United with Christ in His Death and Resurrection

During Holy Week we commemorate world-changing events that took place 2,000 years ago.  But we do more than look back; we also stand in awe of how the Lord, in his grace, brought those events to bear upon our lives today.  Holy Week is a time for worship—for quiet and reflective praise, as well as exuberant celebration.

The main events of which I speak are the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In Romans 6 the Apostle Paul describes how we are affected by the hand of God through these events in this way:

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in new­ness of life” (6:3-4).

Christian baptism is a statement of identification with the death of Jesus (it’s a “burial” in a water grave).  By being baptized we’re saying that we are eternally grateful for all that was achieved at the cross for our salvation.  But our descent into the grave with Jesus is done “in order that” we might walk with Christ now in anticipation of future resurrection.  The “newness of life” we have by faith in Jesus gives us (and all onlookers) a foreshadowing of the resurrection life we’ll share in the age to come.

Paul goes on in verse 5:  “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

Union with Christ is a two-part arrangement:  joined in his death, and a definite hope of sharing in his resurrection life.  It’s both-and.  The death of Jesus makes it possible for our guilt to be cleared and the holy wrath of God against our sin to be satisfied (see Romans 5:8-9).  And Jesus’ resurrection proves his death was sufficient to cover our offenses, plus it shows that the devastating work of Satan and the death-dealing effects of sin cannot match God’s power to reverse the curse and bring victory and eternal joy to all who trust in him.

In Holy Week we put these jaw-dropping truths front and center:  all praise and honor to the Lord God, for all that he accomplished for his glory and our salvation on the cross and in the resurrection!