Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 2:12
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.
12. buried with him ] Cp. Rom 6:4; the only parallel. Union with Christ is primarily union with Him as the Dead and Buried, because His Death (consummated as it were and sealed in His Burial) is the procuring cause of all our blessings in Him, as it is our Propitiation and Peace. The Christian, joined to Him, shares as it were the atoning Death and the covering, swallowing, Grave of his blessed Representative; he goes to the depths of that awful process with and in his Lord.
in baptism ] The form of the Greek word ( baptismos not baptisma in the best reading) perhaps emphasizes the action rather than the abstract institution; it recalls the decisive “Rubicon” which his sacramental Washing was to the convert. See Lightfoot here.
The immersion of the baptized (the primeval and ideal form of rite, but not invariable as a literal action; see Teaching of the Apostles (cent. 1), ch. 7) is undoubtedly here in view. The plunge beneath the water signified identification with the buried Lord, and sealed it to faith. Lightfoot quotes from the Apostolic Constitutions (a book heretical in doctrine but valuable as a witness to usages; cent. 3) the words (Col 3:17), “the plunge is our dying with Him, the coming up, our rising with Him.”
It must be said again (see above on Col 2:11) that, in the ultimate reality, not the Sacrament but faith in God’s promises joins us to the Lord in His death. But the Sacrament so seals the faith that the terms appropriate to faith attach to the Sacrament, naturally though secondarily. Cp. Gal 3:26-27, in the significant connexion of the verses. And see Beveridge on Artt. xxv., xxvii.; and Lombard, quoted in Appendix K.
ye are risen with him] Better, ye rose with Him. The state to which baptism was your sacramental admittance is a state of union with Christ as the Risen One; fellowship in His supreme Acceptance and in His possession of the full wealth of the Spirit as our Mediator and Surety. Baptism seals to faith all our possessions in the now glorified Redeemer.
through the faith of &c.] Better, through your faith in the working ( energeia) of God. Observe the reference to faith in connexion with the Sacrament; and see next note.
who hath raised him ] Better, who raised Him. Cp. 1Pe 1:18-21 (especially 21) for a close and instructive parallel. Faith rests upon God as He is viewed specially as the Raiser of the Lord from the dead, because in that character we see Him as reconciled and as actively gracious to us. See further Heb 13:20-21.
K. PETER LOMBARD ON BAPTISM. (Col 2:12.)
Peter Lombard ( ob. a.d. 1160), known among medieval theologians as “ the Master of the Sentences ” ( Magister Sententiarum), or simply, “ the Master,” writes as follows in his Treatise on Theology called Sententi ( Lib. iv., Distinctio iv., 3 7):
It is asked, how is that text to be received, As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ. In two manners are we said to put on Christ; by the taking of the Sacrament, or by the reception of the Thing ( Res). So Augustine: ‘Men put on Christ sometimes so far as the reception of the Sacrament, sometimes so far as the sanctification of the life; and the first may be common to the good and the evil; the latter is peculiar to the good and pious.’ So all who are baptized in Christ’s name put on Christ either in the sense of ( secundum) the reception of the Sacrament, or in that of sanctification of the life.
“Others there are who receive the Thing and not the Sacrament Not only does martyrdom ( passio) do the work of baptism but also faith and contrition, where necessity excludes the Sacrament
“Whether is greater, faith or water? Without doubt I answer, faith. Now if the lesser can sanctify, cannot the greater, even faith? of which Christ said, ‘He that believeth in me, even if he were dead, he shall live’ [Augustine says,] ‘If any man having faith and love desires to be baptized, and cannot so be, because necessity intervenes, the kindness of the Almighty supplies what was lacking to the Sacrament The duty which could not be done is not reckoned against him by God, who hath not tied ( alligavit) His power to the Sacraments ’
“The question is often asked, regarding those who, already sanctified by the Spirit, come with faith and love to baptism, what benefit baptism confers upon them? For it seems to give them nothing, since through faith and contrition their sins are already forgiven and they are justified. To which it may be truly replied that they are indeed justified, i.e. purged from the stain ( macula) of sin, and absolved from the debt of the eternal punishment, but that they are still held by the bond of the temporal satisfaction by which penitents are bound in the Church. Now when they receive Baptism they are both cleansed of any sins they have contracted since conversion, and are absolved from the external satisfaction; and assisting grace and all virtues are increased in them; so that the man may then truly be called new Baptism confers much benefit even on the man already justified by faith; for, coming to it, he is now carried, like the branch by the dove, into the ark. He was within the ark already in the judgment of God; he is now within it in that of the Church also
“Marvel not that the Thing sometimes goes before the Sacrament, since sometimes it follows even long after; as in those who come insincerely ( fict). Baptism will begin to profit them (only) when they afterwards repent.”
These remarks of a great representative of Scholastic Theology are interesting in themselves, and are instructive also as a caution, from the history of doctrine, against overstrained inferences from the mere wording of, e.g. Col 2:12, as if it were unfaithful to history to interpret such language in the light of facts and experience. The great risk of such overstrained exposition is that it tends to exalt the Sacrament at the expense of adequate views of the Grace, and so to invert the scale and relation of Scripture.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Buried with him in baptism – See the notes at Rom 6:4.
Wherein also – In which ordinance, or by virtue of that which is signified by the ordinance.
Ye are risen with him – From the death of sin to the life of religion; Notes, Rom 6:4-5; compare the notes at Eph 2:5-6.
Through the faith of the operation of God – By a firm belief on the agency of God in raising him up; that is, a belief of the fact that God has raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is often represented as the foundation of all our hopes; and, as he was raised from the grave to die no more, so, in virtue of that we are raised from the death of sin to eternal spiritual life. The belief of this is shown by our baptism, whatever be the mode in which that ordinance is performed, and as well shown in one mode as another.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 12. Buried with him in baptism] Alluding to the immersions practised in the case of adults, wherein the person appeared to be buried under the Water, as Christ was buried in the heart of the earth. His rising again the third any, and their emerging from the water, was an emblem of the resurrection of the body; and, in them, of a total change of life.
The faith of the operation of God] They were quickened, changed, and saved, by means of faith in Christ Jesus; which faith was produced by the operation or energy of God. Believing is the act of the soul; but the grace or power to believe comes from God himself.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Buried with him in baptism: he shows that in Christ they who are found have not only the thing signified, but right to the outward sign and seal, viz. baptism, in the room of circumcision abolished; the death and burial of Christ is not only the exemplar, but the cause of the death of the old man, signed and sealed in baptism: or, by baptism into death, Rom 6:3,4, analogically, or symbolically, or sacramentally, when the Lord, together with the external sign, conferreth his grace signified by that sign; for even then the sins of such a one are buried with Christ so as they shall appear no more, either to his eternal condemnation, or in their former dominion, Rom 6:6,9,14.
Wherein also ye are risen with him; in or by which baptism becoming effectual, having mortified the body of sin, like as Christ was raised from the dead, ye are quickened and raised to newness of life, Rom 6:4; Gal 3:27-29; Eph 4:23,24; 5:14,26,27; Col 3:10,11. By virtue of Christs resurrection, a spiritual and mystical one is produced in you, which hath a resemblance and analogy to his.
Through the faith of the operation of God; not of yourselves, but through faith, Eph 2:8, and that wrought in you by the energy or efficacy of God, Joh 6:29; Phi 1:29; 2:13; Heb 12:2.
Who hath raised him from the dead; who did exert his power in raising up Christ from the dead: compare Rom 4:24, with Eph 1:19,20. This faith is not only wrought by God, as the circumcision without hands, but it doth respect that wonderful power of God put forth in the raising of Christ, as the subject, which he mentions by way of congruity, speaking of our resurrection, and of Christs. And he specifieth faith rather than love or other graces which are wrought also by God, because in this grace, which is the constitutive part of the new creature, God comes in with a greater irradiation upon the soul, being it hath not one fragment or point of nature to stand upon; carnal reason and mere moral righteousness being opposite to it, whereas other graces are but as the rectifying of the passions, and setting them upon right objects.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12. Translate, “Havingbeen buried with Him in your baptism.” The pastparticiple is here coincident in time with the preceding verb, “yewere (Greek) circumcised.” Baptism is regarded as theburial of the old carnal life, to which the act of immersionsymbolically corresponds; and in warm climates where immersionis safe, it is the mode most accordant with the significance of theordinance; but the spirit of the ordinance is kept by affusion, whereimmersion would be inconvenient or dangerous; to insist on literalimmersion in all cases would be mere legal ceremonialism (Rom 6:3;Rom 6:4).
are risenrather asGreek, “were raised with Him.”
through the faith, c.bymeans of your faith in the operation of God so “faithof,” for “faith in” (Eph 3:12;Phi 3:9). Faith in God’s mightyoperation in raising again Jesus, is saving faith (Rom 4:24;Rom 10:9); and it is wrought inthe soul by His same “mighty working” whereby He “raisedJesus from the dead” (Eph 1:19;Eph 1:20). BENGELseems to me (not as ALFORDunderstands him) to express the latter sense, namely, “Throughthe faith which is a work of the operation of God who,”c. Eph 1:19 Eph 1:20accords with this; the same mighty power of God is exercised inraising one spiritually dead to the life of faith, as was “wroughtin Christ when God raised Him literally from the dead.” However,”faith of” usually is “faith in” (Ro3:22); but there is no grammatical impropriety in understandingit “the faith which is the effect of the operation of God”(Eph 2:8; 1Th 2:13).As His literal resurrection is the ground of the power put forth inour spiritual resurrection now, so it is a pledge of our literalresurrection hereafter (Ro 8:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Buried with him in baptism,…. The apostle goes on to observe how complete and perfect the saints are in Christ; that they are not only circumcised in him in a spiritual sense, and the body of the sins of their flesh is put off, and removed from them, in allusion to the cutting off and casting away of the foreskin in circumcision; but that they and all their sins were buried with Christ, of which their baptism in water was a lively representation: Christ having died for their sins, was laid in the grave, where he continued for a while, and then rose again; and as they were crucified with him, they were also buried with him, as their head and representative; and all their sins too, which he left behind him in the grave, signified by his grave clothes there; and baptism being performed by immersion, when the person baptized is covered with water, and as it were buried in it, is a very significant emblem of all this; it is a representation of the burial of Christ, and very fitly holds him forth to the view of faith in the state of the dead, in the grave, and points out the place where the Lord lay; and it is also a representation of our burial with him, as being dead to sin, to the law, and to the world, by him. This shows now, that baptism was performed by dipping, or covering the whole body in water, for no other form of administration of baptism, as sprinkling, or pouring water on the face, can represent a burial, or be called one; and this is what many learned interpreters own, and observe on this place:
wherein also ye are risen with [him]; Christ is risen from the dead as the head and representative of his people, and they are risen with him; and their baptism is also an emblem of his and their resurrection, being administered by immersion, in which way only this can be signified; for as the going down into the water, and being under it, represents Christ’s descending into the state of the dead, and his continuance in it, so the emersion, or coming up out of the water, represents his rising from the dead, and that of his people in him, in order to walk in newness of life; for the apostle’s meaning is, that in baptism saints are risen with Christ, as well as in it buried with him: and this
through the faith of the operation of God; that is, it is through faith that saints see themselves buried and risen with Christ, to which the ordinance of baptism is greatly assisting, where there is true faith; for otherwise, without faith, this ordinance will be of no use to any such end and purpose; and it is not any faith that will avail, but that which is of God’s operation; faith is not naturally in men, all men have it not; and those that have it, have it not of themselves, it is the gift of God; it is what be works in them, and by his power performs:
who hath raised him from the dead; this is a periphrasis of God the Father, to whom the resurrection of Christ from the dead is generally ascribed; though not to the exclusion of Christ, and of the Spirit, who were also concerned; and is here added, partly to show in what respect faith, which is God’s work, has him for its object, as having raised Christ from the dead, who was delivered for offences, but is risen again through the power of God for justification, and whoever with his heart believes this shall be saved; and partly to show, that the same power is exerted in working true faith in the heart, as was put forth in raising Christ from the dead.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Having been buried with him in baptism ( ). Second aorist passive participle of , old word, in N.T. only here and Ro 6:4, followed by associative instrumental case (). Thayer’s Lexicon says: “For all who in the rite of baptism are plunged under the water, thereby declare that they put faith in the expiatory death of Christ for the pardon of their past sins.” Yes, and for all future sins also. This word gives Paul’s vivid picture of baptism as a symbolic burial with Christ and resurrection also to newness of life in him as Paul shows by the addition “wherein ye were also raised with him” ( ). “In which baptism” (, he means). First aorist passive indicative of , late and rare verb (Plutarch for waking up together), in LXX, in N.T. only in Col 2:12; Col 3:1; Eph 2:6. In the symbol of baptism the resurrection to new life in Christ is pictured with an allusion to Christ’s own resurrection and to our final resurrection. Paul does not mean to say that the new life in Christ is caused or created by the act of baptism. That is grossly to misunderstand him. The Gnostics and the Judaizers were sacramentalists, but not so Paul the champion of spiritual Christianity. He has just given the spiritual interpretation to circumcision which itself followed Abraham’s faith (Ro 4:10-12). Cf. Ga 3:27. Baptism gives a picture of the change already wrought in the heart “through faith” ( ).
In the working of God ( ). Objective genitive after . See 1:29 for . God had power to raise Christ from the dead ( , first aorist active participle of , the fact here stated) and he has power (energy) to give us new life in Christ by faith.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Buried [] . See on Rom 6:4. The aorist tense puts the burial as contemporaneous with the circumcision. Ye were circumcised when ye were buried, etc.
In baptism [ ] . The article, the baptism points to the familiar rite, or may have the force of your.
Wherein also [ ] . Referring to baptism, not to Christ.
Ye were raised with Him [] . The burial and the raising are both typified in baptism. The raising is not the resurrection to eternal life at Christ ‘s second coming, but the moral resurrection to a new life. This corresponds with the drift of the entire passage, with the figurative sense of buried, and with Rom 6:4, which is decisive.
Through the faith of the operation of God. Not the faith which God works, but your faith in God ‘s working : faith in God ‘s energy as displayed in Christ ‘s resurrection. Hence the emphasis which is laid on faith in the resurrection. See 1Co 14:3, 4 (note); Rom 10:9; Eph 1:19. vers. 11, 12 should be compared with Rom 6:2 – 6.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Buried with him in baptism” (suntaphentes auto en to baptismati) “co-buried or in colleague with him buried in the baptism;” those (believers) who have heart and spirit circumcision in Christ, are thereafter to be buried “with Him,” identified with him, in the baptism of water. To teach that sinners unsaved are to be buried in baptism “without Him,” and find circumcision of the heart in Him, under the water, is an erroneous concept Rom 6:4-5; 1Pe 3:21.
2) “Wherein ye also are risen with him” (en ho kai sunegerthete) “in whom also ye were raised in colleague (with him).” Baptism of a saved person, buried “with” not “without him,” is designed to say the believer is pledging hereafter visibly to walk “in the newness of life,” Rom 6:4. Baptism into Christ always is used in the sense that Israel was baptised into Moses, 1Co 10:2.
3) “Through the faith of the operation of God” (dia tes pisteos tes energeias tou theou) “Through the faith of the operation of God;” God offers enabling faith (pistis) to every sinner, to place voluntarily into Jesus Christ, by receiving him as savior. When one accepts the gift (enabling power) of God and volitionally places it in Jesus Christ he is saved, Eph 2:8-9; Joh 1:11-12; Rom 10:9-10; Gal 3:26. Baptism, like a uniform, identifies a follower of Christ, Gal 3:27.
4) “Who hath raised him from the dead” (tou egirantos auton ek nekron)” Raising him from (out of) the, dead;” baptism is both a ceremonial identity of a believer in public expression of his faith in the risen and living Savior and a pledge to follow him in loyal service through the church, to whom he committed the command to baptize disciples, Mat 28:18-20; Rom 6:1-4; Gal 3:27; 1Pe 3:21. In baptism the child of God pledges to follow the living Christ in service through his church. As the nurse, soldier, or policemen must first qualify for his work, then identify by uniform, so does the true Christian.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
12. Buried with him, in baptism. He explains still more clearly the manner of spiritual circumcision — because, being buried with Christ, we are partakers of his death. He expressly declares that we obtain this by means of baptism, that it may be the more clearly apparent that there is no advantage from circumcision under the reign of Christ. For some one might otherwise object: “Why do you abolish circumcision on this pretext — that its accomplishment is in Christ? Was not Abraham, also, circumcised spiritually, and yet this did not hinder the adding of the sign to the reality? Outward circumcision, therefore, is not superfluous, although that which is inward is conferred by Christ.” Paul anticipates an objection of this kind, by making mention of baptism. Christ, says he, accomplishes in us spiritual circumcision, not through means of that ancient sign, which was in force under Moses, but by baptism. Baptism, therefore, is a sign of the thing that is presented to us, which while absent was prefigured by circumcision. The argument is taken from the economy (374) which God has appointed; for those who retain circumcision contrive a mode of dispensation different from that which God has appointed.
When he says that we are buried with Christ, this means more than that we are crucified with him; for burial expresses a continued process of mortification. When he says, that this is done through means of baptism, as he says also in Rom 6:4, he speaks in his usual manner, ascribing efficacy to the sacrament, that it may not fruitlessly signify what does not exist. (375) By baptism, therefore, we are buried with Christ, because Christ does at the same time accomplish efficaciously that mortification, which he there represents, that the reality may be conjoined with the sign.
In which also ye are risen. He magnifies the grace which we obtain in Christ, as being greatly superior to circumcision. “We are not only,” says he, “ingrafted into Christ’s death, but we also rise to newness of life:” hence the more injury is done to Christ by those who endeavor to bring us back to circumcision. He adds, by faith, for unquestionably it is by it that we receive what is presented to us in baptism. But what faith ? That of his efficacy or operation, by which he means, that faith is founded upon the power of God. As, however, faith does not wander in a confused and undefined contemplation, as they speak, of divine power, he intimates what efficacy it ought to have in view — that by which God raised Christ from the dead. He takes this, however, for granted, that, inasmuch as it is impossible that believers should be severed from their head, the same power of God, which shewed itself in Christ, is diffused among them all in common.
(374) “ Du gouuernement et dispensation que Dieu a ordonné en son Eglise;” — “From the government and dispensation which God has appointed in his Church.”
(375) “ Afin que la, signification ne soit vaine, comme d’vne chose qui n’est point;” — “That the signification may not be vain, as of a thing that is not.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Buried with him in baptism . . .It is very interesting to compare this passage with Rom. 6:4, Therefore we are buried with Him in baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. In the former clause both are identical. In the latter clause this Epistle is stronger. What in the earlier Epistle is the likeness of His Resurrection is here the participation of it, Ye are risen with Him. Similarly, instead of the simple allusion to Christs being raised from the dead, we have here through faith in the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead. Here, as in the more detailed passage of the Ephesian Epistle (Col. 1:19-23; Col. 2:5-7), the operation, the energy of the mighty power of God, is conceived as actually working both in the Head and in the Body, so that wo through it partake of the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorified majesty of Christ. The comparison shows an instructive development in this Epistle of the consequences of the unity with Christ.
This passage is also notable for the obvious contrast of baptism, as a spiritual reality, with circumcision as a symbolic form. Each is the entrance into a covenant with God; but the one into a covenant of the letter, and the other into a covenant of the spirit. (See the contrast between the covenants drawn out in 2Co. 3:6-18; Heb. 8:6; Heb. 9:28.) In the earlier Epistles circumcision is contrasted with spiritual regeneration (Gal. 6:15), as shown by various signs, such as faith working by love (Rom. 4:9-12; Gal. 5:6), or keeping the commandments of God (1Co. 7:19). Here this contrast is still as strong as ever; but baptism being (as always) looked upon as the means of such spiritual regeneration, is brought out emphatically as the circumcision of the Spirit. As baptised into Christ, we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit (Php. 3:3).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
12. Buried Rather, having been buried, coincident in time with the above, were circumcised and the were raised (as are risen should read) below. This death to sin as a controlling power, the burial which consummated it, and the resurrection which followed, were ideally in connexion with their baptism, when they openly professed a renunciation of sin, and promised to lead a new life. Really, the mighty transformation had its efficiency in their union with Christ, their baptism attesting their identification with his death, burial, and resurrection.
Risen By faith in the same mighty power which raised Christ from the dead. Where the resurrection is holiness and faith is its instrument, what must the burial be? Only he who is prepared to affirm the power of faith to lift one from submersion in water can say that the burial is immersion. To infer it from this passage is to make the apostle’s argument against ritualism supply a new yoke for Christian necks. See also notes on Rom 6:1-4.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Col 2:12. Buried with him in baptism, This verse is in pursuance of what is said in the former; namely, to shew that their baptism was an emblem of the true circumcision, inasmuch as thereby they made a profession of being dead with Christ, and of being raised together with him to a new life. Compare Rom 6:4. As this church at Colosse was planted earlier than that at Rome, and this epistle was written later than that to the Romans, it more abundantly confirms the perpetuity of baptism; as it supposes all to whom it was addressed to have been partakers of that ordinance, whether they were or were not descended from Christian parents. The reader will observe, that the agent spoken of in this and the three next verses, is God the Father.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Col 2:12 supplies further information as to how the , so far as it has taken place by means of the circumcision of Christ , has been accomplished.
. . .] synchronous with . (comp. on Col 1:20 , ): in that ye became buried with Him in baptism . The immersion in baptism, in accordance with its similarity to burial, is seeing that baptism translates into the fellowship of the death of Christ (see on Rom 6:3 ) a burial along with Christ, Rom 6:4 . Through that fellowship of death man dies as to his sinful nature, so that the (Col 2:11 ) ceases to live, and by means of the fellowship of burial is put off (Col 2:11 ). The subject who effects the joint burial is God , as in the whole context. In the burial of Christ this joint burial of all that confess Him as respects their sinful body was objectively completed; but it takes place, as respects each individually and in subjective appropriation, by their baptism, prior to which the realization of that fellowship of burial was, on the part of individuals, still wanting.
] A new benefit, which has accrued to the readers , and which in their case must bring still more clearly to living consciousness their ; so that here is parallel to the in Col 2:11 , and refers to Christ , as does also subsequently. It is rightly taken thus, following Chrysostom and his successors, by Luther and most others, including Flatt, Bhr, Huther, Ewald. Others have referred it to . (Beza, Calixtus, Estius, Michaelis, Heinrichs, and others, including Steiger, Bhmer, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Hofmann, Dalmer, Bleek); but, in opposition to this may be urged, first, the very symmetry of the discourse ( ); secondly, and specially, the fact that, if refers to baptism, could not be the proper preposition, since ., in accordance with the meaning of the word and the figure of burial, refers to the dipping into (not overflowing , as Hofmann thinks), whilst the spiritual awakening to new life, in which sense these expositors take ., would have taken place through the emerging again , so that we should expect , or, at all events, the non-local ; and, thirdly, the fact that just as has its own more precise definition by ., so also has . through . . ., and therefore the text affords no occasion for taking up again for . the more precise definition of the previous point, viz. . No, the first benefit received in Christ which Paul specifies, viz. the moral circumcision, accomplished by God through the joint burial in baptismal immersion, has been fully handled in Col 2:11 down to in Col 2:12 , and there now follows a second blessing received by the readers in Christ ( ): they have been raised up also with Christ , which has taken place through faith , etc. The previous joint burial was the necessary moral preliminary condition of this joint awakening, since through it the was put off. This . is to be understood in the sense of the fellowship of the bodily resurrection of Christ , into which fellowship man enters by faith in such a way that, in virtue of his union of life and destiny with Christ brought about by means of faith, he knows his own resurrection as having taken place in that of Christ a benefit of joint resurrection, which is, indeed, prior to the Parousia, an ideal possession, but through the Parousia becomes real (whether its realization be attained by resurrection proper in the case of the dead, or by the change that shall take place in those who are still alive). Usually . is taken in the ethical sense, as referring to the spiritual awakening, viz. from moral death, so that Paul, after the negative aspect of the regeneration (Col 2:11 ; , Col 2:12 ), now describes its positive character; comp. also Huther, Ewald, Bleek, Hofmann. But in opposition to this view is the fact that the fresh commencement , corresponding with the similar commencement of Col 2:11 , and referring to Christ, makes us expect the mention of a new benefit , and not merely that of another aspect of the previous one, otherwise there would have been no necessity for repeating the ; as also, that the inference of participation in the proper resurrection of Christ from death lies at the basis of the following . Comp. on Eph 2:1 ; Eph 2:5-6 . Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Oecumenius have already correctly explained it of the proper resurrection ( , ), but Theophylact makes it include the ethical awakening also: holding that it is to be explained , of the actual resurrection in spe , and at the same time .
. . .] The is described by Holtzmann, p. 70, as syntactically clumsy and offensive; he regards it as an interpolation borrowed from Eph 1:19 f. Groundlessly; Paul is describing the subjective medium , without which the joint awakening, though objectively and historically accomplished in the resurrection of Christ, would not be appropriated individually, the for this appropriation being wanting. The unbeliever has not the blessing of having risen with Christ, because he stands apart from the fellowship of life with Christ, just as also he has not the reconciliation, although the reconciliation of all has been accomplished objectively through Christ’s death. The genitive . . is the object of faith; so Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Zeger, Grotius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, Michaelis, Rosenmller, and others, including Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, Bleek, and Hofmann, in the 2d ed. of the Schriftbew . II. 2, p. 174 f. But others, such as Luther (“through the faith which God works ”), Bengel, Flatt, Bhr, Steiger, de Wette, Bhmer, Huther, et al ., take . . . as genitivus causae , for which, however, Eph 1:19 is not to be adduced (see in loc .), and in opposition to which it is decisive that in all passages, where the genitive with is not the believing subject, it denotes the object (Mar 11:22 ; Act 3:16 ; Rom 3:22 ; Gal 2:16 ; Gal 2:20 ; Gal 3:22 ; Eph 3:12 ; Phi 1:27 ; Phi 3:9 ; 2Th 2:13 ; Jas 2:1 ; Rev 2:13 ; Rev 14:12 ), and that the description of God as the Being who has raised up Christ from the dead stands most naturally and directly in significant reference to the divine activity which procures, not the faith , but the , and which is therefore set forth in a very appropriate manner as the special object [100] of faith (comp. 4:17, 24, 6:8, 10:9; 2Co 4:13-14 ; Eph 1:19 f.; 1Pe 1:21 ). At the basis, namely, of the . . lies the certainty in the believer’s consciousness: since God has raised up Christ, His activity, which has produced this principale and majus , will have included therein the consequens and minus , my resurrection with Him . To the believer the two stand in such essential connection, that in the operation of God which raised up Christ he beholds, by virtue of his fellowship of life with Christ, the assurance of his own resurrection having taken place along with that act; in the former he has the pledge, the (Theodoret) of the latter. Hofmann now again (as in the first ed. of the Schriftbeweis ) explains . . . as in apposition to , in such a way that Paul, “ as if correcting himself, ” makes the former take the place of the latter, in order to guard against the danger of his readers conceiving to themselves faith as a conduct on man’s part making possible the participation in the resurrection of Christ by God, while in reality it is nothing else than the product of the of God . A quite gratuitously invented self-correction, without precedent, and undiscoverable by the reader; although the thought, if it had entered the mind of Paul, might have been indicated with the utmost simplicity and ease (possibly by , . . .).
[100] The efficacy of the divine power shown in the resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of the certainty of salvation.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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.
Ver. 12. Buried with him in baptism ] Which succeedeth in the place of circumcision, and is also to us a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom 4:11 . There were (saith one) many ceremonies in baptism used in the primitive Church, viz. putting off old clothes, drenching in water, so as to seem to be buried in it, putting on new clothes at their coming out; to which Paul alludeth in these two verses.
Of the operation of God ] In the work of faith God putteth forth the same almighty power that he did in raising Christ from the dead,Eph 1:19-20Eph 1:19-20 . See Trapp on “ Eph 1:19 “ See Trapp on “ Eph 1:20 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
12 .] (goes on to connect this still more closely with the person of Christ q. d., in the circumcision of Christ, to whom you were united, &c.) buried together (i.e. ‘when you were buried:’ the aorist participle, as so often, is contemporary with the preceding past verb) with Him in your baptism (the new life being begun at baptism, an image familiar alike to Jews and Christians, the process itself of baptism is regarded as the burial of the former life: originally, perhaps, owing to the practice of immersion, which would most naturally give rise to the idea: but to maintain from such a circumstance that immersion is necessary in baptism, is surely the merest trifling, and a resuscitation of the very ceremonial spirit which the Apostle here is arguing against. As reasonably might it be argued, from the here, that nakedness was an essential in that sacrament. The things represented by both figures belong to the essentials of the Christian life: the minor details of the sacrament which corresponded to them, may in different ages or climates be varied; but the spiritual figures remain. At the same time, if circumstances concurred, e.g. a climate where the former practice was always safe, and a part of the world, or time of life, where the latter would be no shock to decency, there can be no question that the external proprieties of baptism ought to be complied with. And on this principle the baptismal services of the Church of England are constructed); in which (i.e. baptism: not, as Mey. (and so most expositors), ‘ in whom ,’ i.e. Christ. For although it is tempting enough to r, ard the as parallel with the above, we should be thus introducing a second and separate leading idea into the argument, manifestly occupied with one leading idea, viz. the completeness of your Christian circumcision, cf. again below, as realized in your baptism: whereas on this hypothesis we should be breaking off from baptism altogether, for there would be no link to connect the present sentence with the former, but we must take up again from . This indeed is freely confessed by Mey., who holds that all allusion to baptism is at an end here, and that the following is a benefit conferred by faith as separate from baptism. But see below. His objection, that if applied to baptism, it would not correspond to the rising again , which should be , or at all events the unlocal , arises from the too precise materialization of the image. As before did not necessarily apply to the mere going under the water, but to the process of the sacrament, so now does not necessarily apply to the coming up out of the water, but also to the process of the sacrament. In it , we both die and rise again, both unclothe and are clothed) ye were also raised again with Him (not your material, but your spiritual resurrection is in the foreground: it is bound on, it is true, to His material resurrection, and brings with it in the background, yours : but in the spiritual, the material is included and taken for granted, as usual in Scripture) by (means of: the mediate, not the efficient cause: the hand which held on, not the plank that saved. I am quite unable to see why this illustration is, as Ellic. states, “in more than one respect, not dogmatically satisfactory.” Surely it is dogmatically exact to say that Faith is the hand by which we lay hold on Christ the Ark of our refuge) your faith in (so Chrys., Thdrt., c., Thl., Erasm., Beza, Calv., Grot., Est., Corn.-a-lap., Mey., al., Beng. (‘fides est (opus) operationis divin’), al., and Luther. De W. understands faith wrought by God (‘ durch den Glauben den Gott wirket ,’ Luth.: ‘ mittelst des Glaubens Kraft der Wirksamkeit Gottes ,’ De W.). But both usage and the context are against this. The genitive after is ever (against Ellic. here) of the object of faith, see reff., and on Eph 1:19 ) the operation of God (in Christ that mighty power by which the Father raised Him, cf. Rom 8:11 ; , Eph 1:20 ) who raised Him from the dead ( , . Thdrt. But there is very much more asserted than the more the power of God in raising the dead to life is one and the same in our Lord and in us the physical power exerted in Him is not only a pledge of the same physical power to be exerted in us, but a condition and assurance of a spiritual power already exerted in us, whereby we are in spirit risen with Christ, the physical resurrection being included and taken for granted in that other and greater one):
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Col 2:12 . . This refers to the personal experience of the Christian. The rite of baptism, in which the person baptised was first buried beneath the water and then raised from it, typified to Paul the burial and resurrection of the believer with Christ. Burial seems to imply a previous death, but Rom 6:3-4 perhaps shows that the metaphors must not be rigidly pressed. . is to be joined closely with . If any distinction in meaning is to be made between and , it is that the former expresses the process, the latter the result. may refer either to . or to . The former view is taken by Chrysostom (followed by Luther, Meyer and many others). The latter is taken by Calvin and most recent commentators (De W., Hofm., Alf., Ell., Lightf., Kl [14] , Sod., Haupt, Abb.). In favour of the former it is urged that the parallelism with . requires it. But the real parallel is with “buried with Him in baptism,” and this requires “raised with Him in baptism”. Since baptism is not the mere plunging into the water, but emersion from it too, is not against this interpretation, and or is not necessary to express it. expresses the positive side of the experience. That death with Christ, which is the putting off of the body of flesh, has for its counterpart the putting on of Christ (Gal 3:27 ), which is followed by a walk with Him in newness of life. It is true that our complete redemption is attained only in the resurrection of the body (Rom 8:23 , 2Co 5:2-4 ). But there is clearly no reference here to the bodily resurrection at the last day, as some have thought; for that is altogether excluded by the whole tenor of the passage, which refers to an experience already complete. Nor can we, with Meyer, think of the bodily resurrection as already ideally accomplished in baptism. For the preceding context speaks only of a spiritual experience, and it is impossible to pass thus violently to one that is physical. Haupt agrees with this, but thinks the reference is not ethical, but religious, that is forensic. The rest of the passage, he argues, shows that it is not moral transformation, but justification, that Paul has in mind. But however true this may be of , it is at least questionable for the immediately succeeding context. And since the union covers both ethical renewal and justification, it is natural to find both mentioned in connexion with it, and to hold fast the former here as the more natural interpretation of the words. : “through faith in the working”. Klpper (following Luth., Beng., De W. and others) makes . genitive of cause, “faith produced by the working”. He argues that it is strange that in the experience already referred to the faith which proves itself in baptism must be thought of as directed towards the Person of Christ, and so cannot now be spoken of as faith in the working of God; and further, that the whole context has referred to a passive experience, and so this is fitly continued by the assertion that even the faith, which appropriates the death and resurrection of Christ, is the creation of God. But these arguments are insufficient to overthrow the force of Pauline usage, according to which elsewhere the genitive after , unless it refers to the person who believes, expresses the object of faith. The view of Hofmann that . . is a genitive of apposition, and that what is meant is “faith, that is the working of God,” is quite out of the question. For faith directed towards the working of God who raised Christ from the dead, cf. Rom 4:24 . God is so characterised, since the working by which He raised Christ will also be effective in our own spiritual experience. Our baptism is therefore not a sign of nothing, but of a real spiritual burial and resurrection with Christ.
[14] Klpper.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Buried with. See Rom 6:4.
baptism. App-115. His baptism unto death.
wherein = in (App-104.) Whom.
also, &c. = ye were raised (App-178.) also, and ep. Col 3:1 and Eph 2:6,
operation. App-172.
hath. Omit.
raised. App-178.
from, &c. App-139.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
12.] (goes on to connect this still more closely with the person of Christ-q. d., in the circumcision of Christ, to whom you were united, &c.)-buried together (i.e. when you were buried: the aorist participle, as so often, is contemporary with the preceding past verb) with Him in your baptism (the new life being begun at baptism,-an image familiar alike to Jews and Christians,-the process itself of baptism is regarded as the burial of the former life: originally, perhaps, owing to the practice of immersion, which would most naturally give rise to the idea: but to maintain from such a circumstance that immersion is necessary in baptism, is surely the merest trifling, and a resuscitation of the very ceremonial spirit which the Apostle here is arguing against. As reasonably might it be argued, from the here, that nakedness was an essential in that sacrament. The things represented by both figures belong to the essentials of the Christian life: the minor details of the sacrament which corresponded to them, may in different ages or climates be varied; but the spiritual figures remain. At the same time, if circumstances concurred,-e.g. a climate where the former practice was always safe, and a part of the world, or time of life, where the latter would be no shock to decency,-there can be no question that the external proprieties of baptism ought to be complied with. And on this principle the baptismal services of the Church of England are constructed); in which (i.e. baptism: not, as Mey. (and so most expositors), in whom, i.e. Christ. For although it is tempting enough to r, ard the as parallel with the above, we should be thus introducing a second and separate leading idea into the argument, manifestly occupied with one leading idea, viz. the completeness of your Christian circumcision,-cf. again below,-as realized in your baptism: whereas on this hypothesis we should be breaking off from baptism altogether,-for there would be no link to connect the present sentence with the former, but we must take up again from . This indeed is freely confessed by Mey., who holds that all allusion to baptism is at an end here, and that the following is a benefit conferred by faith as separate from baptism. But see below. His objection, that if applied to baptism, it would not correspond to the rising again, which should be , or at all events the unlocal , arises from the too precise materialization of the image. As before did not necessarily apply to the mere going under the water, but to the process of the sacrament, so now does not necessarily apply to the coming up out of the water, but also to the process of the sacrament. In it, we both die and rise again,-both unclothe and are clothed) ye were also raised again with Him (not your material, but your spiritual resurrection is in the foreground: it is bound on, it is true, to His material resurrection, and brings with it in the background, yours: but in the spiritual, the material is included and taken for granted, as usual in Scripture) by (means of: the mediate, not the efficient cause: the hand which held on, not the plank that saved. I am quite unable to see why this illustration is, as Ellic. states, in more than one respect, not dogmatically satisfactory. Surely it is dogmatically exact to say that Faith is the hand by which we lay hold on Christ the Ark of our refuge) your faith in (so Chrys., Thdrt., c., Thl., Erasm., Beza, Calv., Grot., Est., Corn.-a-lap., Mey., al., Beng. (fides est (opus) operationis divin), al., and Luther. De W. understands faith wrought by God (durch den Glauben den Gott wirket, Luth.: mittelst des Glaubens Kraft der Wirksamkeit Gottes, De W.). But both usage and the context are against this. The genitive after is ever (against Ellic. here) of the object of faith, see reff., and on Eph 1:19) the operation of God (in Christ-that mighty power by which the Father raised Him, cf. Rom 8:11; , Eph 1:20) who raised Him from the dead ( , . Thdrt. But there is very much more asserted than the more -the power of God in raising the dead to life is one and the same in our Lord and in us-the physical power exerted in Him is not only a pledge of the same physical power to be exerted in us, but a condition and assurance of a spiritual power already exerted in us, whereby we are in spirit risen with Christ, the physical resurrection being included and taken for granted in that other and greater one):
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Col 2:12. , in baptism) As death is before the resurrection, so in this third or middle term of the comparison, baptism naturally precedes matured (full-grown) faith.- , in which) An Anaphora [the frequent repetition of the same words in the beginnings], comp. Col 2:11.- ) A remarkable expression: faith is of Divine operation, and Divine working is in believers; Eph 1:19; Eph 2:8; 1Th 2:13.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Col 2:12
Col 2:12
having been buried with him in baptism,-The putting off the body of the flesh or the true spiritual circumcision was effected by being buried with him in baptism. This implies that they were dead to sin through faith in Christ.
wherein ye were also raised with him-They were also raised with him in baptism. In this act the sins were removed, as by circumcision the flesh was cut off. [The language is taken from the coming up out of the water which is associated with the fact of Christs resurrection, which is clearly referred to. Christ went down into the grave, but came up again. So the believer disappears under the waters of baptism. This is a side not presented in circumcision. In baptism there is an impressive exhibition of the fact that we are born anew, This new life we get in union with Christ. The working of God is signally displayed in raising Christ from the dead. It is to be taken in connection with the removal of sin which operated in Christs death. Christ rose from the dead possessor of a new and endless life. If we take as the object of our faith the working which raised Christ from the dead, we shall become sharers with him in the same new and endless life.]
through faith in the working of God,-They were both buried and raised with Christ in baptism, by the working of faith in God. Baptism avails nothing without faith. It is only as faith recognizes a risen Savior that the act of baptism becomes of spiritual significance, and rising with Christ becomes an actual spiritual experience.
who raised him from the dead.-Gods working is here set forth as the object of the believing, not as the cause. In this connection it was natural to characterize God as the one who raised him from the dead. Only through faith in such a God as able and willing to raise us up spiritually can we partake in this new life.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Buried: Rom 6:4, Rom 6:5
baptism: Rom 6:3, 1Co 12:13, Gal 3:27, Eph 4:5, Tit 3:5, Tit 3:6, Heb 6:2, 1Pe 3:21
wherein: Col 3:1, Col 3:2, Rom 6:8-11, Rom 7:4, 1Co 15:20, Eph 1:20, Eph 2:4-6, Eph 5:14, 1Pe 4:1-3
the faith: Luk 17:5,*Gr: Joh 1:12, Joh 1:13, Joh 3:3-7, Act 14:27, Eph 1:19, Eph 2:8, Eph 3:7, Eph 3:17, Phi 1:29, Heb 12:2, Jam 1:16, Jam 1:17
who: Act 2:24, Rom 4:24, Heb 13:20, Heb 13:21
Reciprocal: Gen 17:10 – Every Mat 3:6 – were Mar 11:22 – faith in God Joh 2:19 – I will Joh 6:44 – except Joh 19:42 – laid Act 15:1 – Except Act 18:27 – believed Rom 2:29 – circumcision Rom 6:6 – that the 1Co 15:4 – that 2Co 4:7 – that 2Co 5:15 – that they Eph 2:6 – hath Phi 1:6 – begun
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Col 2:12.) -Having been buried with Him in baptism. The state described in this past participle precedes or is coincident with the action of the verb . Having been buried, they were circumcised. The burial and the circumcision only differ in form and circumstance. The circumcision was seen to be effected when the burial was completed. Burial implies a previous death; and what is that death, but the off-casting of the body of the flesh? The reality of death is evinced by burial, for this body of sin which once lived with us is slain and sepulchred. This point of burial they had reached-when they were baptized-for then they personally professed a faith which implied the death of sin within them. Why then does the apostle use the figure of a burial? for the burial is as really without hands as is the circumcision-since no knife was employed at the one, and no bier or shroud was deposited in the other. The apostle employs the figure, first, to show the reality of the death which the old man had undergone; and, secondly, to connect the process by harmony of symbol or parallel with the resurrection of Christ, which was at once a sign and pledge of the resuscitation. Those two ideas, the excision of the body of the flesh, which is equivalent to its death, and the raising of Christ as the typal life and the Lifegiver, seem to have suggested to the apostle the notion of an intervening process-a burial with Christ. When you were baptized, you were so placed as if you had been laid with Christ in His tomb-all old things passed away; you were in respect to the old man what the dead Christ was in respect to His first physical life-dead to it and done with it. Only, He died for sin, and you die to it; He died for it in His body, while you die to it in your souls. But this burial is not a final state, it is simply one of trans ition-In whom also ye are raised by faith.
The reference is plainly to the ordinance of baptism, and to its spiritual meaning. We scarcely suppose that there is any reference to the mode of it; for whatever may be otherwise said in favour of immersion, it is plain that here the burial is wholly ideal-not a scenic and visible descent into an earthy or a watery tomb, but of such a nature entirely as the circumcision with which it is identified, and the resurrection which invariably succeeds it. Thus, in the apostolic conception, men may be buried in baptism without being submerged in water, in the same way as they may be circumcised without the spilling of blood. The entire statement is spiritual in its nature-the death, the burial, and the resurrection; the circumcision, and the off-putting of the body of the flesh. The apostle looks on circumcision and baptism as being closely connected-the spiritual blessing symbolized by both being of a similar nature; though, probably, it would be straining this connection to allege it as a proof that baptism has been in all points ordained for the church in room of circumcision.
It is not within our province to enter on the question whether apostolical baptism was by immersion, sprinkling, or affusion. What we say is,-granting that immersion had been the early and authorized form of baptism, we are not prepared to admit any allusion to that form in the clause before us. It does not advance the opposite argument to say, that the immersion of a believer resembles a burial. This has been a favourite idea from very early times. And not only so, but trine immersion was often practised-one reason assigned being a reference to the Trinity, but another argument being that it was a symbolic allusion to the three days- -of Christ’s abode in the tomb. Still, to many minds there is manifest incongruity in the symbol. Where, in Scripture, is water the symbol of the world of death, or of the grave? It is always the means of washing-the instrument of purification. At what point of baptism is death symbolized-for it precedes burial? Means of imitating the death and resurrection of Jesus could be easily devised-for they were physical facts that could with no difficulty be pictured out. But a believer’s death and resurrection with Christ are spiritual events; and the same process cannot surely be the emblem of both classes of truths-cannot be at the same time the figure of a fact, and the figure of a figure. Death, burial, and resurrection, are truths not portrayed by gesture and position in baptism, but only recognized in it-not acted out, or represented in visible form, but only experienced and professed. Believers are buried in baptism, but even in immersion they do not go through a process having any resemblance to the burial and resurr ection of Christ. The Colossians did not personate death and burial in baptism any more than they imitated the circumcision of Moses. In a similar sense, though without reference to any sacramental institute, believers are crucified with Christ, though no nail pierce their hands; they are enthroned with Him, while they wear no symbol of royalty; and they have an unction from the Holy One, but no material oil is poured upon their heads.
-In whom too ye were raised together. Beza, and after him Calixtus, Suicer, Steiger, Bhmer, De Wette, and Baumgarten-Crusius, refer the relative to . But the language would, in such a case, be inapt, as out of baptism would appear to be the natural expression. There appears to be no formal resemblance between baptism and burial in the apostle’s mind, and so he says not , but simply -in whom, that is, in Christ. Justinian and Davenant, Meyer and Huther, thus refer the pronoun-With Him they are buried-in Him they rise again; for union with Him is the one efficacious principle. The verb is explained and its meaning defended under Eph 2:6. It is not an ideal or potential spiritual resurrection secured for them, but one now and actually enjoyed by believers. The vivification of the soul involves in it, as a necessary result, the resurrection of the body-a result essential to the development of the new life in its highest sphere; but it is wrong in Theophylact to give this aorist verb a future meaning, or rather to mix up the two significations. While union with Christ is the bond of security, the instrumental cause is next described-
-By the faith. A similar use of and is found in Eph 1:7, each preposition retaining its distinctive signification. It is faith which achieves this spiritual resurrection-belief in the Divine testimony is the vehicle which the Divine resurrectionary power employs. The apostle, Eph 1:19-20, prays that the Ephesians might know what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe, and the kind of power referred to is, as here, that which raised Christ from the dead, and which also quickens and raises up believers who had been dead in trespasses and sins. Thus it is faith-
-Of the operation of God who raised Him from the dead. Many interpreters take the genitive as that of agency-faith inwrought by God. Such is the view of Flacius, Calixtus, the older interpreters, Luther, Melancthon, as also of Storr, Flatt, Bengel, Bhr, Bhmer, De Wette, Huther, Olshausen, and Conybeare. Luther renders-den Gott wirket; and Melancthon draws the lesson-non igitur potest suis viribus ratio fidem in nobis efficere. Whatever truth may be in this doctrine, and whatever may be the proof of it in other parts of Scripture, it is not the doctrine which the apostle here delivers. For according to usage in such a case, the genitive is that of object. So with regard to , Mar 11:22 : , Act 3:16; ., etc., Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16; Gal 2:20; Gal 3:22; Eph 3:12; Php 3:9; Jam 2:1; Rev 2:13 : , Php 1:27 : , 2Th 2:13. The genitive thus denotes the object of faith, or the thing believed. Such is the view of the mass of interpreters, of the Greek Fathers, of Calvin and Beza, of Grotius and Erasmus, of Meyer, Bloomfield, etc. The object of this vivifying faith is the Divine power which raised up Christ from the dead. The construction which the apostle employs in Eph 1:19 – –, is no argument against this view, for, as we have there said, does not point out the source of faith, but turns attention to the model after which the Divine power operates in quickening the spiritually dead. A description of the Divine power, as showing itself in the resurrection of Christ, more naturally allies itself with the idea of spiritual resuscitation, which it resembles, than with that of the production of faith.
The sinner is raised out of death. United to Christ by the Spirit, and exercising a belief in God, he is justified and obtains legal life-exemption from the penalty of law; and he is also sanctified, or is endowed with spiritual life-comes to the conscious enjoyment of God’s favour, and the possession of His image. This faith has special reference to the Divine power in one of its manifestations, the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead. Power is evinced most strikingly in a resurrection-the restoration of a dead body to life is the work of Omnipotence. Love may pity, but power restores-a power which the apostle calls exceeding great and mighty. Eph 1:19. Faith lays hold on this phasis of omnipotence, and on this act of its achievement, because it feels that spiritual quickening is at once the result which springs from the one and is pledged by the other. The nature of this power and its relation to believers have been fully explained under a similar passage-Eph 1:20. The resurrection of Christ proves the acceptance of his atonement on the part of the Father, who raised His Son from the dead, and gave Him glory that our faith and hope might be in God. It therefore showed that the way of salvation was open, that the majesty of the law had been vindicated, and that the blessings of redemption might therefore be conferred in all their fulness and without restraint. Blood had been shed, and might now be sprinkled; and the Saviour being glorified, the Spirit might now descend. If I believe in that power which raised Jesus Christ from the dead, I believe in a power which might righteously have crushed me, but is now mercifully wielded to save me; which has set its seal on the work of Christ, and will now distribute and apply its rich results; and which, having exalted the Redeemer, has placed itself under a solemn stipulation to reward Him with a numerous seed, so that He shall see of the travail of His soul and s hall be satisfied. Thus, this power working out the purposes of Divine Love and the devices of Infinite Wisdom, stands out so employed as the object of saving faith.
But the apostle now appeals to the Colossian believers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Col 2:12. The final act of the spiritual circumcision is by baptism, and men are said to be buried with Mm, that is with Christ. This phrase is used because in baptism the person is placed under the water and then raised again, thus going down and up in the form of a burial and resurrection. It is said to be with Him because he commands it, and also because he died and was buried in the tomb, from which he rose again. Such a like burial and resurrection is recognized as an act of faith in Christ .and God. Operation means the energy or divine activity by which God raised Christ from the dead. Much has been said as to what constitutes “valid baptism,” and we have some direct information in this passage. If a man believes that God raised Christ from the dead, and he is baptized in view of his faith in that act, then Paul declares that such a man has been risen with him, which certainly would prove that his baptism was valid. This thought is given also in Rom 10:9.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Col 2:12. Buried with him; a single past act is referred to, but as that act took place when they were circumcised, etc., having been buried is not a necessary emendation, and may lead to the false notion that baptism precedes the putting away of the body of the flesh, etc.
In baptism; comp. Rom 6:3-4. The fellowship with Christ finds its sign and seal in the rite of baptism, which, as then administered, had its external resemblance to the burial and resurrection of Christ. This resemblance is not exact, since fellowship in the death of Christ is the main thought, and the immersion does not of itself suggest this. The passage shows that immersion was the mode in the Apostles mind; that he meant to represent it as the only mode is denied by most commentators. The agent in this burial is God, as the next clause indicates.
Wherein, etc. Some prefer to render in whom (as in Col 2:11) ye were also raised together, taking this clause as suggesting a further step. But it seems more natural to connect it closely with what precedes. The baptism signified and sealed a fellowship with the resurrection of Christ; comp. Rom 6:1-11.
Raised with him; not your material, but your spiritual resurrection is in the foreground: it is bound on, it is true, to His material resurrection, and brings with it in the background, yours; but in the spiritual, the material is included and taken for granted, as usual in Scripture (Alford).
Through your faith (lit., the faith) in the operation (inworking) of God, who (hath is incorrect) raised him from the dead. Gods working is here set forth as the object of the believing, not as its cause. In this connection it was natural to characterize God as one who raised Him from the dead. Only through faith in such a God as able and willing to raise us up spiritually can we partake in this new life.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Our apostle here compares Christian baptism with the Jewish circumcision, and shews, that the signification and spiritual intention of both was one and the same, obliging all persons who took the outward sign upon them to put off the old man and put on the new; to die unto sin, and live unto God. Accordingly, the ancients made use of divers ceremonies in baptizing adult and grown persons, thereby to represent the death, burial, and resurrection fo Jesus Christ; immersion, or putting the person three times under water, either as our Saviour was under the earth three days, or in allusion to the three persons in the Trinity, in whose name we are baptized; and likewise emersion, their coming up out of the water, resembling our Lord’s arising out of his grave.
Note here, 1. That baptism under the New Testament, succeeds circumcision under the Old, and as a right of imitation to Christians as circumcision was to the Jews: For the apostle here proves, that by virtue of our spiritual circumcision in baptism, we have no need of the outward circumcision in the flesh.
Note, 2. That baptism is undoubtedly Christ’s ordinance for infants of believing Christians, as circumcision was of old for the infants of believing Jews: For if under the gospel, infants be not received, by some federal rite, into covenant with God, they are in a worse condition than children under the law; and the apostle could not truly have said, we are complete in Christ, that is, as complete without circumcision, as ever the Jewish church was with it, if we had not an ordinance, to wit, baptism, as good as their abrogated ordinance of circumcision. And the Jews would certainly have objected it to the reproach of Christianity had not the Christians had a rite of which sealed the covenant to themsleves, and their little ones, and was the door, by which all persons entered into the Jewish church.
Note, 3. The spiritual fruits and effects of baptism, namely, mortification of sin, and vivification in grace, by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, apprehended by such a faith as is of the operation of God, that is, produced by the energy of the gospel, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.
Learn hence, That neither sacraments, nor the death or the resurrection of Christ, in themselves, will avail to the mortification of sin, and the quickening of grace, if Christ himself be not applied to by such a faith, as is of the special operation of God, the faith of his working, and of his approving: This alone will effectually enable us to die unto sin and live unto God.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 12
Buried with him in baptism; that is, by baptism, or rather by the union with Christ of which baptism is the symbol, they died to sin, and were, as it were, buried with Christ, thenceforth to rise to a new spiritual life in him. That this is the meaning is shown by the corresponding passage in Romans 6:3-15, where the idea is more fully and distinctly expressed.–Faith of the operation; faith in the power.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
2:12 {10} {q} Buried with {r} him in baptism, {11} wherein also ye are risen with [him] through the faith of the operation of {s} God, who hath raised him from the dead.
(10) The taking away of an objection: we do not need an external sign to the extent which our fathers had, seeing that our baptism is a most effectual pledge and witness, of that inward restoring and renewing.
(q) See Rom 6:4 .
(r) So then all the force of the matter comes not from the very deed done, that is to say, it is not the dipping of us into the water by a minister that makes us to be buried with Christ, as the papists say, that even by the very act’s sake we become very Christians, but it comes from the power of Christ, for the apostle adds the resurrection of Christ, and faith.
(11) One purpose of baptism is to symbolise the death and burial of the old man, and that by the mighty power of God alone, whose power we lay hold on by faith, in the death and resurrection of Christ.
(s) Through faith which comes from God.