Identified with Christ

“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus...” (Ephesians 2:4–6)

Notice the word together, which occurs three times in succession. These are three experiences that we share with Jesus. First, we are made alive; second, we are raised up (or resurrected); and third, we are made to sit together in heavenly places, enthroned with Him.

Jesus identified Himself with us in our sin and paid the penalty for our sin by His death. After that, however, in all His subsequent experiences—burial, resurrection, and ascension—we are, by faith, identified with Jesus.

Furthermore, the New Testament makes it clear and very specific that the outward act of our identification with Jesus is baptism. This is stated in Colossians 2:12:

“You were buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.”

So, first and foremost, we are identified with Jesus in His burial by baptism, but, being identified with Him in His burial, we are also identified with Him in His resurrection:

“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4)

The principle is that when we believe and are baptised, then we are identified with Jesus in burial. Being identified with Him in burial, we then go through—with Him—every subsequent experience. We are made alive. We are resurrected. And we are enthroned. Notice how much significance this adds to the ordinance of baptism.