How do believers come to live with Christ after dying with Him?
Believers live with Christ after dying with Him by resurrection power. Having been crucified, buried, and dead with Christ, they are raised in resurrection power as a new person and a whole new being, and are placed into Christ. This work occurs invisibly in the soul and spirit, where only God can work.
Les teaches from Romans 6:8 that if we have been crucified with Christ, buried with Him, and dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with Him. He explains this happens by resurrection power: we have been raised in resurrection power, we are a new person, a whole new being, and now placed into Christ. Les illustrates that God works in the invisible realm of the soul and spirit. Just as a pathologist cannot see the soul or spirit in an autopsy, human hands cannot touch that realm; baptizing the body many times does not change the soul and spirit, because the body is only an outer tabernacle. Only God can work in the invisible area of our soul and spirit, and that is where He resurrects us to new life with Christ.
Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
When did believers die, if we are still alive now?
Believers died in the mind of God on the cross of Calvary, when Christ died. This is a substitutionary death in the person of Christ. Though they remain physically alive, as Paul wrote Galatians while living, they have been crucified with Christ and are now to present their bodies a living sacrifice.
If we died with Christ, what do we believe about living with Him?
If we have been crucified, buried, and dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. This living comes by resurrection power: we have been raised in resurrection power as a new person, a whole new being, now placed into Christ.
More Questions
What does it mean that if we be dead with Christ we shall also live with Him?
If we are dead with Christ — that is, by identification with the crucifixion — we believe that we shall also live with Him.