Jesus Died to Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us

by John Piper at Crossway
| Time: 2 Minutes

And you, who were dead in your trespasses . . . God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
(Colossians 2:13)

What a folly it is to think that our good deeds may one day outweigh our bad deeds. It is folly for two reasons.

Two Reasons Our Good Deeds Can’t Outweigh Our Bad Deeds

First, it is not true. Even our good deeds are defective, because we don’t honor God in the way we do them. Do we do our good deeds in joyful dependence on God with a view to making known his supreme worth? Do we fulfill the overarching command to serve people “by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11)?

What then shall we say in response to God’s word, “Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23)? I think we shall say nothing. “Whatever the law says it speaks . . . so that every mouth may be stopped” (Romans 3:19). We will say nothing. It is folly to think that our good deeds will outweigh our bad deeds before God. Without Christ-exalting faith, our deeds will signify nothing but rebellion.

Additionally, the second reason it is folly to hope in good deeds is that this is not the way God saves. If we are saved from the consequences of our bad deeds, it will not be because they weighed less than our good deeds. It will be because the “record of [our] debt” in heaven has been nailed to the cross of Christ. God has a totally different way of saving sinners than by weighing their deeds. There is no hope in our deeds. There is only hope in the suffering and death of Christ.

God Cancels the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us

There is no salvation by balancing the records. There is only salvation by canceling records. The record of our bad deeds (including our defective good deeds), along with the just penalties that each deserves, must be blotted out—not balanced. This is what Christ suffered and died to accomplish.

The cancellation happened when the record of our deeds was “nailed to the cross” (Colossians 2:13). How was this damning record nailed to the cross? Parchment was not nailed to the cross. Christ was. So Christ became my damning record of bad (and good) deeds. He endured my damnation and put my salvation on a totally different footing. He is my only hope. And faith in him is my only way to God.

Content taken from Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper, ©2006. Used by permission of Crossway.
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Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
Jesus willingly died, according to the plan of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to take on the punishment we deserve for our sin (Romans 6:23), to satisfy God’s just wrath against our sin, and to remove our guilt. By removing our sin, he made a way to bring us into a new loving relationship with God. We call Jesus’ saving work, the atonement.