And if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
Truth to Learn
We are currently living an eternal life with Christ.
Behind the Words
The word translated “believe” is pisteuō, which means “to believe” or “to have faith.” It is not simply a trust but a firm, dogmatic belief. It is expressed as a present, active, indicative verb, which implies a current and ongoing belief, not just a momentary faith.
“Live with” is translated from the Greek word sudzaō, which is made up of sun, meaning “together with” and dzaō, meaning “to live.” Hence, it expresses a life that is characterized as living together with Christ.
Meaning Explained
This verse is not simply a reiteration of what was said in the previous three verses. It expresses a very deep truth about our new life in Christ. If we, that is our sin nature, died with Christ, then we live again in newness of life just as He is living again. There is a wonderful thing about the new life that Christ has. Because He has already died for sins and is resurrected, He will never die again. His life is eternal. So, if we are living together with Him, we have eternal life now as well.
There are actually two aspects of eternal life for us: future resurrected eternal physical life and current eternal spiritual life. We know that Jesus has eternal spiritual life because He is God, but He also has eternal physical life because He is completely human, and that human life has been raised from the dead so that death no longer has dominion over Him.
Because Jesus paid the price for our sins and we who believe in His death and resurrection have accepted the gift of grace from God, we too are promised to have eternal life with Him. We are promised that we will be raised from the dead. This is spoken of in one of the most precious passages of the entire Bible:
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we all will be changed—in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For a trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then will be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:51-55)
However, if you read ahead to verses ten and eleven you will see that the current verse is not referring to our resurrected life, but our life right now. Because we believe with an active ongoing belief, we also live together with Christ. And, if we are living with Him, we can’t also be living in sin. That’s one of the beauties of saving faith – it is also living faith.
Application
Think about this: if we are living “with” Christ right now because of our belief in His death and resurrection, we have eternal life (both aspects of it). If we currently have eternal life, then we can’t lose it (if it’s eternal it can’t end). In other words, if our faith is real we can’t lose this salvation we have!
In God's service, for His glory,
Copyright © 2018 Will Krause. All rights reserved