WE MUST REALIZE that Christ died with our old body, because He died as a sinner and blasphemer. We too are deemed to have had our old body crucified with Christ because of the sins in it, but our old body also died on the cross and sin died along within it, which means that sin was annulled through death, i.e. died.

When Christ rose He resurrected in the new body cleansed from sin and we rose through His resurrection, because His resurrected body is our new body free of sin and alien to it. Thus and only thus our new body became incapable to be a slave to sin because it is considered a justified body in the body of Christ. This way God saved us through the death and resurrection of His Son with us in Him. He saved us from sin as a whole, and in detail, with Christ’s righteousness and grace abiding in us instead of sin. If a sinner dies after having confessed his sins and has been cleansed from sin through the Holy Spirit, he is no more deemed a sinner because he is reckoned to be living in Christ in whom he believed, nay it is Christ who inevitably lives in him1.

1 Cf Gal 2:20.  2 1John 3:9.

3 Ibid.

4 Cf Col 3:4.

5 1John 3:2.

is linked to the Christian faith with which we live in the everlasting light of God that is never extinguished, for it lights the secrets of consciences and hearts.

This in short is the meaning of us being fellows in the death and resurrection of Christ. Partners of Christ’s death we were given to have the old body sentenced to death and were offered a new living body of a new creation deemed not able to sin3, because this new creation is actually the body of Christ in His full divinity, and it was offered us to become partners in it. Its heritage is the heritage of the glory of the Son and we also are partners in His heritage.

It is thus clear to us that the Christian faith in its furthest limits, has at the bottom an old body dead to sin which we inherited from the top of the cross and the burial of the tomb, and over it a new spiritual body as a new spiritual creation whose homeland is heaven and its heritage is the glorious heritage of Christ.

As for the revelation of Christian faith to the world, it will appear when Christ will appear in glory and we will also appear with Him4, as the whole world will see Him in the fullness of His glory with us in Him, because we will be like Him5. Hidden matters from us now, but will be present through revelation, which God’s chosen children see because it is their life, glory and pride.

Christ freed us from Adam and his offspring’s past offering us to acquire the citizenship of Christ and share in His glory.

Prayer

We thank God who qualified us to become members of His household through Christ who is His beloved Son,

As He also freed us from our dark past and gave us the light of life and eternity,

Though our old man has died, we have our new living creation through God, with Him.

Here, we come to You O Lord Jesus Christ,

To note in us the truth of the death of the old man with his sins lest the serpent revive it through its enchantment rising to mar our life.

Here we present to Your love our new life in You,

So as to enjoy the favor of Your presence, and You cover us with Your righteousness and grace that presents us to God Your Father.

7 July, 2005

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