Ephesians 2:4-6___"But God, who is righ in mercy, because of the great love He had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavens in Christ Jesus."

Philippians 3:10___"I wish to know Christ and the power flowing from His resurrection, likewise to know how to share in His sufferings by being formed into the pattern of His death."

"My one desire is to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and to share His sufferings in growing conformity with His death." TEV

Romans 6:3-11___"Or are you unaware that we who were baptized (immersed) into Christ Jesus were baptized (immersion) into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism (immersion) into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection. We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that our sinful body might be done away with, that we might no longer be in slavery to sin. For a dead person has been absolved from sin. If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus."

What we have as Christians is much more than simply a belief system – much more than deeply held convictions which award us favor in GodÕs sight or a hearing in the King's court, as it were. We have more than just a philosophical and ideological union with God. We have been swallowed up in Him. We have spiritually been made one with Him in a real way. If it were a physical oneness, our minds would be able to better comprehend it.

What we have is a new life. We are not the same as we were before. We may feel the same and even think the same, or act the same to a certain extent – at least temporarily, but at the core of our existence we have been changed. The life that Jesus had (has), we now share that same life.

As we have been immersed in Him, in His self, in His identity, we have been immersed into His death – and so, we have (in an eternal sense) died to our old selves, to the selves who were separate from God and from His life.

And as we have have been immersed in Him and in His death, we have also been immersed into His resurrection, and hence, into eternal life – HIS OWN LIFE. Not just a shiny new life that is a "cleaned up" version of the same one we had before. We have been given a new species of life. The very "stuff" – power source – energy plant, if you will, that makes us alive on a spiritual level, is different. IT IS GOD'S RESURRECTION LIFE.

This is why He came to earth in Jesus – for Him to share our life so that it would then be swallowed up in His own. Then all who followed and who looked at Him and received what He came to give would share HIS LIFE.

That is God's purpose in this thing we call Christianity – to draw us into the life that He created for us from the start. That we may be alive in this eternal life of His and live it fully on the earth and forever.

All else flows from this life that we have now in Christ Jesus: our thoughts, our motives, our beliefs, our faith, our hope, our actions and reactions.

Life produces life. Let us live in the life we have been given.