Colossians 2:12
Buried with him in baptism, where in also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. Buried with him in baptism, where in also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Baptism is burial with Christ by being put wholly under water and raised up again out of the watery grave. Going down signifies death to the ruling power of sin and open renunciation of sin, Satan and the world, and coming up signifies resurrection to a new life through trust in God's working by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. It is a solemn mutual pledge made in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, in which the believer vows separation from the world and whole-life obedience, and heaven pledges divine efficiency and cooperation. Those so buried and risen enter a new life complete in Christ, hid with Him in God and partaking the divine nature, to walk in Him, seek things above, and show mercy, humility, patience, forgiveness and love. This union means being crucified with Him, buried with Him and quickened by His Spirit to live His holy life, which is true sanctification.
Burial and Rising in Baptism
Baptism is burial with Christ by immersion in water, going down into the water and being covered and then coming up out of the watery grave to newness of life. It is administered at the water with provision for change of clothing, as obedience to Christ and following His example after giving the heart to God. The form is significant, with candidates reverentially covered in the watery grave.
The ordinance is to be conducted solemnly before an assembled congregation, and carried out in a neat, orderly, and appropriate manner. It is held as a public service by a river before many witnesses gathered on the banks, with preaching and music beforehand, making a solemn and earnest experience that is never forgotten, deeply convicting onlookers and making an excellent impression. No one is to take part without careful, prayerful thought, and candidates, especially the youth, are to be carefully instructed in the obligations assumed. The work stands joined to keeping the Sabbath and to continued visiting in homes to explain the Scriptures as new fields open for labor.
Recorded baptisms illustrate this burial, as fifteen people buried with Christ after a meeting, and fifteen who decided to serve God buried with Christ in the water as a cause for rejoicing. Six believers at a lake were thus buried with Christ in baptism. Forty-four were baptized when backsliders were reclaimed and sinners converted. Youth and children brought directly under saving influence through Christian education and spiritual advantages enter the experience when they choose Christ and are baptized, as at a camp-meeting, proving the value of placing children where they will be led to baptism. A young man who had lost the use of his limbs was carried into the water, baptized, and came out with his face brightened.
Baptism by immersion is the memorial of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. The repentant converted believer who takes the steps required in conversion goes down into the water in the likeness of His death and burial, and is raised out of the water in the likeness of His resurrection. Rising from the grave on the first day of the week did not consecrate that day and make it a Sabbath; baptism, not Sunday-keeping, commemorates the resurrection. The one raised from the water does not take up the old life of sin, but lives a new life in Christ Jesus.
Being buried means being dead to sin's reigning power and the world through open renunciation and profession, forsaking sin and Satan and becoming dead to a life of sin. Coming up out of the water symbolizes resurrection to newness of life through faith in the working of God by the same divine power that raised Christ from the dead. In baptism the person renounces the world, is given to the Lord as a vessel for His use, and pledges to live in close communion with Christ and serve Him. God's heavenly powers help the baptized overcome.
The verse belongs with being complete in Him in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as head of all principality and power. It belongs with being spiritually circumcised without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. It belongs with being dead in sins quickened together with Him with forgiveness of all trespasses. Christ represents believers and carries their faith through to completion as its Author and Finisher.
The divine power that raised Christ was displayed when He broke the fetters of the tomb and a multitude of captives were raised from their graves with Him as the display of His triumph over Satan and the powers of hell. They were jewels gathered from the earth, brought to life and immortality by Him who is the resurrection and the life and who laid down His life as a voluntary sacrifice and took it again. Before ascending to heaven with Him they went into Jerusalem and appeared to many, declaring that Christ had risen and that they were risen with Him, giving many infallible proofs of the resurrection and making manifest a bright pathway from earth to heaven for those who receive Him and follow where He leads.
The verse is part of a treasure house of encouragement to the believer that is impressive and encouraging, to be read prayerfully and carefully for understanding. It holds rich promises of God that are full, abundant, and assuring and are to be received. It teaches the folly of turning from Christ to humanity for help, and shows what Christ is to believers and what they may be to Him as His helping hand. It calls for a heart filled with gratitude whose love and thanksgiving flow forth to refresh others.
Covenant Pledge and New Life
Baptism is a most solemn and important mutual pledge made before the heavenly universe in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In it the person openly renounces sin and Satan, professes self dead to a life of sin and to the world, and pledges separation from the world and its theories, customs and practices. Coming up from the watery grave to newness of life through faith in the working of God who raised Christ from the dead, the baptized pledges the whole life to God's service and to obedience to His law. The three great powers of heaven in turn pledge themselves to be the believer's efficiency and sufficiency and cooperation, to work in and through all who submit to the rite and faithfully keep the vow as an offering to God.
Those thus united with the church by baptism are sealed as born again of water and of the Spirit and have entered upon a new life complete in Christ who is head of all principality and power. They are to live Christ's life, hid with Christ in God, partaking the divine nature having escaped the corruption in the world through lust, kept free from every dishonest practice and controlled by the Spirit of truth. They are to seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God and to set affection on things above. Henceforth reason, knowledge, affection, speech, property and all they have are recognized as anew entrusted from Christ to be used for Him in a life of close communion with Him, of self-denial and cross-bearing obedience bound up with His life, with heavenly powers helping them overcome and their example a continual witness to heavenly grace.
The risen life is to walk in Christ as received, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith with abounding thanksgiving. It puts on mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness, love, charity and peace, seeking heavenly things and resisting worldly teachings that would displace Christ. Little grievances are to be overlooked, larger difficulties met in the spirit of Christ, and patience, perseverance and forbearance sought in prayer so that the Spirit lifts a standard when the enemy comes in like a flood. When Christ who is life shall appear, those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus and lived in union with Him shall appear with Him in glory with clear and decided victories in every line.
To be united with Christ is to be crucified with Him, buried with Him, and quickened by His Spirit so as to be filled with His life. This is the definition of true sanctification, exemplified in His holy life given as the object lesson of what His followers are to be. Being buried with Him is surrender of self to Him, after which baptism with the Holy Spirit follows with God's guidance shown in speech, spirit and work.
True service keeps individual holiness, consecration and sanctification through the truth in view, abounding in self-denying and self-sacrificing works of benevolence for the uplifting of others. Those raised from the water to live a new life for God are to crucify self and imitate Jesus' self-denying life. The passage with its context sets the true moral standard of the gospel that must not be perverted. Each is to know whether wheat or tares is being sown, since what is sown will be reaped, to learn sincere love for Christ and gratitude for His death from a deep sense of ruin, to avoid the danger of harming God's flock by precept or example through a wrong course, and to live close to Christ's example by walking in greatest humility and humbleness of mind.