Reading… and Thinking

You have come to fullness of life in him [Christ], who is the head of all rule and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ; and you were 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. And you, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

– Colossians 2:10-14 (RSV)

This is the kind of passage that sounds very “new-testamenty”, but its force can slip right by without us noticing. Let's pull it apart and look at it.

Baptism is mentioned in the middle of the passage. Paul is telling us what happens when we are "buried with him in baptism". He says:

• We come to fullness of life in Christ (the head of all).
• We are circumcised with a non-literal circumcision.
• We are buried with Christ.
• We are raised with Christ, through faith in God.
• We were dead in wrongdoing and “uncircumcision”, but are made alive with Jesus. (Basically a restatement of the previous thoughts.)
• All our sins are forgiven.
• A legal bond against us is canceled, having been nailed to the cross.

There appear to be several figures being used here. For instance, we haven't yet come to true fullness of life – we still have the same old life in the literal sense. The circumcision is plainly figurative ("made without hands"). The burial is a figure, as is the rising again. We aren't literally dead, and don't come literally back to life.

But then, there is some plain language: All of our sins are forgiven. Then, a legal bond is canceled (which seems literal), being nailed to the cross (figurative).

I don't believe it takes any exceptional scholastic ability to figure out what Paul is saying. It all boils down to the same thing: There is a tremendous transformation at baptism. Although nothing changes physically, our whole standing before God changes – as dramatic as if we had been killed and buried, and then miraculously returned from death back to life. In fact, it’s a (figurative) reenactment of what the Lord Jesus went through, and Paul says we go through it “with him”.

The bond that stands against us is the law of sin and death. This law condemns us, but the condemnation is removed. (See Romans chapter 8 for a treatise by Paul on this topic.) Circumcision was the sign of being in covenant with God; this new "circumcision" in Christ has the same effect, with the added, and amazing, benefit of the cancellation of all our sins. We are given a fresh start, a brand new life. And we enter the fullness of this new life with Christ, not all alone as we were before.

But it all hinges on our being buried with Christ, our submission to the command to be baptized. Without that "death" and “burial”, there is no circumcision, no cancellation of sin, no new life, no covenant, no relationship of being “in Christ”. Only through baptism is the transformation possible.