ニューイングランドの母校から、イースターへ備えて日々のみことばの味わい　その3

Day 3: March 27

Dying with Him
Romans 6:1-11

The death of Christ has always been the centerpiece of Christian teaching.

The words of Paul have long rung in our ears: “He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor 5:21). We speak of Christ’s death as substitutionary, and of salvation as a great exchange—he took our sin, so that we might receive his righteousness. As Christians popularly say, “he died for us that we might not die.”

But there is one phrase in this well-known verse that sometimes escapes our attention: “in him.” Salvation is not merely an exchange of one’s death for that of others. Rather, the exchange comes when we are “in Christ,” when we are united to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere, Paul goes further: “We have been buried with him through baptism into death. … For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Rom 6:4-5). Here we see that in a sense, we ourselves go through death and resurrection with Christ, and thus, salvation is something through which Christ leads us. He dies with us (after all, we were already dead spiritually), so that we might live with him and in him after his resurrection.

This is why we journey to the resurrection this week. Christ’s journey was our journey as well. And as we commemorate that journey, we do not simply remember what he has done for us. We also remember what we have done with him and in him. We have died and been raised to new life. As we shout out, “Christ is risen!” this Sunday, may we also affirm, “And we too have died and are risen in him!”

Donald Fairbairn, Ph.D.
Academic Dean (Charlotte); Robert E. Cooley Professor of Early Christianity