J. L. Terveen Colossians 2
13
to Christ.
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This then offers the structure of
in 2:11 referring to the believers
oneness with Jesus in his death coordinated with the second
in 2:12 referring to
the believers oneness with Jesus in his resurrection. Therefore the reference to baptism
is seen as incidental,
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underlining in conjunction with
the believers
real union with Christ in all the fullness of his death.
Notably the aorist tense of
draws attention to the past realization of
resurrection in Christ for the believer. Here Paul then looks not to the somatic experience
of resurrection in the eschaton,
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but rather to a more realized eschatological perspective
highlighting the believer participating already in the risen life of Christ (3:1). Pauls
"already" resurrection emphasis may have served polemically here to undercut the
Colossian antagonists suggestion that Christian spiritual experience was less than "full,"
needing ascetical and other religious experiences and practices to bring it up to spiritual
speed.
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That the believer was already "raised with Christ" would provide a powerful
response to any such denegrating view of Christian spirituality.
With the burial and resurrection metaphor in 2:12, we see Pauls thought specially
impacted by union with Christ christology. He provides the fourth in a sequence of "in
him/whom" clauses pointing back to the
of 2:8. Additionally, Paul now
complements the distinctive "in him/Christ" terminology with
-compound verbs
which have the effect of double-emphasizing the incorporative christological concept.
Spiritual Deadness and Making-Alive. Overlapping the resurrection metaphor of
2:12 slightly, Paul now in 2:13 moves to the third in his series of metaphors describing
the transition effected in believers lives by the death and resurrection of Jesus. The
metaphorical imagery looks now more specifically at spiritual death and divine life-