Romans 6:3-11
What is this about dying with Christ? We know about how Jesus was a social rebel, a lover, how he was inclusive, faithful, good to have with you on a fishing trip, a fun guy around the fire with some wine, great at a wedding. But his greatest gift to us was dying (for us) and rising again on the third day to new life, transformed. Jesus shed his earthly bonds to accept fully and return to his totally divine nature. So why do we focus on the dying?
When I wrote yesterday about reassessment, I was really speaking about dying. When we grow, a certain portion of us must die. We die to our old self and are reborn into new life. When I speak about being honest with ourselves and making tough self assessments, it is part of the dying to your old self and rising to new life.
Another form of dying for us is when we pick up the crosses we have to bear in life. Life has a way of presenting us with problems and sorrow. Admittedly, it is nothing like the cross that Jesus had to carry, literally or figuratively, but we still have crosses to bear. It's not like we want to but they are inevitable and we carry them in solidarity with Christ who shoulders it with us like our own personal Simon. When we carry those crosses in life, and like I say, they are inevitable, we wouldn't go out and search for them but they help us grow in love and appreciation for what Jesus went through for us. We die to a kind of selfishness and put others first.
There are are all sorts of examples of how we die and rise to new life in our daily lives. We are after all called Easter people. Perhaps they are a preparation for the day we will rise to a totally new life to be with Christ in Heaven.
Any dying that we enter into with Christ is one that brings new life to us. The key is with Christ!
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
What is this about dying with Christ? We know about how Jesus was a social rebel, a lover, how he was inclusive, faithful, good to have with you on a fishing trip, a fun guy around the fire with some wine, great at a wedding. But his greatest gift to us was dying (for us) and rising again on the third day to new life, transformed. Jesus shed his earthly bonds to accept fully and return to his totally divine nature. So why do we focus on the dying?
When I wrote yesterday about reassessment, I was really speaking about dying. When we grow, a certain portion of us must die. We die to our old self and are reborn into new life. When I speak about being honest with ourselves and making tough self assessments, it is part of the dying to your old self and rising to new life.
Another form of dying for us is when we pick up the crosses we have to bear in life. Life has a way of presenting us with problems and sorrow. Admittedly, it is nothing like the cross that Jesus had to carry, literally or figuratively, but we still have crosses to bear. It's not like we want to but they are inevitable and we carry them in solidarity with Christ who shoulders it with us like our own personal Simon. When we carry those crosses in life, and like I say, they are inevitable, we wouldn't go out and search for them but they help us grow in love and appreciation for what Jesus went through for us. We die to a kind of selfishness and put others first.
There are are all sorts of examples of how we die and rise to new life in our daily lives. We are after all called Easter people. Perhaps they are a preparation for the day we will rise to a totally new life to be with Christ in Heaven.
Any dying that we enter into with Christ is one that brings new life to us. The key is with Christ!
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
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