Devine Scripture

Colossians 2:13

What does Colossians 2:13 mean?

A plain-English look at Colossians 2:13 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Colossians 2:13 means

Once spiritually dead in trespasses and in an uncircumcised state, believers have been made alive together with Christ. God’s action is central: He forgave all our trespasses. Spiritual death meant inability and guilt; God answered both by imparting life and removing sin’s debt. The stress on “all” highlights the completeness of His pardon. Our life with Christ is inseparable from His forgiveness, because guilt barred us from God. Now, joined to the living Christ, believers possess a new standing and power to live for God. The move from death to life is not moral improvement but resurrection grace granted through union with Jesus.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses;

KJV

King James Version · 1611

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

And you, being dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, you, I say, did he make alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses;

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

And you, being dead through your sins and the evil condition of your flesh, to you, I say, he gave life together with him, and forgiveness of all our sins;

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

And you--being dead in the trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh--He made alive together with him, having forgiven you all the trespasses,

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

And you, when you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he hath quickened together with him, forgiving you all offences:

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him, having forgiven us all the offences;

Context

This verse explains the personal effect of the burial-and-resurrection union described in verse 12. It prepares the way for verse 14’s legal image of the canceled record and verse 15’s military image of Christ’s triumph over hostile powers. Together, these verses display God’s comprehensive rescue—life, forgiveness, cleared debt, and victory—showing the futility of returning to man-made regulations or spiritual fear.

v.12having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

v.13This passage

v.14having blotted out the bond written in ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us: and he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross;

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Ephesians 5:14

    Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.

  • Jeremiah 31:34

    And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know Jehovah; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.

  • Acts 13:38

    Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins:

  • 1 John 1:7

    but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

  • Hebrews 9:14

    how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

  • Hebrews 6:1

    Wherefore leaving the doctrine of the first principles of Christ, let us press on unto perfection; not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,

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