“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).
This passage is rightly understood as an exhortation to focus on spiritual matters to the saving of the soul. Our interest in this article, however, is to the first half of the “if, then” construction in the passage. “If then you were raised with Christ…” Notice also verse 3, “For you died…”
The reference is to baptism. In chapter 2, verse 12 Paul wrote, “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.” Paul wrote a similar passage to the Romans, “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).
The logical conclusion to be found in these words is that baptism plays a part in one being born again. It is not merely a sign of what has been accomplished. It is a step taken to begin a new life, being “raised with Christ.”
Baptism is necessary to salvation. When one is saved, it is then necessary, as a new creature, to “seek those things which are above.” In this short verse, the false doctrines of “faith only” and “once saved always saved” are denied.
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