have no part with us. There are no ordinances—just faith in Jesus Christ will save us.
AMEN
Ref: 07/17/1977 / 314-2 – Christ Above All / 09/08/2020
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