Colossians 2:11-12 NLT
[11] “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. [12] 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.”
How can anyone in all honesty and in their sane mind write words like these unless they are absolutely true? Compare what Paul has written with the empty philosophies the world presents.
All religions of human origin have one thing in common…they are all do-it-yourself efforts to make contact with some imaginary deity. Each one proposes a different set of rules and rituals to get the deity’s attention and to gain it’s favour.
By contrast, Paul declares with utmost confidence, that the God who came here in a human body, has done an unimaginable job of working on and in us who dare to believe Him. He didn’t come to set up a religious system that will enable us to reach God. He came to do spiritual surgery in us to enable us to come near to God and to clear the way for God to come near to us.
James 4:8 NLT
[8] “Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.”
We can come close to God only because He has taken away the barrier between Himself and us. We can be washed clean of all our sin only because the blood of Jesus provides total cleansing when we repent and turn to Him.
Now Paul takes his insights a step further. God has not only acted FOR us. He has also acted IN us. Through our union with Jesus by faith, we don’t only participate in His life. We also take part in His death. What death did to Him on the cross, (apart from paying our debt, it cut Him off forever from the possibility of sinning), His death does in us. Paul called it “spiritual circumcision”, cutting off that part of the flesh, the self life, that perpetuates a sinful lifestyle.
Physical circumcision, to the Jew, was a sign of his participation in the covenant. Spiritual “circumcision”, a work of the Spirit in our inner man, sets us apart as members of the New Covenant and gives us access to all the benefits of that covenant.
Baptism in water is the outward sign of our “circumcision”, much more than just a ritual. “Mikvah”, meaning in Hebrew ” gathering” or “collection”, was practised as ritual washing, a common practice in Judaism. It signified, among other things, ritual purification and a change of status.
“THE PURPOSE OF THE MIKVAH
A mikvah is a form of a ritual bath. Like a regular bath, the purpose of immersion in a mikvah is to emerge clean. However, rather than entering the mikvah physically dirty and leaving physically clean, one enters the mikvah for the purpose of spiritual cleanliness.”…
“The word “mikvah” means “a collection” in Hebrew. It is a place where Jewish people go for ritual bathing purposes, specifically relating to rule of purity in the faith.”
(https://study.com>lesson>mikvah)
So, Paul explained, by going through “mikvah”, transliterated from the Greek, ” baptizo”, as “baptism”, meaning immersion, the new believer was identifying himself/herself with Jesus by entering a new status, washing away the old life, to which he is now dead, and entering a new life in union with Christ.
What a powerful way to demonstrate the divine surgery God has performed in our spirit! Baptism is as final as burying a dead body in the grave. It is as purposeful as drawing a line in the sand. The act of baptism forever sets us apart as dead to sin and alive to God through Jesus and His Spirit’s work in us.
Is it any wonder, then that certain false religions will tolerate a family member turning to Christ but will not tolerate baptism. Baptism forever sets the believer apart from from the world. To be a baptised believer in obedience to Jesus’ command, is to be separated from sin and the world to God forever.
However, there is a counterpart to this practice. To authenticate our faith in Christ and what has taken place in the spiritual realm, Paul insisted that we must live it out in daily life otherwise baptism is another useless ritual.
Romans 6:1-8 NLT
[1] “Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? [2] Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? [3] Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? [4] For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. [5] Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. [6] We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. [7] For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. [8] And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him.”
Baptism not only signifies death to sin but also resurrection to new life. The ritual practice of “mikvah” must translate into everyday life. Baptism cannot save us. Baptism is the reminder that we have been saved.
So, Paul explains to his readers, your new life in Christ is a reality only as you live out your baptism in your everyday experience. Through faith in the power of God, you are able to translate your identity with Jesus in His death and resurrection into daily experience of overcoming the flesh and living by the Spirit.