“And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” Colossians 2:13-14

The pardon of sin in justification is called the blotting out of the handwriting, Colossians 2:14. If some writing is blurred a little, and somewhat blotted, yet it may be read. But if it is blotted out, it is no longer legible, and who can be called to account upon record when the writings are obliterated? The same phrase is used in Isaiah 44:22, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; where, I think, something else falls into our comfort, viz. that God Himself does blot out. Though an under officer should blot out an indictment, that, perhaps, may help nothing; but when the king himself does it, who is chief judge, then the indictment cannot return. Now it is the Lord Himself who blots out transgressions. He does it who alone has power of life and death, of condemning or absolving.  

~Obadiah Sedgwick