Colossians 2:11,12 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In whom also ye are circumcised Ye have received the spiritual blessings signified of old by circumcision; with the circumcision made without hands Namely, an internal, spiritual circumcision; in putting off Not a little skin, but the whole body of the sins of the flesh All the sins proceeding from your corrupt nature; by the circumcision of Christ The circumcision of the heart, which Christ requires and effects. Buried with him, &c. That is, which he wrought in you when you were, as it were, buried with him in baptism The ancient manner of baptizing by immersion is as manifestly alluded to here, as the other manner of baptizing by sprinkling, or pouring of water, is, Hebrews 10:22. But no stress is laid on the age of the baptized, or the manner of performing it, in one or the other place; but only on our being quickened, or renewed, through the powerful operation of his Spirit in the soul, which we cannot but know assuredly, if we really are so: and if we do not experience this, our baptism has not answered the end of its institution. Wherein Or rather, by which; ye are risen with him From the death of sin, to the life of righteousness; through the faith of the operation of God Faith wrought in you by God: see on Ephesians 2:8; or, through faith in the energy of God, as some render δια της πιστεως της ενεργειας του Θεου; who raised him from the dead They who put this latter sense upon the passage explain it thus: “The circumcision which Christ performs being accomplished by the influence of the doctrines of the gospel upon the minds of believers, and their belief of these doctrines being founded on their belief of the resurrection of Christ, their belief of that great miracle is justly represented as the means whereby they are made new creatures.” The doctrines of the gospel, however, will produce no such effect, unless they be accompanied by the influence of the Holy Spirit.