Does Colossians 2:11-13 Teach Baptisimal Regeneration?

There were heretics in the church at Colosse and through vain deceit and the traditions of men, they were leading men away from Christ in religion rather toward and after Christ in truth. The issue in Colosse was the beginnings of what is known as Gnosticism. The heresy was a mixture of a type of Judaism, mysticism, and philosophy that corrupted the truth about Jesus Christ. Much like many of the cults today, the wolves at Colosse were using the words of Christianity, but applying different doctrines and philosophies and meanings to the words. They used familiar Christian terms but applied their own definition.

There was the pre-Gnostic idea of “the fullness”(Pleroma) which was "...the mediating eons or angel-powers or spiritual manifestations supposed to be intermediate between God and the world... the entire series of angels or eons, which filled the space or interval between a holy God and a world of matter, which was conceived of as essentially and necessarily evil." (ISBE).  Paul declares that this is not fullness and true fullness is not found in mysticism, or works, or ritual but Christ is the fullness: Christ is all and we are complete and full in Him.  Christ is sufficient. Christ is fully God, Christ is the fullness of God in creation, Christ is the fullness of God in redemption, Christ is the fullness of God in the church, and Christ is the power and the purpose of living our lives. By positively asserting Christ, Paul as inoculated the church from the heresies that were (are are still) being taught. For the most part in this book, Paul battles the heresy by showing the truth.

When we get to second chapter, Paul is dealing specifically with Christ and our salvation (Col. 2:9-10).  How are we full and complete? Paul gives two examples – not two options in verses 11-13. These examples are to illustrate what the symbols were/are given to illustrate - that we are complete & made full in Christ. The first example is showing the true meaning of circumcision and what it actually represented.

Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:

Circumcision was never given to impart faith. There was a twofold purpose for circumcision – one a sign of the physical part of the covenant with Abraham (a land and a nation) and the second part was a token of God’s work in redemption.  When a person is born again, God takes away the flesh, i.e. sin, the "old man". God preforms a circumcision of the heart. The Gentiles believers were not encouraged to be circumcised but he is explaining from the physical token what had happened to them spiritually by using the token that God had used with Israel to demonstrate that very point. The covenant given to Abraham was based upon the promise God gave to Abraham, not upon the works of the flesh (Gal. 3:17-19). Circumcision never conferred grace (Romans 4:8-10), it was a sign (Romans 4:11-12). This had always been the spiritual aspect of circumcision (cf. Lev 26:41-42; Deut 30:5-6; Deut 10:12-17). In order to be a citizen of the nation of Israel and to partake of the inheritance of the land, one had to be circumcised, but this did not preform any spiritual work. The Old Testament taught the same principle as the new, a heart circumcision (Ezk 11:10 and Col 2:11). However, circumcision never saved.

Moving on to Col. 2:12, we see the second part of the same sentence giving the same thought.

Col 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.

As circumcision is being used to illustrate a point, so is Baptism. It has never been something that confers grace, but it is a picture of the work of God in regeneration. We are buried under the water (immersed, not sprinkled) and raised to walk in newness of life. The act of going under the water pictures death, our death to sin and Christ’s death FOR our sins - does not bring faith. Our coming up out of the water pictures our walking in newness of life on account of Christ’s rising from the grave for our justification. Like circumcision in verse 11, baptism shows the operation of God who raises men from the dead. We were dead in our sins and God gave us life in regeneration, forgiving us our sins. This does not teach us that we are born again through the waters of baptism or through the ritual of circumcision. Not only does this passage not teach that circumcision replaces baptism, it illustrates that neither had the power to save. Nothing can be as clear in the New Testament as the fact that Paul did not believe that circumcision had any efficacious saving power. Paul using both examples here in a positive light, Paul is showing that neither baptism or circumcision has efficacious saving power, but was given as a picture and a sign of God's redemptive work in regeneration. 

It was the Gnostics and the mystic Judiazers who were trying to pull the Christians into sacramentalsim and offering works and rituals to be forgiven. When you read the rest of the chapter, Paul continues on by condemning rituals, ordinances, and other aesthetics to gain salvation.

The analogia scriptura (analogy of scripture) is that we are saved by Grace, through faith. Not by right, not by ceremony, not by works, not by knife, and not by water. We are saved by faith, cleansed, not by the water, but by the blood of Christ.

Series introduction found here.
The next post in the series is found here.

Grace & Peace, 

Dunkin' Babies

On November 22, 2010 I wrote a blog post on infant baptism and happily last week, Gary the Lutheran Blogger commented and thoroughly disagreed (this is the internet after all). After some back and forth, I decided to bring the old post back to the front. No since in letting good discussion get lost in a 3 year old meta. Gary has suggested that I do not read the Bible literally, and if I did, I couldn’t help but dunk babies under the water in the baptismal pool. Because, if we read what the Greek work for baptism LITERALLY means, we surely wouldn't sprinkle, but let's let those napping canines rest.  In the comment sections of that post, Gary offered the following proof texts to prove baptismal regeneration:
Titus 3:5 
Colossians 2:11-13 
I Peter 3:20-21 

Then he offered this challenge.

"Read this verse literally and what does it say: Baptism saves us. Period. Sit down. Read the entire New Testament. Read it literally unless God is VERY clear that he is not speaking literally. What will you end up with: God forgives sins in baptism. God saves in baptism. They only way to believe it doesn't is to establish your doctrine FIRST...and then try to interpret God's words to fit your doctrine. God doesn't need you help to explain what he was trying to say. He is very clear...if you read the Bible literally."

Let’s do, shall we? Let’s read the Bible literally and let us read it in context and let us exegete the text. I plan on in the next three posts to exegete the passages that Gary provided. After that, I hope to examine the paradigm of infant baptism. It is not a matter of texts. Saying “Titus 3:5 – BOOM!” dropping the mic and walking off stage with an assured nod of the head, is not how one proves a theological matter.

Here we go...

Part 1 Colossians 2:11-13 click HERE.

The Limits of Atonement

"Let there be no misunderstanding at this point. The Arminian limits the atonement as certainly as does the Calvinist. The Calvinist limits the extent of it in that he says it does not apply to all persons...while the Arminian limits the power of it, for he says that in itself it does not actually save anybody. The Calvinist limits it quantitatively, but not qualitatively; the Arminian limits it qualitatively, but not quantitatively. For the Calvinist it is like a narrow bridge that goes all the way across the stream; for the Arminian it is like a great wide bridge that goes only half-way across. As a matter of fact, the Arminian places more severe limitations on the work of Christ than does the Calvinist."  

Lorraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination

Justified

The Canons of Dort- First Head, Article 7

Election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world, He has out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own will, chosen from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault from the primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom He from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the elect and the foundation of salvation. This elect number, though by nature neither better nor more deserving than others, but with them involved in one common misery, God has decreed to give to Christ to be saved by Him, and effectually to call an draw them to His communion by His Word and Spirit; to bestow upon them true faith, justification, and sanctification; and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of His son, finally to glorify them for the demonstration of His mercy, and for the praise of the riches of His glorious grace; as it is written "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Eph 1:4-6). And elsewhere: "And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified." (Rom 8:30).

Read it all here.

Try a Lazy Boy

C.H. Spurgeon -

"I recollect an Arminian brother telling me that he had read the Scriptures through a score or more times, and could never find the doctrine of election in them. He added that he was sure he would have done so if it had been there, for he read the Word on his knees. I said to him, "I think you read the Bible in a very uncomfortable posture, and if you had read it in your easy chair, you would have been more likely to understand it. Pray, by all means, and the more, the better, but it is a piece of superstition to think there is anything in the posture in which a man puts himself for reading: and as to reading through the Bible twenty times without having found anything about the doctrine of election, the wonder is that you found anything at all: you must have galloped through it at such a rate that you were not likely to have any intelligible idea of the meaning of the Scriptures."

HT: Phil Johnson