The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him.
2 Timothy 2:11 (ESV)
To live with Christ has at least two meanings. 1. We are alive with Christ now. 2. We will live with Christ forever. The apostle Paul addressed both of these realities when he wrote, For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. (1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 ESV)
We were born into this world spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). We were without God, in fact we were hostile (Romans 8:7) enemies (Romans 5:10) toward God and were by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). There was no good in us. God was in none our thoughts—we could not seek God nor could we understand God (Romans 3:10-12). Our only hope for salvation had to have come from a source outside of us. That source was God’s grace.
God, by his grace, sent the Holy Spirit to change our natures and by so doing caused us to be born again (1 Peter 1:3). When we were born again we were made alive and given the ability to believe in Christ by faith and were converted (Ephesians 2:5). Jesus promised that this new birth would lead to eternal life and that nothing could remove us from the hand of his Father (John 10:29).
The promise of eternal life to all who believe on Jesus screams from the pages of John’s gospel. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:14-16 ESV) Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36 ESV) For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. (John 6:40 ESV) Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. (John 6:47 ESV)
Our hope of eternal life in seated in the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. Being raised from the dead, death no longer has dominion of him (Romans 6:9). When we believed on him we became partakers of his life (John 6:57-58; Romans 8:11). Jesus said this about himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” (John 11:25 ESV)
Not only do we have the promise that our spirits will live forever, but we have the promise that our earthly bodies will be raised from the grave and changed to a spiritual body in the likeness of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:42-55; 1 John 3:2). For all those who believe in Christ, death is just another phase of life; a much better life that never ends (Revelation 21:4).
Are you alive in Christ? Will you live forever with him?
Scriptures for meditation:
1 Corinthians 6:14
2 Corinthians 4:14
Colossians 1:21