...united in Christ...

"For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” Romans 6:5.

For decades I have lived my life trying to help people at the time of death to try to reflect on the meaning of life and death.  The text above has been a key to this.  The Apostle Paul writes so much about death and dying and salvation.   Christians throughout the world have quoted this text below at funerals and graveside services.   But what does it mean to be “united with Christ in a death like His?”   Surely it cannot mean that I will be united with Christ when I die from crucifixion.  For me, to be united with Christ in a death like His means that I must unite my life and death to The Lord by giving The Lord my heart of obedience to the will of God.   That my will and desire in life is that of Almighty God!   In Luke 22:42 Jesus is praying to His Father in the Mount of Olives when He prays: “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.”   For me this is the kind of death God is calling us to do — to die united to God in His will for the kind of death He wishes for me — to die wanting the will of God to be done in my death.  For then will I be united in a resurrection like His.  Life and death is all about living and dying yearning to do the will of God.     

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Dear Lord, may we be obedient to Your holy will during the years You give us to live this side of the grave.   May Your will be done in our life and in our death — just as Your will is done in heaven.  Help us all to be humble, for to be humble is to be obedient to Your will — not our own will.    Let us embrace our death in obedience to You.   Through Christ, our Lord, Amen.