“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.” Colossians 2:14, KJV |
WHAT
was nailed to the Cross? Cheirographon, that’s what. It might be Greek
to you, but it’s a Greek word you should know if you want to understand what
was nailed to the Cross in Colossians 2:14.
Many
Christians erroneously believe that “the handwriting of ordinances” (cheirographon)
in Colossians 2:14 refers to the Old Testament Law of Moses. According to this
misinterpretation, God’s Law was “against us,” and “contrary
to us” because it was a heavy yoke of bondage. It was an impediment, a hindrance
to man’s attempt to be reconciled to God. Therefore, God had to “take it out of
the way” and get rid of it. He did this by nailing it to the Cross.
In other words, we are reconciled to God by
Christ’s abolition of His Father’s Law. So says this popular misinterpretation
of Colossians 2:14.
This view is flawed for a few different reasons.
First, it contradicts the biblical truth that God’s Law, properly understood,
is neither “against us” nor “contrary to us.” According to the Bible, God’s unadulterated
Law is a blessing, not a burden. (See, e.g., Deut. 4:5-9;
Psalm 19, Psalm 119, Romans 7:22, 1 Tim. 1:8, and many other passages.)
A second reason this view is flawed is because
it portrays Yeshua as a slick lawyer who finds a legal loophole to thwart God’s
justice. Yeshua gets us off the hook by simply abolishing the commandments that
we broke. “You’ve been accused of breaking the Sabbath? No problem. I’ll just
abolish that commandment.” But Jesus said we are not to even think that He came
to abolish the Law. (See Matthew 5:17-19.)
By Dr. Daniel Botkin |
A third reason this view is flawed is because
of the meaning of the word cheirographon. A study of this word will
reveal exactly what it was that got nailed to the Cross in Colossians 2:14.
When you see what really got nailed to the Cross, you will find it far more
liberating than believing that Yeshua blotted out His Father’s commandments.
The Greek word cheirographon is a compound
word that is formed by combining the two words cheir
(“hand”) and grapho (“to write or engrave”).
In its simplest sense, the word means a handwritten document.
Other than in Colossians 2:14, the word cheirographon
appears nowhere else in the Greek New Testament, nor does it appear in the Septuagint
(the Greek translation of the Tanakh – “Old Testament”). However, the word does appear in
extra-biblical Greek documents. It is in these documents that we learn that cheirographon
is a legal term. It is a word that was used to refer to the written evidence of
a person’s guilt in a courtroom. It is the written record of a person’s crimes
– the laws he has broken and the penalty he owes for his law-breaking. In ancient
times, the accuser would present the cheirographon from the middle of
the courtroom, called tou mesou, “the middle” – the exact term Paul uses when he
says the cheirographon is taken “out of the way (tou
mesou).”
Because cheirographon and tou mesou are legal
terms, you must think of cheirographon in a legal context to understand
its meaning and to appreciate the significance of Paul’s statement in Colossians
2:14. You must picture yourself in the context of the Heavenly
Courtroom. God is the presiding Judge. You have been arrested and brought into
the Courtroom of God. You stand accused of breaking God’s laws.
In God’s Courtroom, there is a prosecuting
attorney: Satan, the Adversary, the Accuser of the
brethren. In his hands, the Adversary holds a cheirographon, a legal
written document. It is a written record of every sin[1]
you have ever committed. It is a detailed account of every time you broke God’s
law. The cheirographon lists the dates, the times, the locations, the
testimony of witnesses, and all the other details of your law-breaking. The
information on this written document is not based on hearsay or unfounded
suspicions. It is recognized by the Court as a legal and legitimate document.
The Adversary holds in his hands the indisputable proof of your guilt, along
with the penalties that the Court prescribes for such crimes, and he presents
the cheirographon to the Judge.
Fortunately, you have an Advocate with you
in the Courtroom of God. “And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Yeshua the Messiah, the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Your Advocate does not deny
the truth of the charges brought against you. Your Advocate admits that the
information on the cheirographon is true. You have indeed committed all
these crimes, and you do indeed deserve the penalty which is prescribed on the cheirographon.
However, your Advocate says, the penalty for all your crimes has already been
fully paid. Your Advocate paid the penalty Himself when He went to the Cross
and took upon Himself the sins of the world and bore the punishment for your
sins.
Because the penalty has already been fully
paid, the Judge tells Satan that his cheirographon is inadmissible
evidence in the Heavenly Courtroom. Therefore the cheirographon that was
against us, which was contrary to us, is taken out of the way. It is removed
from tou mesou,
the middle of the Courtroom occupied by the Accuser. Then it is nailed to the
Cross like a banner, proclaiming Messiah’s triumph over sin on our behalf. By
paying the penalty for our sins, Yeshua spoiled the Adversary’s plans to
condemn us with the cheirographon. That is why the very next verse says,
“And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly,
triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).
This removal of the cheirographon is
something entirely different from the erroneous assumption that God’s Law got
nailed to the Cross. The word “law” (Greek, nomos)
does not even appear anywhere in the entire Book of Colossians, neither in the
Greek text nor in the KJV translation. Of course God’s commandments are alluded
to in conjunction with the cheirographon (tois
dogmasin), because in order to accuse us, the
Adversary obviously has to list which commandments (“ordinances”) we broke. But
it is not the commandments of the Law which are removed. Rather, it is the written
record of our law-breaking that is removed from the Courtroom.
Daniel Botkin has a bimonthly publication, Gates of Eden. For a sample issue, send $3 to PO Box 2257, East Peoria IL 61611-0257. |
The
understanding of the cheirographon as the legal record of a person’s
sins can be seen not only in Gentile Greek literature, but in Jewish Greek
literature as well. The Greek text of the apocryphal book The Apocalypse of
Elijah describes an angel holding a book. The book is called a cheirographon,
and it contains the record of sins. The traditional Jewish Avinu
Malkenu [2]
prayer likewise paints a similar picture. This prayer is in Hebrew, so it
obviously cannot use the Greek word cheirographon. However, it describes
a scenario similar to Colossians 2:14 when it asks God to “erase all the
documents that accuse us.”
God does more than erase all the documents
that accuse us. If God merely erased the record of our sins, the Adversary
could point to the smudged cheirographon and say that someone tampered
with the evidence. So God does something even better than just erasing the
record of our sins. God takes the cheirographon and removes it from the
Courtroom, leaving the Accuser empty-handed, with absolutely no evidence to condemn
us, and with no power to punish us. The cheirographon is nailed to the
Cross like a banner to declare our victory. Thus the instrument that Satan
intended for evil, God uses for good.
God nailed the cheirographon to the
Cross (verse 14) and thereby spoiled princi-palities
and powers, making a show of them openly and tri-umphing
over them (verse 15). But what about verse 16, “Let no
man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or
of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days”? Does the removal of the cheiro-graphon mean that we can now be gluttons and
drunkards and Sabbath-breakers? Does the fact that Yeshua paid the penalty for
our law-breaking mean that it is okay for us to return to a life of
law-breaking?
The Apostle Paul is not saying that God’s
dietary laws and holy days are unimportant. The context of these verses is in regards
to the imposing of manmade rules and regulations. Six times the words of man or
men appear in Colossians chapter 2: “And this I say, lest any man should
beguile you” (vs. 4); “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy
and vaine deceit after the tradition of men”
(vs. 8); “Let no man beguile you” (vs. 18); “why… are you subject to
ordinances (Touch not; tast not; handle not; which
all are to perish with the using) after the commandments and doctrines of men?”
(vv. 20-22).
The Sabbath and dietary laws of the Bible
are not commandments of men; they are commandments of God; he is
telling us we can disregard the commandments of men – men who would
impose heavy burdens upon God’s people, burdens that God did not command,
burdens that turn Sabbath-keeping into a burden instead of a blessing. Some
teachers in Colossae were doing this, just like some Pharisees did. “For they
bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders”
(Matt. 23:4).
The Orthodox Judaism of today evolved from
the Judaism of the Pharisees, and it still retains some of the leaven of the
Pharisees. Like the Pharisees of old, modern-day rabbis expect Jews to abide by
hundreds of rabbinical rulings that prescribe exactly how to keep the Sabbath
and all the rest of the Torah. The rabbis prescribe how to keep the Sabbath in
such great detail that a person never has to be led by the Spirit;
theoretically he will never find himself in a situation where he has to hear
from God and make his own decision about how to obey the Torah. The rabbis have
already prescribed every detail. They even have man-made laws that govern bug-killing
on the Sabbath. They tell Jews which kinds of bugs can be killed and under
which circumstances these bugs can be killed. If you kill the wrong kind of bug
under circumstances that the rabbis have not authorized, then you have violated
the Sabbath according to their view. This is just one of many examples of
doctrines and commandments of men that put God’s people in bondage.
God’s unadulterated Law does not put people
in bondage; it liberates. “So shall I keep Thy Law continually forever
and ever. And I will walk at liberty” (Psalm
119:44f). God wants us to keep His commandments, but we can disregard man-made
commandments that men have added to God’s commandments. Adding to the
commandments of God,[3]
as the rabbis do and as the Pharisees did and as some teachers at Colossae did,
perverts the Law and turns it into “a yoke … which neither or fathers nor we
were able to bear” (Acts 15:10). In contrast to this man-imposed yoke, Yeshua
says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I
am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For My
yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew
11:29f).
Yeshua does not say that the yoke of Torah
is nailed to the Cross and abolished. He only says that His teaching of Torah
is light compared to that of the Pharisees, who taught a Torah weighted down
with additional, excessive, man-made demands. Then
immediately after Yeshua’s statement about His light yoke, the very next verse
begins a story that demonstrates the contrast between the Pharisees’ yoke and
Yeshua’s yoke. The Pharisees’ interpretation of Torah would condemn the
hungry disciples for plucking and eating a bit of grain as they walked through
a field on the Sabbath. Yeshua’s yoke would permit the hungry disciples to do
what they did in those circumstances. Just as David and his
hungry men were permitted to eat the priests’ shew-bread
in their unusual circumstances.
As a Jewish grandmother once remarked about
the disciples plucking grain on the Sabbath, “You mean these were hungry
Jewish boys with no place to eat on Shabbat? Why didn’t those Pharisees
invite them to dinner instead of scolding them?”
The cheirographon, the record of our
law-breaking, has been taken out of the Courtroom and nailed to the Cross
because Yeshua paid the penalty for our lawbreaking. But this does not give us
a right to return to a life of law-breaking. As Yeshua said to the woman caught
in adultery, so He says to us: “Neither do I condemn you: go and sin no more”
(John 8:11).
My thanks to the late Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi for his research on the use of the word cheirographon in extra-biblical Greek literature. Dr. Bacchiocchi’s discussion of Colossians 2 and other Sabbath-related passages are recorded in the “Appendix – Paul and the Sabbath” in his monumental word, From Sabbath to Sunday.