Rom 6:5 (With Him)

Before i get some crazy messages from folks about this image, first hear me out, as to why i am using it. I was browsing the internet this morning in search of a good Cross of Christ image and came across this one. I was actually appauled by it at first, and then when i thought about the scripture that i am currently studying, i thought, "ah! that actually IS a GREAT image for THIS!!!" (plus, it got my attention, so i figured it would probably do the same for other viewers as well).

"FOR IF WE HAVE BEEN PLANTED TOGETHER IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS DEATH, WE SHALL BE ALSO IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION."

This word, "If," actually means "in view of the fact," or "since it is so," letting us know that there is no real question that Christ died, or that we are in His likeness.

Sometimes these guys would choose a word that was less desirable in meaning, but "sounds" better and means something like the word in translation, i think that is what happened in this instance. What i mean by this is, for example., the word Love has about 5 different meanings: "i love Dr. Pepper." "I love my Wife." But we don't love Dr. Pepper the same way that we love our spouse. We have a different types of love for different things. Anyway, not everybody understands the whole translation of scripture thing....moving on, (sigh). :)

I like what JS has to say about it, he gives a wonderful illustration for this: Take for instance, a pair of Siamese twins: their bodies are joined together at one point, and the bloodstream that flows, goes through both physical bodies, as though they are a normal one. That is what it is like when we receive Christ into our lives. We are connected to Him. When He died, we died, etc.

The word, "LIKENESS," is the same as resemblance, which is almost the same identity.

We share His Death & Resurrection. Both deaths had to do with sin, but from different aspects. Jesus bearing the sin, which the sinner has given Him.

Adam Clark, a well known theologian mentions it's a "beautiful metaphor, taken from grafting, or making the scion grow together with a new stock." Now, i didn't know what a scion is, so i had to look it up. I also researched all synonyms for the word, "scion," and was amazed. they are: branch, child, graft, heir, offspring, progeny, successor. i love that, because Christ tells us that He is the Vine and we are the branches (Jn 15), we are the children of God and heirs to Salvation, (Heb 1:14, Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6), & we are His offspring and are grafted into Him (Rom 11:17).

When i read Barnes' notes, he said we are all like seeds of the same plant (Christ), planted and growing up in Him together, "as He rose from the grave, so shall we rise from sin. As He lived a new life, being raised up, so shall we live a New Life." And i loved the scripture that he gave for a reference here:

Jhn 14:19 "Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also."


"WE SHALL BE ALSO IN THE LIKENESS OF HIS RESURRECTION."

JS states that it's not a statement made of predictions made per say, but that of a logical fact. "Paul says in his Greek, 'For in a view of the fact that we have become those permanently united with Him with respect to the likeness of His death, certainly also (as a logical result), we shall become with Him with respect to the likeness of His Resurrection."

What does any of that have to do withe the pic? when i see this pic, on a daily basis, i am reminded that i have died to MY DESIRES, MY HOPES, MY WANTS, MY ATTENTION AND GLORIFICATIONS, MY OWN PRAISE AND SELF-WORSHIP, and now i live for Him, because He died for me...in my place, now i am giving Him my life. When i look at that pic, i see myself, i'm reminded of the benefits that i reap and the price that i did not pay. I'm not my own anymore.

1Cr 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.