Colossians 2:13-15 (NLT)

¹³ You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.

¹⁴ He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross.

¹⁵ In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

You don’t look like your picture

To the naked eye, the cross looked like Jesus’ public humiliation. But God says it was actually Satan’s public humiliation.

To the naked eye, the cross looked like Jesus being stripped.

But God says that Jesus actually stripped the enemy’s powers.

To the naked eye, the cross looked like defeat. But God says Jesus won! Overwhelmingly!

Colossians 2:13–15 tells us that when Jesus died, He was doing more than just dying:

• Jesus was making dead sinners (us) alive

• Jesus was forgiving our every trespass

• Jesus was canceling the handwritten debt that stood against us

• Jesus was removing our past out of the way

• Jesus was nailing our sins to His cross

• Jesus stripped the rulers and authorities, made an open spectacle of them

• Jesus triumphed over them by the cross

• What looked like Jesus’ shame was really their shame

• What looked like Jesus’ defeat was really their defeat.

Monday Morning Moment: “The Cross Looked Like Defeat—But It Was Total Victory”