The Whole Truth (Friday Devotional)

“Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

- Romans 6:3-5

Made like him like him we rise, alleluia!

Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, alleluia!

Every Easter, millions of Christians joyfully sing those words, the conclusion to the fourth verse of Charles Wesley’s classic hymn “Christ the Lord is Risen Today.” Those words so ably summarize the promise and the hope of the resurrection—that because Christ is risen, so too will his followers rise at the last day, transformed into the image of Christ and united with God. On Easter, with songs like these, we rightly claim the resurrection as our story, not only as a past event for one man but as a sign of what will come for all who abide with him. “Ours the [empty] grave, ours the skies, alleluia!”

But in gleefully claiming the hope of the resurrection, there is a danger of clinging to the promised joy of the future and neglecting the promised responsibility of the present. Ours is the empty tomb and the glory of the heavens, the resurrection and the ascension—but ours is also the cross.

In Romans 6, Paul speaks of the newness of life that Christ brings to every believer, saying we are “united with him in a resurrection like his.” But first we must be “united with him in a death like his,”; we must be “buried with him by baptism into death.” Being imitators of Christ means identifying not only with his glory, but his humility; it means not only standing beside him in victory, but recognizing and emulating how that victory was won. When you walk with Christ, you are marching to victory, but before you claim your glittering crown you should expect to first bear a crown of thorns.

The call of every believer is to be an imitator of Christ, to claim his story as your own—but it does you a disservice to only claim the happy ending without the beauty of what came before. Without Good Friday there would be no Easter Sunday, and just so, without being united with Christ in death you cannot be united with him in resurrection. So may your life be equally marked by the joy of the empty tomb and the sacrifice of the cross, by the freedom of salvation and the weight of its cost—so that when people see you, they may see the fullness of Christ in you.