Paul is saying the debt is gone. The Greek word behind "handwriting" is χειρόγραφον (cheirographon), a handwritten note of debt, an IOU. Paul says God wiped that note clean and nailed it to the cross. Nothing is left on it. The old bill of rules and payments is closed.
Paul was a traveling teacher. He had studied the old law for years, and then he followed Jesus. He sent a letter to a small group of believers in Colossae, a town in what is now Turkey.
In that world, people had grown up with payment. Animals were brought to temples and killed. Grain and money were handed over. Then a year later it all started again.
A piece of paper
Paul told them about a piece of paper.
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;
Colossians 2:14 · King James Version
The Greek word behind "handwriting" is χειρόγραφον (cheirographon). It was a plain business word. It meant a note of debt, signed in your own hand and kept by the person you owed.
Paul did not say the debt was made smaller. He did not say you got more time. He said the writing was wiped off. The note was taken away. Then it was nailed to the cross.
What it means
The old system said you owe, so you pay, and you pay again. Paul says the bill is closed. Not paid down. Closed.
That means you do not come to God with a payment in your hand. You come as a child. The account is not open anymore.
If you have spent years trying to pay off a debt you could never see, there is rest here. You can read the full teaching free in the Mercy app.
Read the whole chapter: Colossians 2
1For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;
2That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ;
3In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
4And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
5For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
6As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
7Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
8Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
9For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
10And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
11In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
12Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
13And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
14Blotting 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;
15And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
18Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
20Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
21(Touch not; taste not; handle not;
22Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?
23Which things have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
King James Version