Baptism is the new circumsision.
In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not
administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the
circumcision of Christ. You were buried with him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of
God, who raised him from the dead.
Col 2:10-11
This prefigured baptism, which saves you now. It is not a
removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God 7 for a clear
conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 3:21
The phrase "not as a removal of dirt from the body" is in
referecne to the Jewish ceremony of circumcision. Baptism is now
the circumcision of the new Covenant (Col. 2:11-12), but it,
unlike the old circumcision, actually saves us, as Noah and his
family were saved by water.
Church Fathers:
"We are circumcised not with a fleshly circumcision but with the
circumcision of Christ, that is, we are born again into a new man;
for, being buried with Him in His baptism, we must die to the old
man, because the regeneration of baptism has the force of
resurrection." Hilary of Poitiers, Trinity, 9:9 (A.D. 359).
"But in respect of the case of the infants, which you say ought not
to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth,
and that the law of ancient circumcision should be regarded, so
that you think one who is just born should not be baptized and
sanctified within the eighth day...And therefore, dearest brother,
this was our opinion in council, that by us no one ought to be
hindered from baptism...we think is to be even more observed in
respect of infants and newly-born persons
" Cyprian, To Fidus,
Epistle 58(64):2, 6 (A.D. 251).
