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The whole of the context is against the idea that the believer's state by nature "dead in
sins" is in view; rather it is his standing in grace; he had died to these things.
"And you, being dead (here the A.V. translates ontas correctly) to trespasses and to
the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven
you all trespasses" (Col. 2: 13).
To appreciate in any measure of fullness this passage in Col. 2:, necessitates an
acquaintance with the structure of Col. 2: 4-23, some knowledge of the incipient
agnosticism that was at work, and the place that philosophy, religion and the rudiments
occupied in the Colossian conception of the faith, but such vast themes are entirely
beyond the range of the present series. To all such the believer died with Christ, and the
life that he now lives "with" Him, is for ever free from bondage of all such rudimentary
religion that can only operate in the realm of the flesh, but can never intrude into that
newness of life into which the believer even now enters by faith in glad anticipation of
the day of reality, when He Who is our LIFE shall be manifested, and we be manifested
with Him in glory.