Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 2:11

In 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:

11. in whom ] The truth of the holy Union of members and Head is again in view. What he is about to speak of was done by the fact of, by virtue of, their oneness with Christ.

are circumcised ] Better, were circumcised, when you entered “into Christ.” They already had that Divine Reality, the sacred but obsolete type of which the new teachers now pressed upon them. As regarded order, ceremonial, deed and seal of conveyance, they acquired this in their Baptism; as regarded inward and ultimate reality they acquired it by believing on the name of the Son of God. See Joh 1:12; cp. 1Jn 5:1. Baptism is the Sacrament of Faith, and never, in principle and idea, to be dissociated from its Thing ( Res), as if its work was done where the Thing is not truly present.

made without hands ] It is a thing of the spiritual, eternal, order, the immediate work of the will of God. Cp. 2Co 5:1. Is this “circumcision” simply holy Baptism? No, surely, but that “inward and spiritual grace” of which Baptism is the sacramental Seal, “a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness” (Church Catechism). It is vital union with Christ, through faith, by the Holy Spirit (see 1Co 6:17), viewed as our separation from the condemnation (Rom 6:11) and power ( ib., 12, 13) of sin, and so our real entrance into a position of covenanted peace (Rom 5:1) and a condition of covenanted grace. In both these aspects it is the Antitype of the type Circumcision, and the Reality under the seal Baptism.

the putting off ] The Greek is one strong compound word; “ the entire stripping off.” It was, in principle and as regarded the call and grace of God, a total break with the old position and condition; not a reform but a revolution of the man’s standing and state. The physical imagery is drawn of course from the severe Abrahamic rite.

the body of the sins of the flesh ] Omit, on good evidence, the words “ of the sins ” which appear to be a (very intelligible) gloss or comment.

What is “ the body of the flesh ” ? Elsewhere in St Paul the word “ body ” appears never to mean anything but the physical frame, save in passages referring to the Church; but (in passages at all akin to this) it is that frame viewed as in some sense the vehicle of sin, or rather of temptation. Cp. Rom 6:6; Rom 7:24; Rom 8:10-11; Rom 8:13. As God’s handiwork, the body is good, and on its way, in Christ, to glorification. As the body of man in the Fall, and as man’s means of contact with a sinful external world, if in no other way, it is so conversant with and affected by evil as to be ( in that respect) an evil. As such it is “the body of the flesh,” that is, the body conditioned by, and reacting upon, our nature fallen and unregenerate. See our notes on Rom 8:4 and Eph 2:3, on the word “ flesh.”

In Christ, “by the Spirit,” the Christian is empowered to “mortify the practices of the body” (Rom 8:13). In Christ, “the body is for the Lord, and the Lord for the body ” (1Co 6:13). In this respect the man, while still liable to physical weakness and weariness, and truly capable of temptation, and as a fact never so using his “fulness” in Christ as to be wholly free (whatever his consciousness) from the burthen of evil in and through “the body of the flesh,” yet stands on such a ground of vantage over the power of that body as to find by faith a noble practical reality in the strong words of this verse. See further, on the other hand, notes on Col 3:5.

by the circumcision of Christ ] Lit., in &c.; “ as united to, interested in.” What is this circumcision? that given by Christ, or that undergone by Christ? Much may be said for the latter. Our Lord was “circumcised for man,” as the sacramental Seal of His “subjection to the law for man”; and so His historical Circumcision has a deep connexion with our possession, through Him, of acceptance and sanctification, the fruit of His Righteousness and Merits. But in this context the other reference is preferable. We have but just read of a “ circumcision not made with hands ” ; surely the same is in view here. Christ, Messiah (the word here is not Jesus, which might have better suggested the historical reference), gives us spiritual circumcision when He joins us to Himself (see notes above), and so the circumcision is “His.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

In whom – In connection with whom, or in virtue of whose religion.

Ye are circumcised – You have received that which was designed to be represented by circumcision – the putting away of sin; Notes, Phi 3:3.

With the circumcision made without hands – That made in the heart by the renunciation of all sin. The Jewish teachers insisted on the necessity of the literal circumcision in order to salvation (compare Eph 2:11); and hence, this subject is so often introduced into the writings of Paul, and he is at so much pains to show that, by believing in Christ, all was obtained which was required in order to salvation. Circumcision was an ordinance by which it was denoted that all sin was to be cut off or renounced, and that he who was circumcised was to be devoted to God and to a holy life. All this, the apostle says, was obtained by the gospel; and, consequently they had all that was denoted by the ancient rite of circumcision. What Christians had obtained, moreover, related to the heart; it was not a mere ordinance pertaining to the flesh.

In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh – That is, in renouncing the deeds of the flesh, or becoming holy. The word body, here, seems to be used with reference to circumcision. In that ordinance, the body of the FLesH was subjected to the rite; with Christians, it is the body of Sin that is cut off.

By the circumcision of Christ – Not by the fact that Christ was circumcised, but that we have that kind of circumcision which Christ established, to wit, the renouncing of sin. The idea of the apostle here seems to be, that since we have thus been enabled by Christ to renounce sin, and to devote ourselves to God, we should not, be induced by any plausible arguments to return to an ordinance pertaining to the flesh, as if that were needful for salvation.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Col 2:11-12

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.

Christian circumcision

I. Is inward and spiritual.

II. Is complete. Manual circumcision was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the spiritual circumcision consists in putting off the whole body of our corrupt nature–the entire fleshly principle.

III. Is Divine. By the circumcision of Christ. It is wrought, without hands, by the inward power of the Divine Spirit of Christ.

IV. Is realized by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.

V. Is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism. Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him.

VI. Is received by faith. Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead. Faith is not a natural product of the human heart. It is a Divine gift, bestowed on man by a Divine operation. (G. Barlow.)

The circumcision of Christ

I. Every real Christian has experienced the true circumcision. The argument is that circumcision was unnecessary, since the Colossians had undergone the new birth which it signified.

1. It is spiritual, and plainly distinguished from that which was made with hands. The idea was not a novel one (Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6; Jer 9:26; Eze 44:7; Act 7:51; Rom 2:28-29).

2. The true character of the operation is the putting off of the body of the flesh, the old man, corrupt human nature, with all its carnal instincts and tendencies. Manual circumcision cut off only a small part of the flesh, the spiritual is an entire transformation of the whole man. Old habits are abandoned, evil associations forsaken, and the soul is ushered into a new life, with new thoughts, affections, etc. It is a putting on of the new man.

3. It is Divine, the circumcision of Christ, ordained and communicated by Him, with Him for its author and model.

II. This true circumcision is realized only in union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

1. The Saviour died for us, and when the anxious sinner trusts Christ he is regarded as having died with Him.

2. The reality of death is evinced by burial, and the death of the believer with Christ is the casting off of the body of the flesh. The old man is sepulchred.

3. The soul in regeneration arises with Christ to a new and holy life.

III. This union is realized in the baptism. It is generally assumed that the allusion here is to immersion.

1. But it is difficult to see any resemblance between this and the depositing of Christs body in a rock-hewn sepulchre. The reference is to the baptism of the Spirit–the Washing of regeneration (1Co 12:13, cf. 1Co 1:14). The theory of immersion is that it is the profession of a regeneration which has already taken place; but with St. Paul the burial and resurrection are coincident with the baptism. It is quite possible to die and rise with Christ without water baptism, but not without the baptism of the Spirit.

2. Why does Paul speak disparagingly of hand-wrought circumcision, and proclaim its needlessness, if he is to pass immediately to speak of the efficacy of hand-wrought baptism? To introduce that would be to introduce the very element of ceremonialism which he is denouncing.

IV. The principle through which this spiritual baptism is received–through faith.

1. It is surprising that so many should regard the baptism in which the disciple is said to rise with Christ as that of water. No one is raised out of water by faith, but by the arms which immersed him. The baptism of the Spirit is received by faith: an unbeliever cannot receive it.

2. In the operation of God does not mean that that is the origin but the object of faith. If I believe in the power that raised Christ, I believe in the power which has accepted His suretyship for me. This faith regards Christs resurrection as the keystone of Christianity, the centre of confidence, the only basis of hope. (J. Spence, D. D.)

The true circumcision

There are two tendencies ever at work to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect, the temptation of the cultured few, which turns religion into theological speculation; the other of the senses, that of the vulgar many, which turns religion into a theatrical spectacle. But opposite as these are they were united at Colossae. To the teaching of the necessity of circumcision–

I. The apostle opposes the position that all Christian men by virtue of their union with Christ have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was the shadow, and therefore now obsolete.

1. The language points to a definite past time. When they became Christians a change passed over them parabled by circumcision,

(1) It is not made with hands, i.e., it is not a rite but a reality, not transacted in the flesh but in the Spirit, not a removal of ceremonial impurity, but a cleansing of the heart (Deu 30:6).

(2) It consists in the putting off of the body of the flesh the sins of is an interpolation–a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes, in contrast with a removal of a small part of the body. It is true that Christian men, alas! realize this by slow degrees; but on the Divine side it is complete. Christ gives perfect emancipation, and if it is only partial it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.

(3) It is of Christ; not that He submitted to it, but instituted it.

2. What is the bearing of this statement on the apostles purpose? That circumcision is an anachronism, as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again.

(1) The true centre of gravity, of Christianity, then, is in moral transformation. Surely Christ who gives men a new life by union with Himself by faith has delivered man from the yoke of bondage, if He has done anything at all. How far away from Pauls conception, then, are those which busy themselves with punctilios of observance! But the hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual. We need to have our eyes turned away to the far higher thing, the service of the transformed nature.

(2) The conquest of the animal nature is the certain outcome of union with Christ and that alone. Paul did not regard matter as evil, as the Colossian teachers did, nor the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest temptations came from it, and that the foulest stains upon the conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. It is a matter of life and death to find some means of taming the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions of the flesh; and when we come to add its weaknesses, limitations, and needs, and remember how high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision of truth and God, we do not need to be Gnosties to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. But no asceticisms or resolves will do what we want. Much repression may be affected by force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that as soon as he lets go the brute will be at his throat. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong because the fierceness is gone. Christianity would be easy were it a round of observances. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, but the putting off of the body of the flesh is a harder thing. Emotion, theology, ceremonial, may have their value, but a religion that includes them all and leaves out the subjugation of the flesh is worthless. If we are in Christ we shall not live in the flesh.

II. Paul meets the false teaching by a reference to Christian baptism as being the Christian sign of the inward change.

1. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the circumcision and burial with Christ in baptism are contemporaneous. You have been baptized–does not that express all that circumcision meant and more?

(1) This reference is quite consistent with the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms are necessary to a visible Church, and Christ has given us two: one symbolizing the initial spiritual act of Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment.

(2) The form here presupposed is immersion.

(3) There are but two theories: the one is that baptism effects the change, and elevates it into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, lulls men into a false security, obscures the central truth of Christianity that faith makes a Christian, gives the basis for a portentous sacer-dotalism, and is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it is conclusively disposed of by the words, through faith in the operation, etc. What remains, then, but that baptism is associated with the change, because in the Divine order it is meant to be its outward symbol?

2. Note the thoroughness of the change. It is more than a circumcision; it is burial and resurrection.

(1) We partake of Christs death inasmuch as–

(a) we ally ourselves to it by our faith as the sacrifice for our sins;

(b) by the power of His Cross we are drawn to slay our old nature, dying to the habits, desires, etc., in which we lived.

(2) If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection.

(a) It will be a guarantee of our own.

(b) The seal of His perfect work on the Cross, and shall know it as a token of Gods acceptance;

(c) the type of our spiritual resurrection now. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Buried with Him.

The believers identification with Christ

It was with St. Paul a principle that the whole Christian life is a following of the blessed steps of one holy life, an imitation of Christ. We are in Him–

I. Conceived and born (Gal 4:19).

II. Crucified (Gal 2:20; Rom 6:5).

III. Dead (Rom 6:3; Rom 7:4; cf. 1Pe 4:1).

IV. Buried (Rom 6:4).

V. Risen (Rom 6:5; Col 3:1).

VI. Ascended and reigning (Eph 2:4-6).

What is done or suffered by Him historically is done in us analogously and mystically now, and will be completed historically and actually hereafter. This is the underlying principle of the order of the Christian year. (Bishop Alexander.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 11. In whom also ye are circumcised] All that was designed by circumcision, literally performed, is accomplished in them that believe through the Spirit and power of Christ. It is not a cutting off of a part of the flesh, but a putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, through the circumcision of Christ; he having undergone and performed this, and all other rites necessary to qualify him to be a mediator between God and man; for, being made under the law, he was subject to all its ordinances, and every act of his contributed to the salvation of men. But by the circumcision of Christ, the operation of his grace and Spirit may be intended; the law required the circumcision of the flesh, the Gospel of Christ required the circumcision of the heart. The words , of the sins, are omitted by ABCD*EFG, several others, by the Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, Vulgate, and Itala; and by Clement, Athanasius, Basil, Cyril, and several others. Griesbach has omitted them.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands: he removes what they who are addicted to superstition might suggest, as if there were somewhat defective to a completeness in Christ, by showing there was no need of any addition to what he required in the gospel; for that they might most plausibly urge of circumcision, as being the seal of the old covenant, and an obligation to the whole law, Gal 5:3, which some pressed as necessary to salvation, Act 15:1,24, he here shows was altogether needless now, that they were sanctified and had the thing signified by it, the circumcision of the heart, Rom 2:28,29; Php 3:3, and were complete in Christ without it; yea, that the urging of that and other ceremonies now, was a pernicious error, tending to annihilate the cross of Christ, and overthrow the whole mystery of his grace. It is true it was appointed to the Jews, a figure of a thing absent; they therefore who retain that figure after the coming of Christ, deny that to be complete which it doth figure, and so abolish the presence of the truth; by stickling for the shadow, they let go the substance, viz. the circumcision not made by the operation of man, but of God; not with the knife of Moses, but the word of Christ, sharper than any two-edged sword, Heb 4:12; and if we compare this with the verse following, and Phi 3:3, the apostle intimates that baptism is the same to us Christians which circumcision was to the Jews; and that is often ascribed to the external administration, that is only the internal operation of the Spirit, as Rom 6:3,4; Ga 3:27,28; Tit 3:5; 1Pe 3:21. Now though there was during the shadow of it, Heb 10:1, under the Old Testament, the circumcision of the heart, as well as under the New, Deu 10:16; 30:6; Jer 4:4; yet under the New Testament Christ the substance (who was only before in the promise) being now exhibited, having abolished the old symbol and instituted baptism in the room of it; that with the hands in the flesh, Eph 2:11, which they who received not the promise, i.e. the Messiah promised, used, Heb 11:39, was to be no more urged, now the benefit by the merit of his obedience unto the death of the cross, whereby he circumciseth from sin, might be enjoyed, as was signified by baptism, appointed to this end, Mat 28:19; Act 2:38; Rom 6:3,4; Ga 3:27; 1Pe 3:21.

In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh: hence he doth illustrate this spiritual circumcision by describing the parts of it, beginning with the mortification of the old man, corrupted nature, containing not only the body and senses, but the soul tainted with the defilements of sin, Col 3:5; Rom 6:6; Gal 5:19-21,24; Eph 4:22. The body of sins which do mostly exert themselves in the flesh, every member and power while unregenerate being active in the committing of sin, till the new man be put on, Eph 4:24, and the dominion of it be subdued; not by any natural part which a man hath of himself for that purpose, but by the circumcision of Christ, not properly that whereby he himself was circumcised in the flesh the eighth day, but that which he hath indispensably required to have admission into his kingdom, Joh 3:3, and which he himself is the worker of, doth procure by his merit, and effect by his Spirit, which all the suasion of the sublimest philosophers, and devotion of superstitious ones, cannot do.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

11. Implying that they did notneed, as the Judaizers taught, the outward rite of circumcision,since they had already the inward spiritual reality of it.

arerather, as theGreek, “Ye were (once for all) circumcised(spiritually, at your conversion and baptism, Rom 2:28;Rom 2:29; Phi 3:3)with a (so the Greek) circumcision made without hands”;opposed to “the circumcision in the flesh made by hands“(Eph 2:11). Christ’s own body,by which the believer is sanctified, is said to be “not madewith hands” (Mar 14:58;Heb 9:11; compare Da2:45).

in putting offratheras Greek, “in your putting off”; as an old garment(Eph 4:22); alluding to theputting off the foreskin in circumcision.

the body of the sins of thefleshThe oldest manuscripts read, “the body of theflesh,” omitting “of the sins,” that is, “thebody,” of which the prominent feature is fleshiness(compare Ro 8:13, where “flesh”and “the body” mutually correspond). This fleshly body, inits sinful aspect, is put off in baptism (where baptism answers itsideal) as the seal of regeneration where received in repentance andfaith. In circumcision the foreskin only was put off; inChristian regeneration “the body of the flesh” isspiritually put off, at least it is so in its ideal conception,however imperfectly believers realize that ideal.

byGreek, “in.“This spiritual circumcision is realized in, or by, union with Christ,whose “circumcision,” whereby He became responsible for usto keep the whole law, is imputed to believers for justification; andunion with whom, in all His vicarious obedience, including HISCIRCUMCISION, is the source of our sanctification. ALFORDmakes it explanatory of the previous, “a circumcision madewithout hands,” namely, “the circumcision brought about byyour union with Christ.” The former view seems to me better toaccord with Col 2:12; Col 3:1;Col 3:3; Col 3:4,which similarly makes the believer, by spiritual union with Christ,to have personal fellowship in the several states of Christ, namely,His death, resurrection, and appearing in glory. Nothing was done orsuffered by our Mediator as such, but may be acted in our souls andrepresented in our spirits. PEARSON’Sview, however, is that of ALFORD.JOSHUA, the type (notMoses in the wilderness), circumcised the Israelites in Canaan (Jos5:2-9) the second time: the people that came out of Egypt havingbeen circumcised, and afterwards having died in the wilderness; butthose born after the Exodus not having been so. Jesus, the Antitype,is the author of the true circumcision, which is therefore called”the circumcision of Christ” (Ro2:29). As Joshua was “Moses’ minister,” so Jesus,”minister of the circumcision for the truth of God” untothe Gentiles (Ro 15:8).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

In whom also ye are circumcised,…. This is said to prevent an objection that might be made to the perfection of these Gentile believers, because they were not circumcised; for the Jews thought that perfection lay in circumcision, at least that there could be no perfection without it:

“great is circumcision (say they x), for notwithstanding all the commands which Abraham our father did, he was not called perfect until he was circumcised; as it is written, Ge 17:1; “walk before me, and be thou perfect:””

which objection the apostle anticipates, by observing, that they were circumcised in Christ their head, who is made unto them sanctification; and by him as the meritorious and efficient cause of their regeneration and conversion, or internal circumcision, the antitype and perfection of circumcision in the flesh; for the former, and not the latter, is here meant: these believers were circumcised in Christ, or by him; not with external circumcision, which was peculiar to the Jews, the natural seed of Abraham, prefigured Christ, and had its accomplishment in him, the body and substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law; and so was now nothing, either to Jew or Gentile: as for the Gentiles, they never were obliged unto it; and as for the Jews, it was an insupportable yoke to them, binding them to keep the whole law of Moses, which they could not do, and so it made nothing perfect; but Christ the substance of that, and the end of the whole law, has, the head of the body the church, in whom all the members of it are complete, and are circumcised:

with the circumcision made without hands: which is that of the heart, in the spirit; every man, though he may be circumcised in the flesh, is uncircumcised in heart, until he is circumcised by Christ and his Spirit; which is done, when he is pricked to the heart, and thoroughly convinced of sin, and the exceeding sinfulness of it; when the callousness and hardness of his heart is taken off and removed, and the iniquity of it is, laid open, the plague and corruption in it discerned, and all made naked and bare to the sinner’s view; and when he is in pain on account of it, is broken and groans under a sense of it, and is filled with shame for it, and loathing and abhorrence of it: now this is effected not “by the hand of man”, as the Ethiopic version reads it, as outward circumcision was; this is not done by any creature whatever; not by angels, who rejoice at the repentance of sinners, but cannot produce it; nor by ministers of the Gospel, who at most are but instruments of regeneration and conversion; nor by men themselves; this is not by might or power of man, by the strength of his free will, but by the Spirit of God: for though men are sometimes exhorted to circumcise themselves, as in De 10:16, in order to convince them of the corruption of their nature, and the need they stand in of spiritual circumcision; yet whereas there is an utter disability in them to effect it, and they need the power and grace of God for that purpose, the Lord has graciously promised his people to do it himself for them, De 30:6; so that this circumcision is in the name sense made without hands, as the human nature of Christ is said to be a tabernacle not made with hands, that, is of men, but of God, being what God has pitched, and not man; and it stands opposed to circumcision in the flesh, which was made with hands, Eph 2:11; and by some instrument, as a sharp knife or stone:

in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. The Vulgate Latin version leaves out the word “sins”, and so the Alexandrian copy and some others; and the Syriac version the word “body”: by “the flesh” is meant corrupt nature, which is born of the flesh, and propagated in a carnal way, and is the source and spring of all sin; by “the sins” of it are intended the works of the flesh, the inward motions of sin in the members, and the outward actions of it: these are said to be a “body”, because sin consists of various parts and members, as a body does; and these united together, and which receive frequent and daily additions; and which are committed and yielded to by the members of the natural body; and which body and bulk of sins arising from the corruption of nature are compared to a garment, and a very filthy one it is; in the putting off of which lies spiritual circumcision: this is done several ways; partly by Christ’s wrapping himself in the sins of his people, bearing them in his body, and becoming a sacrifice for them, whereby the old man was crucified, and the body of sin destroyed; and by an application of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, to the consciences of his people, whereby their iniquities are caused to pass from them, and they are clothed with change of raiment; and by the power of his Spirit, laying sin under the restraints of grace, not suffering it to have dominion, but causing grace to reign through righteousness; and by the saints themselves, under the influence of grace, who put off the old man with his deeds, according to the former conversation:

by the circumcision of Christ; not that with which Christ was circumcised at eight days old, that he might appear to be truly man, and a son of Abraham, and under the law, and to fulfil all the righteousness of it, but that which he by his Spirit is the author of, and what is before expressed.

x Misn. Nedarim, c. 3. sect. 11.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye were also circumcised ( ). First aorist passive indicative of , to circumcise. But used here as a metaphor in a spiritual sense as in Ro 2:29 “the circumcision of the heart.”

Not made with hands (). This late and rare negative compound verbal occurs only in the N.T. (Mark 14:58; 2Cor 5:1; Col 2:11) by merely adding privative to the old verbal (Acts 7:48; Eph 2:11), possibly first in Mr 14:58 where both words occur concerning the temple. In 2Co 5:1 the reference is to the resurrection body. The feminine form of this compound adjective is the same as the masculine.

In the putting off ( ). As if an old garment (the fleshly body). From (Col 2:15, possibly also coined by Paul) and occurring nowhere else so far as known. The word is made in a perfectly normal way by the perfective use of the two Greek prepositions (, ), “a resource available for and generally used by any real thinker writing Greek” (Moulton and Milligan, Vocabulary). Paul had as much right to mint a Greek compound as any one and surely no one ever had more ideas to express and more power in doing it.

Of Christ ( ). Specifying genitive, the kind of circumcision that belongs to Christ, that of the heart.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Not made with hands. Compare Mr 14:58; 2Co 5:1. In allusion to the literal circumcision insisted on by the false teachers. In the putting off [ ] . Only here in the New Testament; and the kindred verb ajpekduomai to put off only ver. 15 and ch. 3 9. The verb ejkduomai means to strip off from one’s self, as clothes or armor; ejk out of, having the force of getting out of one’s garments. By the addition to the verb of ajpo from, there is added to the idea of getting out of one’s clothes that of getting away from them; so that the word is a strong expression for wholly putting away from one’s self. In the putting off, is in the act or process of. Not by.

The body of the sins of the flesh [ ] . Omit of the sins. The body of the flesh (compare on ch. 1 22) is the body which consists of the flesh, flesh having its moral sense of that material part which is the seat and organ of sin, “the flesh with its passions and lusts” (Gal 5:24; compare 1Jo 2:16). See on ch. Col 1:24. For the distinction between swma body and sarx flesh, see on flesh, Rom 7:5, sec. 3.

In the circumcision of Christ [ ] . The spiritual circumcision effected through Christ. See Eph 2:11; Phi 3:3; Rom 2:29. In, as above. The fleshly circumcision removed only a portion of the body. In spiritual circumcision, through Christ, the whole corrupt, carnal nature is put away like a garment which is taken off and laid aside.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “In whom also ye are circumcised” (an ho kai perietmethete) “In whom also ye were circumcised;” Circumcision of the “heart” was commanded to Israel, Deu 10:16; Jer 4:4. As flesh foreskin circumcision Of the male in Israel denoted physical cleanliness and acceptance, even so heart circumcision, belief in Christ, brings soul cleansing, Act 10:43; Rom 2:29.

2) “With the circumcision made without hands” (peritome acheiropoleto) “with a circumcision not hand-wrought;” it is with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and is cleansed from sin, referred to as circumcision of the heart. Php_3:3; Rom 2:29.

3) “In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh” (en to apekdusei tou somatos tes sarkos) “by the putting off of the body of the flesh;” discounting, putting aside, any trust or confidence in flesh holiness or flesh deeds, Isa 64:6. The flesh body is to be suppressed as dead, unfruitful, Rom 6:6; Col 3:3.

4) “By the circumcision of Christ” (en te peritome tou Christou) “by or in the circumcision of Christ;” This circumcision of the heart and spirit brings rejoicing in Jesus Christ, Php_3:3; Rom 10:9-10; Gal 2:20; Eph 4:22; Col 3:8-9.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

11. In whom ye also are circumcised. From this it appears, that he has a controversy with the false apostles, who mixed the law with the gospel, and by that means made Christ have, as it were, two faces. He specifies, however, one instance by way of example. He proves that the circumcision of Moses is not merely unnecessary, but is opposed to Christ, because it destroys the spiritual circumcision of Christ. For circumcision was given to the Fathers that it might be the figure of a thing that was absent: those, therefore, who retain that figure after Christ’s advent, deny the accomplishment of what it prefigures. Let us, therefore, bear in mind that outward circumcision is here compared with spiritual, just as a figure with the reality. The figure is of a thing that is absent: hence it puts away the presence of the reality. What Paul contends for is this — that, inasmuch as what was shadowed forth by a circumcision made with hands, has been completed in Christ, there is now no fruit or advantage from it. (371) Hence he says, that the circumcision which is made in the heart is the circumcision of Christ, and that, on this account, that which is outward is not now required, because, where the reality exists, that shadowy emblem vanishes, (372) inasmuch as it has no place except in the absence of the reality.

By the putting off of the body. He employs the term body, by an elegant metaphor, to denote a mass, made up of all vices. For as we are encompassed by our bodies, so we are surrounded on all sides by an accumulation of vices. And as the body is composed of various members, each of which has its own actings and offices, so from that accumulation of corruption all sins take their rise as members of the entire body. There is a similar manner of expression in Rom 6:13.

He takes the term flesh, as he is wont, to denote corrupt nature. The body of the sins of the flesh, therefore, is the old man with his deeds; only, there is a difference in the manner of expression, for here he expresses more properly the mass of vices which proceed from corrupt nature. He says that we obtain this (373) through Christ, so that unquestionably an entire regeneration is his benefit. It is he that circumcises the foreskin of our heart, or, in other words, mortifies all the lusts of the flesh, not with the hand, but by his Spirit. Hence there is in him the reality of the figure.

(371) “ Maintenant le fruit et l’vsage d’icelle est aneanti;” — “The fruit and advantage of it are now made void.”

(372) “ Le signe qui la figuroit s’esuanouit comme vn ombre;” — “The sign which prefigured it vanishes like a shadow.”

(373) “ Ce despouillement;” — “This divesture.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Col. 2:11. In whom also ye are circumcised by the circumcision of Christ.What to the Jew was a bodily act, at best symbolical and of no value otherwise, was to the Colossian disciple a spiritual renovation, so complete as to render the old symbol of it inadequate.

Col. 2:12. Buried risen.Referring to the definite acts when, as Christian converts, they went beneath the baptismal waters and emerged to live the faith thus publicly confessed. Through the faith of the operation of God.An obscure phrase. The R.V. is clear: Through faith in the working of God.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Col. 2:11-12

Christian Circumcision.

There were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that was doing so much damage at Coloss. One was the theological error of substituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the divine Head Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon ritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching. Thus their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at fault. Both errors flowed from a common sourcethe false conception that evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal heresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in Christ without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the apostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.
I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.Ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands (Col. 2:11). The hand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly clear in the language of the Old Testament: No stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into My sanctuary. The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul. The argument of the apostle is that the Colossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the ancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made without hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that it was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the abrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom. 2:28-29).

II. Christian circumcision is complete.In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh (Col. 2:11); or, as Bengel translates, putting off the body of the sinsthat is to say, the flesh. Manual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting away of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual circumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away with disgust the whole body of our corrupt naturethe entire fleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a body, because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom. 7:24), and the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural body (Gen. 6:5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of sin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his rags, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old things pass away; all things become new.

III. Christian circumcision is divine.By the circumcision of Christ (Col. 2:11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward, invisible power of the divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the external form of the circumcision of the law, and fulfils all its spiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the spiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be effected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by philosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of Christ. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and renewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral perfection.

IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough identification of the believer with Christ in His death and resurrection.Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him (Col. 2:12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true circumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the New Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him, to be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (Col. 2:13; Rom. 6:11; Eph. 2:5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by mere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of self-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental culture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and incorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him in all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the grave where the vast body of sin dies, and is buried; and with Christ he emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul into a diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and melodious praise.

V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual baptism.Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him (Col. 2:12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it does not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of baptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer to spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the circumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the flesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same character. It is by the baptism of the Spiritthe quickening and renewing power of the Holy Ghostthat the soul is so united to and identified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and to rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with Him without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do either without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; as he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.

VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.Through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead (Col. 2:12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It is a divine gift, and is bestowed on man by a divine operation. Man can believe because God has given him the power to believe. No unbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual resurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the power of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious baptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral vileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of the soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the transforming operations of the divine energy.

Lessons.

1. All external ordinances are powerless to change the heart.

2. The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

3. To realise the renewing power of God faith is indispensable.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Col. 2:11. The True Circumcision

I. Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.

II. Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who has conquered sin.

III. Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a holy life.

Col. 2:12. The True Baptism

I. Is spiritual regeneration.

II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.

III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.

IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means of salvation.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

11. in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; 12. having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Translation and Paraphrase

11. And (to show you why we must hold only to Christ and reject the traditions of men,) in him you were circumcised by a circumcision not done by hands, (but brought about) by putting off the (deeds of your sinful) body of flesh; (and all this made possible for you) by (your participation in) the circumcision of Christ.

12. (Your putting off the body of flesh, and participating in the circumcision of Christ took place in your) being buried with him by baptism, in which (act) you also were raised up (to a newness of life) through (the means of your) faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

Notes

1.

Col. 2:11-12 teaches us that Christ gives us perfect circumcision, and that this is accomplished in baptism.

2.

The rather unexpected reference here to circumcision suggests that among the Colossians circumcision had been discussed, if not absolutely demanded.

3.

Among the Jews there had always been two conflicting views of circumcision: (1) Circumcision by itself made a man good; (2) Circumcision was a sign of the good already in a man. When circumcision was first introduced among the Hebrews, it was a sign of the righteousness a man possessed before the circumcision was done. Thus Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people, was first declared righteous (Gen. 15:6), and much later circumcised (Gen. 17:10-11) as a token of Gods covenant with him. (Rom. 4:9-11).

However, after the time of Abraham Jewish infants were circumcised when eight days old. Therefore their circumcision could not have been a sign of their righteousness prior to circumcision, but only of their relationship to God through Abraham. Nonetheless if these circumcised individuals did not live righteously as they grew up, their circumcision alone did not make them acceptable to God. The Old Testament and the New alike speak of uncircumcised hearts, and ears and lips: hearts, ears, and lips that were not acceptable to God, even though the individual was circumcised. (Act. 7:51; Rom. 2:25; Rom. 2:29; Deu. 10:16; Jer. 4:4.)

To sum this up, we observe that circumcision was an essential act to be in covenant relationship with God, but the act was rendered worthless if the persons life was ungodly.

4.

The Jewish-Gnostic-pagan-Christian heretics at Colossae were saying, You must be circumcised. Paul says that in Christ we already have this honor. We are circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands.

As circumcision in former times marked a child as being in covenant relationship with God through Abraham, in a like manner Christians are circumcised and marked as being in covenant relation with God through Christ.

5.

The question that comes to our minds as we think about this circumcision not made with hands is this: How can we obtain this wonderful circumcision? Three answers are given by Paul to this question:

(1) By putting off the body of the flesh. (Rom. 6:6). This seems to refer to our putting away the sinful deeds done by our bodies. (This is a figure of speech in which the body doing the sinful acts stands for the acts themselves.) We must repent of our sins done in the body. Paul in Rom. 8:4-7 warns us that we cannot do the sins of the flesh and please God. So also in Gal. 5:17; Gal. 5:19; Gal. 5:23.

(2) In the circumcision of Christ. When Christians enter into their union with Christ, His death becomes their death; His resurrection becomes their resurrection; His circumcision becomes their circumcision; His righteousness becomes our righteousness. We are circumcised in that He was circumcised. (Luk. 2:21).

(3) By baptism. Baptism is the third factor that causes us to experience the circumcision not made with hands. (1Pe. 3:21).

As a result of these three things, Christians become the true circumcision, the people who are in covenant with God. See notes on Php. 3:2-3.

6.

The expression at the start of Col. 2:12 buried with him in baptism, refers back to circumcision in Col. 2:11. Baptism takes the place of circumcision for us. Circumcision could be said to be a type of baptism. (By type we refer to some Old Testament person, event, or thing which foreshadowed some similar New Testament person, event or thing. The N.T. thing which was foreshadowed is called the antitype.)

7.

The comparison between circumcision and baptism follows the same pattern as the comparisons between all the O.T. types and their N.T. counterparts: in some respects the types are like the antitypes, and in some other respects they differed.

The failure to recognize the differences between baptism and circumcision as well as their similarities has led to a grievous error: many interpreters argue that as infants were circumcised, so infants should now be baptized. As infants were brought into Gods covenant by circumcision, so now infants are brought into Gods covenant by baptism. This argument is used by almost every advocate of infant baptism. (For an example of it see Wm. Hendricksons commentary on Colossians and Philemon p. 116, footnote.)

This argument cannot be true. Note the plain statement in Col. 2:12 that in baptism we are raised with Christ through FAITH in the working of God. Obviously then those who are baptized (and thereby circumcised) are those who have faith, This eliminates infants.

Also Col. 1:11 says that we are circumcised by the putting off of the body of flesh. No eight-day old infant is capable of fleshly sins, nor of repenting and putting off the body of flesh.

We wonder why those who insist that baptism is for infants because circumcision was for infants, do not insist that baptism be done on the eighth day of a childs life, since circumcision was to be done on that day. Even Wm. Barclay affirms that baptism in New Testament times was for adults only. (Wm. Barclay, Letters to the Philippians, Colossians and Thessalonians, pp. 167168.)

8.

CIRCUMCISION

BAPTISM

(Col. 2:11-13)

1.

For the O.T. age.

1.

For the N.T. age.

2.

Related men to Abraham and Gods covenant; Gen. 17:9-10.

2.

Relates us to Abraham Gods promise; Gal. 3:27; Gal. 3:29.

3.

A physical putting away of flesh.

3.

A putting away of sinful deeds of the flesh.

4.

A sign (token) of Gods covenant; Gen. 17:11.

4.

Not called a sign of anything. It is not an outward sign of an inward grace.

5.

Righteousness required of those circumcised; Deu. 10:16.

5.

Righteousness required of those baptized; Rom. 6:4; Rom. 6:6.

6.

For infants; Gen. 17:11.

6.

For those who have faith; Col. 2:12.

7.

For males; Gen. 17:12.

7.

For all; Gal. 3:27-28.

8.

Essential; Gen. 17:14.

8.

Essential; Act. 2:38; Rom. 6:3-4.

9.

Col. 2:12 tells us that we are buried with Christ and raised with him by baptism. This thought is discussed at length in Rom. 6:1-11. This thought seems to be introduced here in Colossians as an explanation of how we share the circumcision of Christ. In Col. 2:11 Paul said that we are circumcised . . . in the circumcision of Christ. Then in Col. 2:12 he indicates that this is brought about by our having been buried and raised with Christ in baptism. In being raised with Christ we share all the triumphs of the risen Christ, including the privileges that came in the O.T. age to those circumcised. These included all the promises to Abraham concerning how his seed would bless the world. (Gen. 12:1-3; Gen. 22:17-18).

10.

The allusion to burial by baptism recalls to our minds that in the primitive church baptism was done by the act of immersion, or completely dipping the body of the one baptized under water for an instant. We are buried in the water as he was buried in the tomb. Many old baptistries designed for immersion still remain in the Holy Land and surrounding countries; examples can be seen in Capernaum, Nazareth, and dozens of other places.

However, the burial Paul alludes to in Col. 2:12 is a spiritual burial. Our old man, our old nature, is buried, done away with, and disposed of as we are united with Christ. His death and burial becomes our death and burial. We are released from sins by death. (Rom. 7:7).

11.

Baptism alone has no magic, no power. It MUST be accompanied and preceded by faith in the working of God. Note that it is not enough to believe that God exists. We must believe that he works, and works for us. (Php. 2:13). Do you believe that God works in our world and in your life? God has always required faith of his people, faith that he will work for them and save them. The great failure of the Israelites in the desert under Moses was that their knowledge of God was not accompanied by faith that God would use His power for them (Heb. 4:2).

12.

Paul reminds us that God raised Christ from the dead. We must believe this fact to be saved. (Rom. 10:9). Christs resurrection is a historical fact, but it is also a part of our experience. When we receive Christ, his resurrection becomes our resurrection unto a new life. Note that Col. 2:12 refers to two resurrections: Christs and ours. The same God accomplished both resurrections.

13.

In summary, Col. 2:11-12 teaches us that Christ gives us perfect circumcision, and that this is accomplished in baptism, in which we are both buried and raised with Christ, if we have faith in Gods working.

Study and Review

19.

Wherein are Christians circumcised? (Col. 2:11)

20.

What sort of circumcision do Christians have?

21.

What must Christians put off to be truly circumcised?

22.

How does Christs circumcision relate to us?

23.

In what act is our circumcision done? (Col. 2:12)

24.

What two experiences of Christ do we share when we are baptized?

25.

What is accomplished through our faith when we are baptized?

26.

What are we to have faith in? (Col. 2:12)

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(11) The circumcision made without hands.This abrupt introduction of the idea of circumcision would be difficult to understand, were it not for the knowledge of the enforcement of Jewish observance so strangely mixed with this philosophy at Coloss. (Comp. Eph. 2:11, Ye who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made with hands.) The phrase made without hands is so constantly used of heavenly realities (as in Mar. 14:58; 2Co. 5:1; Heb. 9:11; Heb. 9:24), as opposed to earthly symbols, that it comes to have the positive sense of spiritual. It is defined below as the circumcision of Christthat which Christ has given us in Himselfin contradistinction to the old circumcision which is now nothing. (On the treatment of this subject in the Epistles of this period, comp. with this passage Eph. 2:11-12; Php. 3:2-3, and see Notes there.)

In putting off the body . . .The words of the sins are not found in the best MSS. They are, no doubt, an explanatory gloss to soften the harshness of the phrase the body of the flesh. (1) What the body of the flesh is we see clearly by Col. 3:9, having put off the old man. It is, like the body of sin (in Rom. 6:6) and the body of death (in Rom. 7:24), the body so far as it is, in the bad sense of the word flesh, fleshly. The body itself is not put off: for it is not evil; it is a part of the true man, and becomes the temple of God. It is only so far as in it the flesh rebels against the spirit, and the old man is gradually corrupted by the lusts of deceit (Eph. 4:22), that it is to be put off. (2) But why the body of the flesh, and not the flesh simply? The answer is, no doubt, that which Chrysostom here gives, that the bodily circumcision was but of one member, in mere symbolism of one form of purity; the spiritual circumcision is the putting away of the whole of the power of the flesh, and that, too, not in symbol, but in reality.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

3. The advantage offered already obtained in Christ, Col 2:11-13.

11. Ye are circumcised The aorist were. The “philosophy” enjoined certain Jewish legal observances, of which circumcision is taken as the representative. But in their union with Christ, they had, at their conversion and baptism, already received the real, spiritual circumcision in their regeneration, of which the outward rite was only a symbol. The former was without hands, and divine; the latter with hands, and human. In the latter a small portion of flesh was cut off; in the former the whole body of the

flesh, spiritually speaking, was put off in the solemn renunciation of a life of carnality and sin. The circumcision of Christ is that which he works in our spiritual renewal through union with himself.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘In whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead.’

In Christ all who are His are circumcised with a spiritual circumcision. They do not need to be circumcised physically, for they have experienced something far greater. Physical circumcision, and the shedding of blood it entailed, was but a picture, pointing ahead to that great ‘circumcision of Christ’ when His blood was shed and He was cast off, not just a small part of Him, but His whole body on the cross, a sacrifice for sin. We too, once we have come to Him in confident trust that He will work within us, have died with Him, have put off the body of flesh, have been buried with Him, and have also been raised through faith in the working of God Who raised Him from the dead (Rom 6:4-11; Gal 2:20; Eph 2:1-10).

‘A circumcision not made with hands.’ This spiritual circumcision was already referred to in the Old Testament. It is found in Exo 6:12; Exo 6:30 where reference is made to uncircumcised lips which are thus unclean and unworthy; in Deu 10:16 where it refers to the heart being ‘circumcised’ resulting in humility and obedience (compare Jer 4:4; Eze 44:7; Eze 44:9); in Deu 30:6 where it refers again to the circumcision of the heart which results in men loving God with their whole being; and in Jer 6:10 where the uncircumcised heart is the one that does not listen to God (compare Jer 31:33, where God will make His people hearers of His word by spiritual work within them). Thus this spiritual circumcision produces pure lips, responsive hearing, humility and obedience and a heart filled with love for God.

‘In the stripping right off of the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ.’ This spiritual circumcision results from being united with Christ in His death. This results in our ‘stripping right off’ the body of flesh, that is, our fleshly attitude and behaviour with its consequent rebellion against God, even as Christ through His sacrificial death put off His body which was bearing our sins (1Pe 2:24). This ‘body of flesh’ is elsewhere described as ‘the body of sin’ which is done away in Christ’s death (Rom 6:6); ‘this body of death’ because its behaviour results in death (Rom 7:24), and ‘the body of our humiliation’, referring to our sinful and unworthy condition (Php 3:21).

‘Through the circumcision of Christ.’ Not a participation in His earthly circumcision but in His greater, more extreme, circumcision through the cross, which ratified the new covenant as circumcision had the old. By participation with Him in His cross we become members of the new covenant. Alternately, but less likely, it may mean ‘through the spiritual circumcision that Christ wrought in us’.

‘Having been buried with Him in baptism, wherein also you were raised with Him.’ The primary baptism in mind here is the ‘spiritual baptism’ described in 1Co 12:13, where he says ‘by One Spirit we were all baptised into one body — and were all made to drink of one Spirit’. This is describing the result of the work of the Spirit on the heart, which then results, for the convert, in physical baptism in water which symbolises it. As the circumcision described is spiritual and not physical so is the primary idea of ‘baptism’. The ‘baptism (drenching) in Holy Spirit’ refers to the coming work of the Spirit constantly described in the prophets in terms of drenching rain (see especially Isa 44:3-5), and that was what John the Baptiser’s baptism symbolised. He spoke always in terms of such fruitfulness of nature and never in terms of washing.

(It is quite remarkable how many in the church have sidelined the clear background to early baptism in fruitful cornfields and fruitful trees resulting from the rain, the basis of John the Baptiser’s teaching, and the drinking of water from springs fed by those rains which Jesus emphasised (John 4). See also Joh 7:37-38), where the fruitful rain and the drinking are in mind in context (it was at a rain ceremony). While His ‘born from above’ (Joh 3:6) clearly has the rains in mind. Both ideas were based on the prophetic references to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit in terms of such rain (Isa 32:15; Isa 44:3-5). This failure was because much of the later church was so taken up with religious ceremony that it looked for pure religious ceremony in it. So they seized on Old Testament washings for its background, in spite of the fact that such washings were never directly connected with cleansing from sin (except when sprinkled with sacrificial ashes). They did not in themselves cleanse – ‘shall not be clean until the evening’ is a constant refrain – and the New Testament never connects baptism with such ideas except to deny it – 1Pe 3:21).

Paul may well have in mind here the idea of the water of baptism being like a grave into which a man goes to rise again, but it is not his own grave but the grave of Christ in which he is buried and it is His resurrection in which he partakes. And this too is agriculturally connected, for the corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies (Joh 12:24). So this follows the idea of a dead nature springing into new life with the re-commencement of the rains, and depicts what has already taken place in the convert’s life, sealed by his baptism outwardly because he has already received the seal of the Spirit inwardly.

(It should be noted that baptism is never specifically described as washing, it is a symbol of new life in the Spirit. It is ‘the word’ which is said to wash (Eph 5:26), and ritual washings were never said to ‘cleanse’ directly. They were regularly accompanied by the phrase ‘and shall not be clean until the evening’. They were a mere preparation, a removing of physical defilement, for the waiting on a holy God for Him to cleanse).

The primary stress here therefore is on dying with Christ, being buried with Him and rising with Him in newness of life (Rom 6:4-9), having been watered (baptizo – ‘drenched’) by the Spirit, being born anew, just as in hot countries the barren land springs into new life when the rains commence..

‘Through faith in the working of God Who raised Him from the dead.’ This all comes about through the responsive faith of the one who is so transformed, a faith which trusts in the powerful working of God in resurrection power (compare Eph 2:1-10). It is faith that saves (Eph 2:8-9) and results in the receiving of the Spirit (Gal 3:2). Baptism bears witness to that faith and thereby seals the blessing for those who truly believe.

‘The working of God.’ The power of God revealed in the resurrection of Christ is made available to the believer through faith. This power is revealed to its fullest extent in Eph 1:19-23, where Christ is raised and enthroned ‘far above all’, and through this resurrection Jesus is declared to the powerful Son of God (Rom 1:4) by the Holy Spirit, Who communicates that power to believers. Thus the believer is aware that the greatest power in the universe is exercised on his behalf to ensure his final salvation.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Col 2:11. In whom also ye are circumcised St. Paul uses this argument in opposition to those who pleaded for the necessity of external circumcision. He assures the Colossians, that they had no need of this circumcision, as they were circumcised with that kind of circumcision which the external rite was intended to express; namely, the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, and initiated by that means into his church, as the members of it formerly were by external circumcision. See the next verse, and Rom 2:28-29.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Col 2:11 . Respecting the connection and its reference to the false teachers, so far as they “Iegem evangelio miscebant” (Calvin), see on Col 2:10 .

] like in Col 2:10 : on whom it also causally depends that ye, etc. This applies to the point of time of their entrance into the union with Christ, as is clear from the historical ., which took place on them through their conversion (comp. Col 2:12 ).

] also circumcised were ye. The is the simple also, which, however, does not introduce an element included under . (Hofmann), but to the previous relative statement ( . . .) appends another; comp. Col 2:12 . Hofmann’s objection, that the foregoing relative statement has indeed reference to the readers, but is made without reference to them , is an empty subtlety, which is connected with the erroneous rendering of . .

.] is not supplementary and parenthetical (Hofmann), as if Paul had written ., but appends immediately to . its characteristic , whereby it is distinguished from what is elsewhere meant by circumcision; hence the thought is: “in your union with Christ there has also taken place a circumcision upon you (Gentiles), which is not (like the Jewish circumcision) the work of hands; ” comp. Eph 2:11 . On the word . itself (which is similar to , Poll . ii. 154), in analogous antithetical reference, comp. Mar 14:58 ; 2Co 5:1 ; and on the idea of the inner ethical circumcision, of which the bodily is the type, comp. Deu 10:16 ; Deu 30:6 ; Eze 44:7 ; Act 7:51 . See Michaelis in loc ., and the expositors on Rom 2:29 ; Schoettgen, Hor . I. p. 815.

. . .] This characteristic . . took place by means of the putting off of the body of the flesh , which was accomplished in your case (observe the passive connection), i.e . in that the body, whose essence and nature are flesh, was taken off and put away from you by God . [96] With reference to . . ., which is to be coupled not merely with (Hofmann), but with the entire specifically defined conception of circumcision . . . , it is to be noticed: (1) that the genitive is the genitivus materiae , as in Col 1:22 ; (2) that the here is not indifferent, but means the flesh as the seat of sin, and of its lusts and strivings (Rom 7:23 ; Rom 7:25 ; Rom 8:3 ; Rom 8:13 ; Gal 5:16 ; Eph 2:3 ; Col 3:5 , et al .); so that Paul (3) might have conveyed the idea of . also by (Rom 6:6 ), but the description by was suggested to him by the thought of the circumcision (Rom 2:28 ; Eph 2:11 ). (4) The significant and weighty expression (the substantive used only here, the verb also in Col 2:15 ; Col 3:9 ; Josephus, Antt . vi. 14. 2) is selected in contrast to the operation of the legal circumcision, which only wounded the . and removed a portion of one member of it; whereas the spiritual circumcision, divinely performed, consisted in a complete parting and doing away with this body, in so far as God, by means of this ethical circumcision, has taken off and removed the sinful body from man (the two acts are expressed by the double compound), like a garment which is drawn off and laid aside. Ethically circumcised, i.e . translated by conversion from the estate of sin into that of the Christian life of faith and righteousness (see Col 2:12 ), consequently born again as , [97] as a created after God (Eph 4:24 ), man has no longer any at all, because the body which he has is rid of the sinful as such, as regards its sinful quality; he is no longer as previously, when lust (Rom 7:5 ; comp. Col 2:23 ); he is no longer , (Rom 7:14 ), but is dead for sin (Rom 6:11 ); he has crucified the (Gal 5:24 ), and no longer walks , but (Rom 7:6 ); by the law of the Holy Spirit he is freed from the law of sin and death (Rom 8:2 ), (Rom 8:9 ), dead with Christ (Gal 2:19 ; 2Co 5:14 ; Col 3:3 ), and risen, so that his members are (Rom 6:13 ). This Christian transformation is represented in its ideal aspect, which disregards the empirical imperfection, according to which the is still doubtless even in the regenerate at variance with the (Gal 5:17 ). Our dogmatists well describe regeneration as perfecta a parte Dei , but as imperfecta a parte hominum recipientium . To take in the sense of massa or aggregate (Calvin, Grotius, Calovius, and others, including Steiger and Bhr [98] ), is opposed as well to the context, in which the discourse turns upon circumcision and (Col 2:12 ) upon burial and resurrection , as also to the linguistic usage of the N. T. In classic authors it expresses the notion in question in the physical sense, e.g . Plat. Tim . p. 32 C: (comp. p. 31 B, Hipp. maj . p. 301 B), and in later writers may also denote generally a whole consisting of parts (comp. Cicero, ad Att . 2:1. 4). In opposition to the erroneous assumption that must have a figurative meaning here, as Julius Mller, v. d. Snde , I. p. 459 f., still in the 5th ed., thinks, [99] see on Rom 6:6 ; comp. also Hofmann, Schriftbew . I. p. 560 f.

.] by means of the circumcision of Christ, parallel to the previous . . ., naming specifically (as different from that of the Old Testament) the circumcision described previously according to its nature. The genitive is to be rendered: the circumcision, which is produced through Christ . The context requires this by the further explanation of the thing itself in Col 2:12 . Comp. above, . But Christ is not conceived of as Himself the circumciser , in so far, namely, as by baptism (Theophylact, Beza, and others), or by His Spirit (Bleek), He accomplishes the cleansing and sanctification of man (see on Col 2:12 ); but as the One through whom, in virtue of the effective living union that takes place in conversion between man and Himself, this divine , in its character specifically different from the Israelite circumcision, is practically brought about and rendered a reality , and in so far it is based on Christ as its (Theodoret). It is not, however, baptism itself (Hofmann, following older expositors) that is meant by the circumcision of Christ, although the predicate . would not be in opposition to this view, but the spiritual transformation, that consecration of a holy state of life, which takes place in baptism; see Col 2:12 : . According to Schneckenburger, in the Theol. Jahrb . 1848, p. 286 ff., the . . . . is meant of the death of Christ , and also the . is meant to denote this death , so that the latter is an explanation by way of application of the former, in opposition to the heretical recommendation of a bodily or mystical . It may be decisively urged against this view, that after there is no , (comp. Col 1:22 ), which was absolutely necessary, if the reader was to think of another subject than that of ; further, that , in Col 2:13 , stands in significant retrospective reference to the . . ; and that . . . in Col 2:12 is synchronous with . . ., and represents substantially the same thing. Moreover, the description of the death of Christ as His circumcision would be all the more inappropriate, since, in the case of Christ, the actual circumcision was not absent. According to Holtzmann, the entire clause: . . . . ., . . . ., should be deleted as an addition of the interpolator, because the expression has occurred at Col 1:22 in quite another namely, an indifferent, genuinely Pauline reference. This reason is incorrect, because in Col 1:22 it is not , but , and this makes the great essential difference between the expression in that passage and that employed in our present one.

[96] Compare Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 171. The same writer, however, now objects that cannot have passive significance. But this it is not alleged to have: God is the i.e. He who, as author of regeneration, puts off from man the body of flesh.

[97] The epoch of this transformation is baptism (see Weiss, Bibl. Theol. p. 439, Exo 2 ; comp. Holtzmann, p. 178), by which, however, the baptism of Christian, children is by no means assumed as the antitype of circumcision (Steiger, Philippi). Comp. on 1Co 7:14 ; Act 16:15 .

[98] Comp. also Philippi, Glaubensl. V. 2, p. 225, who declares my explanation to be forced, without proof, and contrary to the Scripture; and Reiche, Comm. crit. p. 274, who understands of the “toto quasi vitiositatis ( . ) corpore,” so that the putting away of all immorality is denoted. Similarly Dalmer.

[99] Mller also holds that Paul here conceives the old sinful nature as a body which, in regeneration, the Christian puts off; and that is to be understood only of the earthly-human life.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

(11) In 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: (12) Buried 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. (13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (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; (15) And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

On the subject of circumcision, to which these verses refer, I do not think it necessary to enlarge, having already dwelt upon it on, Romans second and sixth chapters. I would only in addition, take occasion from what is here said, to observe, how needful it is to eye Christ in all. The circumcision made with hands, and the uncircumcision made without hands, had Christ for their sole object. The circumcision of the Jew, and the baptism of the Gentile, both looked to Him, centered in Him, and in Him had their accomplishment. All but Christ is shadow. He alone is the substance.

I detain the Reader at the expression in the close of this paragraph, to remark, that when it is said of Christ having spoiled principalities and powers, and made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it; the original is much stronger, for it saith, triumphing over them in himself meaning, that his triumphs were personal. Jesus took the glory to himself. And the margin of the Bible very properly hath so retained it. It is always blessed to eye Christ’s Person in all, for his Person, in all the work of redemption, is the glorious object of our – faith and hope. See Col 1:20 and Commentary.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

11 In 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:

Ver. 11. Made without hands ] Oh, how honourable (saith an interpreter) is the work of mortification, even as to make those huge heavens, &c.

By the circumcision of Christ ] Which circumciseth our hearts, pulling off that wretched foreskin.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

11 .] (nor do you need the rite of circumcision to make you complete, for you have already received in Him the spiritual substance , of which that rite is but the shadow) in whom ye also were circumcised (not as E. V. ‘ are circumcised,’ the reference being to the historical fact of their baptism) with a circumcision not wrought by hands (see Eph 2:11 , and Rom 2:29 . The same reference to spiritual (ethical) circumcision is found in Deu 10:16 ; Deu 30:6 ; Eze 44:7 ; Act 7:51 ), in (consisting in which found its realization in) your putting off (= when you threw off: . , the putting off and laying aside, as a garment: an allusion to actual circumcision, see below) of the body of the flesh (i.e. as ch. Col 1:22 , the body of which the material was flesh: but more here: so also its designating attribute, its leading principle, was fleshliness the domination of the flesh which is a , Rom 8:3 . This body is put off in baptism, the sign and seal of the new life. “When ethically circumcised, i.e. translated by out of the state of sin into that of the Christian life of faith, we have no more the : for the body, which we bear, is disarrayed of its sinful as such , quoad its sinful quality: we are no more as before, when lust (Rom 7:5 , cf. ib. Rom 2:23 ): we are no more , ( Rom 7:14 ), and walk no more , but ( Rom 7:6 ), so that our members are ( Rom 6:13 ). This Christian transformation is set forth in its ideal conception, irrespective of its imperfect realization in our experience.” Meyer. To understand to signify ‘ the mass ,’ us Calv. (‘corpus appellat massam ex omnibus vitiis conflatam, eleganti metaphora’), Grot. (‘omne quod ex multis componitur solet hoc vocabulo appellari’), al., besides that it is bound up very much with the reading , is out of keeping with N. T. usage, and with the context, which is full of images connected with the body ), in (parallel to before then the circumcision without hands was explained , now it is again adduced with another epithet bringing it nearer home to them) the circumcision of Christ (belonging to, brought about by union with, Christ: nearly =, but expresses more than ‘ Christian circumcision ,’ inasmuch as it shews that the root and cause of this circumcision without hands is in Christ, the union with whom is immediately set forth. Two other interpretations are given: 1) that in which Christ is regarded as the circumciser : . , , Thl., but not exactly so Chrys., who says, ., . , , . , . Beza combines both ‘Christus ipse nos intus suo spiritu circumcidit.’ 2) that in which Christ is the circumcised so Schttg.: “per circumcisionem Christi nos omnes circumcisi sumus. Hoc est: circumeisio Christi qui se nostri causa sponte legi subjecit, tam efficax fuit in omnes homines, ut nulla amplius circumcisione carnis opus sit, prcipue quum in locum illius baptismus a Christo surrogatus sit” (i. p. 816). The objection to both is, that they introduce irrelevant elements into the context. The circumcision which Christ works , would not naturally be followed by , union with Him: that which was wrought on Him might be thus followed, but would not come in naturally in a passage which describes, not the universal efficacy of the rite once for all performed on Him, but the actual undergoing of it in a spiritual sense, by each one of us),

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Col 2:11 . The reference to circumcision seems to come in abruptly. But probably it stands in close connexion with what has gone before. For the return to the principalities and powers in Col 2:15 shows that Paul is not passing here to a new section of his subject. Judaism, of which circumcision was the most characteristic feature, was regarded as under angelic powers, and the removal of them meant its abolition. It seems probable that the false teachers set a high value on circumcision, and urged it on the Colossians, not as indispensable to salvation, in which case Paul would have definitely attacked them on this point, but as conferring a higher sanctity. There seems to be no suggestion that it was regarded as a charm against evil spirits. The Apostle does not merely leave them with the statement that they have been made full in Christ, which rendered circumcision unnecessary, but adds that they have already received circumcision, not material but spiritual, not the removal of a fragment of the body, but the complete putting off of the body of flesh. . A definite historical fact is referred to, as is shown by the aorist. This was their conversion, the inward circumcision of the heart, by which they entered on the blessings of the New Covenant. The outward sign of this is baptism, with which Paul connects it in the next verse. But it cannot be identified with it, for it is not made with hands. The circumcision of the heart is a prophetic idea (Deu 10:16 ; Deu 30:6 , Jer 4:4 ; Jer 9:25 , Eze 44:7 ; Eze 44:9 ). In Paul it occurs Rom 2:28-29 , Phi 3:3 . : “with 2 circumcision not wrought by hands,” i.e. , spiritual, ethical ( cf. Eph 2:11 , ). : “in the stripping from you of the body of the flesh”. The expression . is unusual. It means the body which consists of flesh, and of flesh as the seat of sin. By the removal of the home in which sin dwelt sin itself was removed. It is one of those cases in which the sense of approximates to that of . This body of flesh is removed from the Christian at his conversion. . This cannot be the circumcision endured by Christ in His infancy, for that was wrought by hands, and such a reference would be most unfortunate for the polemic against ceremonies and altogether un-Pauline. Usually it is explained as the circumcision of our hearts which comes from Christ. But this has no parallel in the N.T.; further, it practically repeats . .; and, coming between the removal of the body of the flesh and the burial with Christ, breaks the connexion. Accordingly Schneckenburger (followed by Kl [13] , Sod., Haupt) suggested that it was really an expression for the death of Christ. (His view that . . . . . was to be taken similarly has met with no acceptance.) In favour of this it may be said that in the immediate context Paul goes on to speak of burial and resurrection with Christ, and a reference to the death would naturally precede. And circumcision is a happy metaphor for Christ’s death to sin (Rom 6:10 ). Meyer’s objection that it is inappropriate since Christ endured actual circumcision is not serious, for, if sound, it should have excluded the choice of these ambiguous words altogether, which naturally suggest a circumcision suffered by Christ. But what creates a grave difficulty is that the thought does not seem to run on connectedly. There is a transition from the death of Christ on the cross to the burial of Christians with Him in their own personal experience. Perhaps this interpretation involves taking of the death of Christians with Christ on the cross (2Co 5:14 ), for it doubles the difficulty if Paul passes from the personal experience of the Christian to the cross, and from the cross back to personal experience. This suggests the possibility that . . might be interpreted on the analogy of . (Col 1:24 ) as the circumcision of Christ in the believer. This would give a good connexion, and one that would suit the apparent identification of the circumcision of Christ with the putting off of the body of the flesh. The phrase, however, is so strange, and the idea that Christ dies with us so questionable (we die with Him), that it seems unsafe to adopt it. It is, therefore, best to mitigate the difficulty by the view that in these words Paul interpolates, in a concise and obscure expression, a reference to the great fact which underlay the spiritual experiences of which he is speaking. This circumcision, he would say, that is the removal of the flesh, was first experienced by Christ on the cross, and what happened to you ideally then is realised though union with Him now.

[13] Klpper.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

also. Should follow “circumcised”.

are = were.

made without hands. See 2Co 5:1.

putting off Greek. apekdusis. Only here.

of the sins. Omit. by. App-104.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

11.] (nor do you need the rite of circumcision to make you complete, for you have already received in Him the spiritual substance, of which that rite is but the shadow) in whom ye also were circumcised (not as E. V. are circumcised,-the reference being to the historical fact of their baptism) with a circumcision not wrought by hands (see Eph 2:11, and Rom 2:29. The same reference to spiritual (ethical) circumcision is found in Deu 10:16; Deu 30:6; Eze 44:7; Act 7:51), in (consisting in-which found its realization in) your putting off (= when you threw off: ., the putting off and laying aside, as a garment: an allusion to actual circumcision,-see below) of the body of the flesh (i.e. as ch. Col 1:22, the body of which the material was flesh: but more here: so also its designating attribute, its leading principle, was fleshliness-the domination of the flesh which is a , Rom 8:3. This body is put off in baptism, the sign and seal of the new life. When ethically circumcised, i.e. translated by out of the state of sin into that of the Christian life of faith, we have no more the : for the body, which we bear, is disarrayed of its sinful as such, quoad its sinful quality: we are no more as before, when lust (Rom 7:5, cf. ib. Rom 2:23): we are no more , (Rom 7:14), and walk no more , but (Rom 7:6), so that our members are (Rom 6:13). This Christian transformation is set forth in its ideal conception, irrespective of its imperfect realization in our experience. Meyer. To understand to signify the mass, us Calv. (corpus appellat massam ex omnibus vitiis conflatam, eleganti metaphora), Grot. (omne quod ex multis componitur solet hoc vocabulo appellari), al.,-besides that it is bound up very much with the reading , is out of keeping with N. T. usage, and with the context, which is full of images connected with the body),-in (parallel to before-then the circumcision without hands was explained, now it is again adduced with another epithet bringing it nearer home to them) the circumcision of Christ (belonging to, brought about by union with, Christ: nearly =, but expresses more than Christian circumcision, inasmuch as it shews that the root and cause of this circumcision without hands is in Christ, the union with whom is immediately set forth. Two other interpretations are given: 1) that in which Christ is regarded as the circumciser: . , , Thl., but not exactly so Chrys., who says, ., . , , . , . Beza combines both-Christus ipse nos intus suo spiritu circumcidit. 2) that in which Christ is the circumcised-so Schttg.: per circumcisionem Christi nos omnes circumcisi sumus. Hoc est: circumeisio Christi qui se nostri causa sponte legi subjecit, tam efficax fuit in omnes homines, ut nulla amplius circumcisione carnis opus sit, prcipue quum in locum illius baptismus a Christo surrogatus sit (i. p. 816). The objection to both is, that they introduce irrelevant elements into the context. The circumcision which Christ works, would not naturally be followed by , union with Him: that which was wrought on Him might be thus followed, but would not come in naturally in a passage which describes, not the universal efficacy of the rite once for all performed on Him, but the actual undergoing of it in a spiritual sense, by each one of us),

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Col 2:11. ) also. Paul now enumerates the steps in the progress of those, who have become partakers of the fulness of Christ.-, ye are circumcised) As circumcision, so baptism, refers to initiation.-, with the circumcision) of the heart.-, not made with hands) An epithet very suitable for the New Testament; comp. Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11; Heb 9:24.-) a word most significant; Col 2:15.- , of the body) This, as a whole, is opposed to the part, uncircumcision: , the putting (stripping) off the body, a mild definition of death. It is different therefore from baptism: it is the circumcision of the heart; it is death spiritual, in a good sense, whereas baptism is compared to burial. [Communion with (joint participation in) the death and burial and resurrection of Christ is described in this and the following verse.-V.g.]- , of the flesh) There is an apposition between the body of sins and the flesh [not the body of the sins of the flesh, as Engl. Vers., but the body of the sins, that is to say, the flesh].- ) by the circumcision of Christ, which accords with the New Testament; a circumcision, to which that of Moses, in the flesh, gives place.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Col 2:11

Col 2:11

in whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands,-There was a literal circumcision of the flesh in the Jewish dispensation; there is a spiritual circumcision in the church of Christ.

in the putting off-As we take off and put away clothes. The readers are said to have put off the old man with his doings’ (Col 3:9), and to have put on the new man (Col 3:10); and again, put on therefore, as Gods elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering. (Col 3:12).

of the body of the flesh,-[The human body looked upon in its material construction, in view of the truth ever to the mind of Paul (Rom 6:12) that through the needs and desires arising from the constitution of our body sin rules all those who have not become obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. For in the man of the world the flesh, although in its self good, has come under the dominion of sin and has become the weapon with which sin enslaves its victims. Hence apart from Christ, mans flesh is sinful flesh (Rom 8:3), and his body a body of sin (Rom 6:6). Circumcision is only the outward removal, by human hands, of a small part of that body which to so many is an instrument by which sin holds them captive. But the servants of Christ have stripped off from themselves and laid aside their entire body of flesh, inasmuch they have been completely rescued from its deadly dominion. Henceforth they stand in a new relation to their own bodies-these are no longer the throne of sin but the temple of God. The apostle says: Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God ? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price: glorify God therefore in your body. (1Co 6:19-20).]

in the circumcision of Christ;-In entering into Christ, they received the true spiritual circumcision made without hands, of which the circumcision of the flesh was a type. That true circumcision was the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by that circumcision or cutting off of the sins which Christ does for us when we enter into him.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Chapter 8 Christ the Antidote to Jewish Legality

Col 2:11-17

In 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: buried 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. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 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; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let 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: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ, (vv. 11-17)

This somewhat lengthy section, beginning (as previously mentioned) in the middle of a sentence, might be more easily expounded if divided into two parts, but it is so intimately linked together that I am taking it up as a whole. Philosophy, as we have observed, is the working of the human mind independently of divine revelation. Legality is the endeavor to use a divinely given code, to which may be added precepts of men, as a means either of salvation in the first instance or of growth in grace afterward. Neither of these conceptions is in accordance with Scripture. By the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. This forever bars out legal works as a procuring cause of salvation. Ye are not under law but under grace. This, as effectually, forbids the thought that holiness of life for the Christian is found in subjecting himself to legal principles. The strength of sin is the law, we are told in 1Co 15:56. It is not, as multitudes have supposed, the strength of holiness or the power for righteousness. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit, who occupies us with Christ crucified, raised, and glorified, that is the dynamic of spirituality.

Gnosticism was as much indebted to Judaism, which it perverted to its own ends, and to a weird Jewish Kabalism, as it was to the vapid reasonings of Gentile philosophers and, as we shall see later, to Mithraic and Zoroastrian mysticism. Here the apostle specifically deals with Jewish legality, and shows how Christians have been forever delivered from the law and the legal principle in its entirety, but are now linked with the risen Christ. For the believer to go back to the law for his perfecting in holiness is, as he shows in the epistle to the Galatians, to fall from grace. That is, it is the virtual setting aside of the gospel of grace, forgetting that having begun in the Spirit we are not to be made perfect by the flesh.

There were those ever dogging the footsteps of the great apostle to the Gentiles who sought to pervert his converts by teaching them, Except ye be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, ye cannot be saved. While the council at Jerusalem gave forth no uncertain sound in opposition to this, it is evident that its decisions were by no means everywhere accepted. It was hard for converts from Judaism to realize their complete deliverance both from the law of Moses as a rule of life, and from the ceremonies and ritual of that law as a means of growth in grace. Here the question at issue is handled in a remarkable manner through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Having declared that we have our completeness in Christ, our exalted Head, he continues: In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ. I omit the words of the sins as being without sufficient manuscript authority. It is not merely a question of sins here, but the flesh itself that is in view. Circumcision was the cutting off of the flesh physically, and it was given by God to picture the judgment of the carnal nature and its complete setting aside. This is what God has done in the cross of Christ. In His cutting off by death when He stood vicariously in our place, we see the end of the flesh as viewed from the divine standpoint. It is cut off, put to one side, as absolutely worthless. The flesh, we read, profiteth nothing. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Therefore God is making no attempt to improve it. Consequently, there is no place for merit so far as man is concerned. He has none, and, blessed be God, he needs none. All merit is in Another!

The same truth is set forth in Christian baptism. Personally, I have no sympathy with those who in our day would seek to do away altogether with water baptism on the plea that there is now, since the full truth of the church is revealed, only one baptism, and that the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Eph 4:4-6 was just as true from Pentecost to Acts 28 as it has ever been since. Paul did not receive the revelation of the mystery after he went to prison. The rapture, which is part of that great mystery, is taught in his earliest epistle-1 Thessalonians. In his postscript to the Roman letter he tells how he has been making known the mystery throughout his ministry, Made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. To the Ephesian elders he said (as recorded in Acts 20) that he had not shunned to declare unto [them] the whole counsel of God. That counsel in its entirety had already been made known to him and was proclaimed among the Gentiles. The baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby believers were brought into the body of Christ took place on the day of Pentecost. It was thus that the body, the church, was formed.

There is no hint of any such supernatural work in a widespread manner after Pauls imprisonment. The body had been formed for years, and each believer was added to it when he received the Spirit. The one baptism of Eph 4:5, in my judgment, cannot refer to this event because this is already mentioned in the previous verse. In verse 4 we read, There is one body, and one Spirit, [and] one hope of your calling. This is the full revelation of the mystery, the body formed by the Spirits baptism, waiting for the coming of the Lord. In verse 5 we have one Lord, one faith, one baptism. This is responsibility here on earth-Christ owned as Lord, the church called upon to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and water baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in recognition of our subjection to the one Lord. It is not a question of form, formula, or subjects. It is simply the broad fact declared, that Christianity knows only one baptism, and that, of course, is baptism unto the death of Jesus Christ. To speak of the Holy Spirits baptism as a burial with Christ unto death is nonsense. It is after my identification by faith in death, burial, and resurrection that the Holy Spirit baptizes me into the body.

Nor is this to say that persons who for various reasons, valid or otherwise, may not have been scripturally baptized are not in Christ. In drawing an illustration from what is scripturally correct one does not un-Christianize those who fall short either because of ignorance or willfulness. The argument of verse 12, as I see it, is this: the Christian confesses his identification with a rejected Christ in his baptism. He has owned that the man after the flesh deserved to die. He has died in Christs death. This, therefore, is the end of the responsible man before God. Necessarily then, it is the end of all self-effort, of every attempt to improve the flesh by subjecting it to ordinances, that is, regulations, whether divinely given as in the Old Testament or humanly devised as in so many unscriptural systems. God is not attempting to improve the old man, He has judged him as too evil for any improvement and has, therefore, set him to one side in death. Baptism is the recognition of this. It is burial unto death.

Some translators read, Wherein also ye are risen with him, but the preponderance of evidence is, I believe, in favor of the reading, In whom also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead. It is through faith in the risen Christ that we become the recipients of the new life and are, henceforth, accounted by God as those who, having gone down into death with Him, are now one with Him in resurrection. What place does legality have here? None whatsoever. To put the new man, the man in Christ, under rules and regulations is contrary to the entire principle of new creation.

This is further emphasized in verse 13. We who once were dead in our trespasses and as Gentiles in the uncircumcision of our flesh have now been made to live together with Him, God having forgiven us all trespasses. The word is the same in each case, and if translated sins in the first part of the verse should be sins in the last, otherwise trespasses in each instance. Moreover, the bond that was against us (the handwriting, a term which could only be properly used of the Ten Commandments, which we are distinctly told were the handwriting of God, embraced in ten ordinances, or divinely given rules) because of the sinfulness of our natures, making our disobedience to the law, when once it came to our knowledge, a foregone conclusion, and which therefore made it to us a ministration of death and condemnation, has now been taken out of the way and no longer hangs over us as an unfulfilled obligation. Christ nailed it to His cross.

What are we to understand by this expression, Nailing it to his cross? It may help us if we remember that it was customary under Roman law when criminals were executed by crucifixion, hanging, or impalement to write out a copy of the law they had broken, or to indicate the nature of their offense on a placard and nail it above the victims head that all might know how Rome executed vengeance upon those who violated her criminal code. Pilate wrote out the inscription to be placed over the head of Christ Jesus, and that in three languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, that all might know why the patient Sufferer from Galilee was being publicly executed. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. As the people read this they understood that he was being crucified because He made Himself a king and was thus disloyal to Caesar.

But as God looked upon that cross His holy eye saw, as it were, another inscription altogether. Nailed upon the rood above the head of His blessed Son was the handwriting of ten ordinances given at Sinai. It was because this law had been broken in every point that Jesus poured out His blood, thus giving His life to redeem us from the curse of the law. And so all of our sins have been settled for. There the law, which we had so dishonored, has been magnified to the full in the satisfaction which He made to the divine justice. Thus Christ has become the end of the law to every one that believeth. It is, of course, the Jewish believers Paul has in mind when he says us, for Gentiles were not under the law. But it is true now in principle for us all, to whom the knowledge of the law has come. Christ has, by His death, met every claim against us and canceled the bond we could not pay.

And now as a victorious leader He has come forth from the tomb, having made a prey of the evil principalities and powers who gloated over His apparent defeat when He was crucified through weakness, but who are now themselves defeated in His resurrection. He has ascended to heaven in a glorious triumph, having made a spectacle of them, openly triumphing over them in His cross.

His be the Victors name

Who fought the fight alone,

Triumphant saints no honor claim

His conquest was their own.

By weakness and defeat

He won the meed and crown,

Trod all our foes beneath His feet

By being trodden down.

Bless, bless the Conqueror slain,

Slain in His victory;

Who lived, who died, who lives again,

For thee, His church, for thee.

He took our place upon the cross and now we share in all the results of that work. We are one with Him in the new creation. The law and all its ritual was given to man in the flesh. Christians are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, and the law, as such, has nothing to say to the man in this new sphere beyond the reach of death. And so he concludes this marvelous section with a solemn admonition not to permit ourselves to be disturbed by any who would put us back under the law in any shape or form. Let 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. All these once had their place and he who would be an obedient child of the old covenant was called upon to observe the regulations regarding them scrupulously. All these, however, were but a shadow of things to come-things which have now come-For the body is of Christ.

In the Old Testament dispensation the light of God was shining upon Christ, and all the forms and ceremonies, including even the weekly Sabbaths, were but shadows cast by Him. Since He Himself has come and fulfilled all the redemptive types the believer has everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything. The very fact that He links the Sabbath with the other ceremonies shows clearly that the rule of life for the believer is not the ten words given at Sinai. While confessing this law to be holy, just, and good, the new creation man is not under it. He is, as Paul expresses it elsewhere, under law to Christ, or more properly en-lawed to Christ (1Co 9:21). That is, his responsibility now is to walk in fellowship with the risen Christ, the Head of the body of which he is but a feeble member in whom dwells the Holy Spirit to be the power of the new life-manifested in subjection to the exalted Lord.

None need fear that this will make for a lower standard of piety than if one were under the law as a rule of life. It is a far higher standard. He whose one thought and desire is to manifest the risen life of Christ in all his ways will lead a holier life than he who is seeking to subject the flesh to rules and regulations, even though given from heaven in a dispensation now past. This comes out very strongly in the contrast between the Sabbath of the law and the Lords Day of the new creation. There is no commandment in the New Testament inculcating the sacredness of the first day of the week and demanding that Christians observe it scrupulously for holy purposes, yet the consensus of judgment of spiritually minded believers all through the centuries has led to the honoring of this day as a time of worship, meditation, and Christian testimony, which has given it a preeminence from a spiritual standpoint that the Jewish Sabbath never had.

Nor are we called upon to substitute a Christian ritual service for the Jewish ritual that we have discarded. We worship now by the Spirit of God whose delight it is to occupy the hearts of the redeemed with Him to whom they owe all their blessing. Thus all that is fleshly or carnal must give way, as but prefatory and evanescent, and that which is spiritual and abiding takes its place.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

the sins of

Omit “the sins of.”

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

whom: Deu 10:16, Deu 30:6, Jer 4:4, Rom 2:29, Phi 3:3

without: Mar 14:58, Act 7:48, Act 17:24, 2Co 5:1, Eph 2:11, Heb 9:11, Heb 9:24

in putting: Col 3:8, Col 3:9, Rom 6:6, Eph 4:22

by: Luk 2:21, 2Co 5:17, Gal 2:20, Gal 4:4, Gal 4:5, Eph 2:10-18

Reciprocal: Gen 17:10 – Every Lev 12:3 – General Lev 26:41 – their uncircumcised Jos 5:2 – circumcise Eze 44:7 – uncircumcised in heart Joh 3:6 – born of the flesh Joh 3:10 – and knowest Act 7:51 – uncircumcised Act 15:1 – Except Rom 2:26 – General Rom 3:30 – General Rom 6:4 – even Rom 7:24 – the body of this 1Co 12:13 – by Gal 5:16 – and Heb 8:2 – which

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Col 2:11.) -In whom, too, ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands. There is no need to suppose, with Olshausen, that in these words there is expressed an ideal unity of all His people in Christ in His death and resurrection. Though such an idea may be found in other parts of Scripture, it cannot be found here-save in the exercise of a refined ingenuity. For, first, the formula has its usual significance-union with Him-union created by the Spirit, and effected by faith; and, secondly, the blessing described in the verse had been already enjoyed, for they were and had been believers in Him in whom they are complete. Through their living union with Christ, they had enjoyed the privilege, and were enjoying the results of a spiritual circumcision. Why then should they suffer the incision of a sharp flint or a glittering knife-in itself, at best, but a sign-when they had already experienced the blessing of a circumcision that drew no blood, and gave no pain-a circumcision not made with hands? The meaning of the adjective is very apparent. Mar 14:58, and 2Co 5:1. The circumcision made without hands is plainly opposed to that which is made with hands-. [Eph 2:11.] This idea of a spiritual circumcision was no novel one, for it occurs in the Old Testament in different forms. When Israel was yet in the wilderness, the Divine command was given-Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and at the same period the Divine promise was made-And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. The prophet Jeremiah repeats the i njunction-Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. He also describes a part of the population thus-Behold, their ear is uncircumcised; nay, he declares that the whole house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. Ezekiel speaks of men uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh. Stephen, in his address, used this ancient phraseology, and calls his audience uncircumcised in hearts and ears. The Apostle Paul in other places has similar ideas and language. Schoettgen has adduced like quotations from the Rabbis, and Philo, as is his wont, spiritualizes the ordinance-as . So that the kind of circumcision referred to was easily understood, and could not be misinterpreted. It was besides an invaluable blessing, for it lay-

-In the putting off of the body of the flesh. The noun occurs only here-the verb is found in the 15th verse. The MSS., A, B, C, D1, E1, F, G, etc., omit the words , found in the Received Text. Flesh is corrupted humanity, Rom 7:23; Gal 5:16. [Eph 2:3.] We cannot take in any other than its usual signification, though Calvin, Grotius, Zanchius, Crocius, Bhr, and Steiger, take it in the sense of totality or mass. See under Col 2:9. But the spirit of this exegesis is plainly implied. It is in harmony with the idea of circumcision, that the peculiar phrase-body of the flesh, is used; and the contrast seems to be this, that in the manual circumcision only a portion of one member of the material body was cut off, but in the spiritual circumcision, the whole flesh which is the seat and habitation of sin is cast away and laid aside. The entire slough which encircles the spirit and enslaves it is rolled off, newness of life is felt, and the believer walks no longer after the flesh, is no longer carnal, or does its deeds. As Meyer well says, He who is so circumcised is no more , as heretofore, when concupiscence ; he is no longer , , and walks no longer , but in newness of spirit. It is plain that the spiritual circumcision is not different from regeneration, or the putting off the old man and putting on the new man. The apostle adds a further explanation of this marvellous change, when he says-

-In the circumcision of Christ. Some have regarded the genitive as that of agent, as if the apostle meant – the circumcision which Christ performs. Such is the virtual view of Theophylact, when he says of Christ- . Schoettgen, again, regards the phrase as an allusion to the personal circumcision of Jesus, as if that sufficed for all His people. Neither view is in harmony with the language and context. The circumcision of Christ is that circumcision which belongs to Him, in contradistinction to that which belonged to Moses or to the law. The spiritual circumcision is a blessing which specially belongs to Christ-is of His providing, and is to be enjoyed only in fellowship with Him. That of Moses was made with hands, and was a seal of the Abrahamic or national covenant-that of Christ is no chirurgical process, but is spiritual and effectual in its nature. The mark in the foreskin was the token of being a Jew, but the off-thrown body of the flesh was the index of one’s being a Christian. Though the scar of circumcision might attest a nationality, it was no certificate of personal character-all are not Israel who are of Israel; but, wherever the flesh was parted with, there was the guarantee of individual purity and progress. The charter of Canaan was limited to the manual circumcision, but the true circumcision are thereby infefted in a heavenly inheritance. The Hebrew statute was for the man-child eight days old, but the Christian privilege has no distinction of age, or sex, or nation; for it belongs to every one in Christ. And it was, and is, a chief blessing-the death of sinful principle and the infusion of a higher life-the possession of a new nature, which has Christ for its source, ay, and Christ for its pattern. Thus the flesh is thrown off, and the spirit assumes the predominance, wit h its quickened susceptibilities, its healthful activities, and its intense aspirations-thinking, feeling, and acting, in harmony with its sphere and destiny. And if such a collection of spiritual blessings has been received, why be subjected to a legal ceremony which could be at best but a faint type of them? Surely if they had received the thing signified, they need not now degrade themselves by submitting to a sign, which was in itself only a painful and bloody symbol of the Hebrew nationality and covenant. For a new sign has been appointed-

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Col 2:11. I have consulted several translations, and they put the word are in the past tense, showing it refers to a specific event of the past. The occasion when it was accomplished will be noted in the following verse. Circumcision means a cutting round or off, and when used figuratively it refers to the separation of a man’s sins from his life by his obedience to the Gospel. It was without hands because while its outward form was done by a human act (see next verse), the real performance was spiritual or inward. (See Rom 6:17.) Circumcision of Christ denotes that the whole transaction was accomplished by His authority.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Col 2:11. In whom ye were also circumcised. Also belongs to the verb, not to ye, and a past fact is spoken of (comp. Col 2:12-13); hence were instead of are.

With a (not, the) circumcision, etc. The absence of the article is rhetorical. This higher circumcision is distinguished, as regards first its character, secondly its extent, and thirdly its author (Lightfoot).

Not wrought by hands, contrasted with that wrought by hands (see Eph 2:11; comp. marg. references. This circumcision of the heart consists: in the putting off the body of the flesh. (The phrase of the sins is wanting in the best manuscripts, in other authorities, and is rejected, as a gloss, by all recent editors.) The word putting off is rare (comp. Col 2:15 and chap. Col 3:9), implying both an unclothing and a putting away. The various reading and the context also point to the ethical sense of flesh as the necessary one (see Excursus, Romans 7). But why is the word body used? Paul never teaches that the body is the specifically fleshly (i.e., sinful) part of our being, nor is the reference to the material earthly body an apt one; that body we do not put off at baptism. Hence it seems best to explain the phrase as referring to the organism of sin (comp. Rom 6:6; Rom 7:14). The figure of circumcision naturally suggests this expression. Meyer and others take flesh in the ethical sense, but body in the material sense; the body consisting of the flesh, in its depravity. But even these writers guard their explanation against the notion that the body is the source of sin; the same body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit, is no longer in the flesh.

In the circumcision of Christ. Parallel to the preceding clause; the E. V. (by) is misleading. Of this circumcision Christ is the originating cause: Christ by union with Himself brings about the circumcision and imparts it to believers (Ellicott). It is incorrect to weaken this into Christian circumcision, or to refer it to the circumcision of the child Jesus, or to regard the circumcision as directly wrought by Christ.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The apostle had asserted before, that we are complete in Christ: He proves it now, thus; we want not circumcision: Why? Because we have in Christ the thing signified by circumcision, namely, the spiritual circumcision of the heart, which consists in putting off, by the power of Christ’s Spirit, the body of natural corruption; which done, there was no need of the outward circumcision made with hands, or the cutting off the flesh of the fore-skin.

Observe, Original corruption is a body, or, as a body to us, it cleaves as close to the soul as the flesh to the bones. This body, with all its members, we must be cutting daily by spiritual circumcision or real mortification; and, where that is done, God is well pleased: He regards not that cirumcision which is outward in the flesh, which is made with hands, but that which is inward, the circumcision of the heart, and of the Spirit, whose praise is not of man, but of God.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

The Circumcision of Christ

The Jews stressed the importance of a physical circumcision. In Christ, sinful ways, to which our fleshly desires lead, are cut off. The “circumcision of Christ” may be his death on the cross which made it possible for our sins to be put away from us. Or, it may refer to the putting away that is done when one yields to Christ. The circumcision of our body of sins, as it was described by Paul in the previous verse, is accomplished in baptism. Note, Paul says we are buried in baptism, which would eliminate sprinkling or pouring. When we are raised out of the watery grave, we are cleansed because we showed faith in God’s power to take away sin. Certainly, the God who could raise Jesus from the dead can rescue us from the spiritual death.

The Gentiles were not circumcised. Paul used this outward condition to depict the inward sinful state of men separated from God. Their sins, or trespasses, were actually the problem that caused them to be spiritually dead. God quickened, or made them alive, by forgiving their trespasses. A brief comparison of Luk 24:46-53 , Act 2:38 and the preceding verse in this chapter will show that such forgiveness takes place in baptism ( Col 2:11-13 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Col 2:11-12. In whom also ye are circumcised Ye have received the spiritual blessings signified of old by circumcision; with the circumcision made without hands Namely, an internal, spiritual circumcision; in putting off Not a little skin, but the whole body of the sins of the flesh All the sins proceeding from your corrupt nature; by the circumcision of Christ The circumcision of the heart, which Christ requires and effects. Buried with him, &c. That is, which he wrought in you when you were, as it were, buried with him in baptism The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is as manifestly alluded to here, as the other manner of baptizing by sprinkling, or pouring of water, is, Heb 10:22. But no stress is laid on the age of the baptized, or the manner of performing it, in one or the other place; but only on our being quickened, or renewed, through the powerful operation of his Spirit in the soul, which we cannot but know assuredly, if we really are so: and if we do not experience this, our baptism has not answered the end of its institution. Wherein Or rather, by which; ye are risen with him From the death of sin, to the life of righteousness; through the faith of the operation of God Faith wrought in you by God: see on Eph 2:8; or, through faith in the energy of God, as some render ; who raised him from the dead They who put this latter sense upon the passage explain it thus: The circumcision which Christ performs being accomplished by the influence of the doctrines of the gospel upon the minds of believers, and their belief of these doctrines being founded on their belief of the resurrection of Christ, their belief of that great miracle is justly represented as the means whereby they are made new creatures. The doctrines of the gospel, however, will produce no such effect, unless they be accompanied by the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

ARGUMENT 10

CIRCUMCISION, BAPTISM, AND SANCTIFICATION SYNONYMOUS

11. As physical birth in Judaism emblematized regeneration, circumcision, following quickly, typified sanctification. (Deu 30:6.) Here we know it is spiritual, as it is made without hands;

12. As the baptism here mentioned is in grammatical and logical apposition to circumcision, and only separated by a comma, it is synonymous with it. The resurrection mentioned is by the Spirit, as it is by the same power that raised the body of Christ from the dead; i.e., the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit. It is parallel with Rom 6:4-6, where the crucifixion of the old man, his burial into the death of Christ, and the resurrection of the new man, are all imputed to baptism. It is none other than the one baptism (Eph 4:5) in the glorious plan of salvation. Is that baptism a burial? Not so revealed. We are buried by baptism; i.e., the burial of the old body of sin is one of the effects of baptism, like the crucifixion; but the baptism is the agent, while the crucifixion and burial are the wonderful work wrought by the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 11

Circumcised. The error which seems to have given Paul and the early churches the greatest solicitude, was that of maintaining that circumcision and conformity to the Mosaic law were necessary for the Gentile converts. Hence the frequent allusions to the subject of circumcision, and such assurances as this, that the abandonment of sin through spiritual union with Christ was all the circumcision that was required.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

2:11 {9} In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the {p} body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

(9) Now he deals precisely against the third type, that is to say, against those who urged the Jewish religion: and first of all, he denies that we have need of the circumcision of the flesh, seeing that without it we are circumcised within, by the power of Christ.

(p) These many words are used to show what the old man is, whom Paul in other places calls the body of sin.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Chapter 2

THE TRUE CIRCUMCISION

Col 2:11-13 (R.V.)

THERE are two opposite tendencies ever at work in human nature to corrupt religion. One is of the intellect; the other of the senses. The one is the temptation of the cultured few; the other, that of the vulgar many. The one turns religion into theological speculation; the other, into a theatrical spectacle. But, opposite as these tendencies usually are, they were united in that strange chaos of erroneous opinion and practice which Paul had to front at Colossae. From right and from left he was assailed, and his batteries had to face both ways. Here he is mainly engaged with the error which insisted on imposing circumcision on these Gentile converts.

I. To this teaching of the necessity of circumcision, he first opposes the position that all Christian men, by virtue of their union with Christ, have received the true circumcision, of which the outward rite was a shadow and a prophecy, and that therefore the rite is antiquated and obsolete. His language is emphatic and remarkable. It points to a definite past time-no doubt the time when they became Christians-when, because they were in Christ, a change, passed on them which is fitly paralleled with circumcision. This Christian circumcision is described in three particulars: as “not made with hands”; as consisting in “putting off the body of the flesh”; and as being “of Christ.”

It is “not made with hands,” that is, it is not a rite, but a reality; not transacted in flesh, but in spirit. It is not the removal of ceremonial impurity, but the cleansing of the heart. This idea of ethical circumcision, of which the bodily rite is the type, is common in the Old Testament, as, for instance, “The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart”. {Deu 30:6} This is the true Christian circumcision.

It consists in the “putting off the body of the flesh”-for “the sins of” is an interpolation. Of course a man does not shuffle off this mortal coil when he becomes a Christian, so that we have to look for some other meaning of the strong words. They are very strong, for the word “putting off” is intensified so as to express a complete stripping off from oneself, as of clothes which are laid aside, and is evidently intended to contrast the partial outward circumcision as the removal of a small part of the body, with the entire removal effected by union with Christ. If that removal of “the body of the flesh” is “not made with hands,” then it can only be in the sphere of the spiritual life, that is to say, it must consist in a change in the relation of the two constituents of a mans being, and that of such a kind that, for the future, the Christian shall not live after the flesh, though he live in the flesh. “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,” says Paul, and again he uses an expression as strong as, if not stronger than that of our text, when he speaks of “the body” as “being destroyed,” and explains himself by adding “that henceforth we should not serve sin.” It is not the body considered simply as material and fleshly that we put off, but the body considered as the seat of corrupt and sinful affections and passions. A new principle of life comes into mens hearts which delivers them from the dominion of these, and makes it possible that they should live in the flesh, not “according to the lusts of the flesh, but according to the will of God.” True, the text regards this divesting as complete, whereas, as all Christian men know only too sadly, it is very partial, and realised only by slow degrees. The ideal is represented here, -what we receive “in Him,” rather than what we actually possess and incorporate into our experience. On the Divine side the change is complete. Christ gives complete emancipation from the dominion of sense, and if we are not in reality completely emancipated, it is because we have not taken the things that are freely given to us, and are not completely “in Him.” So far as we are, we have put off “the flesh.” The change has passed on us if we are Christians. We have to work it out day by day. The foe may keep up a guerilla warfare after he is substantially defeated, but his entire subjugation is certain if we keep hold of the strength of Christ.

Finally, this circumcision is described as “of Christ,” by which is not meant that He submitted to it, but that He instituted it.

Such being the force of this statement, what is its bearing on the Apostles purpose? He desires to destroy the teaching that the rite of circumcision was binding on the Christian converts, and he does so by asserting that the gospel has brought the reality, of which the rite was but a picture and a prophecy. The underlying principle is that when we have the thing signified by any Jewish rites, which were all prophetic as well as symbolic, the rite may-must go. Its retention is an anachronism, “as if a flower should shut, and be a bud again.” That is a wise and pregnant principle, but as it comes to the surface again immediately hereafter, and is applied to a whole series of subjects, we may defer the consideration of it, and rather dwell briefly on other matters suggested by this verse.

We notice, then, the intense moral earnestness which leads the Apostle here to put the true centre of gravity of Christianity in moral transformation, and to set all outward rites and ceremonies in a very subordinate place. What had Jesus Christ come from heaven for, and for what had He borne His bitter passion? To what end were the Colossians knit to Him by a tie so strong, tender, and strange? Had they been carried into that inmost depth of union with Him, and were they still to be laying stress on ceremonies? Had Christs work, then, no higher issue than to leave religion bound in the cords of outward observances? Surely Jesus Christ, who gives men a new life by union with Himself, which union is brought about through faith alone, has delivered men from that “yoke of bondage,” if He has done anything at all. Surely they who are joined to Him should have a profounder apprehension of the means and the end of their relation to their Lord than to suppose that it is either brought about by any outward rite, or has any reality unless it makes them pure and good. From that height all questions of external observances dwindle into insignificance, and all question of sacramental efficacy drops away of itself. The vital centre lies in our being joined to Jesus Christ-the condition of which is faith in Him, and the outcome of it a new life which delivers us from the dominion of the flesh. How far away from such conceptions of Christianity are those which busy themselves on either side with matters of detail, with punctilios of observance, and pedantries of form? The hatred of forms may be as completely a form as the most elaborate ritual-and we all need to have our eyes turned away from these to the far higher thing, the worship and service offered by a transformed nature.

We notice, again, that the conquest of the animal nature and the material body is the certain outcome of true union with Christ, and of that alone.

Paul did not regard matter as necessarily evil, as these teachers at Colossae did, nor did he think of the body as the source of all sin. But he knew that the fiercest and most fiery temptations came from it, and that the foulest and most indelible stains on conscience were splashed from the mud which it threw. We all know that too. It is a matter of life and death for each of us to find some means of taming and holding in the animal that is in us all. We all know of wrecked lives, which have been driven on the rocks by the wild passions belonging to the flesh. Fortune, reputation, health, everything are sacrificed by hundreds of men, especially young men, at the sting of this imperious lust. The budding promise of youth, innocence, hope, and all which makes life desirable and a nature fair, are trodden down by the hoofs of the brute. There is no need to speak of that. And when we come to add to this the weaknesses of the flesh, and the needs of the flesh, and the limitations of the flesh, and to remember how often high purposes are frustrated by its shrinking from toil, and how often mists born from its undrained swamps darken the vision that else might gaze on truth and God, we cannot but feel that we do not need to be Eastern Gnostics to believe that goodness requires the flesh to be subdued. Everyone who has sought for self-improvement recognises the necessity. But no asceticisms and no resolves will do what we want.

Much repression may be effected by sheer force of will, but it is like a man holding a wolf by the jaws. The arms begin to ache and the grip to grow slack, and he feels his strength ebbing, and knows that, as soon as he lets go, the brute will fly at his throat. Repression is not taming. Nothing tames the wild beast in us but the power of Christ. He binds it in a silken lash, and that gentle constraint is strong, because the fierceness is gone. “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and a little child shall lead them.” The power of union with Christ, and that alone, will enable us to put off the body of the flesh. And such union will certainly lead to such crucifying of the animal nature. Christianity would be easy if it were a round of observances; it would be comparatively easy if it were a series of outward asceticisms. Anybody can fast or wear a hair shirt, if he have motive sufficient; but the “putting off the body of the flesh” which is “not made with hands,” is a different and harder thing. Nothing else avails. High flown religious emotion, or clear theological definitions, or elaborate ceremonial worship, may all have their value; but a religion which includes them all, and leaves out the plain moralities of subduing the flesh, and keeping our heel well pressed down on the serpents head, is worthless. If we are in Christ, we shall not live in the flesh.

II. The Apostle meets the false teaching of the need for circumcision, by a second consideration; namely, a reference to Christian Baptism, as being the Christian sign of that inward change. Ye were circumcised, says he-being buried with Him in baptism. The form of expression in the Greek implies that the two things are contemporaneous. As if he had said-Do you want any further rite to express that mighty change which passed on you when you came to be “in Christ”? You have been baptised; does not that express all the meaning that circumcision ever had, and much more? What can you want with the less significant rite when you have the more significant? This reference to baptism is quite consistent with what has been said as to the subordinate importance of ritual. Some forms we must have, if there is to be any outward visible Church, and Christ has yielded to the necessity, and given us two, of which the one symbolises the initial spiritual act of the Christian life, and the other the constantly repeated process of Christian nourishment. They are symbols and outward representations, nothing more. They convey grace, in so far as they help us to realise more clearly and to feel more deeply the facts on which our spiritual life is fed, but they are not channels of grace in any other way than any other outward acts of worship may be.

We see that the form of baptism, here presupposed is by immersion, and that the form is regarded as significant. All but entire unanimity prevails among commentators on this point. The burial and the resurrection spoken of point unmistakably to the primitive mode of baptism, as Bishop Lightfoot, the latest and best English expositor of this book, puts it in his paraphrase: “Ye were buried with Christ to your old selves beneath the baptismal waters, and were raised with Him from these same waters, to a new and better life.”

If so, two questions deserve consideration-first, is it right to alter a form which has a meaning that is lost by the change? second, can we alter a significant form without destroying it? Is the new thing rightly called by the old name? If baptism be immersion, and immersion express a substantial part of its meaning, can sprinkling or pouring be baptism?

Again, baptism is associated in time with the inward change, which is the true circumcision. There are but two theories on which these two things are contemporaneous. The one is the theory that baptism effects the change; the other is the theory that baptism goes with the change as its sign. The association is justified if men are “circumcised,” that is, changed when they are baptised, or if men are baptised when they have been “circumcised.” No other theory gives full weight to these words.

The former theory elevates baptism into more than the importance of which Paul sought to deprive circumcision, it confuses the distinction between the Church and the world, it lulls men into a false security, it obscures the very central truth of Christianity-namely that faith in Christ, working by love, makes a Christian-it gives the basis for a portentous reproduction of sacerdotalism, and it is shivered to pieces against the plain facts of daily life. But it may be worth while to notice in a sentence, that it is conclusively disposed of by the language before us-it is “through faith in the operation of God” that we are raised again in baptism. Not the rite, then, but faith is the means of this participation with Christ in burial and resurrection. What remains but that baptism is associated with that spiritual change by which we are delivered from the body of the flesh, because in the Divine order it is meant to be the outward symbol of that change which is effected by no rite or sacrament, but by faith alone, uniting us to the transforming Christ? We observe the solemnity and the thoroughness of the change thus symbolised. It is more than circumcision. It is burial and a resurrection, an entire dying of the old self by Union with Christ, a real and present rising again by participation in His risen life. This and nothing less makes a Christian. We partake of His death, inasmuch as we ally ourselves to it by our faith, as the sacrifice for our sins, and make it the ground of all our hope. But that is not all. We partake of His death, inasmuch as, by the power of His cross, we are drawn to sever ourselves from the selfish life, and to slay our own old nature; dying for His dear sake to the habits, tastes, desires, and purposes in which we lived. Self-crucifixion for the love of Christ is the law for us all. His cross is the pattern for our conduct, as well as the pledge and means of our acceptance. We must die to sin that we may live to righteousness. We must die to self, that we may live to God and our brethren. We have no right to trust in Christ for us, except as we have Christ in us. His cross is not saving us from our guilt unless it is moulding our lives to some faint likeness of Him who died that we may live, and might live a real life by dying daily to the world, sin, and self.

If we are thus made conformable to His death, we shall know the power of His resurrection, in all its aspects. It will be to us the guarantee of our own, and we shall know its power as a prophecy for our future. It will be to us the seal of His perfect work on the cross, and we shall know its power as Gods token of acceptance of His sacrifice in the past. It will be to us the type of our spiritual resurrection now, and we shall know its power as the pattern and source of our supernatural life in the present. Thus we must die in and with Christ that we may live in and with Him, and that twofold process is the very heart of personal religion. No lofty participation in the immortal hopes which spring from the empty grave of Jesus is warranted, unless we have His quickening power raising us today by a better resurrection; and no participation in the present power of His heavenly life is possible, unless we have such a share in His death, as that by it the world is crucified to us, and we unto the world.

III. The Apostle adds another phase of this great contrast of life and death, which brings home still more closely to his hearers the deep and radical change which passes upon all Christians. He has been speaking of a death and burial followed by a resurrection. But there is another death from which Christ raises us, by that same risen life imparted to us through faith – a darker and grimmer thing than the self-abnegation before described.

“And you, being dead through your trespasses, and the uncircumcision of your flesh.” The separate acts of transgression of which they had been guilty, and the unchastened, unpurified, carnal nature from which these had flowed, were the reasons of a very real and awful death; or, as the parallel passage in Ephesians {Eph 2:2} puts it with a slight variation, they made the condition or sphere in which that death inhered. That solemn thought, so pregnant in its dread emphasis in Scripture, is not to be put aside as a mere metaphor. All life stands in union with God. The physical universe exists by reason of its perpetual contact with His sustaining hand, in the hollow of which all Being lies, and it is, because He touches it. “In Him we live.” So also the life of mind is sustained by His perpetual inbreathing, and in the deepest sense “we see light” in His light. So, lastly, the highest life of the spirit stands in union in still higher manner with Him, and to be separated from Him is death to it. Sin breaks that union, and therefore sin is death, in the very inmost centre of mans being. The awful warning, “In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” was fulfilled. That separation by sin, in which the soul is wrenched from God, is the real death, and the thing that men call by the name is only an outward symbol of a far sadder fact-the shadow of that which is the awful substance, and as much less terrible than it as painted fires are less than the burning reality.

So men may live in the body, and toil and think and feel, and be dead. The world is full of “sheeted dead,” that “squeak and gibber” in “our streets,” for every soul that lives to self and has rent itself away from God, so far as a creature can, is “dead while he liveth.” The other death, of which the previous verse spoke, is therefore but the putting off of a death. We lose nothing of real life in putting off self, but only that which keeps us in a separation from God, and slays our true and highest being. To die to self is but “the death of death.”

The same life of which the previous verse spoke as coming from the risen Lord is here set forth as able to raise us from that death of sin. “He hath quickened you together with Him.” Union with Christ floods our dead souls with His own vitality, as water will pour from a reservoir through a tube inserted in it. There is the actual communication of a new life when we touch Christ by faith. The prophet of old laid himself upon the dead child, the warm lip on the pallid mouth, the throbbing heart on the still one, and the contact rekindled the extinguished spark. So Christ lays His full life on our deadness, and does more than recall a departed glow of vitality. He communicates a new life kindred with His own. That life makes us free here and now from the law of sin and death, and it shall be perfected hereafter when the working of His mighty power shall change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory, and the leaven of His new life shall leaven the three measures in which it is hidden, body, soul, and spirit, with its own transforming energy. Then, in yet higher sense, death shall die, and life shall be victor by His victory.

But to all this one preliminary is needful-“having forgiven us all trespasses.” Pauls eagerness to associate himself with his brethren, and to claim his share in the forgiveness, as well as to unite in the acknowledgment of sin, makes him change his word from “you” to “us.” So the best manuscripts give the text, and the reading is obviously full of interest and suggestiveness. There must be a removal of the cause of deadness before there can be a quickening to new life. That cause was sin, which cannot be cancelled as guilt by any self-denial however great, nor even by the impartation of a new life from God for the future. A gospel which only enjoined dying to self would be as inadequate as a gospel which only provided for a higher life in the future. The stained and faultful past must be cared for. Christ must bring pardon for it, as well as a new spirit for the future. So the condition prior to our being quickened together with Him is Gods forgiveness, free and universal, covering all our sins, and given to us without anything on our part. That condition is satisfied. Christs death brings to us Gods pardon, and when the great barrier of unforgiven sin is cleared away, Christs life pours into our hearts, and “everything lives whithersoever the river cometh.”

Here then we have the deepest ground of Pauls intense hatred of every attempt to make anything but faith in Christ and moral purity essential to the perfect Christian life. Circumcision and baptism and all other rites or sacraments of Judaism or Christianity are equally powerless to quicken dead souls. For that, the first thing needed is the forgiveness of sins, and that is ours through simple faith in Christs death. We are quickened by Christs own life in us, and He “dwells in our hearts by faith.”

All ordinances may be administered to us a hundred times, and without faith they leave us as they found us-dead. If we have hold of Christ by faith we live, whether we have received the ordinances or not. So all full-blown or budding sacramentarianism is to be fought against to the uttermost, because it tends to block the road to the City of Refuge for a poor sinful soul, and the most pressing of all necessities is that that way of life should be kept clear and unimpeded. We need the profound truth which lies in the threefold form which Paul gives to one of his great watchwords: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” And how, says my despairing conscience, shall I keep the commandments? The answer lies in the second form of the saying-“In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” And how, replies my saddened heart, can I become a new creature? The answer lies in the final form of the saying -“In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh.” Faith brings the life which makes us new men, and then we can keep the commandments. If we have faith, and are new men and do Gods will, we need no rites but as helps. If we have not faith, all rites are nothing.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary