A couple of short thoughts on Colossians 2:
1. Paul is speaking to the Colossians specifically as a group of Gentiles, i.e. uncircumcised.
2. Jesus’s circumcision of which Paul speaks here was His death on the cross.
3. Merely removing the foreskin was not enough to purify mankind. The whole body was/is corrupt and had to/has to die.
4. In the act of water baptism, a person is united with the death and resurrection of Christ. The benefits of Christ’s work become ours through the rite of baptism.
5. Baptism and faith are not at odds here. Both are present. Jesus trusted in God, and so must we.
6. Being raised with Christ, all our transgressions of God’s Law have been forgiven. Not only have we been forgiven, the Old Testament legal requirements that kept Gentiles away from God have been done away with entirely through Christ’s death and resurrection.
7. By His work, Christ has usurped the principalities and powers (the rulers and authorities), subjugating them to His own rule and dominion. Consequently, they no longer are able to command or make any legal claim against those of us who are in union with Christ. All the courtroom arguments against us they may try to make are thrown out of court.
No doubt there is enough there to rub different folks the wrong way, at different points. But Paul isn’t simply throwing out a variety of vague, disconnected references to salvation. He is making a coherent statement about the work of Christ, specifically as it relates to the Gentiles.
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“So you’re saying baptism somehow saves us, whatever you mean by that. Aren’t you then saying that we’re saved by our good works, our work of getting baptized?” It’s a common response.
But nobody actually baptizes himself, does he? Usually a minister applies water to the person’s head and says “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Or he dips the person in a pool of water and says the same. The minister baptizes you. It isn’t something you do; it’s something done to you. God is working through the minister as his tool to save you, just like he sanctifies you when the minister preaches God’s Word to you. The fact that you are listening in no way means you earn sanctification. You wouldn’t even be listening if God hadn’t first inclined your heart toward Him and made you want to listen. All the credit goes to God.
