The Risen ChristSample

Dying with Christ, Living with Christ

"...If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him..." (2 Timothy 2:11-12).

If you are a Christian, then you will be familiar with the talk about Jesus’ death on the cross. Christ died for us, for our sins. But there is another way to think about Christ’s death. It’s also true that we died with him. “I have been crucified with Christ...” (Galatians 2:20). “You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). This is a dramatic way of describing the difference between life before Christ and after Christ. It’s like dying and being buried, and then being raised from the dead into new life.

Two things follow from this. The first is that we must live in the new life, not the old one. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). The second is that this new life is forever. Death is not the end for those who have put their faith in Jesus, it’s just the beginning.

Paul tells Timothy this saying is trustworthy (see 2 Timothy 2:11). You can take it to the bank. However, it is also conditional: if we have died with Christ, we will live with him; and if we endure, we will also reign with him. To die with Christ means to identify with him in his death and resurrection and to mortify—put to death—the sin that remains in us. To endure means to keep doing that to the very end. The promise of life isn’t to those who start the Christian race, but to those who finish it.

PRAYER: Lord, help me finish the race of faith.

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We hope this plan encouraged you. This plan was excerpted from "The Risen Christ," a devotional reading plan that will take you through Lent from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Sign up today with Words of Hope.