Romans 6:8 (KJV 1900): 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
Even as the death of the believer to sin is an established fact, so also is the believers’ identification with the living Christ a settled reality. It is an assurance of ultimate resurrection but it is also as promise of a new life today, spiritual victory in the present.
The resurrection life of Christ is as powerful in its effects upon the spiritual life as is his death. The death of Christ reversed the curse of Adam, replacing spiritual death with spiritual life [by regeneration], rescuing us from the penalty of sin [by expiation], removing our servitude to sin [by redemption], rectifying our position in Adam [by imputation] and restoring peace with God [by reconciliation].
The resurrection of Christ is the basis of the new life of the one who believes. The Holy Spirit accomplishes our liberation from Adam by identifying the us with the death of Jesus. In the same way, the Spirit of God introduces us to an entirely new sphere of existence by identifying us with the resurrection life of Jesus.
The believers’ divorce from Adam and his posterity becomes the basis for the application of incredible spiritual assets making possible this new quality of life for the Christian. Having established this foundation, the Holy Spirit builds upon it a superstructure of enabling powers that create the potential for age changing, history altering impact by the believer. These are sealing, empowering, gifting, and, most importantly, the baptism of the Spirit by which the believer is made a part of the spiritual Body of Christ, the Church.
There is no work of God in man in history that is comparable to what God did in creating the Church.
God has empowered many believers in history, He has given others insight and understanding. Still others he has blessed with material things in this life. God has also provided all believers with eternal life. However, he has made no one a part of himself, no one has ever been united to him in the sense that husband and wife are one, in the way that a Head and body are one, except the Church. The Body of Christ takes the real identification of the believer with the risen Christ to an unimaginable degree of realization. It elevates the believer in spiritual privilege [on the basis of grace alone] through this spiritual union and in so doing provides unlimited spiritual potential to glorify God by spiritual achievement on earth and in heaven.
The resurrection of Christ is the basis of the believers earthly spiritual function. The spiritual potential created for the Church is exploited by the believers manufacture of spiritual capacity by abiding in Christ, which is how spiritual maturity is achieved. It is in spiritual maturity that the believer consistently utilizes God’s limitless power to realize spiritual victory in sanctification and in ministry to advance the Plan of God and glorify Him.
This would be enough, but the newness of life that is the reality of every believer also produces a new and extraordinary quality of life to be enjoyed by the Church age believer. Forgiveness, freedom from sin, fellowship with God and unlimited spiritual power, once understood and tasted, produce this quality of life.
Romans 6:8 (KJV 1900): 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
A Richer Walk 