Rom 6:4   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.

    

We've said before that these verses are chosen ‘randomly'. The only guidance here is that they are based on the word ‘new' and that they alternate between Old & New Testaments. It seems beyond coincidence, therefore, that yesterday we spoke about an example of new life being granted to Israel, nothing less than the resurrection of the nation from death in a foreign land.

 

Now we see Paul's language describing the Christian life in terms of death and resurrection and new life being granted. Jesus was killed and buried but God raised him from the dead. That was a fact of history but, says Paul, it is also symbolic of what has happened to us. In the same way that Jesus was buried, so we must consider that our old lives are to die and be buried so they no longer exist. Just as Jesus was raised to new life by the Father, so we must let the Father raise us up with new lives, empowered by His Holy Spirit.

 

The whole picture of the Christian life is that it is a new life, a God-empowered life, a God directed life, a life that is completely new and different from the old life we had before we came to Christ that we must consider is now dead and buried. Everything about this life is now new and it is new because it is God-centred and God-filled.