Thursday, October 24, 2019

Peter J. Leithart on the Salvific Efficacy of Water Baptism in Colossians 2:12-14



Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Col 2:12-14 NASB)

Commenting on this passage and its theology of water baptism, Peter J. Leithart wrote:

Colossians 2:12 refers to a baptism through or in which we have been buried with Christ, raised through faith in the God who raises the dead. Verse 13 goes on to describe the difference this baptismal burial-and-resurrection has on the lives of those who receive it: “When you were dead in your transgression and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven all your transgression, having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us” (vv. 13-14a). The imagery is difficult and debated, but Paul clearly implies that the baptismal event, whatever it was, raised the dead to new life, granted forgiveness of sins, and canceled debt.

But what was the baptismal event? Is this baptism water baptism or some overwhelming spiritual event, conversion or something like it?

Several points favor the conclusion that “baptism” means baptism here. First, Paul uses language similar to what he used in Romans 6, lining baptism to burial and new life with Christ . . . Second, the flow of thought supports the idea that Paul is referring to water baptism. He is challenging the Jewish use of circumcision as a tribal badge and claims instead that the true circumcision is one done “without hands,” that is, by God Himself (2:11). What is needed is not merely a stripping off of the foreskin but an entire “stripping of the flesh,” the flesh of Adamic humanity. This is accomplished not by the ritual of circumcision but by the “circumcision of Christ,” which is best understood as a reference to His death in the flesh on the cross. This interpretation of the phrase leads neatly into the references to burial and resurrection in verse 12. Jesus’ final work is all summarized here: His circumcision on the cross, His burial, His resurrection. It is Jesus’ circumcision that undoes the “uncircumcision” of the Colossians and truly removes the flesh from them . . . Through baptism, the story of Jesus’ circumcision, burial, and resurrection becomes ours. Tribesmen who grew up looking back to their ancestors gain a new past in Jesus. Citizens who identify with the “in” group of their city become members of a new city. Together, in the One New Man, those who share in the circumcision of Christ by baptism move into a new future, knowing that Jesus has stripped the rulers and authorities that appeared to be stripping Him, exposed their emptiness, and triumphed over them on the cross. (Peter J. Leithart, The Baptized Body [Moscow, Idaho: Canon Press, 2007], 49-51)