Doesn’t Colossians 2:12 clearly show that baptism is a work of God?
Question:
Doesn't the following verse very plainly show that baptism is not a work of man, but rendering obedience to God's will?
"buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12).
God is not the author of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33). I have noticed my points are based on what God's words say when discussing baptism. The ones defending "faith only" have to tell me Scripture after Scripture that they mean something different than what they actually say. The working of who? God! Correct? How can one misunderstand this verse?
Answer:
Your point is well-made. Baptism is a work of God, something we are required to do. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). However, when people do not want to see, they can be very blind, as the Pharisees frequently demonstrated. Jesus told the formerly blind man, " And Jesus said, 'For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind'" (John 9:39). That continues to be true today.
To avoid the obvious, those who believe in salvation by faith only will declare that the belief in the working of God refers to Jesus' resurrection and not the baptism. But, of course, the reason for baptism is that it represents Jesus' resurrection. "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4).
