No Longer Two
Bob Yandian
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. Romans 6:5
No Longer Two
The Greek word sumphotos is the word translated planted in the KJV and united in the NKJV. The best translation is that we have become the same plant with the Lord Jesus Christ. We were two plants and have been united as one in the planted and resurrected Lord Jesus.
This is not two being grafting together, but the process where two plants actually become one. Grafting has been used for years in uniting one limb into the trunk of another tree and two different fruits actually coming from one trunk, apples of two colors or lemons with limes. Grafting comes later in Romans 11:17-24, speaking of the Jews and Gentiles becoming part of the same Church, the Body of Christ.
The verse here in Romans 6:5 is a beautiful picture of our personal, positional truth with Jesus and His work in death, burial, resurrection, ascension and seating in heaven. According to this verse, we have actually become part of the same plant with Jesus, not just grafted in. Jesus Christ has become one with us and we have become one with Him, so much so, that there is no difference between us. No marks of joining together, but truly one plant, unified as one person. This is a fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17 where He requested that we may be one with Him and He is one with the Father, us in Him, Him in us and all one in God.
Redwood Trees
In the Redwood Forest of Northern California, the Sequoia trees are the most unique of all trees in this process of uniting. Often, two Sequoia trees can grow up close to each other and one day touch after 50 to 100 years. When the bark touches, they began to overlap each other, and one tree emerges after centuries.
Often the trees touch above the ground and begin to become one, many feet in the air. An opening between the two trees will remain through many years until one day, many centuries later, the opening closes and one large tree is the result. There have been times when many trees have merged into one and the result is one very large tree trunk and a tree reaching hundreds of feet into the air. From all outward appearances, we have one tree. Only by cutting into the tree and examining the rings can we determine this was one tree made up of two or more trees.
We Grew Out of the Root of Adam
We were by nature the children of wrath and disobedience. God did not plan on mankind being separated from Him, but dwelling with Him in eternity. In the fullness of time, Jesus came into the earth by the will of the Father to remove the sin problem.
Jesus was born of a virgin among mankind and arrived to do the Father's will. Jesus lived a sinless life to be examined by man and God. He went to the cross and judged the sin nature and all acts of sin for mankind. He then gave mankind the choice to become one with Him in His resurrection. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says God made Jesus Christ to be sin for us so we could become the righteousness of God in Christ.
Our Unity With Christ Began on the Cross
When I accepted Jesus Christ by faith as my Savior, I become one with Him in all He did to remove my sin and make me become one with him in righteousness.
On the cross we died together. When He took my sin, we were one in sin. When He was buried, I was buried with Him. When He was quickened, or made alive, I was made alive with Him. When He was resurrected from the dead, I rose with Him in newness of life. And when He sat down at the right hand of the Father, I sat down with Him to rule and reign in life over Satan, demons and circumstances.
Since we are "in Christ", in the same plant with Him, God already sees us in eternity and not in time. God sees us saved for eternity and forever one with God the Father, one with Christ and one with His family. God already sees us in heaven in a resurrection body. God already sees the flesh as eradicated since He sees us in eternity, without the nature of sin. Unity, one with Christ, will not begin in heaven, but be a glorious continuation of unity which began the moment I accepted Him as my savior.
