My devotions on being “One with Christ”, a central pillar of the gospel of GOD and of His Christ, brought me to Dr Greg Beale’s Union with the Resurrected Christ (Baker Academic, 2023), page 451.

Beale’s exegesis is worth quoting in full.

“This is what I mean by “definitive sanctification,” (emphasis mine) which is a definitive and irreversible separation of the believer from the old world. He continues, “The point is that once the old man has been stripped off, the sins that characterize the old man also begin to be laid aside.”

The key paragraph:

“On the basis that the believers are a “new man”, thus breaking the determinative power of sin from the old world, they are given commands. the “indicative” of the new creation must precede the “imperative” to act as a new creation. Without the power of the new creation, there is no ability to obey GOD and please Him. The believer’s “ethical conduct flows out of the indicative reality of their new identity, and thus Paul exhorts the Colossians to act in accord with the new man that they have donned as a garment” (Beale quoting Christopher A Beetham’s book, Echoes of Scripture, and you can read a condensed version of Beetham’s doctoral work under Beale here.)

This paragraph was enough for me to give some really serious and deep thoughts to this glorious reality of our union with Christ. My identity with Christ has taken central dominance in my conscious and subconscious life. I cannot imagine how I lived a “Christian” life for over forty (40) years without truly coming to grips with this “game-changer” of a doctrine. Truly the central pillar of Christianity. The truth that broke “the camel’s back” of the Roman Catholic church in the mid-Middle Ages in Europe. It was the Bavarian monk who when this revelation dawned through reading the letter to the Romans, who was not only seized by the Text, but also by the Spirit who inspired it. He in turn was inspired the rest of his life to put flesh to these glorious gospel truths.

And so my constant engagement with the truth of this amazing doctrine is, “how do I live out my union and identity with Christ” in every single instance and aspect of life? How do I live in the present reality of who I am in my faith union with the living and resurrected Christ as I embark upon my doctoral studies in education here in Malaysia? How do I live out the imperatives to love my wife as Christ loves His church on the back of the indicative that God has not given me a spirit of fear, “but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”?

How do I experience the “dying of Christ”? 2 Cor 4:10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body.“

A powerful revelation came through yesterday on this truth. I realized that the moment I am not ready to carry around in my body the “death of Jesus”, at that very moment and instance and circumstance, I am not ready to experience transformation through the Spirit.

The moment I fight to defend myself, Christ no longer can defend me with His own person. By His grace, however badly I may be misunderstood, or misperceived, or misconstrued by anyone, especially by loved ones “who should know me better“, I need to by faith, let go of defending myself, and suffer the death of Christ who Himself was misunderstood, misperceived and misconstrued by all, even by His closest disciples on the night He was betrayed.

And in the letting go of defending myself, I begin to experience the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in taking me through that experience of death (the ultimate loss!) and bringing me through the “shadow of the valley of death”, into the brightness of resurrection living with the resurrected and ascended Christ. All by His grace, all by faith, all through union with Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, as revealed by the Holy Spirit through Scriptures alone.