Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Colossians 2:12

"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." — Colossians 2:12 (ASV)

Paul gives a further explanation of spiritual circumcision: Christian baptism is the outward counterpart to that experience and as such is the means by which it is openly declared. The emphasis of the verse, however, is not on the analogy between circumcision and baptism; that concept is soon dismissed, and the thought shifts to that of baptism as symbolizing the believer’s participation in the burial and resurrection of Christ (cf. Romans 6:3ff.).

Being “buried” and “raised” with Christ conveys the thought not simply of burying an old way of life and rising to a new kind of life but of sharing in the experience of Christ’s own death and resurrection. That Paul did not think of baptism as actually effecting participation in that experience is made clear when he adds that the Colossians were raised through their “faith in the power of God.” Baptism, then, is not a magic rite, but an act of obedience in which we confess our faith and symbolize the essence of our spiritual experience. Faith is the instrumental cause of that experience, and, apart from real faith, baptism is an empty, meaningless ceremony.