Circumcision & Baptism: An Initial Answer For James

A dear brother in Christ (James) responded by letter to a paper I had previously posted (Is Baptism Essential To The Reformed Faith).  The letter is several pages long with a serious and well reasoned critique of the Reformed View of Baptism as well as the underlying issue of “who are the people of God?”  A comprehensive answer in one document to all of the questions and arguments he poses is simply not possible, so I have undertaken to answer it ad seriatum.

His first point was directed toward my previous use of Col. 2:11-15 to assert an essential sacramental unity between NT baptism and OT circumcision.

●    You use Colossians 2:11-15 to claim the equivalence of circumcision and baptism.  I have a hard time seeing this, for several reasons.  First, Paul starts v. 11 by saying "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ." This is clearly a description of a past event, what Christ did in the life of the believer at the point of conversion.  There is no forward-looking, hope-for-the-future language here, it is the sure thing of salvation accomplished and applied.  I fail to see how this could be converted into a prospective sacrament