NOTES for Co2 4:14
This idea - one of the central ideas in this epistle of Apostle Paul, opens us the intention of God for our salvation. The apostle sees it more in detail as follows. In the first place, on the base of all the intention lie the Embodiment of the Son of God and the creation of the Church.
When the Son of God shared voluntarily with us our human nature and our human life, becoming so similar to us in everything, except sin, by this He gave us the possibility of being together, with Him. This "together" is something rather mysterious; God Himself speaks about it "abide in me, as the branches abide in the vine". But Apostle Paul, according to ancient manuscripts, implied a simple sense of this word, and wrote "with Jesus", instead of "by Jesus ".
Further, in God’ plan, according to Paul, people living together with Jesus, become the participants of His resurrection.
The icon of the descent into hell, on which the Lord by hands pulls out of the grave Adam and Eve speaks about it most clearly. The Bible often calls the Christ the Shepherd of people, and in the East the Shepherd goes in front of the herd, clearing it the way.
Well, strictly speaking, that’s why the Church, which does not just represent a social institute, a "religious organization" in the terms of the civil law, but the real Body of the Christ, is so significant for us. The secret of the union with Christ in the baptism gives us this wonderful hope.