United in Death

Scripture Read: Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Application: United -  σύμφυτος súmphutos; to grow together. Planted together, united with, innate - It denotes not merely homogeneousness, but a similarity of experience. “graft into” ^[1]

The idea of oneness here is difficult to grasp – again we find that this originates from God’s infinite mind, therefore we are at somewhat of a loss at understanding all that it means. Just like He sees us glorified – it is real in His eyes – but we have not realized it yet – so too the death to sin we have gone through with Christ is real to Him, but not realized by us. We can understand that sin is no longer our master, yet to be completely free from its power we have not yet realized. That is proper when we consider we did nothing, it was Christ that did it all. He has graciously identified us with Himself – enabling us to experience forgiveness and eternal life – and yes some day even the eradication of our sin nature! You oh Lord are beyond our understanding and we will never be able to comprehend what You did for us through Christ – Thank You for uniting us to Your Son – Holy Spirit remind us of this union 24/7. We love you Jesus!

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Zodhiates, S. (2000). The complete word study dictionary : New Testament (electronic ed.). Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.