NOTES for Rom 6:8

According to the apostle Paul, our union with Christ happens not in life, but in death. Because what we call life is, from God's point of view, dying. And Christ, by His divine nature untouched by death, voluntarily enters our dying in order to meet us "on our territory." This utterly unimaginable self-emptying of the Son of God, "kenosis" in Greek, is an immense path traveled from God to us. But meeting also requires our movement toward Him. It happens when we take a very small step, agreeing that Christ did not die for no reason, but out of love for us and for our sake; that in our baptism we experience His death as a fact of our personal biography, radically changing the direction of our movement, because dying ends there. Having met Christ in death in this way, we are not separated from Him in resurrection either. The word here is very exact: "we believe." This is not scientific knowledge, but trust in God, hope in the saving power of His love for us.