Colossians 1:12 vs. Forensic Justification

 

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col 1:12)

 

This verse is evidence for transformative, not declarative, justification. How so? Firstly, this is said within the context of our being transposed from being "in Adam" to being "in Christ," to borrow the language of 1 Cor 15:22:

 

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. (Col 1:13)

 

Furthermore, the verb translated "hath made us" (NRS: “enabled you”; NASB: “qualified us”) is ικανοω. BDAG supports this causative (not declarative merely) understanding:

 

to cause to be adequate, make sufficient, qualify (perh. shading into the sense empower, authorize [PTebt 20, 8]) w. double acc. someone for someth. 2 Cor 3:6. τινὰ εἴς τι someone for someth. Col 1:12 (s. καλέω 4).—DELG s.v. ἵκω. M-M. TW. Spicq.

 

The only other instance where this verb is used in the New Testament is also part of the Pauline corpus:

 

Who also hath made us able to be (ικανοω) ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. (2 Cor 3:6)

 

Regardless of one’s theology of justification, being is not simply legally declared to be an able minister of the new testament, but one is made/transformed into being such. We can further see this in how ικανοω looks back to ικανος in 2:16 ("to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things") and ικανοτης in 3:5 ("Now that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God").

 

So we see that, in Col 1:12, God must make or transform us to be worthy of the inheritance of the saints. In case anyone will retort, "but we believe progressive sanctification to be transformational," I ask: In your theology, if someone is legally declared justified but they die with very little, if any progression, in their sanctification, will they die in a saved state? They will answer "yes" as one's eternal destiny is not dependent on their becoming sanctified/holy, but their being declared "righteous."

 

Further support for this can be seen elsewhere in Colossians. In Col 2:9-15, we read:

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority. In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in it. (NRSV)

Commenting on this passage’s teaching about theosis and the transformative nature of salvation to believers, one scholar wrote the following:

Participating in Christ’s Fullness Christ has not only delivered his people from the domain of darkness, but he has brought them into his kingdom and bestowed on them his salvation . . . What Paul says about Christ [in Col 2:9] he immediately applies to the church by declaring, “in him you are filled” (εστε εν αυτω πεπληρωμενοι). The “in him” (εν αυτω) marks a major motif of the entire theological section of 2:9-15. Paul is hereby attempting to help these believers understand the full significance of being in Christ, especially as it relates to their concern about supernatural powers and their temptation to follow the solution offered by “the philosophy.” His solution is for them to gain a fuller- appreciation for their resources in Christ and to grasp hold of their leader and supplier (2:19) and to concentrate on the things above where Christ is at the right hand of God (3:1).

 The fullness of God—his power and his grace—are bestowed on believers by virtue of their incorporation into Christ. As Lightfoot has said, God’s πληρωμα is “transfused” into them. The perfect periphrastic construction (εστε . . .πεπληρωμενοι) emphasises their share in the divine fullness as part of their present experience. (Clinton Arnold, The Colossian Syncretism [Tubingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1995], 293-95)

This is further strengthened by vv. 12-14 which teaches baptismal regeneration. On this, see:

Water Baptism being a Spiritual Circumcision and Baptism being Salvific in Colossians 2:11-14

Briefly put, in that pericope, Paul states that those "in" (εν) Christ are circumcised with a spiritual circumcision (viz. water baptism [per v. 12]), and paralleling the language used in Rom 6:3-5, we are said to be buried together (συνθαπτομαι) with him "in baptism" (εν τω βαπτισμω), resulting in God freely forgiving (χαριζομαι) us of our trespasses (cf. Rom 6:7, where the Greek uses δικαιοω, "to be justified" as a result of one's water baptism). The only exegetically-sound interpretation is that this pericope teaches baptismal regeneration, not a merely symbolic understanding of water baptism. Of course, it is God, not man, who affects salvation and the forgiveness of sins through water baptism, as the Holy Spirit, through the instrumentality of baptism, cleanses us from sins and makes us into a new creature.

For a refutation of imputed righteousness, see:

Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness

For more on transformative justification, see:

Refuting Christina Darlington on the Nature of "Justification" (also has a discussion of -οω verbs, of which ικανοω is one of)