Calvinist Regeneration, Interpreting Colossians 2:12

Oh my, I can't keep quiet. The more I read this section of Colossians, the more amazed I am that people can read it an think that it says anything contrary to "God saved me by His power alone to the Glory of His grace". If you read the in which you were also raised up with Him through faith" and ignore everything else it's no wonder how one could miss the whole context. But read the entire passage and he's clearly saying that God is the one acting to change our hearts by his powerful working.

⁹ For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority; ¹¹ and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; ¹² having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, ¹⁴ having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. ¹⁵ When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. (Colossians 2:9-15)

I just don't see anything like, "But Jesus is waiting so patiently for you to exercise YOUR faith so he can hopefully save you and cause you to be born again after you do your part. Then He'll do His part. Amen! Cause our God is a warm Fire?! Instead, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” John 6:65

The answer is in the text. Instead of focusing on "raised through faith" assuming this must mean our own exercised self autonomous action before regeneration, which is in my view taking what is actually being said out of its surrounding context and seeing something that really isn't there-infusing meanings that aren't there, like the aforementioned "raised to life", we should read it as it was intended.

It says in verse 11, "and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands". What is that if not something God does? He goes on to explain it is the working of God. The energeia of God (preceding) in which you were also raised up with Him (Colossians 2:12). This is not a problem when we see Our God and Savior as perfect and able to do all things for the glory of His grace. Otherwise, this would be in direct contradiction to 1 John 5:1 and many other passages.

There is also a logical order here, not just a temporal one. Not to mention the fact that we are being saved as well as having been saved at a point in time, which many scriptures indicate and often we fail to recognize in various passages (in reference to the issue whole issue)

San,

Here is a better translation from the from the Berean Literal Bible.

having been buried with Him in baptism, in which also you were raised with Him through the faith of the working of God, the One having raised Him out from the dead. Colossians 2:12<

There is no "your faith"in the interlinear… A lot of translations added that.

It is God's faith at work here, Not man's.

It's through the faith of the working of God. The one having raised him out from the dead.

The word working defined is interesting.

Cognate: 1753 enérgeia (the root of the English term "energy") – energy; "power in action"

1753 /enérgeia ("divine energy") typically refers to God's energy which transitions the believer from point to point in His plan (accomplishing His definition of progress

Again it's all God's doing. We are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus.

The more we understand the grace of God the more we understand it's all of Him.

This is how I see the issue. First of all, there is a passive voice in which the subject is patient, it means we are raised along with Jesus through faith in the Power of God. If we understand that nobody is asked to believe in the power of God as the object of the saving faith. We believe IN CHRIST.

This being said, the faith Paul is taking here is the Subjective Jesus’ faith in God’s Power to raise him. He covered us, he had faith for us. If you see the passage closely, you will see that the context is talking about Jesus' work on the cross and how his action obtained forgiveness for us.

So if we understand Paul is talking about Jesus' action, and how he procured our forgiveness through faith in Gods Power, calvos it doctrine of pre-regeranaration is not refuted here. That is how I see it.

as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God - Romans 3:10-11

So though we were once dead in our sins (and not even able to do good, as you indicated), God made us alive by His grace, having predestined us according to His foreknowledge.

In His sovereignty, what method did He choose by which to accomplish this? It was to be accomplished through faith.

you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead - Colossians 2:12

This transforming event which is accomplished through faith is also when you become a son of God, when Christ begins to dwell in your heart, and when we receive the Spirit as God's seal and promise to us that we are in Christ and will be raised in the end.

But what is the source of this faith? God is!

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God - Ephesians 2:8

(Now this is where many people get confused into thinking God arbitrarily predestined some for Heaven and some for Hell, and that we have no free will... but as I mentioned, God's predestination was not arbitrary - it was based on His foreknowledge. But that's another topic altogether.)

Hope that helps.

I'm not a Calvinist, but I don't see a problem for Calvinism in this particular passage. The problem that you have, it seems, arises by assuming that being "raised with him" is the act the enables us to have (saving) faith. Thus, you find yourself in a contradiction, for how can we be required to have faith in order to get faith?

But I don't think that the text warrants the interpretation that being raised with him is how we are enabled to be saved. Rather, being raised with him refers to salvation itself.

Colossians 2:12 (ESV)

¹²  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.

Notice that the death that the reader is being raised from is not a spiritual death that keeps us from seeking God. Paul is not talking about total depravity when he talks about death (burial) here. He is talking about death in the sense that we died with Christ (were buried with Christ), and will be raised with Christ (as baptism symbolizes). See also Romans 6:3-10 and 2 Timothy 2:11.

One objection to this interpretation may arise from the following verses:

Colossians 2:13 (ESV)

¹³  And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

Some might argue that this indicates that Paul is speaking about total depravity in the previous verse, and God's select regeneration of the lost from that depravity. But I don't think we should ignore how well verse 12 parallels what Paul is talking about in Romans 6. And I don't think that we can ignore that there are two kinds of death talked about in this passage: death with Christ to sin (v12) and death without Christ in sin (v13). It seems much more natural to me to associate the being "raised with him" with the being "buried with him".

So I do not think it is necessary to say that being raised with him refers to faith enabling regeneration. It can easily refer to our salvation itself, as long as you understand that the death we are being raised from in Paul's metaphor is not our depravity, but our death with Christ.