John Calvin 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)

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, so that it may be more clearly apparent that there is no advantage from circumcision under the reign of Christ.

For someone 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 mentioning baptism.

Christ, he says, accomplishes spiritual circumcision in us, not through that ancient sign which was in force under Moses, but by baptism. Baptism, therefore, is a sign of what is presented to us, which, while absent, was prefigured by circumcision. The argument is taken from the economy 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 baptism, as he also says in Romans 6:4, he speaks in his usual manner, ascribing efficacy to the sacrament, so that it may not fruitlessly signify what does not exist. By baptism, therefore, we are buried with Christ, because Christ at the same time efficaciously accomplishes that mortification, which he there represents, so that the reality may be conjoined with the sign.

In which also you are risen. He magnifies the grace which we obtain in Christ as being greatly superior to circumcision. “We are not only,” he says, “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 faith 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.

However, as faith does not wander in a confused and undefined contemplation of divine power, as they say, 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 since it is impossible that believers should be severed from their head, the same power of God which showed itself in Christ is diffused among them all.