Colossians 2:12: burial and resurrection described as already done
12You have been buried with him in baptism. In him also, you have risen again through faith, by the work of God, who raised him up from the dead.
The verse this page is about.
Short answer
Colossians 2:12 describes baptism as burial with Christ, and states that a rising has also happened — through faith, and by God’s own working, since he is the one who raised Jesus. The verbs are past tense. The text is not promising something ahead; it is describing something already given.
- Written by
- Maria Luisa Navarro Schmitt
- Reviewed by
- Raphael Navarro Schmitt
- Published on
- Reading time
- 2 min read
The verse sits inside a dispute that sounds remote now: whether non-Jewish Christians needed to be circumcised. Paul answers by putting something else in its place, and that is where baptism enters.
The image is deliberately funerary. Not washing but burial — going down, being covered, then being lifted. The sentence uses the death and resurrection of Jesus as the mould for what happened to the reader.
Where this verse appears
The letter pushes back against teaching that added requirements to the gospel: food rules, observance of dates, ascetic practice. Paul argues that the entire fullness of God dwells bodily in Christ, and that in him the readers have already been filled.
Just before this verse he mentions a circumcision that no hand performed, belonging to Christ. Today’s verse continues the sentence: baptism is where that passage happens.
What it says
Two claims, both in the past. The first is burial with him in baptism. The second is a rising again — and here this edition differs from renderings many readers carry. It says the rising happened in him, that is, in Christ, where other translations tie it to the baptism just named. The difference is not decorative: one locates the event in the rite, the other in the person.
The cause is stated twice over: through faith, and by the work of God. The power is the same that raised Jesus, and faith is the way it is received. This edition speaks of God’s work rather than God’s power, which keeps the emphasis on something done rather than something possessed.
This is where traditions part, and this page does not arbitrate. Catholic, Orthodox and much of historic Protestant reading treat baptism as the moment God acts; many other churches read it as public sign of something already true by faith. Both cite this verse, and both can stand on it.
What to do with it today
If you were baptized and do not remember the day, or remember it and felt nothing, this verse works in your favour: it speaks about what God did, not about what you felt. A weak memory of an event does not undo what the text assigns to it.
The remaining question is about the present. If the rising is described as already done, some part of your life ought to be on the far side of the burial. Worth naming just one — a habit, an old debt, a relationship — and treating it as a closed matter.
What the passages say
4For through baptism we have been buried with him into death, so that, in the manner that Christ rose from the dead, by the glory of the Father, so may we also walk in the newness of life.
The closest parallel, and it supplies the purpose: buried with him in order to walk in newness of life. Where Colossians describes what happened, Romans says what it was for.
1Therefore, if you have risen together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
The next chapter picks up the same verb and turns it into a practical consequence: since you have risen, seek what is above. The command only makes sense after today’s claim.
A prayer to carry with you
Lord, you buried me with Christ and raised me with him. Stop me from digging up what you have already covered. Give me faith today to live on this side of it. Amen.