"11 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, 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. 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, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." (Col. 2: 11-14 ESV)
I believe that "having forgiven us" is logically prior to "made alive." It is also clear that the gracious forgiveness is "by" the "canceling" of legal debt, which is justification. Logically the canceling of the debt of sin by Christ's substitutionary atonement, and the forgiveness (freedom from the debt), is received before there is spiritual life given, making it just for God to bless with spiritual blessings, which would first of all be the believer's regeneration and conversion. If the preposition "by" be connected both with "made alive" and "having forgiven," then made alive is by (results from) cancellation of debt (forgiveness). In either case, it is logical to see the progression as faith, forgiveness and justification, spiritual life and transformation.
Here are the tenses for the main verbs and/or participles:
"being dead" (present participle active)
"has he quickened" (aorist indicative active)
"having forgiven" (aorist participle middle)
Said one commentator (See here- emphasis mine):
"Here the Greek is less clear. The main verb (made alive) and the participle (having forgiven) are both aorist. That means that temporally forgiveness (justification) occurs either prior to being made alive (regeneration) or these steps occur at the same time.
However, if regeneration and justification occur at the same time, and faith precedes justification then we still have faith logically occurring before regeneration."
This is quite irrefutable. It is clear from the context that one is "resurrected with him (to spiritual life) though faith." So, when he speaks of "God made us alive" he is affirming the same thing. So, both the making alive and the forgiveness follows the faith.
The author says further:
"Reading the text in Colossians presents a clear picture. It says that we are dead in our trespasses. The emphasis is placed on being made alive after our trespasses are removed. Our sins legally demand that we be condemned and considered dead. Once these legal demands are dealt with on the cross the path is made clear for God to make us alive."
That to me is the thinking of Paul in the text and is in agreement with what he elsewhere wrote upon the subject.
The author says further:
"The ordo salutis as I have come to understand it can be represented by the following equation:
Dead → Grace → Faith → Justification → Reconciliation → Regeneration."
That is exactly how Paul and the other biblical writers put it. Of course, sanctification begins in regeneration so that the believer is instantly a saint. But, on that I will write about in a separate posting.
Dead in sins preceded being quickened. That is obvious. But how does "quickened" (regeneration or rebirth) relate to "forgiven" (justification)? That they occur together is not denied, though justification is logically prior to quickening.
I have read lots of debate on this passage from a grammatical standpoint, concerning what may be discovered from the tenses of the verbs and participles. Some argue that the tense makes the text to mean - "having forgiven you he quickened you." On the other hand, others would argue that it means - "having quickened you he has forgiven (or justified, acquitted) you." Others see Paul as seeing both as occurring together without one logically or chronologically preceding the other. Most translations favor the view that the quickening happens as a result of being forgiven.
"after having granted to us, i.e. forgiven, etc. This blotting out of our whole debt of sin was necessarily prior to the συνεζωοπ. ὑμᾶς σὺν αὐτῷ." (Meyer's NT Commentary)
These eight affirmative arguments should be sufficient to show that logically, justification precedes regeneration as well as sanctification, and that all results "through faith."
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