Colossians 2:11,12 - Buried with Him in baptism

2:11

As well as pagan/gnostic type ideas, it is apparent that there were also Jewish ideas going around as well.It seems that Judaism wasn’t so strong a factor as in Galatia, but clear it was still a factor, and they would no doubt have mentioned the importance of circumcision. The Jews were very proud of being circumcised, seeing it as a symbol of their belonging to God. Paul tells the Colossians that they had an even greater symbol. They had been circumcised in an even greater way. Physical circumcision was a sign, a shadow, of the true “circumcision” that was to come. This was a “circumcision not performed by human hands” Rather they were circumcised by the Christ, their sinful nature (flesh, in the sense of human nature) was cut off. A fundamental change had taken place in their being. They were born again.

2:12

We were buried with Him in baptism. Or as Paul says in Romans 6:3, we were baptized into His death. And we were also raised with Him. No other religion or philosophy has anything remotely to compare with what the gospel offers. How did this happen? How did we come to have a share in this? Through our faith in the working of God. Sceptics will try and deride our faith. The enemy will do anything he can to try and stop us having faith, we should remember that he does this because he knows how powerful faith is. (And I mean this is the saving faith type sense, not “word and faith” sense). The particular aspect that Paul puts emphasis on here is that God raised Christ from the dead.