Christ Has Wiped Out the Handwriting

Paul states that the law as a means of righteousness came to an end with the atoning death of Christ upon the cross.

“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (Col. 2:13-14)

Here Paul says that through the death of Christ, God “wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us” and took “it out of the way...” Paul does not speak about the wiping out of sins but about the wiping out of requirements. This word could better be translated “ordinances.”

These ordinances are the ordinances of the law which stood between God and those who had transgressed them, and therefore they had to be taken out of the way before God could bestow mercy and forgiveness upon them. The word ordinances here denotes the whole system of law which God had ordained through Moses, including that particular section of the law which we usually call the ‘Ten Commandments’.

That this “wiping out” includes the Ten Commandments is confirmed by Paul later in the same chapter.

“Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths.” (Col. 2:16)

The word therefore at the opening of this verse indicates a direct connection with what had been stated two verses earlier; that is, the wiping out of the ordinances of the law through the death of Christ.

Again, the mention of “the sabbaths” at the end of the verse indicates that the religious observance of the Sabbath day was included among those ordinances which had been wiped out. Yet the commandment to observe the Sabbath day is the fourth of the Ten Commandments. This indicates that the Ten Commandments are included among the totality of the ordinances of the law that have been wiped out and taken out of the way through the death of Christ.