The Nail
11/30/2010 13:20
Colossians 2:14 - "Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross". Today I want to talk about the fastening device that held fast our Saviour on the tree - the nail. If we examine some of the characteristics of a nail, we can learn much in regards to its connection to the act of redemption at Calvary. The first thing we see about a nail is that, it is pointed. The same pointed nail that was driven through the hands of Jesus can remind us of that same Jesus that points us to Himself and His cross for redemption. The sharpness of that point can help us to understand the sharp difference between a holy God and sinful man; thereby pointing us to Him and away from ourselves when it comes to salvation. A nail is also hard. It reminds us of what we are told in Proverbs 13:15 - "the way of transgressors is hard". The life of a person without Christ will always be hard. Even when men are at ease, their lives are hard with the bitter bondage of separation from God and slavery to the flesh. O, how burdensome the trail that transgressors trod! Yet despite the hardness of an unsaved life, Jesus tells us in Matt. 11:30, "For my yoke is easy". The nail reminds us that our way will always be a hard way without Jesus.
Another characteristic of the nail is, that it is straight. Again we see a contrast between man and God. We are told of the future ministry of the forerunner, John the Baptist and the future work of the Messiah in Isaiah 40:4 - "and the crooked (man's path to redemption) shall be made straight (God's way)". Jesus also tells us about these two paths in Matt. 7:13 - "Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the way that leadeth to destruction." As straight as a nail so is the way of salvation - straight to the Savior at Calvary! In order for a nail to be properly used, it must also be driven. When we think of redemption, we see the love of God that drove Jesus from the hallowed halls of Heaven to the horrors of this world and the cross. Jesus was not driven to the cross out of obligation, He was driven by love for sinful man. The same sins that drove a chasm between man and God, were the same sins that Jesus was driven to pay for at Calvary. Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
Nails will always be found in the tool aisle. The nails that fastened Jesus to the cross were a tool of the devil as he aroused the angry mob to action, in rejection of Jesus. We are told in Scripture that had Satan truly understood the events of Calvary, he would not have crucified the Lord of Glory (I Corinthians 2:8). The same tool used by the devil for evil was used by God for good. The nails in the crucifixion process produced the flow of blood from the veins of Jesus that would run like river, overflowing with cleansing power. Jesus could not have been stoned, drowned or suffocated. He had to be crucified. It was the nails that drew forth the Saviour's blood.
One more sad but true characteristic of the nail is that when it is pulled, it is discarded. Sadly, multitudes of people have pulled the truth of Jesus out of the Bible and have discarded it. Every false religion and cult have taken the eternal truth of salvation through Christ, nailed into every page of the Bible, and have pulled it out and discarded it for the "crooked paths." God's plan of salvation through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is a permanent fixture in the pages of Scripture, and yet the ministers of unrighteousness representing Satan and his false religions, have yanked this truth from their teachings and have discarded it. Many other people will have the truth of salvation pulled out and shared by other Christians on their behalf. Even with the message brought to them, many will still discard it as a used up nail. When God's gift of love is discarded, it will be the same nail that fastened "the handwriting of ordinances that was against us" - Colossians 2:14, to then fasten those sins that Jesus died for, upon the account of the Christ denying sinner.
In a day and age when supposed learned men has twisted and distorted the way of salvation, let us who are saved use the simplicity of the nail to help people understand God's simple way of salvation.
Striving for the Saviour,
Pastor George Yurick