For almost 2000 years, salvation seekers have been told that Jesus nailed Jesus nailed His Father’s Law to His cross. Consensus held that this act signaled the removal of the Law from the lives of New Testament believers. This interpretation of Colossians 2:12 through 14 continues to reign supreme to this day. Billions of people have believed this “Biblical Truth” for hundreds of years. Therefore, we are told, it must be true. But is it?

Let us begin where this “truth” begins–with the Apostle Paul’s words. Recall that Paul received his Gospel Truth directly from Jesus Christ Himself by revelation from on high (Gal. 1:12). We must assume that the resurrected Jesus would know exactly what happened at His crucifixion. We must also assume that He would have spoken the Truth when instructing Paul, His number one New Testament writer. We must also assume that the Apostle Peter–God’s apostle to the Gentiles–was telling the Truth when he wrote that the Scriptures “are of no private (human) interpretation” (2 Pet. 1:20). We must assume that Paul would not have interpreted what Jesus told Him.

With those Truths in mind, let us follow Paul’s instructions to STUDY the Scriptures in order to gain God’s approval, for all Scripture, which Jesus called Truth, was written under the direction of the Holy Spirit and is therefore suitable for formulating church doctrine, for identifying errors, for correcting such errors and for TRAINING IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, the END RESULT of which is ETERNAL LIFE (2 Tim. 2:15/ Jn. 17:17/ 2 Tim. 3:14-16/ Rom. 5:21). With all of the above fixed firmly in our Truth-seeking minds, let us carefully and diligently STUDY the focal passage.

God, having raised Jesus from the dead and having erased all of the true convert’s PAST sins (Rom. 3:25), He (God) also “blotted out the HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES that were AGAINST US and CONTRARY TO US and took IT (the HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES) out of the way by nailing IT to His (Christ’s) cross.” This sounds like immutable proof that the Law was destroyed, as was the Messiah. Until, that is, we read Jesus’ statement: “I did not come to destroy the Law or (the writings of) the prophets, but (rather) to fulfill them (live them to the fullest)”–Matt. 5:17.

Before continuing along this line of reasoning, let us be reminded that on Mount Sinai, God (the Word Who became Jesus of Nazareth–Jn. 1:1-4,14) wrote the Ten Commandment Law with His finger in stone and hid it so that IT COULD NOT BE CHANGED OR ERASED. Why did He write the Law? to whom? and why? THE LAW IS GOD’S LOVE LETTER TO MANKIND BY WHICH HE TELLS US WHAT WE MUST DO IN ORDER TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM IN PARADISE. Does this sound like the Law was “against us” and “contrary to us?” If so, why did Paul call it “holy, just and good” in Romans 7:12? If God did not want man to spend eternity with Him, why did He tell him how to make that happen? Obviously, God expects man to love Him for making such an incredible future available. The generous God requires those who would spend eternity with Him to love Him, then He tells man how to prove it by keeping His Law, just as He (Jesus) had to prove His love for the Father by obeying that same Law (Jn. 15:10/ Mat. 19:17). Let us tie all of this together: God loves man so much that He wants him to spend eternity with Him in paradise. Because of this, He tells man how to earn that right–by loving Him. He only requires that man prove His love by obeying His Law. He then makes available the power with which to obey the Law. Question: WHAT MORE DOES MAN EXPECT HIM TO DO? Oh, yeah, man wants Him to ditch the “proof of love” requirement and just take his word for it. God’s response: curses. Read Would God Do That? and The Voices of God. Key words–Would and Voices respectively.

What is it about man’s obedience to the Law it that makes it such an important issue with both the Father and the Son? Isaiah 59:2 offers us a hint as God speaks through him to us, telling us that SIN SEPARATES US FROM HIM. We cannot be one (in good standing) with God and be separated from Him. We must be in agreement with Him in order to walk (live) with Him in this life. He asks in Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together (in harmony) unless they are in agreement?” Who must agree with Whom? Does God agree with man when his definitions of good and evil differ with the Lord’s definitions on matters such as the true Sabbath, the observance of Christmas and Easter, denominations, the rapture, the trinity, salvation and rebirth awarded in this life, the Friday death and Sunday resurrection of Jesus, salvation by grace and faith alone, entrance into heaven or hell at death, where true saints will spend eternity, original sin? Man’s church “truth” is the exact opposite of God’s Biblical Truth in EVERY ISSUUE listed above. Each of those church beliefs and practices is discussed in depth on this website, along with many other subjects.

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So exactly what was the “HANDWRITING OF ORDINANCES” that Paul said was nailed to the cross of Christ? Scriptures prove that it was not the Law that identifies both sin (1 Jn. 3:4) and holiness (Rom. 7:12). If the Law was destroyed, then there is neither sin nor holiness. That would leave man to identify sin and holiness according to his own likes and dislikes. Sound familiar?

Galatians 3:19 identifies the “handwriting of ordinances” that was “against us” and “contrary to us” and was therefore “nailed to the cross” of the Christ. Paul identifies this enemy as “the LAW THAT WAS ADDED because of transgressions (sins).” Many years after God’s giving of the Law, Moses is speaking to the children of Israel, reminding them of how God had given them the Ten Commandment Law from atop Mt. Sinai after having saved them from Egyptian slavery (Deut. 5). After listing the commandments, Moses recalled that He (God) wrote them in stone and that He “ADDED NO MORE” (vs 22). But thousands of years later we find Paul stating that God did add another law because the Israelites refused to obey His Ten Commandment Law. Note that another law was created. God had not made an addition to His original Ten Law. The added law (ORDINANCES) was a law unto itself and was not an addition to the Ten Commandments. Also, the added law was not written in stone by the finger of the Lord. Instead, Moses recorded the law in his own HANDWRITING using a regular type of material. Unlike the original Law, this man-written law was not placed in the Ark of the Covenant, but rather beside it.

The law that Moses wrote contained ordinances concerning, among other things, the shedding of animal blood for the remission of sins. The rituals prescribed in that law were designed to remind the people of their sins until their Messiah would come to earth to shed His own blood for the sins of all of mankind. This is what Jesus was referring to at the Last Supper when He noted that thenceforth, wine and bread would represent His blood and His flesh that would do what the animal blood and flesh could not do–TOTALLY ERASE MAN’S SINS. The animal blood had merely covered them. Upon His death, His blood would wash repentant man’s sins away, as symbolized by baptism. IT WAS THE LAW THAT WAS ADDED THAT WAS NAILED TO THE CROSS OF JESUS CHRIST, NOT THE TEN COMMANDMENT LAW WHICH MAN MUST OBEY IN ORDER TO FULFILL THE WILL OF GOD. HIS WILL IS THAT HUMAN BEINGS WOULD SPEND ETERNITY WITH HIM IN HIS EARTHLY PARADISE CALLED THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Read the series by that name. Key word–Kingdom.

Returning to the title of this series, the information provided proves that Jesus did not nail the Law to the cross, instead, THE LAW NAILED JESUS TO THE CROSS so that those who have broken the Law can receive forgiveness, be cleansed and receive God’s righteousness, the end result of which is salvation (Rom. 5:22). The verses that best summarizes how the death of Christ and the Law are interconnected are 1) First John 3:4–“To transgress the Law is sin, for sin is the transgression of the Law,” 2) “Romans 6:23: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life,” and 3) 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He (God) made Him (Jesus), Who knew no sin, to be sin so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” We have all broken God’s Law, therefore we all have been given a death sentence. But God TURNED JESUS INTO SIN AND KILLED HIM SO THAT WE COULD BECOME HIS (GOD’S) RIGHTEOUSNESS IN HUMAN FORM. This perfectly described the man Jesus of Nazareth who was so filled with God’s righteousness that He could actually say, “When men have seen Me, they have seen the Father.” To be able to truthfully say that about myself is THE ONE AND ONLY desire of my heart, and I will not be denied that desire because the Almighty promised to give it to me in Psalm 37:4. In Second Corinthians 1:20 we find a corresponding promise: “All of the promises of God are in Christ, “yea” (yes) and “amen” (so be it)–2 Cor. 1:20. L.J.