Bullinger and Colossians 2:11

This following quote from The Decades 3.vi in the section concerning circumcision reveals Bullinger’s understanding of Colossians 2:11. Unlike many modern exegetes who spend time comparing and contrasting the pros and cons of a subjective genitive or an objective genitive of te peritoume tou Christou, Bullinger sees this passage through the intimate link between the Old Testament and the New Testament. For Bullinger, circumcision in the Old Testament prefigures the circumcision Christ does on believers through the Spirit.

“The grace of God, therefore, was not tied to the sacrament of circumcision: but yet it was not despised and neglected of the holy saints of the old church, but used to the end for which it was ordained, that is, to be a testimony and a seal of free justification in Christ, who circumciseth us spiritually without hands by the working of the Holy Ghost.” Parker Edition p175)

The Latin is:

Ergo sacramento circuncisionis gratia dei non fuit alligata, sed iccirco a sanctis veteris ecclesię non spreta nec neglecta, sed usurpata in illum finem, ad quem instituta erat, ut esset testimonium et sigillum gratuitę iustificationis in Christo venturo, qui circuncidit spiritualiter sine manibus per spiritum sanctum. . (Peter Opitz, Sermonum Decades, p349)

The modern German translation is:

Folglich war die Gnade Gottes nicht an das Sakrament der Beschneidung gebunden. Sie wurde aber deshalb von den Gläubigen der alten Kirche nich verachtet, sondern zu dem Zweck gebraucht, zu dem sie eingesetzt worden war, nämlich um Zeugnis and Siegel zu sein für die freiwillig gewährte Rechtfertigung im künftigen Christus, der geistlich, ohne Hände, durch den Heiligen Geist bescheidet. (Heinrich Bullinger Schriften, TVZ 2006, p11)