In the New Testament, there are some verses which clearly show us that the death of Christ comes first, followed immediately by the resurrection of Christ. According to the sequence of our experience, the first portion of verses should be Romans 6:4-5. Verse 4 says, “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into death that as Christ was raised from among the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Once a person receives the gospel and believes in the Lord, the first thing that happens to him is baptism into the Triune God (Matt. 28:19). At the same time, he is also baptized into the death of Christ (Rom. 6:3). As soon as a person believes into the Lord, he receives the life of God and enters into an organic union with the Triune God; this is the inward salvation. Following that, he still needs a declaration or an acknowledgment outwardly, which declares that through baptism, he has been put into the death of Christ, buried with Him, and is now resurrected with Him, resulting in his walking in newness of life. In this way, the lifelong course of his Christian life begins.
Hence, baptism declares that the Christian life of a believer begins with the death of Christ. This believer also needs to remain in the death of Christ. The chorus of Hymns, #481 says:
All the way to Calvary,
Where my Savior went for me,
Help me, Lord, to go with Thee,
All the way to Calvary.
“All the way to Calvary” means remaining in the death of Christ continuously and walking in such a death. This is an extremely profound principle of the Christian life. When we remain in the death of Christ and walk in it, we can enjoy the power of Christ’s resurrection within us. Hence, Romans 6:5 says that if we have grown together with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. The likeness of His death here is the baptism mentioned in the previous verse, and the likeness of His resurrection is the newness of life. In baptism, we grew together with Him in the likeness of His death. Now through His death, we have grown into His resurrection, where we walk in newness of life.
The second portion is Galatians 5:24-25, which says, “But they who are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” The cross of Christ has already crucified and terminated our old man and the self (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20); this is an accomplished fact. Our crucifying of the flesh with the passions and lusts is our application and experience of this fact. This application and experience can only be accomplished by the Spirit through His execution of Christ’s accomplished crucifixion. Through the cross, our fleshly person is crucified; by the Spirit, we who are of Christ may live. Once again, we see that it is first dying and then living.
The third portion is 2 Corinthians 4:10-12 which says, “Always bearing about in the body the putting to death of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our body. For we who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death operates in us, but life in you.” This portion again shows us that the termination of the cross eventually causes the manifestation of the resurrection life. The putting to death of Jesus destroys the natural man, the outward man, and the flesh, with the result that the inward man is given the opportunity to develop and be renewed to live out the resurrection life. Moreover, when we stay under the termination of the Lord’s death, His resurrection life will be dispensed into others through us. The dispensing of life into others is always the result of our receiving the killing of the cross.
There is another portion, Romans 8:13b, which says, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” When we cooperate with the indwelling Spirit and take the initiative to put to death the practices of the body, the Spirit will apply the effectiveness of the death of Christ to those practices and will crucify them. In this way, we will live. From this you can see that it is first dying, and then living.