Calvinist Regeneration, Interpreting Colossians 2:12

Question

I am convinced that the scriptures teach of a God who is completely sovereign in salvation. I am a monergist. I can cite several passages that make me think this way. I think if you look at some of my answers on this SE, you'll see that I'm a Calvinist. However, this does not mean that I'm a blind Calvinist. I arrived where I did by many years of study and internal deliberation. I am having another internal deliberation at this point.

If we examine passages like the first half of Ephesians 2, we see that it was our nature to sin, and that we had the spirit of Satan working within us. In the same place, Paul refers to us as being dead in our sins. By all accounts, it looks to me like plain support of a Reformed interpretation of the doctrine of regeneration. In the first two chapters, we see plainly that we have been unified with Christ: he in our death, and us in His life. Because of this unity we have with Christ, God made us to be alive as He made His Son to be alive (and now, being united with Christ, we are sons and co-heirs with Christ). This all paints a beautiful monergistic picture.

However...

In the course of my studies this past weekend, preparing for a Bible study that I lead, I happened upon this verse:

In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 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 2:11-12 ESV)

I get it most of this. Most of it still even paints a monergistic picture, with the phrase "circumcision made without hands," and the whole idea of being "raised" from the dead (the imagery being that it doesn't really involve an act of man's will that he should become alive while he is already dead).

But I have a problem with the phrase "raised with him through faith." I see a logical contradiction that I need help working through (and a non-Calvinistic perspective on the passage does not solve the problem).

Dead men cannot have faith (again, read Ephesians 2). We need to be made alive. However, this passage cites that we are raised through faith. What should I make of this contradiction?

I can think of two options:

1. The reformed interpretation of regeneration is wrong. Men have the capacity to believe in God before they are regenerate (Wesley's idea of Prevenient Grace would therefore be inapplicable). This simply cannot be. Again, those with faith were once under Satan's influence. A house divided against itself cannot stand; we cannot serve two masters. There was nothing in us to make us want to believe.
2. Faith must be inherent in regeneration. Not tied to it, but faith would be regenerating. This would mean that predestination would be unto faith, and I've read Reformed authors who would quite disagree with this.

I hope I've made the problem clear. I would appreciate some insight.

Edit:

Please allow me to clarify, I welcome explanations from traditions other than Calvinistic/Reformed. However, I would like these to address the basic doctrinal problem I am discussing. Please see @Eric's comment and my answer to his comment to get an idea of what I mean regarding this.

Answer 1

My friend and bible study teacher Patricia Peterson has written 2 wonderful books about the order of salvation/redemption history, election and God's decree. The Ordo Salutis (her 1^st book) & Whatsoever Comes to Pass ~ The Absolute Nature and Precious Comfort of God's Decree. I pulled some of this from her 1^st book The Ordo Salutis.

Faith comes from hearing Rom 10:17. God calls His chosen ones through faith in the truth 2 Thess 2:13-14. Truth is the word of God John 17:17. The call is effectual because the elect sinner is "in Christ" FROM eternity.

We do not enter the "in Christ" relationship when we are called. God chose the elect sinner "in Christ" before the foundation of the world, in the covenant of redemption Eph 1:4; 2 Tim 1:9. The Father elected from eternity, but He elected in Christ. There was no election of the Father in eternity APART from Christ. There has never been a time when those "in Christ" were not "in Christ". Christ is the object of our faith. Maybe some food for thought? Patrictia Peterson's books have been a blessing to me.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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)

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

Millard Erickson is a moderate Calvinist who although he held to total depravity, unconditional election, the effectual call, and perseverance of the saints concluded by several sections of scripture that faith logically precedes regeneration, in contradiction to many other thinkers who're Calvinistic.

He argued that the effectual call of God brings one to faith, and that this act is what regenerates the sinner. Therefore, one is brought from death in sin and then regenerated through faith which is produced by the effectual call of God. It seems perfectly logical to me, and it fits more with the scriptural understanding of the effectual power of the Word of God as testified to by the Spirit.

Erickson writes in his major work, Christian Thelogy, the following:

'It must be acknowledged that, from a logical standpoint, the usual Calvinistic position makes good sense. If we sinful humans are unable to believe and respond to God’s gospel without some special working of his within us, how can anyone, even the elect, believe unless first rendered capable of belief through regeneration? To say that conversion is prior to regeneration would seem to be a denial of total depravity.

'Nonetheless, the biblical evidence favors the position that conversion is logically prior to regeneration. Various appeals to respond to the gospel imply that conversion results in regeneration. Among them is Paul’s reply to the Philippian jailor (we are here assuming that regeneration is part of the process of being saved): “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household” (Acts 16:31). Peter makes a similar statement in his Pentecost sermon: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). This appears to be the pattern throughout the New Testament. Even John Murray, who unequivocally regards regeneration as prior, appears to deny his own position when he says, “The faith of which we are now speaking is not the belief that we have been saved, but trust in Christ in order that we may be saved.”1629 Unless Murray does not consider regeneration to be part of the process of being saved, he seems to be saying that faith is instrumental to regeneration and thus logically prior to it.

'The conclusion here, then, is that God regenerates those who repent and believe. But this conclusion seems inconsistent with the doctrine of total inability. Are we torn between Scripture and logic on this point? There is a way out. That is to distinguish between God’s special and effectual calling on the one hand, and regeneration on the other. Although no one is capable of responding to the general call of the gospel, in the case of the elect God works intensively through a special calling so that they do respond in repentance and faith. As a result of this conversion, God regenerates them. The special calling is simply an intensive and effectual working by the Holy Spirit. It is not the complete transformation that constitutes regeneration, but it does render the conversion of the individual both possible and certain. Thus the logical order of the initial aspects of salvation is special calling—conversion—regeneration.'

(Christian Theology © 1983, 1998, 2013 by Millard Erickson Published by Baker Academic)

So we see that God effectually calls us, producing faith in the working of God, and through this faith-creating effectual call of God, we are born again not by human will but according to the gracious will and purpose of God. This seems to synthesize what scripture says on the matter effectively, to me.

Answer 7

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, calvin's doctrine of regeneration is not refuted here. That is how I see it.

Answer 8

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