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[Jambalaya]

What is the handwriting of ordinances (KJV) that Colossians 2:14 refers to?

[jimwalton]

The word for "handwriting" (χειρόγραφον) used in the text is a term for the posting of a public debt, basically what we would call an IOU—a hand-signed note by a debtor acknowledging his indebtedness. Here in Col. 2.14, it refers to our own admission of the guilt of sin before God. We could not possibly pay this debt. We do not have the personal resources. We are up to our hocks in debt. We must welsh on the debt because we cannot pay. Because of this, there was an IOU out against us.

What the verse says is that when Jesus died, God cancelled out the judgement against us (v. 13). He not only forgave it, but even blotted out the record of it. The Law has no more power to condemn.