READ | Romans 6:3-5

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

CONSIDER

Baptism is our identification with Jesus in his death (going under the water), and in his resurrection (rising up out of the water. We will be united with him in both!

Theologian N.T. Wright says this about the Christian hope of resurrection:

Resurrection isn’t a fancy way of saying “going to heaven when you die.” It is not about “life after death” as such. Rather, it’s a way of talking about being bodily alive again after a period of being bodily dead. Resurrection is a second-stage postmortem life: “life after ‘life after death.'” (Simply Christian, 114)

Many of us have grown up in church saying, “Because of my faith in Jesus, I know I’m going to heaven when I die.” How would it change your perspective if you replaced that with a slightly more accurate statement: “Because of my faith in Jesus, I know I’m going to come back to life again?”

ASK

Spend some time in prayer asking God to fill you with the hope of your own bodily resurrection that you will share with Jesus. It may help to recall your own water baptism, to allow that experience to be filled with new meaning and fresh power. (If you’ve never been baptized, maybe that’s a great next step for your journey of faith!)

 


Contributed by Rodger Otero, Associate Pastor