Lesson 4: Washing at the cross: United with Christ in His Resurrection
Questions 1 and 2
We left off in the previous lesson understanding that we either live by sight or by faith. In other words, we either believe what we see with our eyes or what God’s Word says. At times, the two can seem to be at complete odds, such as when God promised Abraham and Sarah a son when their bodies were as good as dead because of their advanced age.
Every truth taught in Romans 6 seems to be at odds with what we see and experience in the natural world and requires us to exercise faith. And the good news is that when we put faith in what God’s Word says, it changes our facts! Abraham and Sarah had a son, and we overcome sin! That’s the facts!
Now, let’s continue our study of Romans 6:
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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 6:3-4 (NIV)
The Bible is clear in telling us that we died and were buried with Jesus and that we were raised with Him to live a new life. If you have undergone water baptism, you were submerged under the water as a public display that you identified with Jesus' death on the cross and the death and burial of the old life ruled by the flesh. Then you were raised back up out of the water to picture the resurrection of Jesus and being raised with Him to a new life in the Spirit.
Consider Jesus' resurrection for a moment as we read the following passage together. The setting is early morning on the first day of the week after Jesus' crucifixion. Several women went to Jesus' tomb to anoint His dead body with spices (a common practice in those days), but instead of a dead body, they found an empty tomb and saw two angels who looked like men, with clothes that gleamed like lightning. Here's what happened:
“In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8 Then they remembered his words” (Luke 24:5-8 NIV).