Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away (Amplified)

He did this by erasing the charges (GWT)

He has destroyed what was against us (NET)

He canceled the record that contained the charges against us (NLT)

Having canceled out (1813) (exaleipho  from ek = out, intensive [adds sense of "completely" - see also Vincent's note below] + aleipho = wipe, cover over, besmear) means literally to completely wipe off. Literally exaleipho means to remove by wiping off, as when a blackboard is erased. The word was applied to the process of obliterating writing on any material. Some of the uses in Scripture retain this literal meaning but most uses speak of a figurative blotting out or wiping off. The idea in all the uses is to cause something to cease by obliterating or eliminating any evidence. Twice in the Revelation God promises He will wipe away every tear. A number of uses in both OT (Septuagint) and the NT use this verb to describe the blotting out or wiping away of sins. Exaleipho was used by Thucydides of whitewashing a wall.

Vincent adds that

The preposition (ek) also carries the sense of removal; hence to smear out; to wipe away.

Synonyms would include blotted out, wiped away, obliterated, effaced completely, expunged.

The aorist tense pictures a past completed action - the blotting out has been accomplished by Christ on the Cross. Paul's use in this context pictures God blotting out and totally erasing our certificate of debt (our sin debt).

To understand the word exaleipho is to understand the amazing mercy and lovingkindness of God. The substance on which ancient documents were written was either papyrus, a kind of paper made of the pith of the bulrush, or vellum, a substance made of the skins of animals. Both were fairly expensive and certainly could not be wasted. Ancient ink had no acid in it; it lay on the surface of the paper and did not, as modern ink usually does, bite into it. Sometimes a scribe, to save paper, used papyrus or vellum that had already been written upon. When he did that, he took a sponge and wiped off the writing. Because it was only on the surface of the paper, the ink could be wiped out as if it had never been! God, in his amazing mercy, banished the record of our sins so completely that it was as if it had never been; not a trace remained. Hallelujah!

So when God cancelled out our debt it was accomplished completely and we need to receive and understand this profound truth so that the enemy does not "hound" us with "old sins" that God has completely blotted out! Are you having trouble accepting the forgiveness of God over some sin you have committed? Paul says that it is wiped completely off the slate so forget what lies behind and press on to what lies ahead.

There are only 5 uses of exaleipho in the NT...

Acts 3:19 (Peter to the Jewish audience that has just heard his sermon on the Messiah) "Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord."

Colossians 2:14 (note) having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

Revelation 3:5 (note) 'He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.

Revelation 7:17 (note) for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes."

Revelation 21:4 (note) and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away."

There are 34 uses of exaleipho in the Septuagint (LXX) (Gen. 7:4, 23; 9:15; Exod. 17:14; 32:32f; Lev. 14:42f, 48; Num. 5:23; 27:4; Deut. 9:14; 25:6, 19; 29:20; Jdg. 15:16; 21:17; 2 Ki. 14:27; 1 Chr. 29:4; Neh. 13:14; Ps. 9:5; 51:1, 9; 69:28; 109:13f; Prov. 6:33; Isa. 43:25; Jer. 18:23; Ezek. 9:8; 20:17; 22:30; 25:15; Hos. 11:9) Study the uses in the Septuagint for insight into the meaning of exaleipho...

Genesis 7:4 (Moses records God promise) For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.

Genesis 9:15 and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you (Noah) and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy (LXX = exaleipho = blot out) all flesh.

Exodus 17:14 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this in a book as a memorial, and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out (LXX = exaleipho)  the memory of Amalek from under heaven."

Exodus 32:32 "But now, if Thou wilt, forgive their sin-- and if not, please blot me out (LXX = exaleipho) from Thy book which Thou hast written!" 33 And the LORD said to Moses, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out (LXX = exaleipho)  of My book.

Leviticus 14:42 "Then they shall take other stones and replace those stones; and he shall take other plaster and replaster (Hebrew = tuach = to overspread, overlay, coat, besmear; LXX = exaleipho) the house.

Numbers 5:23 'The priest shall then write these curses on a scroll, and he shall wash them off (Hebrew = machah = to wipe, wipe out; LXX = exaleipho)  into the water of bitterness.

Deuteronomy 9:14 'Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.'

Judges 21:17 And they said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, that a tribe may not be blotted out (Hebrew = machah = to wipe, wipe out; LXX = exaleipho)  from Israel.

Psalm 51:1 (After his sin with Bathsheba David prayed ) Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out (LXX =exaleipho) my transgressions. (Spurgeon's writes - "My revolts, my excesses, are all recorded against me; but, Lord, erase the lines. Draw thy pen through the register. Obliterate the record, though now it seems engraven in the rock for ever; many strokes of thy mercy may be needed, to cut out the deep inscription, but then thou has a multitude of mercies, and therefore, I beseech thee, erase my sins.")

 Psalm 51:9 Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. (Spurgeon's note)

Psalm 69:28 May they be blotted out of the book of life, And may they not be recorded with the righteous. (Spurgeon's note)

Isaiah 43:25 (God declares) "I, even I, am the One Who wipes out (LXX =exaleipho) your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

Jesus completely obliterated and wiped out our "certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us". When someone had a debt in ancient times and it was paid off, they would write "Tetelestai" on the certificate of debt. Tetelestai meant PAID IN FULL and is the same word Jesus uttered ("It is finished") just before He died (Jn 19:30). When the Jews nailed Jesus to the cross they drove the nails into their own law. The old covenant was made obsolete by the blood of the new covenant.

Barnes comments that

"The meaning here is, that the burdensome requirements of the Mosaic law are abolished, and that its necessity is superseded by the death of Christ. His death had the same effect, in reference to those ordinances, as if they had been blotted from the statute-book. This it did by fulfilling them, by introducing a more perfect system, and by rendering their observance no longer necessary, since all that they were designed to typify had been now accomplished in a better way."

THE CERTIFICATE OF DEBT: to kath hemon cheirographon: (20; Est 3:12; 8:8;  Lu 1:6; ; Eph 2:14-16; Heb 7:18;8:13; 9:9,10; 10:8,9) (Today in the Word)

the handwriting of the note (bond) (Amplified)

Webster says a "bond" is an an interest-bearing certificate of public or private indebtedness.

Certificate of debt (5498) (cheirographon from cheir = hand + grapho = write) is literally handwriting or a handwritten document and then a written record of a debt such as a promissory note. A document is written in one's own hand as a proof of obligation, e.g., a note of indebtedness. The word means primarily a bond written by a person pledging himself to make certain payments.

Friberg writes that figuratively in the only NT use in Colossians 2:14 cheirographon refers not to

the law itself, but to the record of charges (for breaking God's law), which stood against us and which God symbolically removed by "nailing it to the cross," handwritten account, record of debts (Friberg, T., Friberg, B., & Miller, N. F. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Baker Academic)

Thayer writes that cheirographon means...

specifically, a note of hand, or writing in which one acknowledges that money has either been deposited with him or lent to him by another, to he returned at an appointed time

TDNT writes that in Colossians 2:14 cheirographon means

a “promissory note.” God cancels the bond that lies to our charge. This bond is not a compact with the devil, as in some patristic exegesis. It is the debt that we have incurred with God. The forgiveness of sins (see note Colossians 2:13) through identification with Christ in his vicarious death and resurrection means that this note is cancelled; God has set it aside and nailed it to the cross.  (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W.  Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)

For example, in Philemon we find an "IOU" Paul writing

"I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand, I will repay it (not to mention to you that you owe to me even your own self as well)." (Philemon 1:19)

The idea is that of list of our crimes or moral debt before God, a debt no imperfect person can completely pay. But it can be taken out of the way, by payment from a perfect man, Jesus Christ.

Cheirographon then described a note or bond written by hand thus obligating the writer to fulfill the debt that is written out. In other words it is analogous to an "IOU" signed by hand and obligating the signer to repay the debt. Paul's idea seems to be that  the sins of mankind had piled up a list of "I.O.U.'s" so large that they could never be repaid. Paul uses cheirographon not as the law itself, but as the record of charges for breaking God's law and which therefore stood against us.  

When a criminal was crucified, the charges against him were written down and nailed to his cross. In this case, the charges against Christ encompassed the whole Law of God because Christ was dying for all the sins of all the world (Gal 3:10,13). In the OT, when presented with God's Law, the Jews had agreed to obey (e.g., Ex 19:8, 24:3,24:7). In the New Testament we find the Gentiles while not the written Law,  did have the unwritten law in their hearts and the voice of conscience speaking within (Ro 2:14, 15). Men were in debt to God because of their sins and they knew it. There was a self-confessed indictment against them, a charge-list which, as it were, they themselves had signed and admitted as accurate. The debt was impossible to pay, but God dealt with it; he had blotted it out and cancelled the bond by nailing it to the cross. This is a vivid way of saying that because Christ was nailed to the cross, our debt has been completely forgiven.

Barnes adds that Paul's

"allusion is probably to a written contract, in which we bind ourselves to do any work, or to make a payment, and which remains in force against us until the bond is cancelled. That might be done, either by blotting out the names, or by drawing lines through it, or, as appears to have been practiced in the East, by driving a nail through it."

Martin Luther told once how Satan laid heavy condemnation on him because of his sins. Luther told Satan to list them all, and even reminded him of some he had forgotten. Then he told Satan to write across the whole list "paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ," and Luther rejoiced in the payment Jesus made. We all need an attitude like that of Luther and must keep the list on the cross. Saints get into trouble when they take the list down from the cross and carry it around, forgetting that it was all settled on the almighty cross.

Here Paul describes the "certificate of debt" that was filed against us in the "courtroom of heaven". In other words, because of our sin and rebellion, the laws of God had become a "deadly witness" against us and we were in such deep debt to God that there was no way out.

We owed a debt we could never repay.
He paid a debt He did not owe!

CONSISTING OF DECREES AGAINST US AND WHICH WAS HOSTILE TO US: kath hemon...tois dogmasin o en (3SIAI) hupenantion hemin:

"this note with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us)" (Amp)

"God wiped out the charges that were against us for disobeying the Law of Moses" (CEV)

Against us (kath' hemon) in the sense that we could not keep these decrees. The "certificate of debt" signifies a claim of unpaid debt but "against us" indicates that it therefore signifies a debt warranting punishment. This hand writing was against us and contrary to us for it threatened our eternal ruin.

Decrees (1378) (dogma from dokeo = to think) refers to a  formal statement concerning rules or regulations that are to be observed. Public decrees, binding rules, ordinances, legal demands, obligations, regulations. Dogma was a binding law or edict which was placed on a public place for all to see. The decrees of the Law not only convicted us and condemned us but also demanded that we be punished. Thus the Law stood against us and was hostile to us. This law is conceived here as a bond, a bill of debt, standing against those who have not received Christ. As the form of error at Colossae was largely Judaic, insisting on the Jewish ceremonial law, the phrase is probably colored by this fact. Cp [Eph 2:15].

Hostile (5227) (hupenantios from hupó = intensifies meaning + enantios = opposite to, contrary, used by Matthew to describe the wind as contrary, Mt 14:24) literally means set over against or opposite as an enemy or adversary in battle.

In the only other NT use, the writer of Hebrews uses this word to describe God's adversaries

but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. (see note Hebrews 10:27)

There are 24 uses of hupenantios in the Septuagint (LXX)  (Gen. 22:17; 24:60; Exod. 1:10; 15:7; 23:27; 32:25; Lev. 26:16; Num. 10:9; Deut. 32:27; Jos. 5:13; 2 Chr. 1:11; 20:29; 26:13; Est. 8:13; Job 13:24; 33:10; Ps. 74:10; Isa. 1:24; 26:11; 59:18; 63:18; 64:2; Lam. 2:4; Nah. 1:2) A majority of Septuagint uses are translated as enemy or enemies.

Genesis 22:17 indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies (Hebrew = ayab = to be hostile, to be an enemy; Lxx = hupenantios).

Vine adds that hupenantios means...

“contrary, opposed,” is a strengthened form of enantios (en = in + antios = set against). The intensive force is due to the preposition hupo. It is translated “contrary to,” in Col 2:14, of ordinances; in Hebrews 10:27, “adversaries.” In each place a more violent form of opposition is suggested than in the case of enantios

Moulton and Milligan write that

The strong sense which Lightfoot gives to this word in Col 2:14 (translating it as) “which was directly opposed to us,” may be illustrated from an early second century Will, P Oxy III. 49310, where it is enacted that no one shall be permitted to set aside any of the provisions, or do anything opposed to them

A vivid picture of the hostile character or "active hostility" of the bond or note. Paul gives us a parallel thought in Romans writing that

"the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there violation." (see note Romans 4:15).

The decrees that were against us are in a sense personified - they have a hostile attitude, even a deep and active antagonism.

Maclaren adds that the

Law is against us, because it comes like a taskmaster, bidding us do, but neither putting the inclination into our hearts nor the power into our hands. And law is against us, because the revelation of unfulfilled duty is the accusation of the defaulter, and a revelation to him of his guilt. And law is against us, because it comes with threatenings and foretastes of penalty and pain. Thus, as standard, accuser, and avenger it is against us

HE HAS TAKEN THEM OUT OF THE WAY HAVING NAILED IT TO THE CROSS: kai auto erken (3SRAI) ek tou mesou proselosas (AAPMSN) auto to stauro: (Illustration) (Daily Bread - Paid In Full) (Why Jesus Was Crucified by Dr Harry Ironside)

"This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross." (Amp)

"fastening it to the cross" (DRB) 

Taken (142) (airo) means to lift up, to bear or to take away. Airo was used by John in description of Jesus, writing

"The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (Jn 1:29)

The perfect tense speaks of a completed action in the past with present effects and thus signifies that Jesus' once for all death on the cross in the past has produced a permanent, eternally efficacious effect, specifically in regard to the removal of the bond that once was against us. The debt is permanently removed and cannot be presented against us again! This truth also helps one understand how it is that he is "complete in Christ" and protects one from persuasive arguments and empty philosophy. John uses airo with a similar meaning in in his first epistle writing

"And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin." (1Jn 3:5)

"Out of the way" is more literally "out of their midst" and conveys the picture that God wholly removed the certificate of debt. Parallel Old Testament pictures include the declaration that God

"hast cast all my sins behind Thy back" (Isa 38:17).

In Isaiah 44:22 God Himself declares

"I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you."

Micah records this beautiful description of our gracious and compassionate God rhetorically asking

"Who is a God like Thee, who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, Thou wilt cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:18-19)

Eadie writes that...

"He took them out of the way and they still remain out of the way...He not only blotted out the writing upon it, but He has taken out of the way the parchment itself"

Nailed (4338) (proseloo from prós = to + helos = nail, peg, stud) means to affix with nails or spikes and describes the manner in which Christ removed the "I.O.U." (handwriting) against us. God nailed the Mosaic Law with all its decrees to the Cross of Christ when Christ was nailed to the Cross taking upon Himself the curse of the Law. The law with its decrees was abolished in Christ’s death, as if crucified with Him. It was no longer in the midst, in the foreground, as a debtor’s obligation is perpetually before him, embarrassing his whole life.

Vine comments on "nailed" that

"the idea in the metaphor of the nailing is not that of the cancellation of the bond, to which the taking out of the way was subsequent, but of nailing up the removed thing in triumph to the Cross. The death of Christ not only rendered the Law useless as a means of salvation, but gave public demonstration that it was so."

Barnes notes that

"It is said that there is an allusion here to the ancient method by which a bond or obligation was cancelled, by driving a nail through it, and affixing it to a post. This was practiced, says Grotius, in Asia. In a somewhat similar manner, in our banks now, a sharp instrument like the blade of a knife is driven through a check, making a hole through it, and furnishing to the teller of the bank a sign or evidence that it has been paid. If this be the meaning, then the expression here denotes that the obligation of the Jewish institutions ceased on the death of Jesus, as if he had taken them and nailed them to his own cross, in the manner in which a bond was cancelled."

Another source however records that 

"It used to be said that in the ancient world when a law or an ordinance was cancelled, it was fastened to a board and a nail was driven clean through it. But it is doubtful if that was the case and if that is the picture here. Rather it is this-on the Cross of Christ the indictment that was against us was itself crucified. It was executed and put clean out of the way, so that it might never be seen again. Paul seems to have searched human activity to find a series of pictures which would show how completely God in his mercy destroyed the condemnation that was against us."

 Eadie also gives a view somewhat different than Barnes (above) writing that

"The allusion is not to the tablet nailed to the cross above the sufferer...but to the crucifixion of the Redeemer Himself. There seems to be no historical ground for the illustration of Grotius, that it was customary to thrust a nail through papers—declaring them old and obsolete, much in the same way as a Bank of England note is punched through the centre when declared to be no longer of value, and no longer to be put into circulation. The idea of the apostle is, that when Christ was nailed to the cross, the condemning power of the law was nailed along with Him, and died with Him— “Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead in which we were held.” Rom. 7:6. In other words, God exempts sinners from the sentence which they merit, through the sufferings and death of Jesus. The implied doctrine is, that the guilt of men was borne by Christ when He died—was laid on Him by that God who by this method took the handwriting out of the way. Jesus bore the sentence of the handwriting in Himself, and God now remits its penalty; having forgiven you all your trespasses, inasmuch as He has blotted out the hostile handwriting and taken it out of the way, for He nailed it to the cross of His Son."

Cross (4716) (stauros from hístemi = to stand) was an instrument of capital punishment comprised of an upright pointed stake often with a crossbeam above it or intersected by a crossbeam. Paul had earlier taught on the efficacy of Christ crucified on the Cross writing that

"through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." (see note Colossians 1:20)

Paul reminds us of the centrality of the Cross writing that

"Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1Cor 1:17-18)

And to the Galatians Paul wrote

may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14)

Devotionals and Illustrations...

REAL CHANGE - J. Vernon McGee told of a man who came to him and said, “I’ll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed.” McGee answered, “I don’t think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh day of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won’t even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day.”

He got a gleam in his eye and said, “Then why don’t you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn’t been changed?” McGee answered, “the DAY hasn’t changed, but I have been changed. I’ve been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave.” That is what it means that the ordinances have been nailed to the cross, Col. 2:14.

><> ><> ><>

Our Daily Bread - More than four hundred years before Jesus' birth, the Greek poet Agathon said, "Even God cannot change the past." Historically speak­ing, he was right. What happens cannot be undone. Yet when God sent His Son to die on the cross, He provided a way to erase our sinful past.

Here is how Donald Grey Barnhouse described what Jesus did for us

Just as a hole in the ocean floor would let sea water into the volcanic fires, creating force that could blow the world apart, so the Lord Jesus Christ by dying and rising again broke through the past and allowed eternity to pour in, shattering, turning and overturning, changing, and altering all things. He took the past of all believers and cleansed it by His blood and transformed the life in such a way that the time-rooted life gave way to life eternal.

The poet said, "I wish there were a land of beginning again." There is. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). And the hymn writer said, "Calvary covers it all, my past with its sin and stain; my guilt and despair Jesus took on Him there, and Calvary covers it all."

This is the wonder of the gospel. For those who have accepted Christ's offer of forgiveness, He "wiped out the handwriting of require­ments that was against us, . . . having nailed it to the cross" (Col. 2:14). God has completely cleansed our sin-stained past. —P.R.V. (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Colossians 2:15 When He had disarmed (AMP) the ruler