Colossians 2:12

12. buried with him] Cp. Rom_6:4; the only parallel.—Union with Christ is primarily union with Him as the Dead and Buried, because His Death (consummated as it were and sealed in His Burial) is the procuring cause of all our blessings in Him, as it is our Propitiation and Peace. The Christian, joined to Him, shares as it were the atoning Death and the covering, swallowing, Grave of his blessed Representative; he goes to the depths of that awful process with and in his Lord.

in baptism] The form of the Greek word (baptismos not baptisma in the best reading) perhaps emphasizes the action rather than the abstract institution; it recalls the decisive “Rubicon” which his sacramental Washing was to the convert. See Lightfoot here.

The immersion of the baptized (the primeval and ideal form of rite, but not invariable as a literal action; see Teaching of the Apostles (cent. 1), ch. 7) is undoubtedly here in view. The plunge beneath the water signified identification with the buried Lord, and sealed it to faith. Lightfoot quotes from the Apostolic Constitutions (a book heretical in doctrine but valuable as a witness to usages; cent. 3) the words (Col_3:17), “the plunge is our dying with Him, the coming up, our rising with Him.”

It must be said again (see above on Col_2:11) that, in the ultimate reality, not the Sacrament but faith in God’s promises joins us to the Lord in His death. But the Sacrament so seals the faith that the terms appropriate to faith attach to the Sacrament, naturally though secondarily. Cp. Gal_3:26-27, in the significant connexion of the verses. And see Beveridge on Artt. xxv., xxvii.; and Lombard, quoted in Appendix K.

ye are risen with him] Better, ye rose with Him.—The state to which baptism was your sacramental admittance is a state of union with Christ as the Risen One; fellowship in His supreme Acceptance and in His possession of the full wealth of the Spirit as our Mediator and Surety. Baptism seals to faith all our possessions in the now glorified Redeemer.

through the faith of &c.] Better, through your faith in the working (energeia) of God. Observe the reference to faith in connexion with the Sacrament; and see next note.

who hath raised him] Better, who raised Him. Cp. 1Pe_1:18-21 (especially 21) for a close and instructive parallel.—Faith rests upon God as He is viewed specially as the Raiser of the Lord from the dead, because in that character we see Him as reconciled and as actively gracious to us. See further Heb_13:20-21.

K. PETER LOMBARD ON BAPTISM. (Col_2:12.)

Peter Lombard (ob. a.d. 1160), known among medieval theologians as “the Master of the Sentences” (Magister Sententiarum), or simply, “the Master,” writes as follows in his Treatise on Theology called Sententiœ (Lib. iv., Distinctio iv., §§ 3–7):

It is asked, how is that text to be received, As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have put on Christ.… In two manners are we said to put on Christ; by the taking of the Sacrament, or by the reception of the Thing (Res). So Augustine: ‘Men put on Christ sometimes so far as the reception of the Sacrament, sometimes so far as the sanctification of the life; and the first may be common to the good and the evil; the latter is peculiar to the good and pious.’ So all who are baptized in Christ’s name put on Christ either in the sense of (secundum) the reception of the Sacrament, or in that of sanctification of the life.

“Others there are … who receive the Thing and not the Sacrament … Not only does martyrdom (passio) do the work of baptism but also faith and contrition, where necessity excludes the Sacrament …

“Whether is greater, faith or water? Without doubt I answer, faith. Now if the lesser can sanctify, cannot the greater, even faith? of which Christ said, ‘He that believeth in me, even if he were dead, he shall live’ … [Augustine says,] ‘If any man having faith and love desires to be baptized, and cannot so be, because necessity intervenes, the kindness of the Almighty supplies what was lacking to the Sacrament … The duty which could not be done is not reckoned against him by God, who hath not tied (alligavit) His power to the Sacraments …’

“The question is often asked, regarding those who, already sanctified by the Spirit, come with faith and love to baptism, what benefit baptism confers upon them? For it seems to give them nothing, since through faith and contrition their sins are already forgiven and they are justified. To which it may be truly replied that they are indeed … justified, i.e. purged from the stain (macula) of sin, and absolved from the debt of the eternal punishment, but that they are still held by the bond of the temporal satisfaction by which penitents are bound in the Church. Now when they receive Baptism they are both cleansed of any sins they have contracted since conversion, and are absolved from the external satisfaction; and assisting grace and all virtues are increased in them; so that the man may then truly be called new … Baptism confers much benefit even on the man already justified by faith; for, coming to it, he is now carried, like the branch by the dove, into the ark. He was within the ark already in the judgment of God; he is now within it in that of the Church also …

“Marvel not that the Thing sometimes goes before the Sacrament, since sometimes it follows even long after; as in those who come insincerely (ficté). Baptism will begin to profit them (only) when they afterwards repent.”

These remarks of a great representative of Scholastic Theology are interesting in themselves, and are instructive also as a caution, from the history of doctrine, against overstrained inferences from the mere wording of, e.g. Col_2:12, as if it were unfaithful to history to interpret such language in the light of facts and experience. The great risk of such overstrained exposition is that it tends to exalt the Sacrament at the expense of adequate views of the Grace, and so to invert the scale and relation of Scripture.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. Buried with him in baptism. See notes on Rom. 6:4. Paul teaches that we must re-enact the tragedy of the cross: The agony of the garden, the complete submission to the divine will, confession of Christ, crucifixion (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:5), death (Rom. 6:3), burial (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12), rising with Christ (Rom. 6:5; Col. 2:12; 3:1); nay, we must ascend and reign with him (Eph. 2:4–6). Let it be noted that “the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh” (verse 11) is associated with baptism (verse 13). Wherein ye were also raised with him (Revision). We are raised from the burial as he was raised from the grave, and we rise to a new life through faith, etc.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

2:12 you were buried with Christ when you were baptized: As in a roughly parallel passage (Rom 6:3-6), Paul assumes a strong identity between believers and Christ. In God’s sight, we really were with Christ when he was buried and raised, so we experience the benefits of what Christ did for us. Paul can link that identification with Christ to baptism because water baptism was so closely related to conversion in the early church.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Col 2:12. Βαπτίσματι, in baptism) As death is before the resurrection, so in this third or middle term of the comparison, baptism naturally precedes matured (full-grown) faith.—ἐν ᾧ, in which) An Anaphora [the frequent repetition of the same words in the beginnings], comp. Col 2:11.—διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Θεοῦ) A remarkable expression: faith is of Divine operation, and Divine working is in believers; Eph 1:19; Eph 2:8; 1Th 2:13.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_2:12 supplies further information as to how the περιετμήθητε, so far as it has taken place by means of the circumcision of Christ, has been accomplished.

συνταφέντες κ.τ.λ.] synchronous with περιετμ. (comp. on Col_1:20, εἰρηνοποιήσας): in that ye became buried with Him in baptism. The immersion in baptism, in accordance with its similarity to burial, isseeing that baptism translates into the fellowship of the death of Christ (see on Rom_6:3)a burial along with Christ, Rom_6:4. Through that fellowship of death man dies as to his sinful nature, so that the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός (Col_2:11) ceases to live, and by means of the fellowship of burial is put off (Col_2:11). The subject who effects the joint burial is God, as in the whole context. In the burial of Christ this joint burial of all that confess Him as respects their sinful body was objectively completed; but it takes place, as respects each individually and in subjective appropriation, by their baptism, prior to which the realization of that fellowship of burial was, on the part of individuals, still wanting.

ἐν ᾧ καὶ συνηγέρθητε] A new benefit, which has accrued to the readers ἐν Χριστῷ, and which in their case must bring still more clearly to living consciousness their ἐν Χριστῷ πεπληρωμένον εἶναι; so that ἐν ᾧ here is parallel to the ἐν ᾧ in Col_2:11, and refers to Christ, as does also αὐτόν subsequently. It is rightly taken thus, following Chrysostom and his successors, by Luther and most others, including Flatt, Bähr, Huther, Ewald. Others have referred it to ἐν τῷ βαπτ. (Beza, Calixtus, Estius, Michaelis, Heinrichs, and others, including Steiger, Böhmer, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Hofmann, Dalmer, Bleek); but, in opposition to this may be urged, first, the very symmetry of the discourse (ὅς … ἐν ᾧ καί … ἐν ᾧ καί); secondly, and specially, the fact that, if ἐν ᾧ refers to baptism, ἐν could not be the proper preposition, since ἐν ᾧ βαπτ., in accordance with the meaning of the word and the figure of burial, refers to the dipping into (not overflowing, as Hofmann thinks), whilst the spiritual awakening to new life, in which sense these expositors take συνηγέρθ., would have taken place through the emerging again, so that we should expect ἐξ οὗ, or, at all events, the non-local διʼ οὗ; and, thirdly, the fact that just as συνταφέντες has its own more precise definition by ἐν τῷ βαπτ., so also has συνηγέρθ. through διὰ τῆς πίστεως κ.τ.λ., and therefore the text affords no occasion for taking up again for συνηγέρθ. the more precise definition of the previous point, viz. ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι. No, the first benefit received in Christ which Paul specifies, viz. the moral circumcision, accomplished by God through the joint burial in baptismal immersion, has been fully handled in Col_2:11 down to βαπτίσματι in Col_2:12, and there now follows a second blessing received by the readers in Christ (ἐν ᾧ καί): they have been raised up also with Christ, which has taken place through faith, etc. The previous joint burial was the necessary moral preliminary condition of this joint awakening, since through it the σῶμα τῆς σαρκός was put off. This συνηγέρθ. is to be understood in the sense of the fellowship of the bodily resurrection of Christ, into which fellowship man enters by faith in such a way that, in virtue of his union of life and destiny with Christ brought about by means of faith, he knows his own resurrection as having taken place in that of Christa benefit of joint resurrection, which is, indeed, prior to the Parousia, an ideal possession, but through the Parousia becomes real (whether its realization be attained by resurrection proper in the case of the dead, or by the change that shall take place in those who are still alive). Usually συνηγέρθ. is taken in the ethical sense, as referring to the spiritual awakening, viz. from moral death, so that Paul, after the negative aspect of the regeneration (Col_2:11; βαπτίσματι, Col_2:12), now describes its positive character; comp. also Huther, Ewald, Bleek, Hofmann. But in opposition to this view is the fact that the fresh commencement ἐν ᾧ καί, corresponding with the similar commencement of Col_2:11, and referring to Christ, makes us expect the mention of a new benefit, and not merely that of another aspect of the previous one, otherwise there would have been no necessity for repeating the ἐν ᾧ καί; as also, that the inference of participation in the proper resurrection of Christ from death lies at the basis of the following τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν. Comp. on Eph_2:1; Eph_2:5-6. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Oecumenius have already correctly explained it of the proper resurrection (καὶ γὰρ ἐγηγέρμεθα τῇ δυνάμει, εἰ καὶ μὴ τῇ ἐνεργείᾳ), but Theophylact makes it include the ethical awakening also: holding that it is to be explained κατὰ δύο τρόπους, of the actual resurrection in spe, and at the same time ὅτι πνευματικῶς τὴν νέκρωσιν τῶν ἔργων τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀπεῤῥίψαμεν.

διὰ τῆς πίστεως κ.τ.λ.] The τῆς πίστεως is described by Holtzmann, p. 70, as syntactically clumsy and offensive; he regards it as an interpolation borrowed from Eph_1:19 f. Groundlessly; Paul is describing the subjective medium, without which the joint awakening, though objectively and historically accomplished in the resurrection of Christ, would not be appropriated individually, the ληπτικόν for this appropriation being wanting. The unbeliever has not the blessing of having risen with Christ, because he stands apart from the fellowship of life with Christ, just as also he has not the reconciliation, although the reconciliation of all has been accomplished objectively through Christs death. The genitive τῆς ἐνεργείας τ. Θ. is the object of faith; so Chrysostom, Theodoret, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Castalio, Beza, Calvin, Zeger, Grotius, Estius, Cornelius a Lapide, Michaelis, Rosenmüller, and others, including Baumgarten-Crusius, Ewald, Bleek, and Hofmann, in the 2d ed. of the Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 174 f. But others, such as Luther (through the faith which God works), Bengel, Flatt, Bähr, Steiger, de Wette, Böhmer, Huther, et al., take τῆς ἐνεργ. τ. Θ. as genitivus causae, for which, however, Eph_1:19 is not to be adduced (see in loc.), and in opposition to which it is decisive that in all passages, where the genitive with πίστις is not the believing subject, it denotes the object (Mar_11:22; Act_3:16; Rom_3:22; Gal_2:16; Gal_2:20; Gal_3:22; Eph_3:12; Php_1:27; Php_3:9; 2Th_2:13; Jam_2:1; Rev_2:13; Rev_14:12), and that the description of God as the Being who has raised up Christ from the dead stands most naturally and directly in significant reference to the divine activity which procures, not the faith, but the συνεγείρεσθαι, and which is therefore set forth in a very appropriate manner as the special object[100] of faith (comp. 4:17, 24, 6:8, 10:9; 2Co_4:13-14; Eph_1:19 f.; 1Pe_1:21). At the basis, namely, of the τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτ. ἐκ νεκρ. lies the certainty in the believers consciousness: since God has raised up Christ, His activity, which has produced this principale and majus, will have included therein the consequens and minus, my resurrection with Him. To the believer the two stand in such essential connection, that in the operation of God which raised up Christ he beholds, by virtue of his fellowship of life with Christ, the assurance of his own resurrection having taken place along with that act; in the former he has the pledge, the ἐνέχυρον (Theodoret) of the latter. Hofmann now again (as in the first ed. of the Schriftbeweis) explains τῆς ἐνεργ. τ. Θ. as in apposition to τῆς πίστεως, in such a way that Paul, as if correcting himself, makes the former take the place of the latter, in order to guard against the danger of his readers conceiving to themselves faith as a conduct on mans part making possible the participation in the resurrection of Christ by God, while in reality it is nothing else than the product of the ἐνέργεια of God. A quite gratuitously invented self-correction, without precedent, and undiscoverable by the reader; although the thought, if it had entered the mind of Paul, might have been indicated with the utmost simplicity and ease (possibly by διὰ τῆς πίστεως, μᾶλλον δὲ διὰ τῆς ἐνεργ. τ. Θ.).

[100] The efficacy of the divine power shown in the resurrection of Christ is the guarantee of the certainty of salvation.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 2:12 . συνταφέντες αὐτῷ ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ . This refers to the personal experience of the Christian. The rite of baptism, in which the person baptised was first buried beneath the water and then raised from it, typified to Paul the burial and resurrection of the believer with Christ. Burial seems to imply a previous death, but Rom 6:3-4 perhaps shows that the metaphors must not be rigidly pressed. συνταφ . is to be joined closely with περιετμήθητε . If any distinction in meaning is to be made between βαπτισμός and βάπτισμα , it is that the former expresses the process, the latter the result. ἐν ᾧ may refer either to Χρ . or to βαπ . The former view is taken by Chrysostom (followed by Luther, Meyer and many others). The latter is taken by Calvin and most recent commentators (De W., Hofm., Alf., Ell., Lightf., Kl [14] , Sod., Haupt, Abb.). In favour of the former it is urged that the parallelism with ἐν ᾧ καὶ περιετμ . requires it. But the real parallel is with “buried with Him in baptism,” and this requires “raised with Him in baptism”. Since baptism is not the mere plunging into the water, but emersion from it too, ἐν is not against this interpretation, and διά or ἐξ is not necessary to express it. συνηγέρθητε expresses the positive side of the experience. That death with Christ, which is the putting off of the body of flesh, has for its counterpart the putting on of Christ (Gal 3:27 ), which is followed by a walk with Him in newness of life. It is true that our complete redemption is attained only in the resurrection of the body (Rom 8:23 , 2Co 5:2-4 ). But there is clearly no reference here to the bodily resurrection at the last day, as some have thought; for that is altogether excluded by the whole tenor of the passage, which refers to an experience already complete. Nor can we, with Meyer, think of the bodily resurrection as already ideally accomplished in baptism. For the preceding context speaks only of a spiritual experience, and it is impossible to pass thus violently to one that is physical. Haupt agrees with this, but thinks the reference is not ethical, but religious, that is forensic. The rest of the passage, he argues, shows that it is not moral transformation, but justification, that Paul has in mind. But however true this may be of χαρισάμενος … σταυρῷ , it is at least questionable for the immediately succeeding context. And since the union covers both ethical renewal and justification, it is natural to find both mentioned in connexion with it, and to hold fast the former here as the more natural interpretation of the words. διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας : “through faith in the working”. Klöpper (following Luth., Beng., De W. and others) makes τῆς ἐνερ . genitive of cause, “faith produced by the working”. He argues that it is strange that in the experience already referred to the faith which proves itself in baptism must be thought of as directed towards the Person of Christ, and so cannot now be spoken of as faith in the working of God; and further, that the whole context has referred to a passive experience, and so this is fitly continued by the assertion that even the faith, which appropriates the death and resurrection of Christ, is the creation of God. But these arguments are insufficient to overthrow the force of Pauline usage, according to which elsewhere the genitive after πίστις , unless it refers to the person who believes, expresses the object of faith. The view of Hofmann that τ . ἐνερ . is a genitive of apposition, and that what is meant is “faith, that is the working of God,” is quite out of the question. For faith directed towards the working of God who raised Christ from the dead, cf. Rom 4:24 . God is so characterised, since the working by which He raised Christ will also be effective in our own spiritual experience. Our baptism is therefore not a sign of nothing, but of a real spiritual burial and resurrection with Christ.

[14] Klöpper.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through faith which cometh from God.

The taking away of an objection: we need not so much as the eternal sign which our fathers had, seeing that our baptism is a most effectual pledge and witness, of that inward restoring and renewing.

See Rom. 6:4.

So then all the force of the matter cometh not from the very deed done, that is to say, it is not the dipping of us into the water by a Minister that maketh us to be buried with Christ, as the Papists say, that even for the very act’s sake, we become verily Christians, but it cometh from the virtue of Christ, for the Apostle addeth the resurrection of Christ and faith.

One end of Baptism is the death and burial of the old man, and that by the mighty power of God only, whose virtue we lay hold on by faith, in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Translate, "Having been buried with Him in your baptism." The past participle is here coincident in time with the preceding verb, "ye were (Greek) circumcised." Baptism is regarded as the burial of the old carnal life, to which the act of immersion symbolically corresponds; and in warm climates where immersion is safe, it is the mode most accordant with the significance of the ordinance; but the spirit of the ordinance is kept by affusion, where immersion would be inconvenient or dangerous; to insist on literal immersion in all cases would be mere legal ceremonialism (Rom 6:3-4).

are risen--rather as Greek, "were raised with Him."

through the faith, &c.--by means of your faith in the operation of God; so "faith of," for "faith in" (Eph 3:12; Phi 3:9). Faith in God's mighty operation in raising again Jesus, is saving faith (Rom 4:24; Rom 10:9); and it is wrought in the soul by His same "mighty working" whereby He "raised Jesus from the dead" (Eph 1:19-20). BENGEL seems to me (not as ALFORD understands him) to express the latter sense, namely, "Through the faith which is a work of the operation of God who," &c. Eph 1:19-20 accords with this; the same mighty power of God is exercised in raising one spiritually dead to the life of faith, as was "wrought in Christ when God raised Him literally from the dead." However, "faith of" usually is "faith in" (Rom 3:22); but there is no grammatical impropriety in understanding it "the faith which is the effect of the operation of God" (Eph 2:8; Th1 2:13). As His literal resurrection is the ground of the power put forth in our spiritual resurrection now, so it is a pledge of our literal resurrection hereafter (Rom 8:11).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 12. Buried with him in baptism] Alluding to the immersions practised in the case of adults, wherein the person appeared to be buried under the Water, as Christ was buried in the heart of the earth. His rising again the third any, and their emerging from the water, was an emblem of the resurrection of the body; and, in them, of a total change of life.

The faith of the operation of God] They were quickened, changed, and saved, by means of faith in Christ Jesus; which faith was produced by the operation or energy of God. Believing is the act of the soul; but the grace or power to believe comes from God himself.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. 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, that it may be the more clearly apparent that there is no advantage from circumcision under the reign of Christ. For some one 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 making mention of baptism. Christ, says he, accomplishes in us spiritual circumcision, not through means of that ancient sign, which was in force under Moses, but by baptism. Baptism, therefore, is a sign of the thing that 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 means of baptism, as he says also in Romans 6:4, he speaks in his usual manner, ascribing efficacy to the sacrament, that it may not fruitlessly signify what does not exist. By baptism, therefore, we are buried with Christ, because Christ does at the same time accomplish efficaciously that mortification, which he there represents, that the reality may be conjoined with the sign.

In which also ye are risen. He magnifies the grace which we obtain in Christ, as being greatly superior to circumcision. “We are not only,” says he, “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 it 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. As, however, faith does not wander in a confused and undefined contemplation, as they speak, of divine power, 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, inasmuch as it is impossible that believers should be severed from their head, the same power of God, which shewed itself in Christ, is diffused among them all in common.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(12) Buried with him in baptism . . .—It is very interesting to compare this passage with Rom_6:4, “Therefore we are buried with Him in baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” In the former clause both are identical. In the latter clause this Epistle is stronger. What in the earlier Epistle is the “likeness of His Resurrection” is here the participation of it, “Ye are risen with Him.” Similarly, instead of the simple allusion to “Christ’s being raised from the dead,” we have here “through faith in the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead.” Here, as in the more detailed passage of the Ephesian Epistle (Col_1:19-23; Col_2:5-7), the “operation,” the energy of “the mighty power of God,” is conceived as actually working both in the Head and in the Body, so that wo through it partake of the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorified majesty of Christ. The comparison shows an instructive development in this Epistle of the consequences of the unity with Christ.

This passage is also notable for the obvious contrast of baptism, as a spiritual reality, with circumcision as a symbolic form. Each is the entrance into a covenant with God; but the one into a covenant of “the letter,” and the other into a covenant of “the spirit.” (See the contrast between the covenants drawn out in 2Co_3:6-18; Heb_8:6; Heb_9:28.) In the earlier Epistles circumcision is contrasted with spiritual regeneration (Gal_6:15), as shown by various signs, such as “faith working by love” (Rom_4:9-12; Gal_5:6), or “keeping the commandments of God” (1Co_7:19). Here this contrast is still as strong as ever; but baptism being (as always) looked upon as the means of such spiritual regeneration, is brought out emphatically as “the circumcision of the Spirit.” As baptised into Christ, “we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit” (Php_3:3).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Buried with him in baptism,.... The apostle goes on to observe how complete and perfect the saints are in Christ; that they are not only circumcised in him in a spiritual sense, and the body of the sins of their flesh is put off, and removed from them, in allusion to the cutting off and casting away of the foreskin in circumcision; but that they and all their sins were buried with Christ, of which their baptism in water was a lively representation: Christ having died for their sins, was laid in the grave, where he continued for a while, and then rose again; and as they were crucified with him, they were also buried with him, as their head and representative; and all their sins too, which he left behind him in the grave, signified by his grave clothes there; and baptism being performed by immersion, when the person baptized is covered with water, and as it were buried in it, is a very significant emblem of all this; it is a representation of the burial of Christ, and very fitly holds him forth to the view of faith in the state of the dead, in the grave, and points out the place where the Lord lay; and it is also a representation of our burial with him, as being dead to sin, to the law, and to the world, by him. This shows now, that baptism was performed by dipping, or covering the whole body in water, for no other form of administration of baptism, as sprinkling, or pouring water on the face, can represent a burial, or be called one; and this is what many learned interpreters own, and observe on this place:

wherein also ye are risen with him; Christ is risen from the dead as the head and representative of his people, and they are risen with him; and their baptism is also an emblem of his and their resurrection, being administered by immersion, in which way only this can be signified; for as the going down into the water, and being under it, represents Christ's descending into the state of the dead, and his continuance in it, so the emersion, or coming up out of the water, represents his rising from the dead, and that of his people in him, in order to walk in newness of life; for the apostle's meaning is, that in baptism saints are risen with Christ, as well as in it buried with him: and this

through the faith of the operation of God; that is, it is through faith that saints see themselves buried and risen with Christ, to which the ordinance of baptism is greatly assisting, where there is true faith; for otherwise, without faith, this ordinance will be of no use to any such end and purpose; and it is not any faith that will avail, but that which is of God's operation; faith is not naturally in men, all men have it not; and those that have it, have it not of themselves, it is the gift of God; it is what be works in them, and by his power performs:

who hath raised him from the dead; this is a periphrasis of God the Father, to whom the resurrection of Christ from the dead is generally ascribed; though not to the exclusion of Christ, and of the Spirit, who were also concerned; and is here added, partly to show in what respect faith, which is God's work, has him for its object, as having raised Christ from the dead, who was delivered for offences, but is risen again through the power of God for justification, and whoever with his heart believes this shall be saved; and partly to show, that the same power is exerted in working true faith in the heart, as was put forth in raising Christ from the dead.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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.

Ver. 12. Buried with him in baptism] Which succeedeth in the place of circumcision, and is also to us a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom 4:11. There were (saith one) many ceremonies in baptism used in the primitive Church, viz. putting off old clothes, drenching in water, so as to seem to be buried in it, putting on new clothes at their coming out; to which Paul alludeth in these two verses.

Of the operation of God] In the work of faith God putteth forth the same almighty power that he did in raising Christ from the dead, Eph 1:19-20. {See Trapp on "Eph 1:19"} {See Trapp on "Eph 1:20"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Buried with him in baptism - See the notes at Rom 6:4.

Wherein also - In which ordinance, or by virtue of that which is signified by the ordinance.

Ye are risen with him - From the death of sin to the life of religion; Notes, Rom 6:4-5; compare the notes at Eph 2:5-6.

Through the faith of the operation of God - By a firm belief on the agency of God in raising him up; that is, a belief of the fact that God has raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Christ is often represented as the foundation of all our hopes; and, as he was raised from the grave to die no more, so, in virtue of that we are raised from the death of sin to eternal spiritual life. The belief of this is shown by our baptism, whatever be the mode in which that ordinance is performed, and as well shown in one mode as another.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Buried with him in baptism, signified by the ceremony of immersion in baptism. See Romans vi. 3. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Buried with him in baptism: he shows that in Christ they who are found have not only the thing signified, but right to the outward sign and seal, viz. baptism, in the room of circumcision abolished; the death and burial of Christ is not only the exemplar, but the cause of the death of the old man, signed and sealed in baptism: or, by baptism into death, Rom 6:3,4, analogically, or symbolically, or sacramentally, when the Lord, together with the external sign, conferreth his grace signified by that sign; for even then the sins of such a one are buried with Christ so as they shall appear no more, either to his eternal condemnation, or in their former dominion, Rom 6:6,9,14.

Wherein also ye are risen with him; in or by which baptism becoming effectual, having mortified the body of sin, like as Christ was raised from the dead, ye are quickened and raised to newness of life, Rom 6:4; Gal 3:27-29; Eph 4:23,24; 5:14,26,27; Col 3:10,11. By virtue of Christ’s resurrection, a spiritual and mystical one is produced in you, which hath a resemblance and analogy to his.

Through the faith of the operation of God; not of yourselves, but through faith, Eph 2:8, and that wrought in you by the energy or efficacy of God, Joh 6:29; Phi 1:29; 2:13; Heb 12:2.

Who hath raised him from the dead; who did exert his power in raising up Christ from the dead: compare Rom 4:24, with Eph 1:19,20. This faith is not only wrought by God, as the circumcision without hands, but it doth respect that wonderful power of God put forth in the raising of Christ, as the subject, which he mentions by way of congruity, speaking of our resurrection, and of Christ’s. And he specifieth faith rather than love or other graces which are wrought also by God, because in this grace, which is the constitutive part of the new creature, God comes in with a greater irradiation upon the soul, being it hath not one fragment or point of nature to stand upon; carnal reason and mere moral righteousness being opposite to it, whereas other graces are but as the rectifying of the passions, and setting them upon right objects.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

12. Buried—Rather, having been buried, coincident in time with the above, were circumcised and the were raised (as are risen should read) below. This death to sin as a controlling power, the burial which consummated it, and the resurrection which followed, were ideally in connexion with their baptism, when they openly professed a renunciation of sin, and promised to lead a new life. Really, the mighty transformation had its efficiency in their union with Christ, their baptism attesting their identification with his death, burial, and resurrection.

Risen—By faith in the same mighty power which raised Christ from the dead. Where the resurrection is holiness and faith is its instrument, what must the burial be? Only he who is prepared to affirm the power of faith to lift one from submersion in water can say that the burial is immersion. To infer it from this passage is to make the apostle’s argument against ritualism supply a new yoke for Christian necks. See also notes on Rom_6:1-4.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When ye were (literally, having been) buried with him in your baptism (ver. 20; Col_3:3; Rom_6:1-11; Gal_3:26, Gal_3:27; Eph_4:5 Eph_5:26; Tit_3:5; 1Pe_3:21) Baptismov, the rarer form of the word, is preferred by Tregelles, Alford, Lightfoot (see his note), being found in Codex B, with other good authorities; it indicates the process ("in your baptizing"). Baptisma, the usual form of the word, is retained by Revisers, after Tischendorf, Ellicott, Westcott and Herr. Baptism stands for the entire change of the man which it symbolizes and seals (Rom_6:3-5; Gal_3:27) The double aspect of this change was indicated by the twofold movement taking place in immersion, the usual form of primitive baptism first the katadusiv, the descent of the baptized person beneath the symbolic waters, figuring his death with Christ as a separation from sin and the evil past (ver. 20), there for a moment he is buried, and burial is death made complete and final; (Rom_6:2-4) then the ajnadusiv, the emerging from the baptismal wave, which gave baptism the positive side of its significance. In which (or, whom) also ye were raised with (him), through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. (Col_3:1 Col_1:18; Eph_2:6, Eph_2:8; Rom_6:4 Rom_4:24; 1Pe_1:21) We refer the relative pronoun to the immediately antecedent "baptism," although the previous ejn w= refers to "Christ" (ver. 11: comp. Eph_2:6) and some good interpreters follow the rendering "in whom." For the Christian"s being raised with Christ is not contrasted with his circumcision (ver. 11) that figure has been dismissed but with his burial in baptism (ver. 12 a); so Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot, Revisers. "Having been buried" is replaced in the antithesis by the more assertive "ye were raised". (comp. vers. 13, 14; Col_1:22, Col_1:26) "With" points to the "him" (Christ) of the previous clause (Eph_2:6; Rom_6:6) Faith is the instrumental cause of that which baptism sets forth, (comp. Gal_3:26, Gal_3:27) and has for its object (not its cause: so Bengel) "the working" (ejnergeia: see Col_1:29; also Eph_1:20 Eph_3:20) "of God." And the special Divine work on which it rests is "the resurrection of Christ" (Rom_4:24, 25 10:9; 1Co_15:13-17) comp. note on "Firstborn out of the dead". (Col_1:19) Rising from the baptismal waters, the Christian convert declares the faith of his heart in that supreme act of God, which attests and makes sure all that he has bestowed upon us in his Son (Col_1:12-14: comp. Rom_1:4; also 1Pe_1:21; Act_2:36 Act_13:33, Act_13:38, etc.) Baptism symbolizes all that circumcision did, and more. It expresses more fully than the older sacrament our parting with the life of sin; and also that of which circumcision knew nothing the union of the man with the dying and risen Christ, which makes him "dead unto sin, and alive unto God." How needless, then, even if it were legitimate, for a Christian to return to this superseded rite! To heighten his readers" sense of the reality and completeness of the change which as baptized (i.e. believing) Christians they bad undergone, he describes it now more directly as matter of personal experience.

The import of Christian baptism.

Circumcision has passed away, something has come in its place in Christian times. The two ordinances of circumcision and baptism have a correlative significance. "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.

I THE IMPORT AND DESIGN OF BAPTISM. It solemnly attests that fellowship with Christ in his death and resurrection on which all personal interest in the blessings of his salvation depends. "Baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new." The whole process of spiritual renovation the death of the corruption of nature and the rise to newness of life is practically represented and sealed in baptism. We are identified with Christ:

1. In his death. "Buried with him in baptism" unto death. Our baptism unites us to him, so that we died with him. We are "planted in the likeness of death;" but here the apostle asserts a participation in his death.

2. In his burial. After "he died for our sins according to the Scriptures", (1Co_15:3) "he descended into the lower parts of the earth". (Eph_4:9) So "we are buried with him," shut off from the kingdom of Satan, as the dead in their graves are shut off from the living world; and thus we have with him severed our connection with the old world of sin.

3. In his resurrection. For "we rose with him," that we might henceforth "walk in newness of life." We must share in his death, that we may share in his life. Justification is in order to sanctification. Union with Christ in the one carries with it participation in the other.

II THE INSTRUMENT THROUGH WHICH WE ENJOY THE BLESSINGS SIGNIFIED IN BAPTISM. "Through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." This shows how the outward is based on the inward, and how it derives from it whatever vitality it possesses. Faith appropriates the act of God"s mighty power in Christ when he raised him from the dead, as an act that imparts its virtue to all who in faith realize it. The physical power in raising Christ is the guarantee and assurance of the spiritual power which is exerted in us in regeneration, Faith is necessary to the effect of baptism as it is to salvation. "If thou believest in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved". (Rom_10:9) It is by faith we obtain the benefits of the spiritual resurrection and come to "know the power of his resurrection." The grace is received through faith. In New Testament times faith preceded baptism a proof that baptism is not regeneration. The earliest cases were naturally those of adult baptism, in which there was a profession of faith in Christ.

III THE PLEDGE OF THE SPIRITUAL RESURRECTION. "The working of God, who raised him from the dead." This power to us is made possible and actual by his resurrection; for "in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." His resurrection involves both our bodily and our spiritual resurrection. T. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Which he wrought in you, when ye were as it were buried with him in baptism - The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is as manifestly alluded to here, as the other manner of baptizing by sprinkling or pouring of water is, Heb. x, 22. But no stress is laid on the age of the baptized, or the manner of performing it, in one or the other; but only on our being risen with Christ, through the powerful operation of God in the soul; which we cannot but know assuredly, if it really is so: and if we do not experience this, our baptism has not answered the end of its institution. By which ye are also risen with him - From the death of sin to the life of holiness. It does not appear, that in all this St. Paul speaks of justification at all, but of sanctification altogether.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Our apostle here compares Christian baptism with the Jewish circumcision, and shews, that the signification and spiritual intention of both was one and the same, obliging all persons who took the outward sign upon them to put off the old man and put on the new; to die unto sin, and live unto God. Accordingly, the ancients made use of divers ceremonies in baptizing adult and grown persons, thereby to represent the death, burial, and resurrection fo Jesus Christ; immersion, or putting the person three times under water, either as our Saviour was under the earth three days, or in allusion to the three persons in the Trinity, in whose name we are baptized; and likewise emersion, their coming up out of the water, resembling our Lord’s arising out of his grave.

Note here, 1. That baptism under the New Testament, succeeds circumcision under the Old, and as a right of imitation to Christians as circumcision was to the Jews: For the apostle here proves, that by virtue of our spiritual circumcision in baptism, we have no need of the outward circumcision in the flesh.

Note, 2. That baptism is undoubtedly Christ’s ordinance for infants of believing Christians, as circumcision was of old for the infants of believing Jews: For if under the gospel, infants be not received, by some federal rite, into covenant with God, they are in a worse condition than children under the law; and the apostle could not truly have said, we are complete in Christ, that is, as complete without circumcision, as ever the Jewish church was with it, if we had not an ordinance, to wit, baptism, as good as their abrogated ordinance of circumcision. And the Jews would certainly have objected it to the reproach of Christianity had not the Christians had a rite of which sealed the covenant to themsleves, and their little ones, and was the door, by which all persons entered into the Jewish church.

Note, 3. The spiritual fruits and effects of baptism, namely, mortification of sin, and vivification in grace, by virtue of the death and resurrection of Christ, apprehended by such a faith as is of the operation of God, that is, produced by the energy of the gospel, and the efficacy of the Holy Spirit.

Learn hence, That neither sacraments, nor the death or the resurrection of Christ, in themselves, will avail to the mortification of sin, and the quickening of grace, if Christ himself be not applied to by such a faith, as is of the special operation of God, the faith of his working, and of his approving: This alone will effectually enable us to die unto sin and live unto God.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι. So א*ACDcKLP, Chrys.4.467 Thdt.

ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ is read by אcBD*G, a few cursives. Although the evidence for βαπτισμῷ is suspiciously “Western,” yet, in view of the fact that βάπτισμα became the technical word for the sacrament, its substitution for βαπτισμός is readily explicable. Perhaps, therefore, the latter is right here. If so St Paul is laying stress on the process rather than the ceremony as such.

ἐκ νεκρῶν אACKLP. ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν Text. Rec. with BDG, as in Col 1:18.

“In most instances of this or similar phrases ἐκ νεκρῶν is used without τῶν, and with no variety in codd. (In Eph 1:20 L and some twenty-five MSS. prefix τῶν.) But in 1Th 1:10 אBDGLP and many MSS., with Chrys., Theodoret, al., have τῶν, ACK and many MSS. omitting it. It seems, therefore, more probable that τῶν was omitted here in conformity with usage than that it was wrongly added” (Abbott). Yet BDG form a very suspicious group (see Introd. p. lxii.).

12. συνταφέντες αὐτῷ, “being buried with Him.” The participle is closely subordinate to περιετμήθητε, of which it defines the mode.

The figure of death has already been suggested by ἐν τῇ ἀπεκδύσει κ.τ.λ., and perhaps St Paul would have continued “having died with Him” had not the act of Baptism by its covering waters represented burial rather than dying. St Paul says that the true circumcision of the believer takes place in Christ because he was buried with Him. Cf. Rom 6:4.

ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι. See notes on Textual Criticism. Here first does St Paul definitely mention the occasion on which the Colossian Christians received their true circumcision. It was in their Baptism.

The article apparently is possessive. ἐν not ‘at,’ but ‘in’ the ceremony with all its concomitants.

The form of immersion was evidently present to St Paul’s mind (though as early as the Didaché, § 7, affusion was permitted if a full supply of water could not be had), and suggested the image of burial and resurrection.

If it appears strange that St Paul attributed so much importance to the act of Baptism it must be remembered that (a) he was, primarily at least, thinking of adults, (b) this is in fact not only the occasion on which the turning point of a convert’s faith is visibly displayed, but also the consummation of his decision to belong to Christ. All who have had anything to do with the instruction of non-Christians know that it is only when they dare to confess Christ publicly by Baptism that any assurance can be felt as to the reality of their faith. St Paul’s twofold requirement (Rom 10:9) of public confession of the sovereignty of Jesus as well as heart belief in His resurrection is fully justified by experience.

St Paul, it will be observed, is here dealing with the normal state of things. Such a question as whether real faith preceded or only followed Baptism he does not discuss.

For a valuable quotation from Peter Lombard on this subject see Moule, Appendix K.

ἐν ᾧ. In spite of the phrases ἐν αὐτῷ (Col 2:10), ἐν ᾧ (Col 2:11), the antecedent is almost certainly τῷ βαπτίσματι, not Christ, for, besides other reasons, it would be strange to say that the Colossians were raised with Christ (συνηγέρθητε) in Him.

καὶ, emphasis as well as addition; cf. Col 2:11. True circumcision meant not only death but also life, or rather (in view of Col 2:13) not only death and its position of burial but also the position of those that have been raised, and, further (Col 2:13), actual enjoyment of life.

καὶ συνηγ., that is to say, introduces the positive side of conversion, marking the beginning of a new life.

συνηγέρθητε. There is no occasion to repeat the αὐτῷ from συνταφέντες αὐτῷ.

For the word see Col 3:1, and Eph 2:6†. Compare also the note on συνεζωοποίησεν, Col 2:13.

διὰ τῆς πίστεως, “by your faith.” On πίστις cf. Col 1:4; Col 1:23, Col 2:5; Col 2:7.

In this clause St Paul guards against any misconception of Baptism having a merely mechanical effect. Faith is the instrument by which the benefit to be obtained in baptism is received.

Bengel, probably by some remnant of controversial bias, understands the genitive after πίστεως (τ. ἐνεργ. τ. θ.) as subjective, “fides est opus operationis divinae: et operatio divina est in fidelibus.” But it is certainly objective; cf. Act 3:16; 2Th 2:13; Eph 3:12. And so Chrys., καλῶς εἷπε, ‘Πίστεως’· πίστεως γὰρ ὅλον ἐστίν. ἐπιστεύσατε ὅτι δύναται ὁ θεὸς ἐγεῖραι, καὶ οὕτως ἠγέρθητε.

τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ θεοῦ, “in the working of God”; i.e. in believers. See the note on ἐνέργεια at Col 1:29.

The false teachers urged faith in the “powers and authorities,” but you have faith in the working of God Himself. He raised Christ, and that is a solid fact on which to rest your faith in His power towards you, even to raise you with Him. And by means of this your faith you, in fact, were raised.

τοῦ ἐγείραντος αὐτὸν ἐκ νεκρῶν. See notes on Textual Criticism. The absence of the article before νεκρῶν (contrast Col 1:18) lays the more stress on the fact that they were dead, “from such people as were actually dead.”

The phrase probably means “from a state of death”; contrast Col 1:18.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12.] (goes on to connect this still more closely with the person of Christ—q. d., in the circumcision of Christ, to whom you were united, &c.)—buried together (i.e. ‘when you were buried:’ the aorist participle, as so often, is contemporary with the preceding past verb) with Him in your baptism (the new life being begun at baptism,—an image familiar alike to Jews and Christians,—the process itself of baptism is regarded as the burial of the former life: originally, perhaps, owing to the practice of immersion, which would most naturally give rise to the idea: but to maintain from such a circumstance that immersion is necessary in baptism, is surely the merest trifling, and a resuscitation of the very ceremonial spirit which the Apostle here is arguing against. As reasonably might it be argued, from the ἀπέκδυσις here, that nakedness was an essential in that sacrament. The things represented by both figures belong to the essentials of the Christian life: the minor details of the sacrament which corresponded to them, may in different ages or climates be varied; but the spiritual figures remain. At the same time, if circumstances concurred,—e.g. a climate where the former practice was always safe, and a part of the world, or time of life, where the latter would be no shock to decency,—there can be no question that the external proprieties of baptism ought to be complied with. And on this principle the baptismal services of the Church of England are constructed); in which (i.e. baptism: not, as Mey. (and so most expositors), ‘in whom,’ i.e. Christ. For although it is tempting enough to r, ard the ἐν ᾧ καί as parallel with the ἐν ᾧ καί above, we should be thus introducing a second and separate leading idea into the argument, manifestly occupied with one leading idea, viz. the completeness of your Christian circumcision,—cf. ἀκροβυστίᾳ again below,—as realized in your baptism: whereas on this hypothesis we should be breaking off from baptism altogether,—for there would be no link to connect the present sentence with the former, but we must take up again from ἐξουσίας. This indeed is freely confessed by Mey., who holds that all allusion to baptism is at an end here, and that the following is a benefit conferred by faith as separate from baptism. But see below. His objection, that if ἐν ᾧ applied to baptism, it would not correspond to the rising again, which should be ἐξ οὗ, or at all events the unlocal διʼ οὗ, arises from the too precise materialization of the image. As ἐν before did not necessarily apply to the mere going under the water, but to the process of the sacrament, so ἐν now does not necessarily apply to the coming up out of the water, but also to the process of the sacrament. In it, we both die and rise again,—both unclothe and are clothed) ye were also raised again with Him (not your material, but your spiritual resurrection is in the foreground: it is bound on, it is true, to His material resurrection, and brings with it in the background, yours: but in the spiritual, the material is included and taken for granted, as usual in Scripture) by (means of: the mediate, not the efficient cause: the hand which held on, not the plank that saved. I am quite unable to see why this illustration is, as Ellic. states, “in more than one respect, not dogmatically satisfactory.” Surely it is dogmatically exact to say that Faith is the hand by which we lay hold on Christ the Ark of our refuge) your faith in (so Chrys., Thdrt., Œc., Thl., Erasm., Beza, Calv., Grot., Est., Corn.-a-lap., Mey., al., Beng. (‘fides est (opus) operationis divinæ’), al., and Luther. De W. understands faith wrought by God (‘durch den Glauben den Gott wirket,’ Luth.: ‘mittelst des Glaubens Kraft der Wirksamkeit Gottes,’ De W.). But both usage and the context are against this. The genitive after πίστις is ever (against Ellic. here) of the object of faith, see reff., and on Eph 1:19) the operation of God (in Christ—that mighty power by which the Father raised Him, cf. Rom 8:11; ἣν ἐνήργηκεν ἐν χριστῷ, Eph 1:20) who raised Him from the dead (πιστεύοντες γὰρ τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ δυνάμει προσμένομεν τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἐνέχυρον ἔχοντες τοῦ δεσπότου χριστοῦ τὴν ἀνάστασιν. Thdrt. But there is very much more asserted than the more προσμένειν τὴν ἀνάστασιν—the power of God in raising the dead to life is one and the same in our Lord and in us—the physical power exerted in Him is not only a pledge of the same physical power to be exerted in us, but a condition and assurance of a spiritual power already exerted in us, whereby we are in spirit risen with Christ, the physical resurrection being included and taken for granted in that other and greater one):

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12. συνταφέντες αὐτῷ, κ.τ.λ. We have the same figure in Rom 6:3, Rom 6:4, which may almost be regarded as a commentary on this passage. The figure was naturally suggested by the immersion in baptism, which St. Paul interprets as symbolical of burial, the emersion similarly symbolising the rising again to newness of life.

συνταφέντες is to be connected with περιετμήθητε, and specifies when and how this was brought about.

ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι. So most authorities, א* A C Dc K L P, etc. But אc, B D* F G 47 672 71 have βαπτισμῷ, which Lightfoot prefers on the ground that it is the less usual word in this sense. That it might be so used is shown by its occurrence in Josephus, Ant. xviii. 5. 2, of the baptism of John. But in two of the other three passages in which it occurs in the N.T., it means lustration or washing, e.g. of vessels: Mar 7:4 (in Rec. also 8); Heb 9:10. The third passage, Heb 6:2, is doubtful. In the Latin version as well as in the Latin Fathers, “baptisma” and “baptismus” are used indifferently. St. Paul uses the substantive “baptism” in only two other places (Rom 6:4; Eph 4:5), and this is not sufficient to supply any basis for inference as to his usage. Etymologically βαπτισμός would signify rather the act of dipping, βάπτισμα the act as complete. Weiss thinks the former more suitable here.

ἐν ᾧ, viz. βαπτίσματι. This seems clearly required by the analogy between συνταφέντες ἐν and συνηγέρθητε. Chrysostom, however, and most comm. understand ἐν Χριστῷ. Meyer defends this on the ground, first, of the parallelism of ἐν ᾧ καί—ἐν ᾧ καί; secondly, because, if baptism were intended, ἐν would not be suitable to the rising again, and we should expect ἐξ, or at least the non-local διά; and, lastly, because as συνταφέντες is defined by ἐν τῷ βαπτ., so is συνηγέρθητε by διὰ τῆς πίστεως; and, therefore, the text suggests no reason for continuing to it the former definition also. To the second objection (adopted also by Eadie), it may be replied that βάπτισμα (βαπτισμός) includes the whole act. It is only when we take in the two things signified, the “death unto sin” and the “new birth unto righteousness,” or the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new, that βάπτισμα can be identified with περιτομὴ ἀχειροποίητος; for περιτομή also signified the entrance into a holy state as well as the separation from the state of nature. The first objection has really no weight, for it is much more natural to connect συνηγέρθητε with συνταφέντες than with περιετμήθητε; and this is strongly confirmed by the passage in Rom. just referred to: συνετάφημεν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος … ἵνα ὥσπερ ἠγέρθη Χριστός … οὕτως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς περιπατήσωμεν, κ.τ.λ. Further, as Lightfoot observes, the idea of Χριστῷ must be reserved for συνηγέρθητε, where it is wanted: “ye were raised together with Him.” (So Alford, Beza, De Wette, Ellicott, Lightfoot, Soden, al.)

συνηγέρθητε. Compare Gal 3:27, ὅσοι εἰς Χριστὸν ἐβαπτίσθητε Χριστὸν ἐπενδύσασθε. The Χριστὸν ἐπενδύσασθαι presupposes the ἀπέκδυσις τοῦ σώματος τῆς σαρκός.

διὰ τῆς πίστεως τῆς ἐνεργείας τοῦ Θεοῦ. “Through your faith in the working of God.” Bengel, De Wette, al., understand ἐνεργείας as a genitive of cause, “faith produced by the operation of God.” But the genitive after πίστις, when not that of the person, is always that of the object. Cf. Mar 11:22; Act 3:16; Rom 3:22; Gal 2:16, Gal 2:20; Eph 3:12; Php 1:27, etc. Eph 1:19 is cited in favour of this interpretation, but κατὰ τὴν ἐνεργείαν there is not to be joined to τοὺς πιστεύοντας; see note on the passage. The former interpretation is also more suitable to the context. The πίστις here is specified as faith in the resurrection, πιστεύοντες γὰρ τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ δυνάμει προσμένομεν τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ἐνέχυρον ἔχοντες τοῦ δεσπότου χριστοῦ τὴν ἀνάστασιν, Theodoret. πίστεως ὅλον ἐστίν· ἐπιστεύσατε ὅτι δύναται ὁ Θεὸς ἐγεῖραι, καὶ οὕτως ἠγέρθητε, Chrys. Faith is the subjective means by which the grace is received; only by a belief in the resurrection can the rising again with Christ be appropriated by the individual. By belief in the resurrection of Christ we believe in the power of God, of which it is an evidence; and this belief, again, is the means by which that power works in the life and produces an effect analogous to that resurrection. Compare Rom 4:24, Rom 6:8, Rom 10:9.

B D G 17 and most MSS. have τῶν before νεκρῶν; אA C K L P and several cursives omit it. In most instances of this or similar phrases ἐκ νεκρῶν is used without τῶν, and with no variety in codd. (In Eph 1:20 L and some twenty-five MSS. prefix τῶν.) But in 1Th 1:10 א B D G L P and many MSS., with Chrys., Theodoret, al., have τῶν, A C K and many MSS. omitting it. It seems, therefore, more probable that τῶν was omitted here in conformity with usage than that it was wrongly added. See on Luk 20:35.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Buried [συνταφεντες] . See on Rom 6:4. The aorist tense puts the burial as contemporaneous with the circumcision. Ye were circumcised when ye were buried, etc.

In baptism [εν τω βαπτισματι ορ βαπτισμω] . The article, the baptism points to the familiar rite, or may have the force of your.

Wherein also [εν ω και] . Referring to baptism, not to Christ.

Ye were raised with Him [συνηγερθητε] . The burial and the raising are both typified in baptism. The raising is not the resurrection to eternal life at Christ 's second coming, but the moral resurrection to a new life. This corresponds with the drift of the entire passage, with the figurative sense of buried, and with Rom 6:4, which is decisive.

Through the faith of the operation of God. Not the faith which God works, but your faith in God 's working : faith in God 's energy as displayed in Christ 's resurrection. Hence the emphasis which is laid on faith in the resurrection. See 1Co 14:3, 4 (note); Rom 10:9; Eph 1:19. vers. 11, 12 should be compared with Rom 6:2 - 6.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

τοῦ σώματος κ.τ.λ.] ‘the whole body which consists of the flesh’, i.e. ‘the body with all its corrupt and carnal affections’; as iii. 5 νεκρώσατε οὖν τὰ μέλη . For illustrations of the expression see Rom. vi. 6 ἵνα καταργηθῇ τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας, vii. 24 τοῦ σώματος τοῦ θανάτου τούτου, Phil. iii. 21 τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν. Thus τὸ σῶμα τῆς σαρκός here means ‘the fleshly body’ and not ‘the entire mass of the flesh’; but the contrast between the whole and the part still remains. In i. 22 the same expression τὸ σῶμα τῆς σαρκός occurs, but with a different emphasis and meaning: see the note there.

The words τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, inserted between τοῦ σώματος and τῆς σαρκός in the received text, are clearly a gloss, and must be omitted with the vast majority of ancient authorities.

12. Baptism is the grave of the old man, and the birth of the new. As he sinks beneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his corrupt affections and past sins; as he emerges thence, he rises regenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life. This it is, because it is not only the crowning act of his own faith but also the seal of God’s adoption and the earnest of God’s Spirit. Thus baptism is an image of his participation both in the death and in the resurrection of Christ. See Apost. Const. iii. 17 ἡ κατάδυσις τὸ συναποθανεῖν, ἡ ἀνάδυσις τὸ συναναστῆναι. For this twofold image, as it presents itself to St Paul, see especially Rom. vi. 3 sq.

ἐν τῷ βαπτισμῷ] ‘in the act of baptism’. A distinction seems to be observed elsewhere in the New Testament between βάπτισμα ‘baptism’ properly so called, and βαπτισμός ‘lustration’ or ‘washing’ of divers kinds, e.g. of vessels (Mark vii. 4, [8,] Heb. ix. 10). Even Heb. vi. 2 βαπτισμῶν διδαχῆς, which at first sight might seem to be an exception to this rule, is perhaps not really so (Bleek ad loc.). Here however, where the various readings βαπτισμῷ and βαπτίσματι appear in competition, the preference ought probably to be given to βαπτισμῷ as being highly supported in itself (see the detached note on various readings) and as the less usual word in this sense. There is no a priori reason why St Paul should not have used βαπτισμός with this meaning, for it is so found in Josephus Ant. xviii. 5. 2 βαπτισμῷ συνιέναι (of John the Baptist). Doubtless the form βάπτισμα was more appropriate to describe the one final and complete act of Christian baptism, and it very soon obtained exclusive possession of the ground in Greek; but in St Paul’s age the other form βαπτισμός may not yet have been banished. In the Latin Version baptisma and baptismus are used indiscriminately: and this is the case also with the Latin fathers. The substantive ‘baptism’ occurs so rarely in any sense in St Paul (only Rom. vi. 4, Eph. iv. 5, besides this passage), or indeed elsewhere in the N. T. of Christian baptism (only in 1 Pet. iii. 21), that we have not sufficient data for a sound induction. So far as the two words have any inherent difference of meaning, βαπτισμός denotes rather the act in process and βάπτισμα the result.

ἐν ᾧ] i.e. βαπτισμῷ. Others would understand Χριστῷ for the sake of the parallelism with ver. 11 ἐν hῷ καὶ ... εν ᾧ καί. But this parallelism is not suggested by the sense: while on the other hand there is obviously a very close connexion between συνταφέντες and συνηγέρθητε as the two complementary aspects of baptism; comp. Rom. vi. 4 sq. συνετάφημεν αὐτῷ διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἵνα ὥσπερ ἐγέρθη Χριστὸς ... ὅυτως καὶ ἡμεῖς ... εἰ γὰρ σύμφυτοι γεγόναμεν τῷ ὁμοίωματι τοῦ θανάτου αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῆς ἀναστάσεως ἐσόμεθα, 2 Tim. ii. 11 εἰ γὰρ συναπεθάνομεν , καὶ συνζήσομεν . In fact the idea of Χριστῷ must be reserved for συνηγέρθητε where it is wanted, ‘ye were raised together with Him’.

διὰ τῆς πίστεως κ.τ.λ.] ‘through your faith in the operation,’ ἐνεργείας being the objective genitive. So St Chrysostom, πίστεως ὅλον ἐστίν· ἐπιστεύσατε ὅτι δύναται ὁ Θεὸς ἐγεῖραι, καὶ οὕτως ἠγέρθητε. Only by a belief in the resurrection are the benefits of the resurrection obtained, because only so are its moral effects produced. Hence St Paul prays that he may ‘know the power of Christ’s resurrection’ (Phil. iii. 10). Hence too he makes this the cardinal article in the Christian’s creed, ‘If thou ... believest in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved’ (Rom. x. 9). For the influence of Christ’s resurrection on the moral and spiritual being, see the note on Phil. l.c. Others take τῆς ἐνεργείας as the subjective genitive, ‘faith which comes from the operation etc.’, arguing from a mistaken interpretation of the parallel passage Ephes. i. 19 (where κατὰ τῆν ἐνέργειαν should be connected, not with τοὺς πιστεύοντας, but with τί τὸ ὑπερβάλλον μέγεθος κ.τ.λ.). The former explanation however yields a better sense, and the genitive after πίστις far more commonly describes the object than the source of the faith, e.g. Rom. iii. 22, 26, Gal. iii. 22, Ephes. iii. 12, Phil. i. 27, iii. 9, 2 Thess. ii. 13.

J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations (London: Macmillan, 1875) — public domain. Electronic text from Project Gutenberg (ebook #50857). Covers Colossians and Philemon only (the verse-by-verse notes; introductions and dissertations are omitted); Lightfoot's companion Galatians and Philippians volumes are not included, as the available public-domain scans carry garbled Greek that cannot be faithfully reproduced.