Category: Musings on Baptism
For in Him all the fulness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 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. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Col. 2:9-15)
More of the same illustrative benefit of baptism. Our burial in water at baptism signifies our joining with Christ in His atoning death; and our coming out of the water is our resurrection with Him. But again, so that we do not give power to the act of baptism, Paul teaches that the means of our death and resurrection with Christ is not baptism, but faith (v.12).
We should note that the circumcision spoken of here is explicitly called, "a circumcision made without hands" (v.13). Our Reformed brothers who appeal to this verse for a proof text for equating circumcision and baptism are all wet because Jewish circumcision was most certainly down with human hands.