That settled, the
sensibility-shocking inclusive language expands, and Paul bursts through all
manner of tradition and history as he insists that “In Him you were also circumcised---not,
however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of
the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ” (Colossians
2:11). By this, Paul completely dismisses any idea that the covenant
marker of circumcision is necessary.
Of course, the sole
covenant marker to which Paul holds as absolutely crucial is the confession of
Jesus as the crucified and resurrected Lord of all (the Gospel). This
confession is the means by which a person, be they Jew or Gentile, is justified
(becomes a member of the Creator God’s covenant family, with the subsequent
responsibility to concern themselves with reflecting that God’s glory into the
world by rightly bearing the divine image that has been exampled out by Jesus
of Nazareth---paradoxically, God-manifest).
With verse twelve,
realizing that baptism is not unique to the experience of the Christian faith,
Paul is again found adapting exodus language on behalf of Gentiles as he writes
“Having been buried with Him in baptism, you also have been raised with Him
through your faith in the power of God who raised Him from the dead”
(2:12). Just as Paul allows Gentiles to participate in the exodus-related
identity of Israel through the use of “redemption” from verse fourteen of
chapter one, he here does the same. Functionally, “being buried with Him
in baptism” is the equivalent of exile, while being “raised with Him” is the
equivalent of exodus.
This is not unique to
Colossians, as one is able to glimpse this way of thinking here demonstrated by
Paul in his first letter to Corinth. There, in the tenth chapter Paul has
written: “For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our
fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were
baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea” (1 Corinthians 10:1-2).
Without delving into an exegesis of what is here being said in the address to
the Corinthian church(es), Paul is here skillfully intertwining the Egyptian
exile and exodus experience (which was so crucial for Israel’s self-understanding,
it’s comprehension of its covenant God, and its understanding of its
relationship with that God) with the concept of baptism.
For Gentiles, as far
as Paul is concerned, as he folds all peoples into the story of Israel that he
believes has reached its climax in the story of Jesus, this baptism with Christ
becomes something akin to Israel’s experience. In some respects, for
those that are bent towards the need for some outward sign of covenant status,
baptism, whatever form it takes, stands in place of circumcision.
This allows Paul to
confidently declare “And even though you were dead in your transgressions and
in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He nevertheless made you alive with Him,
having forgiven all your transgressions” (Colossians 2:13). Quickly
revisiting the first chapter, with a reminder of the exodus-related redemption
and “forgiveness of sins” (1:14b) there mentioned, it should be acknowledged
that this is another deployment of exodus language.
Building from that
thought, what one realizes this to be is yet another statement employed to
generate an equivocation between Jews and Gentiles. Effectively, this is
what the Creator God would say to Israel if and when they violated their
covenant obligations. The covenant God would speak of Israel’s
transgressions that was bringing or had brought them death and judgment, as
they behaved like the uncircumcised people by which they were surrounded,
adopting their idolatrous ways. The end of this judgment would be some
form of exile (domination by a foreign power, whether inside or outside of their
land).
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