Sermon for July 27, 2025 (Colossians 2:6-15) by Rev. David Domanski
How much debt are you carrying right now? Don’t say it out loud, but I’m guessing you can make a pretty good estimate. How do you feel about that debt? I don’t know if this will help or hurt, but the Federal Reserve reports that the average American household is laboring under $105,000 worth of debt. That is a lot of money. It’s a pretty big burden.
Studies have shown that those suffering from debt may experience a combination of shame, depression, frustration, anger, and anxiety. It’s hard to focus on anything else if the burden of debt is making you crazy. But imagine the relief you’d feel if you woke up tomorrow debt free. How would you feel if someone chose to pay off all your debt with no strings attached?
You may have guessed by now that we’re not going to be talking about money in today’s message. The debt I’m talking about is the spiritual debt that sin loads onto our backs. In today’s text, we are reminded of how our lives changed when Jesus paid the debt of our sin. But before we talk more about this Good News of a serious debt forgiven, let’s take a closer look at the debt that we were under.
As Scripture describes it, we sinners all have a debt of sin against us, written by our own hand. The root of the word translated “record of debt” (v 14) is “handwritten.” This points out that our very own sins have created this debt. Every bad thing we’ve ever done, every selfish thought we’ve ever had, and every unkind word we’ve ever spoken have created debts that result in our life needing to be redeemed. In the old days, the traditions of the world would have set this debt right out in public for all to see as evidence against us (v 8). And the way of the world was that you’d have to pay that debt yourself—frequently from prison. The weight of a publicly recognized debt like that was like having a millstone hung round your neck. A debt like that, even if you could forget it for a while, ruled every aspect of your life.
We are blessed this morning to rejoice in the fact that God has paid our debt, with His Son as the payment. But the debts that sin creates in our lives are still challenges for us. Our sins have been “canceled,” or “wiped away” or “blotted out” by Jesus’ blood, and we are now welcome to “Walk in Jesus” as it says in verse 6, but we sinners still tend to focus on the original debt (v. 8) instead of rejoicing that it has been paid in full. As Paul points out, we scheme to pay this already paid debt ourselves. The most common way of dealing with a spiritual debt is self-payment. We convince ourselves that our good works contribute to paying off the debt of sin. We readily get caught by this “human tradition.”
And we sometimes also refuse to believe our debt has been blotted out by Jesus. We struggle to believe that someone else would ever have freely paid it. And the devil and the “elemental spirits of the world” don’t want you to believe that you are forgiven either. So instead of believing Jesus’ cross is the payment our Father requires to set us free, we often labor under the guilt of sin. Perhaps something in your past seems too great for even Christ to forgive. But don’t believe the lie—Christ died to forgive ALL sins and to cancel ALL debts! Rejoice!
Following the ways of the world takes our focus off Christ and puts it onto us. But without Jesus, the debt cannot be paid, so following the world means we die in our sin. We are blessed today to hear again that our loving God refuses to focus on the sin debts of those who are in Christ Jesus. God has set the debt notice aside (v 14). This phrase is actually an idiom that literally means to “take something out of the middle.” It refers to taking the record of debt out of the center of evidence used against you so that God focuses on something else. And the record of your debt of sin was set aside, cast out of the middle, when Jesus became the focus of God’s attention as the one paying your debt. Jesus became sin and He became your debts and mine when He was nailed to the cross. And on the cross, your debt and your Lord died. Now you are free! God accepted the payment Jesus made for you and raised Him from the dead.
Now, through faith in Jesus, you also have been raised to live a debt-free life. We return to the beginning of our reading as we are invited to walk in the life Jesus gives (v 6). We are rooted in the life of Christ (v 7). To “walk” or live in Christ is to be rooted in Him. This is God’s gift of knowing the source of our life. Since Jesus has paid our debt, we know that life comes from Him alone. We live established in the faith (v 7). And having our debts forgiven, we forgive the debts of “those who trespass against us” (Lk 11:4). To “walk” or live in Christ is to forgive others their debts. This is God’s gift of a forgiving spirit. Since He has paid our debt, we speak His Word of forgiveness to the world and we abound in thanksgiving (v 7). To “walk” or live in Christ is to abound in thanksgiving. This is God’s gift of a thankful heart. The Spirit also works thanksgiving in our lives because our debt has been paid.
It’s a whole new world, a whole new life, because the burden of debt is lifted off our shoulders. Our debts have been canceled by Jesus’ death and resurrection! Our lives have been changed! Oh, the joys of living debt free! Amen.