Union with Christ

A few years ago there is a report in the UK of a man called John Darwin
- He drowned tragically in a canoe accident in 2002
- Last December he was discovered living in Panama with his wife
- Now in prison in England, being charged with numerous charges of fraud
Dying is a very convenient was of getting out of all kinds of problems
- Any prosecution against you will immediately be dropped
- your debts get wiped out
- your police record and driving record are wiped clean
- you can no longer be called up for military service or any other kind of duty
- no laws of the land even apply to you any more!
Now being dead might not sound so good to you, but if you were immediately re-incarnated
- as citizen of another country
- maybe the heir of several billion dollars
- that could solve a lot of problems, couldn’t it!
(Actually the Bible does teach re-incarnation—only one time, but more of that in a minute)

The Torrey Canyon

The Torrey Canyon disaster and rescue

Ex of helicopter rescue from ship off Cornwall
- moment is when man is joined to rope.
- bury—raised
  - death—life
  - “Together with him” Paul has actually coined new words here
- when someone was crucified, they would nail a list of their crimes to the cross
  - Our crimes were nailed to Jesus’s cross
  - Not transferred to him, as a separate entity
    - but he put his arms around us and said “let’s do this together” and then he did it all
The core message of the gospel is union with Christ
- Once I used to teach the Gospel in terms of scales
- I once made a pair of scales to teach this to children
- In one side goes our sin (heavy stone) and the other goes our good works (no substance)
  - Then we take the righteousness of Jesus and it balances it out
However much truth there is in this image, it is not how Paul presents the Gospel
- Not a cold, legal transaction with scales,
- but union with a living person

Our destinies are inseparably connected
- Not to the sinking tanker but to the helicopter
- we are totally secure
Something old within us has died
- and has been raised as something new