" 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him."
Colossians 2:9-15
As the third 'picture' or camera angle of redemption, Paul focuses on the reality of forgiveness and pardon, in Christ. He uses the striking metaphor of a massive debt having been cancelled (v 13b-14). Once again Paul emphasises the objective fact that this forgiveness and pardon took place, once and for all, in Christ at the Cross. The apostle illustrates the forgiveness of sins which Christ has provided for us in his sacrificial death by using the legal picture of debt being redeemed and cancelled. In the first instance this is a solemn picture of a bankrupt debtor unable to clear his debts. It is perhaps only when we think of sin as a debt owed to God that something of the seriousness of our predicament becomes clear. Mankind is unable to square its own accounts with God. We cannot pay the debt we owe. It is when we think we can and when we try to pay the outstanding debt that our very incapacity and poverty become all too apparent. We cannot pay the debt of our sin. The 'bond' stands against us. The IOU of our sin hangs over our head with its inescapable legal demands and there is nothing that we can do except hang our head in shame: The death of Jesus Christ, however, and this is where Paul's solemn picture becomes utterly joyful and thrilling, forgives our sin and cancels the debt. Redemption means that Christ has wiped the slate clean. He has paid the debt for all. He has set aside our IOU, stamping 'paid in full' across the page: Nailed to the Cross our sin has been blotted out, once and for all (2 Corinthians 5:21): Taking our body of flesh to the Cross and death, He became a curse for us and so redeemed us from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13). He took this body of sin/flesh to himself in order to blot it out on the cross. Nailed to the Cross he became the cancellation of our 'bond' so that we might go free. This is the wonder of the redeeming love of God; because Christ was nailed to the Cross our debt has been completely forgiven.