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Scripture Reading: Rom. 5:10-11; 6:4-5; 8:2, 6, 10, 11, 13
Romans 5:10-11 says, “If we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled, and not only so, but also boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Verse 10 speaks of the death of Christ and the life of Christ. We were reconciled to God through the death of Christ, and now we are being saved in the life of Christ.
According to verse 11, we also are boasting in God. Boast has the meaning of “exult” and “glory.” We are boasting, exulting, and glorying in God because we are being saved in His life. To exult is to be crazily happy. While we are being saved in the life of Christ, we should not be too quiet. Every day we have to boast, exult, and glory. This should be the expression of our salvation in the life of Christ.
We were reconciled to God through the death of Christ, and we are now being saved in His life. This salvation is not our eternal salvation but our daily, moment-by-moment salvation. If the trials that we undergo seem to last a long time, this may indicate that we are not enjoying our moment-by-moment salvation. If we are experiencing this salvation, we will boast and exult, and the trials will pass by quickly. By the Lord’s sovereignty we are often placed in trying situations. The way to enjoy this salvation in these situations is to boast, exult, and glory in God.
Paul’s writing in Romans 5:10-11 was very careful. Moreover, he did not compose these verses merely according to doctrine but according to his experience. He did not say that we boast, exult, and glory in our salvation but in the person of God. We are enjoying our salvation in God. This indicates that we have a direct contact, union, and connection with God. Our enjoyment in God may be compared to the enjoyment of a child with his mother. Little children care mainly for their mother’s presence. The younger a child is, the closer he stays to his mother. You can take away many things from a baby without disturbing him, but you cannot take away the presence of his mother. In the same way we enjoy the salvation of Christ in the person of God.
Paul’s wording in these verses is wonderful, especially in his use of prepositions. It is through the death of God’s Son that we are reconciled to God, but it is in His life that we are saved daily. This means that if we are not in God experientially, we cannot be saved in the life of Christ. We must have a direct, instant union with God. To be saved minute by minute, we must be in God, in the direct, constant, and instant union with God. Furthermore, we are now boasting, exulting, and glorying, not in the death of Christ or even in His life but in the person of the Triune God. We are one with Him, minute by minute.
Romans 6 and 8 are an explanation of what it is to be saved in the life of Christ minute by minute. Romans 6:4-5 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. For if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Being saved in the life of Christ in Romans 5:10 corresponds with walking in newness of life in 6:4. If we are being saved in His life, then we are walking in newness of life. Sometimes a husband may give his wife an unpleasant look. In this situation the sister should simply walk in newness of life. This is to be saved in the life of Christ. However, if she returns the unpleasant look, she is not walking in the newness of Christ’s life. Rather, she is in the oldness of Adam’s death.
The newness of life in verse 4 equals resurrection in verse 5. When the Lord Jesus came out of the tomb, He had the newness of life. Resurrection is the newness of life, but death is oldness. With a dead person there is nothing but oldness, but in a resurrected person there is newness of life. When a husband gives an unpleasant look to his wife, the wife should return an exulting face. Such a face is a face in the likeness of resurrection. Our salvation in our daily life is a walk in newness of life, and to walk in newness of life is to live a life in resurrection.
In order to live in resurrection, we must first die. Without death there can be no resurrection. Verse 4 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death.” We have been buried into His death. Jesus was first slain and then buried, but we are first buried, and then we die. In baptism we bury living persons into death. However, this death remains in the baptistery. When we come out of the water, we are resurrected. We all need to see a vision of Christ’s death and of His resurrection. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him (Gal. 2:20a). We were all included in Him when He was crucified on the cross. Whoever believes in Him was crucified on the cross at the same time and in the same death. Moreover, when He was resurrected, all of His millions of believers were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6; 1 Pet. 1:3).
When we believed, we believed into Him. The preposition into signifies that one person is now in the other. We were in Adam, but when we believed in Christ Jesus, we believed into Him. We have been transferred. Now we are in Christ, who died and resurrected. Because we are in Him, whatever He experienced has become our history. We died in Christ almost two thousand years ago, and we were also buried with Him in His tomb. Now we are in His resurrection. Therefore, we should not live in our old life. That old life was terminated and even buried. Now we should live in the resurrected life, in the resurrection of Christ.
Husbands and wives who have exulting faces are living in the life of Christ. The expression of this life is resurrection. The resurrection of Christ is the expression of something new. Therefore, to live in the life of Christ is to live in the newness of life. Romans 6 shows us that we are dead and buried and are now in His resurrection. When we live in this resurrection, we live in the newness of Christ’s life. If we desire to be saved daily and constantly, we must realize that we are persons who are dead and buried. But we are no longer in the tomb; we are now in resurrection.
When the Lord Jesus resurrected from the tomb, He left behind the linen cloths and the handkerchief that bound Him (John 20:5-7). When Peter came to the tomb and saw them lying in a good order, he realized that the Lord had resurrected. All the things left in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. The cloths and the handkerchief signify the old creation, which the Lord wore into the tomb. He was crucified with the old creation and buried with it. When He resurrected, He left the old creation in His tomb, and He became the firstfruits, the germination, of God’s new creation. All the old creation, including us, was terminated and left in the tomb of Christ. We were a part of the old creation, typified by the linen cloths and the handkerchief that the Lord Jesus wore. We were all buried with Him, and when He resurrected, He left us in the tomb. Now we should remain in the tomb. The termination and burial of the old creation are fully signified by baptism. The old creation was buried in the baptistery.
To display an unpleasant face to our spouse is to revive the buried old man. We should not allow the old man to return to live with us. If we allow the old man to return, we are not living in newness of life. Rather, we are in the oldness of death. We must live a life in resurrection, and this life is based upon the all-inclusive death of Christ. The Christian story is a wonderful story. There is the historical side of the story, which consists of the facts, and there is also the experiential side, the side of our daily life. According to history, the old man was buried, but in our daily life, the old man is still lodging with us. A house is a lodging place for living persons, but a tomb is for dead persons. In a sense, our body is a tomb for the old creation. We have to tell the old man, “I am not your house for you to live in. I am your tomb for you to be buried in.”
Romans 8 gives us the way to experience the life of Christ. In this chapter there are five critical verses related to life. Verse 2 speaks of the Spirit of life. Verse 10 says that if Christ is in us, our human spirit is life. Verse 6 says that the mind set on the spirit is life. Verse 11 says that the indwelling Spirit gives life even to our mortal body. The Spirit is life, our human spirit is life, our mind is life, and even our body is life. Finally, verse 13 says that we need to put to death by the indwelling Spirit the practices of the body. If we do this, our entire being will live. These verses speak on the one hand of the Holy Spirit and on the other hand of our human spirit. These two spirits are mingled together as one spirit. The dispensing of the Triune God into us makes us life in the three parts of our being: first in our spirit; second in our mind, the main part of our soul; and third in our body. We are becoming persons in life. In this way we are being saved in the life of Christ minute by minute, and we live a life in resurrection. Moreover, the element of resurrection is the newness of this life. Now, after being reconciled to God, we are being saved in such a life, the life that has passed through death and burial and today is in resurrection.
Question: Romans 6:4 says that we have been buried with Christ through baptism into His death. Then verse 5 says that we will be in the likeness of His resurrection. However, footnote 3 on Philippians 3:10 in the Recovery Version says, “With Christ, the sufferings and death came first, followed by the resurrection; with us, the power of His resurrection comes first, followed by the participation in His sufferings and conformity to His death.” In what order do we experience death and resurrection?
Answer: In Romans 6 death is first, followed by resurrection. According to fact, resurrection is based upon death. The facts are our history: first we died with Christ, and then we resurrected. However, Philippians 3 is not according to fact but according to experience. In our experience resurrection is followed by death. The power of resurrection is Christ Himself. Since we have Him within us, we have the power of resurrection. By this power we are enabled to live a life on the path of Christ’s death, in the mold of His death.
Question: Often when situations surprise us, there is a reaction of the old man within us. How should we deal with that reaction? Should we simply say no to the old man at that time, or must we remain “on the mountaintop” at all times in order to be prepared for every situation?
Answer: The Lord Jesus with His three disciples did not remain on the mountaintop for very long (Matt. 17:1-8). When they came down from the mountain, they found a case of demon possession (vv. 14-21). We must realize that our environment fluctuates all the time. The Lord Jesus is on the mountaintop, and He is also in the valley. According to His presence, there is no difference between the mountain and the valley. He always remains the same. We should not care for the environment; we should care only for His presence. We do not live according to the environment. For the unbelievers the only aspect of their experience is the environment. We believers, however, live according to the Lord’s presence. This requires a daily experience of the Lord. If we have the adequate experience of the Lord every day, we will remain the same when the environment changes.
