I know it’s just what we do, but have you ever thought about why we bury dead bodies? Try to imagine a world where decomposing corpses are lying around in our homes, in hospitals, and in the alleys and roadways where we travel. That’s a ridiculous idea, and we all know disposing of dead bodies just makes sense. They stink! They’re hazardous to our health, and they’ll just get in our way if we don’t permanently put them away.
You may be thinking all this death talk is kind of irrelevant or morbid. But death and burial are the prerequisites for entering into the blessing of life in the New Covenant. If you’re a Christian, you’ve heard the gospel and know the “good news” that the historical Jesus Christ visited earth to be your substitute so you can now live forever. But is that the whole truth? I mean we all know we’re still going to die a physical death. And look at what Paul says about our spiritual death in Romans 6:3-4: Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death… So maybe the gospel is such good news, not because we escape death, but rather because we have participated in death already. Let’s take a closer look…
Romans 6:1-4 says at the moment of salvation, everything that happened to Jesus at the cross also happened to us. We were spiritually immersed into Jesus in order to participate in His death, burial, and resurrection to life. When Jesus died, we died. But death wasn’t enough. When Jesus was buried, we too were buried. God placed our old, natural-born, spiritually corrupt selves in the tomb with Jesus and LEFT US THERE! Our old man in Adam has been completely deleted and no longer exists. God made sure he was buried and put out of sight totally. That’s great news Christian!
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (1 Corinthians 5:17 NLT) Here’s more good news! We don't have an internal civil war between two opposing natures. We only have one identity, our new creation identity in Christ. This is who you really are, no matter what the flesh does or whether you “feel” like it or even “behave” like it.
If we can understand why burying decaying corpses is so important in the natural realm, then we can better understand why God had to bury us with Christ in the spirit realm. Think what life would be if our dead old selves were still lurching around like in a B-class zombie movie. We’d be tripping and falling all over each other, and life would be a constant, horrendous disaster! Rot and decay would infect, fester and destroy our society. We’d be exposed to all sorts of contamination, diseases and danger. Our homes would be a smelly, stinky disgusting mess. As Christians who still sin, we might feel this to be exactly our situation. But God does not mix the old and new. He crucified and buried our old corrupted, sin encrusted selves.
When Jesus got up from the grave, we too were raised to walk a new kind of life. Our new life in Christ is not a patched up version of the old. No, we’re altogether new! Therefore, the best way to “deal with” the old you is to realize the old you is no longer there. You have a new past, a new present, and a new future…a new life altogether. That’s the gospel!
If you would like to talk to someone about your new life in Christ, please contact us. We would love to talk with you!