Part 1 Romans 6:5

Romans 6:5 New King James Version (NKJV)

5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,

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United together 

Thayer's Definition

• born together with, of joint origin 
• connate, congenital, innate, implanted by birth or nature
• grown together, united with, growing up together
• kindred, same parent
• engrafted with, into Christ, becoming a part of His life [John 15]
• sharing vital organs and functions
• Close to the Lord Jesus.  Can you say you are close?  If. not, why?

have been means that all this took place at the cross.  In eternity past, God in His full foreknowledge saw each person who would respond positively to the message of salvation.  Based upon that, we were brought into Christ--in some mysterious way--to become engrafted in Christ at the cross.  There, while He died, our ruling sin nature's power was eternally broken, allowing us to become united with Christ--on the Cross.  From there on, we were buried with Him, and resurrected with Him and now live in. Him walking and experiencing rich communion with Him; as much as we would like, as much of Him we desire to eat and drink of.  We have full access to all of Him at any time.

But while we live on this earth, our union with Him is twofold:

1. To eradicate individual sins.  These sins, no matter how large or small they are, corrupt, destroy, blind, misguide our soul.  God's aim is expose and work with us to end certain sins in our life.  Sins mean the difference in any successes and failures.  The more sins we have removed the more complete we become and are more clearly able to see what is right and what is wrong.  Spiritual perception is something that cannot be taught as much as it is judged by the individual who walks by the Spirit of Christ.  This is why some believers who have a close walk with Christ, having accomplished much in replacing sins with righteousness, have a keen perception of what is right from Christ's standpoint, a perception even other Christians cannot see.

2.  Enjoyment.  We, being planted in Christ, a growing union begins with us expanding our choices of trust in Him in doing as He asks.  What may seem to be illogical and difficult is beneficial when we trust with our spirit, not with our soul or flesh.  

Our mind forms opinions.  Our feelings form hesitations to doing what the Spirit asks of us.  

But faith is a persuasive knowing within our spirit that we should do so.  If we disregard opinions and feelings to obey what spiritual truth says, we then discover enjoyment.  

Each time we trust and obey, we rise to a new level of enjoyment.  The experience becomes more "sense-satonal".  The spiritual senses become heightened.  Joy and each of the fruit of the Spirit grows as a result of each obedience.  So that the spiritual man becomes more enjoying of the Godhead and of more of people, especially fellow brothers and sisters.

     But there is another enjoyment.  The Godheaad [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] provided all that we need for a rich enjoyment of the walk with Them.  

Caution:  The enjoyment of the Christian life is not about more temporal blessings.  Blessings from God are first and foremost about the internal experiences of knowing the presence of God inside our soul; becoming more like Him in many ways.  So never measure your blessings by what material good comes your way.  Many a poor Christian, here are in other lands, have not the material things, but may be far richer in their spiritual lives than we.

     In Christ, there is richness of enjoyment beyond our imagination.  BUT, Christ did all this for His enjoyment as well.  It is the Father's good pleasure to be working in you says 

Philippians 2:13

for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God.

Contrary to human thinking which tends to compare God with earthly men, God does all things to us to enjoy us.  Even in the bad--that He may not have sent our way--God allows these things to show us we can trust Him.  

So wait through the ordeal and discover a higher richer blessing that elevates experience into the heavenly realm.  And moreover, the difficult choices we make out of trust, lays away richer rewards in heaven.

Together

   implying intimacy, constant closeness and constant growing experience

Likeness (3667) (noun homoioma from verb homoioo = to make like = complete identification, assimilation, not simulation) means Likeness, shape, similitude, resemblance. I

Can you look at yourself [of course, not physically], and say you resemble Christ more now than years ago?

in the likeness of His resurrection,

• coming back to life.  We were dead in spiritual experience with God.  We were dead in our soul; withered, weak, crippled by sins.  We possessed little will to do right.
• resurrection Life in us produces regeneration [rebirth, reconstruction, transformation, metamorphosis
• resurrection Life overcomes anything dead in us.  How has resurrection Life overcome anything in your life recently?
• this kind of life yielded to is called newness of life.