April 20

“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” - ROMANS 6:4

Not only was Christ’s death our death, and his burial our burial, but his resurrection is our resurrection, not only as a historical act, but as a contemporary experience. Paul says the impact of his resurrection is that ‘we too may live a new life’. This climaxes the work of Christ on the cross, and this makes the gospel complete. Christ for us in His death paying the full penalty of sin, leading to Christ in us by His resurrection, equipping us to live a new life. Paul wrote: ‘The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For he "has put everything under his feet." (1 Corinthians 15:26-27). If Jesus Christ defeated the ‘last enemy’ when he rose from the dead, he has in the process defeated every other enemy that threatens to defeat us now. This alone is the grounds of our freedom. Therefore, Paul also writes, ‘I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…’ (Philippians 3:10). Not just the historicity of his resurrection, but the power of it in daily experience.

We will never share the unique relationship of Christ to his Father, but we are brought into the relationship of ‘sonship’, for we share the life of His Son. God has only one Son, but we are called sons and daughters of God by virtue of our union with him. As His history on the cross became our history, ‘we died with Christ’, so his future becomes our future, ‘we will also live with him’ (Romans 8:8).

Death therefore has lost its sting. We live on the post-crucified side of Calvary, where we may, ‘count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6:11). This sets us up to live in the present with a disposition of trust and dependence on His risen life, but also sets us up for the future, for we are now united to the endless life that belongs to Christ, from which we will never pass. One day he ‘will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body’ (Philippians 3.21). In the meantime, whilst still in ‘our lowly bodies’ we enjoy something of the new life, lived in us by, ‘the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession (Ephesians 1:13-14). This is the power of his resurrection!

Prayer: Halleluyah! He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Reflection: How can you grasp in a more real way today that your new resurrected life is as real as the resurrection life of Jesus?