We've been declared sinless by God, in a legal transaction.
Colossians 2:11-14 11In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
We’ve been declared sinless by God, in a legal transaction.
>>That’s the problem. You Westerners follow the pagan Romans in interpreting everything in legal terms.
That’s simply not the Greek way. St. Paul’s writings show a strong Platonistic influence not unlike that of Philo of Alexandria.
http://www.orthodoxconvert.info/Q-A.php?c=Salvation-The%20Atonement
Colossians 2:14, which you cite as your proof text refers to the 613 Levitical laws that he abolished on the cross.
Haydock:
http://haydock1859.tripod.com/id213.html
Ver. 14. Blotting out, &c.[4] This is commonly expounded of the sentence of eternal death pronounced against sinful Adam, and all his posterity, for having sinned in him. Others would have it to signify only the yoke and obligations of the Mosaical law, which could not of itself remit sins, and occasionally made persons greater sinners. This sentence of death (whether we understand the one or the other) Christ took away, fastening it as it were, to the cross, taking it away by his death on the cross. (Witham)
St. John Chrysostom Homily on Colossian v. 14:
Beware then lest we be condemned by this, after saying, I renounce Satan, and array myself with You, O Christ. Rather however this should not be called a bond, but a covenant. For that is a bond, whereby one is held accountable for debts: but this is a covenant. It has no penalty, nor says it, If this be done or if this be not done: what Moses said when he sprinkled the blood of the covenant, by this God also promised everlasting life. All this is a covenant. There, it was slave with master, here it is friend with friend: there, it is said, In the day that you eat thereof you shall die Genesis 2:17; an immediate threatening; but here is nothing of the kind. God arrives, and here is nakedness, and there was nakedness; there, however, one that had sinned was made naked, because he sinned, but here, one is made naked, that he may be set free. Then, man put off the glory which he had; now, he puts off the old man; and before going up (to the contest), puts him off as easily, as it were his garments. He is anointed, as wrestlers about to enter the lists. For he is born at once; and as that first man was, not little by little, but immediately. (He is anointed,) not as the priests of old time, on the head alone, but rather in more abundant measure. For he indeed was anointed on the head, the right ear, the hand Leviticus 8:23-24; to excite him to obedience, and to good works; but this one, all over. For he comes not to be instructed merely; but to wrestle, and to be exercised; he is advanced to another creation. For when one confesses (his belief) in the life everlasting, he has confessed a second creation. He took dust from the earth, and formed man Genesis 2:7: but now, dust no longer, but the Holy Spirit; with This he is formed, with this harmonized, even as Himself was in the womb of the Virgin. He said not in Paradise, but in Heaven. For deem not that, because the subject is earth, it is done on earth; he is removed there, to Heaven, there these things are transacted, in the midst of Angels: God takes up your soul above, above He harmonizes it anew, He places you near to the Kingly Throne.
A number of other commentaries on the verse can be found in the following link.
http://bit.ly/sXMcXF
Forensic justification is a novel interpretation.
Sinless, really, that’s what that passage says?
Well, alrighty then, that explains a lot.
Gee, when I read that passage, I see where God is saying we are free of the debt of sin.
Some people won’t even believe God if he swore on a stack of Bibles. ;o)