The following is from Douglas Moo’s commentary on Colossians. While Moo himself does not believe in baptismal regeneration (and really struggles with Paul’s teachings concerning water baptism and salvation, as do many other Calvinists), the following is important, as it shows that water baptism is the instrumental means by which we become united to Christ:
. . . a good number of
commentators think that it is the reference to circumcision in 2:11 that
accounts of baptismal references here. As circumcision was the old covenant
rite by which God’s people were brought into relationship with him, so baptism
now functions similarly in the new covenant. But this is a misreading of our
passage. Paul does not compare baptism with (literal) circumcision; he
identifies baptism as the “place” where our spiritual circumcision takes place.
Paul’s logic runs like this: you have been spiritually “circumcised.” This “circumcision”
took place when you were buried with Christ and raised with him. And this
burial and resurrection with Christ happened when you were baptized. As this paraphrase
of Paul’s argument also reveals, the popular explanation that Paul uses baptism
as a symbol of our death to the old life (when were are plunged beneath the
water) and resurrection to new life (when we arise out of the water) is also
wide of the mark. Baptism does not symbolize what happened when we were converted;
it somehow is integrally involved in that conversion itself.
. . . .
I have already tipped my hand on
one of the most debated syntactical issues in 2:12: the antecedent of the
relative pronoun “which” (hō)
in the second clause of the verse. The form of this pronoun (it could be either
masculine or neuter [relevant if the variant baptismati is read]) allows
us to translate either “in whom [ Christ] you were also raised” or “in which
[baptism] you were also raised.” Context is not decisive. The nearest antecedent
is, of course, “baptism,” but the concept of being “in Christ” is also a
dominant motif in this paragraph 92:9, 10, 11, 15 [?]). Nevertheless, I
slightly prefer a reference to baptism, because (1) the combination “you were
raised with him in him” is a bit awkward; and (2) it provides a somewhat better
explanation for the ”also” (kai): in addition to being buried with him
in baptism, you were also raised with him in that same baptism. As we
have seen, Col 2:12 has many parallels with Rom 6:3-11. Both texts assert that
believers have been “buried with Christ in/through baptism.” While Colossians
does not explicitly assert that believers have “died with Christ,” 2:20, “if
therefore you died with Christ,” shows that Paul thinks it is implicit in what
he has said here; and this also has clear parallels in Romans (6:5, 8; cf.
6:3). And both Romans and Colossians assert that believers participate with
Christ in his resurrection. (Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians
and Philemon [2d ed.; The Pillar New Testament Commentary; Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 2024], 189-90, 191)
