Colossians 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. 'Having been buried with Him in your [to] baptism:' coincident in time with the preceding 'ye were circumcised.' Baptism is the burial of the old carnal life, to which immersion symbolically corresponds: 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: to insist on literal immersion in all cases would be legal ceremonialism (Romans 6:3). ARE RISEN, [ suneegertheete (G4891)] - 'were raised with Him;' answering to emerging from the baptism-water. Through t...

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...

8-17 There is a philosophy which rightly exercises our reasonable faculties; a study of the works of God, which leads us to the knowledge of God, and confirms our faith in him. But there is a philosophy which is vain and deceitful; and while it pleases men's fancies, hinders their faith: such are curious speculations about things above us, or no concern to us. Those who walk in the way of the world, are turned from following Christ. We have in Him the substance of all the shadows of the ceremonial law. All the defects of it are made up in the gospel of Christ, by his complete sacrifice for sin, and by the revelation of the will of God. To be complete, is to be furnished with all things necessary for salvation. By this one word "complete," is shown that we have in Christ whatever is required. "In him," not when we look to Christ, as though he were distant from us, but we are in him, when...

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....

BURIED WITH HIM IN BAPTISM - See the notes at Romans 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, Romans 6:4; compare the notes at Ephesians 2:5. 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

EXPOSITION COLOSSIANS 2:1 SECTION IV. THE APOSTLE'S CONCERN FOR THE COLOSSI. AN CHURCH. So far the contents of the letter have been of a general and preparatory character. New the writer begins to indicate the special purpose he has in view by declaring, in connection with his concern for the welfare of the Gentile Churches at large (Colossians 1:24), _the deep anxiety which he at present feels respecting the Colossian and neighbouring Churches._ COLOSSIANS 2:1...

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 sig...

Colossians 2:1. _For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;_ Paul had not met these Colossian Christians, but he had heard of their faith, and hope, and love, and he so desired their good that he had a continual care for them in his heart. He carried that care to God in prayer, yet he still bore them in loving remembrance. They were always on his heart as a sick child is ever on the heart of its mother. Colossians 2:2. _That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ._ In whom are hid all the treasures of wi

II. COMPLETE IN HIM, IN WHOM ALL THE FULLNESS DWELLS CHAPTER 2 _ 1. The mystery of God (Colossians 2:1)_ 2. Complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9) 3. Exhortations and warnings (Colossians 2:16) Colossians 2:1 In view of the last verses of the preceding chapter we can understand his anxiety and the great conflict he had for the Colossians and for those living in nearby Laodicea, and for as many who had not seen his face in the flesh. He was deeply concerned about them after he heard of their danger of going into error. It was a spiritual conflict. He was greatly exercised in his th

AN URGENT WARNING AGAINST A DEGRADING THEOSOPHY. Let them not be led away by false reasonings, however persuasive. They must think of Paul, despite his bodily absence, as being with them in spirit (1 Corinthians 5:3 f.*), as a sharer of their joy, and a spectator of the ordered line and steadfast front of their loyalty to Christ. As, then, they received the Messiah, Jesus the Lord, so let them walk in Him, true to the instruction they received, rooted and built up in Him, strong in loyalty, overflowing in thanks-giving. Let them, even so, be on their guard against the very real danger that some person may make a prey of them by means of a philosophy which is mere empty deceit, based not upon Christ, but on human tradition and the doctrine of elemental spirits. The truth is that the entire fulness of the Godhead resides concretely embodied in Christ. To Him as head every rule and auth