Having blotted out the bond (that was) against us with (or, written in) decrees, which was opposed to us (Ephesians 2:14-16; Romans 3:9-26; Romans 7:7-14; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Galatians 3:10-22; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Acts 13:38, Acts 13:39).
The ancients commonly used wax tablets in writing, and the flat end of the pointed stylus drawn over the writing smeared it out (expunged) and so cancelled it (comp. Acts 3:19; Psalms 51:9; Isaiah 43:25, LXX).
"God," not "Christ," is the subject of this verb, which stands in immediate sequence to those of Colossians 2:12, Colossians 2:13. It is the receiver rather than the offerer of satisfaction who cancels the debt: in Ephesians 2:15 (comp.
Colossians 1:22) a different verb is used. χειρόγραφον ("handwritten;" a word of later Greek, only here in the New Testament) is used specially of an account of debt, a bond signed by the debtor's hand (see Meyer and Lightfoot).
This bond can be nothing other than "the law" (Ephesians 2:14-16; Acts 13:38, Acts 13:39; Romans 3:20; Romans 7:25; Galatians 3:21, Galatians 3:22, etc.); not, however, the ritual law, nor even the Mosaic Law as such (as Meyer contends), but law as law, the Divine rule of human life impressed even on Gentile hearts (Romans 2:14, Romans 2:15), to which man's conscience gives its consent (Romans 7:16, Romans 7:22), and yet which becomes by his disobedience just a list of charges against him (so Neander and Lightfoot; see the latter on Galatians 2:19).
Exodus 24:3 and Deuteronomy 27:14-26, indeed, illustrate this wider relation of Divine law to the human conscience generally. τοῖς δόγμασιν is dative of reference either to καθ ἡμῶν or to the verbal idea contained in χειργόραφον.
The former explanation (that of Winer and Ellicott) is preferable. The Greek Fathers made it instrumental dative to ἐξαλείψας, understanding by these δόγματα the doctrines (dogmas) of the gospel by which the charges of the Law against us are expunged.
But this puts on δόγμα a later theological sense foreign to St. Paul, and universally rejected by modern interpreters. In the New Testament (comp. Luke 2:1; Acts 16:4; Hebrews 11:23), as in classical Greek, dogma is a decree, setting forth the will of some public authority (comp.
note on δογματίζω, Deuteronomy 27:20). The added clause, "which was opposed to us," affirms the active opposition, as "against us" the essential hostility of the decrees of God's law to our sinful nature (Romans 4:15; Galatians 3:10: comp.
Romans 7:13, Romans 7:14). The emphasis with which St. Paul dwells on this point is characteristic of the author of Romans and Galatians. ψπενάντιος occurs besides only in Hebrews 10:27; the prefix ὑπὸ implies close and persistent opposition (Lightfoot).
And he hath taken it out of the midst, having nailed it to the cross (Colossians 1:20-22; Ephesians 2:18; 2 Corinthians 5:19; Romans 3:24-26; Romans 5:1, Romans 5:2; Galatians 3:13; Hebrews 1:3; John 1:29; 1 John 4:10).
A third time in these three verses (12-14) we note the transition from participle to coordinate finite verb; and here, in addition, the aorist tense passes into the perfect ("hath taken"), marking the finality of the removal of the Law's condemning power (Romans 8:1; Acts 13:39): comp.
the opposite transition in Colossians 1:26, Colossians 1:27. The moral deliverance of Colossians 1:11 is traced up to this legal release, both contained in our completeness in Christ (Colossians 1:10).
The subject is still "God." Cancelling the bond which he held against us in his Law, God has forver removed the barrier which stood between mankind and himself (2 Corinthians 5:19). Christ's place in this work, already shown in Colossians 1:18-23 (in its relation to himself), is vividly recalled by the mention of the cross.
And the abolition of the Law's condemnation is finally set forth by a yet bolder metaphor—"having nailed it to the cross." The nails of the cross in piercing Christ pierced the legal instrument which held us debtors, and nullified it; see Galatians 3:13 (comp.
Galatians 2:19, Galatians 2:20); Romans 7:4-6. προσηλώσας may suggest the further idea of nailing up the cancelled document, by way of publication. At the cross all may read, "There is now no condemnation" (compare the "making a show" of Romans 7:15; also Romans 3:25; Galatians 3:1).
(For Romans 7:11-14, compare concluding remark on Colossians 1:14.