How Will We Be United with Christ in Resurrection?
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In Genesis 1:27, it is said that men and women were made in the image of God, created to look like their Father in heaven. So, from the beginning, we have been created by God to resemble everything about Him.
When you make the choice to accept Jesus into your heart, believing that He is the Savior who came to save and redeem us from our sins, we become Christ followers who are one in mind, soul, and spirit with Jesus. We are also gifted with the guidance of the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus, guided by the spiritual promptings of our Savior to live life glorifying God instead of self.
Romans 6:5 says “if we have been united together in likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.” This shows that as we go through death on earth as Jesus did, we will be resurrected in the same way to join Him in heaven when God calls us there. We won’t have to go to the pits of hell if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior but will join Him as we enter the gates of heaven to live eternally with God.
But how does this give us hope in the present, when it is unclear when we will join Jesus in resurrection and in what way in death? Let’s look through the pages of the Bible to unpack this hope we have.
What Is the Context of Romans 6:5?
These life-changing words of Romans 6:5 come from the teachings of the great apostle Paul, written as an epistle to the Roman citizens and featured as the first book in New Testament written exclusively by Paul.
The letter, believed to have been written in AD 57, was likely written during his third missionary journey to the church of Rome that he had, at that point, not yet visited.
Not sure how his journey would continue, Paul wrote this letter to the church, as he saw that they would be the future of Christianity and needed to have the basic principles of the faith in order to flourish. Paul definitely had quite the journey in his mission work, surviving several dangerous situations all in pursuit of sharing the gospel with others, so planning ahead was always something he did well.
Romans 6 talks about what it means to be baptized into Jesus Christ, stating that we are baptized into Jesus’s life as well as His death, and what He stood for (Rom. 6:3). Paul further states the following in Romans 6:4 to explain more of what it means to be baptized in Christ:
“Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
The basic understanding here is that as Christ was raised from the dead after His death on the cross, into a new life in heaven, we experience the same when we accept Him as our Savior and die to self, through water baptism, to walk in newness of faith-based life after we emerge from the waters.
Romans 6:5 follows along with this belief that though we may not die in the same way Christ died on the cross, the symbolism of our death to self occurs when we accept Him into our lives and hearts and change the way we live our lives to mirror more of how Jesus lived His. We are no longer looking to the world and its people to find our worth and purpose, but to Jesus and the new home we will live in with Him in the near future.
How Are We United with Christ in Death?
Our union with Christ is understood when we make the choice to no longer live the life of the world, pursuing the fleeting, temporary treasures it has to offer us that will never make us happy. When we make the decision to follow Jesus, we lay aside these pursuits and devote our days to following Jesus’s lead of loving God and others while sharing about who Jesus is. The Holy Spirit is our guiding force each day to help us with decisions we must make and circumstances we are in to make sure that we live godly lives that not only glorify God but bless us as well.
When Scripture mentions union with Christ in death, some may believe that means we will be hung on the cross like Jesus because we are Christians who follow Christ. Though this could be something some of us may face as we endure persecution these last days, the overall perspective is that union with Christ in death means that we die to the pleasures of this world and self to become new men and women in Christ.
Instead of looking at situations to see how we will be successful in them, we will instead look at situations to see how God will be glorified through them, how we will share the gospel with others, and how we can make the same choices Jesus would make if He was in the same circumstance. It’s also the realization that we can’t get to heaven on our own efforts because it matters more to God that we accept what Jesus did for us on the cross than relentless works to be accepted into heaven.
Will We Be Physically Resurrected Like Christ Was?
So, if we are united with Jesus in death, how are we united with Him in resurrection? First Thessalonians give us detailed insight into what that meeting will be.
“Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord,” (1 Thess. 4:17).
The answer is yes, we will physically be resurrected with Jesus when He returns to take us, His bride, to heaven. We will also be joined by others of the Christian faith who have passed on before us, joining together to reach our forever home.
How Does This Verse Give Us Hope?
Though some might be concerned about Romans 6:5, saying we will be in likeness of Jesus’s death, our concerns can be put to rest. Instead of being drawn into the ebbs and flows of this fallen world, we will have a collective, peaceful focus as Jesus did on living life for God and sharing what Jesus did with as many people as we can. We will remain unaffected by what happens in the world, knowing that God is victorious in the end, and we will be in heaven with Him.
We have hope in knowing that the Holy Spirit will lead our path now to not only bless us but bless others as we follow the guidance of the Lord. And we have hope in knowing that when it is time to go to heaven, we will have the one who saved us from our sins, who died in our place, leading the way to our eternal promised land.
As He was resurrected on the third day and later returned to His home, we will also follow His path and come to our home to live together in heaven with God all those who lived for Him.
Conclusion
Confusion can come from trying to comprehend what Romans 6:5 is telling us of what lies ahead for those who have professed Jesus to be their Lord and Savior. Believing that in likeness of Jesus’s death, we will also be in likeness in His resurrection might create anxiety over the uncertainty of what we will experience when it is our time to pass on to heaven.
But since we are made in the image of God and are now brothers and sisters in Christ, we should have hope in knowing that when it is our time to go, we will not only go through death with the Savior by our side, but we will also join Him in the air as we are resurrected to be eternally together in heaven.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/shuang paul wang
