In writing to the Colossian brethren, Paul chose to illustrate how we are saved today by giving the following: “In Him [Jesus] also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11).
Just as physical circumcision was the means of entering into the Old Covenant, so a spiritual circumcision must take place to enter into the New Covenant with Christ.
But what is the “circumcision of Christ”? How are we spiritually circumcised?
Paul gives the answer in the next verse: “having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised Him from the dead” (Colossians 2:12).
Paul tells us that in being baptized we are spiritually circumcised, we are buried with Christ and put off the old man and are then raised with Him. Paul acknowledges that it is by the powerful working of God that we are saved through baptism.
Under the Old Covenant, the physically uncircumcised could not share in the blessings and promises of the covenant because they were not God’s people. In like manner, those who have not been spiritually circumcised today in baptism cannot partake of the blessings and promises found in Christ because they are not a Christian. To be a Christian, one has to be spiritually circumcised with the circumcision of Christ, which is done through baptism.
Have you been spiritually circumcised?
A Cord of Blue 