Nailed to the Cross: Alive in Jesus

 Uniting Heaven and Earth

Christ in Philippians and Colossians 

Complete in Christ

Lesson 10 - Tuesday 

Alive in Christ: What Was Really Nailed to the Cross?

(Colossians 2:11–15)

One of the most misunderstood verses in Scripture is Colossians 2:14. Many have used it to argue that God’s law—including the Sabbath—was nailed to the cross. But when you slow down and read Colossians 2:11–15 in context, the message is not about abolishing God’s moral law. It is about the victory of Christ over sin, condemnation, and the ceremonial system that pointed forward to Him.

Let’s walk carefully through the passage.

1. A Circumcision Made Without Hands

Paul begins with a powerful phrase: “circumcision made without hands” (Col. 2:11). He is not talking about the literal rite given in Leviticus 12:3 or required in Exodus 12:48. He points instead to a spiritual reality—circumcision of the heart, the inward change described in Romans 2:28–29 and anticipated in Deuteronomy 30:6.

This is conversion.

It is the cutting away of the “body of the sins of the flesh.” It is not about external compliance but internal transformation. Christianity is not ritual reform. It is heart surgery.

2. Buried and Raised With Christ

Paul then connects this inner circumcision with baptism. In baptism, we identify with Christ’s death and resurrection (Col. 2:12). We go down into the water as people dead in sin. We rise as people made alive by grace.

That language matters. Dead. Buried. Raised. Alive.

This is not about canceling obedience. It is about canceling condemnation.

Verse 13 makes it clear: we were “dead in trespasses,” but God “made [us] alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” The focus is forgiveness and new life.

3. What Was Nailed to the Cross?

Now we reach verse 14. Paul says Christ wiped out the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us.”

The word “ordinances” refers to decrees or regulations. In Paul’s writings, this term connects specifically with the ceremonial system—the laws that separated Jew and Gentile (see Ephesians 2:14–15). These were the ritual laws written by Moses and placed beside the ark (Deut. 31:24–26), not the Ten Commandments written by God and placed inside the ark.

Those ceremonial laws pointed forward to Christ. Circumcision. Sacrifices. Purity regulations. They were shadows.

When Jesus died, the shadow met the Substance.

Paul is saying the record that stood against us—the legal demands and ceremonial requirements that testified to our guilt and separation—was nailed to the cross. Not the moral law. Not the Sabbath. Not God’s eternal standards.

Elsewhere, Paul defines sin by the Ten Commandments (Rom. 7:7). If the law that defines sin had been abolished, sin itself would lose its definition. That makes no sense. The problem was never the law. The problem was us.

4. A Public Victory

Verse 15 ends the passage triumphantly: Christ “disarmed principalities and powers” and made a public spectacle of them.

At the cross, Jesus did not abolish righteousness. He defeated the forces that enslaved us. He stripped condemnation of its power. He exposed Satan’s accusations as empty.

The enemy’s weapon was our guilt.
Christ answered it with His blood.

That is the victory.

What This Means for Us

Don’t let anyone convince you that grace cancels obedience. Grace cancels condemnation. There’s a difference.

The ceremonial system had a temporary purpose. It pointed to Jesus. Once He came, those shadows were fulfilled. But God’s moral law—His character in written form—still defines what love looks like.

Colossians 2 is not about tearing down God’s standards. It is about lifting up Christ’s sufficiency.

You are not saved by rituals.
You are not saved by circumcision.
You are not saved by ceremonies.

You are saved by a crucified and risen Savior.

And if you are truly alive in Him, obedience becomes the fruit of love—not the price of acceptance.

Prayer

Father in heaven,

Thank You for the victory of Jesus. Thank You that the record of our sins was nailed to the cross, and that through His death and resurrection we are made alive. Guard us from misunderstanding Your Word. Help us see clearly that grace does not abolish Your law but frees us from condemnation and gives us new hearts to obey. Circumcise our hearts. Bury our old selves. Raise us to walk in newness of life.

May we stand firm in Christ alone—rooted, forgiven, and victorious.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

More on Lesson 10: Complete in Christ

This Quarter's Sabbath School Lessons Here: Christ in Philippians and Colossians