Paul begins verse 5 with a word of conditionality: if. If this has happened, then this will happen, for example: if I jump off of a 100 story building, I will die. If I eat healthy food, I will not starve to death. When we read the word if in verse 5, we should be looking for the condition and the result:
If we have been united with Christ in death - we will be united with Him in resurrection.
Paul doesn't say if you have been united with Christ in death, it's possible that you will be united with Him in resurrection...NO! If we have been united with Christ in death, WE WILL BE united with Him in a resurrection like His!!
That's great news! It's not an issue of uncertainty, but absolute certainty! So, the next question should be - how do I become united with Christ in death, so that I can meet the condition upon which the certainty of being united with Him in resurrection lies? Paul answered that in verse 3:
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Romans 6:3
All believers are baptized into Christ Jesus through regeneration - which involves being baptized into, or united with, Him in His death! God's promise to all truly born again believers is this - you have been united with Jesus Christ in a death like His, therefore you will be united with Him in a resurrection like His!
The uncertainty never lies with what God has promised to His children, the uncertainty lies in this: are you truly a child of God? Have you been baptized into Jesus Christ through the awesome power of regeneration?
For if we have been united with him in a death like his
I want to look at this statement a little in reverse for clarity. The word 'like' here means 'in resemblance, or in likeness.' We have been united with Christ through, or as a result of, experiencing a death that resembled His. What Christ did physically, becoming sin, dying, and rising again to never die, displays the transformation that we experience spiritually when we are regenerated by the power of God.
Through this death to sin, and spiritual regeneration, we are united with Jesus Christ -
One cannot be united with Jesus unless they have experienced this regeneration, and those who have been regenerated absolutely will be united with Jesus!
The that Paul uses here, translated united, or planted together, is also very important. It would be easy to gloss over this, taking it to mean we are now on the same side as Christ, the side of good instead of evil - which is true. We could take it to mean that we now live alongside or next to Christ, that He is there for us no matter what - which is also very true. However, neither of these really scratches the surface of what this word means.
In the Greek this word sumphutos refers to being grown along with (connate) - connate leaves are two leaves that are joined physically at the base. In anatomy, connate means firmly united or fused.
So, we can read the beginning of verse 6 to say: Through our regeneration (our death to sin and spiritual resurrection that resembles Christ's physical death and resurrection), we are joined as one, fused (united) with Christ.
How big of a transformation is this? Galations 2:20 says it all: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Having looked at the words 'united' and 'like' as Paul used them to describe the dying that is part of our regeneration as believers, we can apply the same definitions here to the being made spiritually alive part of our regeneration. Christ physically conquered death, displaying the power that our spiritual resurrection carries.
Ephesians 2:5 - even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved
We were as dead spiritually as Christ was dead physically in the grave - and as eternally alive as Christ is today, so are we! Through Him and spiritually joined to Him! We were completely dead and have been made truly, eternally alive. Anything other than this would suggest a transformation that was not in resemblance to what Christ physically displayed!
We can read in several places of the powerful union that we have entered into with God as a result of this miraculous resurrection that has taken place spiritually within us:
that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Cor 1:9
fellowship here means a very intimate relationship, in communion with. Jesus describes it in this powerful way:
that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. John 17:21
Can we ever really begin to grasp that we have entered into a relationship with the God that created every single star in the universe, including the ones we haven't even seen. The God that created the human body so amazingly perfect and complex that we will never know exactly how everything works. The God that created everything we see and everything we will see, from absolutely nothing.
We have entered into an intimate communion with this God! Entering into communion with this God requires powerful miracles, powerful death and powerful resurrection, powerful regeneration, powerful displays of grace and mercy. We must be very careful not to make it about things that we can wrap our mind around - we will never wrap our minds fully around this!
To summarize - we resemble Christ's death in two ways - we have died to sin as Christ took on sin and died, and we were dead in our trespasses as Christ was physically dead. Through our death, we are united, joined together, with Christ and now experience an eternal resurrection, in resemblance to the physical resurrection that He displayed as victory over sin and death!
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