Note 12 at Col. 2:12: This "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh" occurs at the moment of salvation when one is buried with Christ in baptism (1 Cor. 12:13) and raised with Him through faith in God's power. The point that Paul is making is that the completeness (see note 10 in v. 10) and spiritual circumcision (see note 11 in v. 11) he had just spoken of is already an accomplished fact in the born-again (see note 2 at Jn. 3:3, p. 92) spirit. These things are already realities in our spirit (Gal. 5:24) that only have to be appropriated in our flesh.

The word "appropriate" means "to take possession of..." and comes from a Latin word which literally means, "to make one's own" (New A.H. Dict.). Christ has already provided everything for us and placed it in our born-again spirit, but we have to take possession of it. We must draw these new creation realities out of our spirit (see note 9 at 2 Cor. 5:17, p.1005) through the renewing of our minds (see note 9 at Rom. 12:2, p. 826) and manifest them in our flesh.