For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like HisThis one short verse contains the heart of the Gospel—the good news of God's mercy and salvation to fallen mankind. The essence of eternal life is contained in our being united to Christ's death and resurrection. All that is good to us from God, comes in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. We are blessed by being in His train, by being united to Him.
Romans 6:5
We who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ are legally united to His death. Adam, the first head of the human race was legally representative of all humanity—so that in his sin and its punishment, all his descendants were adjudged by God to be equally sinful and all were, therefore, bound over to the punishment of Adam's sin, which was and is death.
Our Lord Jesus Christ comes forth as the second Adam, the new, replacement Adam. He is legally united to all His people—all whom the Father has given Him—so that when He died and was punished for sin, He bore the guilt of all the sin of all His people, including the first sin of Adam which had been laid to our charge. This is the ground of why we are able to believe in the mercy of God toward us. The evil which we have done in thought, word, and deed has been fully and completely punished in His death in our place. We have been united to Him in His death.
But there is more. We have legally also been united to Christ in His resurrection. Note the change in tense in our text. We have been already (perfect) united to (lit: “planted together with”) Christ in His death; we most certainly shall be (future) united to Him in a resurrection like His. The day is coming when we will be like Him in His resurrection, bearing new and perfected life in body, mind, and soul. These things are as certain and life and death itself.
God's dealings with us are now mediated through the Son. Just as His dealings with us had once been mediated through Adam, the consequence of which was certain death—even death within the womb, before an unborn child had done anything good or bad on their own account—so now, the death and resurrection of Christ is mediated to us; all His perfect work is put to our account. God deals with us accordingly.
We are conscious, then, that we have been known by God long beforehand. Long before we were, He has set His love upon us in Christ, from eternity. We have been embraced and taken up in a salvation so complete, so perfect, so impeccable that it is beyond our comprehension. Even our faith, which joins us to Christ existentially, so that in our believing we come to know and experience Him as our covenant Head—even our faith comes from God and is not of ourselves.
This, then, is the Gospel. From beginning to end it is God and the work of His Christ, anointed as our representative before God. To Him belongs all glory, all honour, and thanks. The debt we owe can never be paid, but it demands (and receives) our unending gratitude.
Far too often we spoil the happiness and felicity of the Gospel by not daring to believe it. We think it too good to be true. We start to mix it up with our unworthiness, or our failures, or our sins. It is when we start to consider ourselves too much that we think less of Him and the perfection of His work for us. Every day it would be good to remind ourselves that God regards us and considers us to be perfect, without any blot, blemish, or imperfection. He regards only the perfection of His Son that abides upon us.
5 comments:
The second "death" in your quote should be "resurrection"
You can delete this
bethyada
Thank you. An important correction indeed!
JT
Do you believe in once saved always saved?
Hi, La. "Once saved always saved" can be an unfortunate expression because it separates salvation from daily life and faith. We are far more comfortable with an expression like, "the saints will persevere in their faith."
We do believe this to be the clear teaching of Scripture. Jesus promised that those whom the Father had given Him would be preserved by Him and that no-one could pluck them out of His or the Father's hand. (John 10:27--29)
We need to make a couple of qualifications, however. Scripture also teaches that there can be fellow travellers who appear for a time to have spiritual life, but actually do not. The parable of the sower testifies to this. Also, John speaks of some who had left the Church who had never really belonged to it in the first place. (IJohn 2:18,19) We can only take people in good faith (i.e. by how they appear toward us)--and presume that when people profess faith in Christ they do so truthfully. We should presume this until they prove otherwise by their life and actions. This is what John implies. It was by their deserting that these unbelievers proved that they had never really belonged at all.
Secondly, it is possible for believers to fall into gross sin and continue therein for some time. David re Uriah and Bathsheba is a case in point. The man involved in incest in the Corinthian congregation is another. But those who truly belong to the Lord do eventually return, for the work of God's Spirit is irresistible at the end of the day.
The Westminster Confession has a neat summary of this when it says (Ch 17)
"They, whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved . . . .
"Nevertheless, they may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins, and, for a time, continue therein: whereby they incur God's displeasure, and grieve His Holy Spirit, come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts, have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves."
Hope this is useful.
JT
Enlightening as always.
Thank you -- I deeply appreciate the time you take with your answers.
La
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