Transfromation - Day 10

"When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead." - Colossians 2:11-12

Paul, a Messianic Jew, is writing to Gentiles.  There was intense pressure on these Gentiles to be circumcised - to enter into the Hebrew Covenant before entering into the New Covenant (Grace Covenant - This is my blood of the New Covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins - Jesus).

Paul is assuring them that physical circumcision is not needed when Christ performed a "spiritual circumcision" on their hearts.  But Paul is saying this in a more than symbolic manner - Jesus has also cut their sinful nature away.

The language that follows about baptism points to two issues that have been highly contentious in the church - immersion/believers baptism and whether baptism is sacramental or merely an ordinance.

Let's start with the first.  This passage is one of the stronger passages that points towards baptism being an immersion experience.  How can one be "raised" unless they were under the water?  The symbol here is definitely more than cleansing from pouring.  So the baptists would say "aha - I told you so!"

But the second element is just as critical.  First you must understand the difference between an ordinance and a sacrament.  An ordinance is in essence an outward demonstration/ritual of obedience to Christ (click on the link to read more.)  A sacrament is a ritual that contains a mystery - that in some way God imparts grace to the participant - a sacre(d mo)ment (ditto the link to read more).  While the baptists can point to this text supporting immersion baptism, Paul also writes that this is more than a symbolic act. "you were raised to new life" implies that baptism conveys some measure of grace - a sacred mystery.

At this point, you may be asking what I believe.  Well first of all, this blog isn't the place to delve into such a huge topic in which books have been written.  Let's start here.  I am in covenant with the United Methodist Church that embraces both infant and believers baptism, that believes baptism is a sacrament and not an ordinance (as do I), and also gives latitude for both infant dedication and baptism (although they push for the latter).

I don't want to open up the whole can of worms on whether your infant baptism is valid.  I do know this -  God's grace works in bigger ways than whether we were baptized as a baby or whether we were sprinkled or immersed.  There was a thug on a cross who received unconditional pardon from Jesus without having to be baptized.  Perhaps just like the Colossians, you feel pressured by others to be baptized as an adult because your "infant baptism didn't count."  Later in this letter, you'll see that Paul continues to tell the Colossians not to get caught up in legalism and externals.  Jesus wants to circumcise your heart, cut away the sinful nature. This is the ESSENTIAL part.