where waves grow sweet

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6:4

When studying Romans 6 for my Bible study, I was trying to wrap my mind around the idea of baptism into Jesus’ death and grasp what that actually looks like. I was reminded of a blog post about metamorphosis that I read several years ago by Mitch Teemley, a favorite fellow blogger. I did a little research to verify this extraordinary truth and thought it couldn’t be a more apropos illustration for this concept.

Each fall, North American monarchs travel from their summer breeding grounds to overwintering locations up to an astonishing 3,000 miles away. Can you imagine being a caterpillar and looking at this future you have been called to, wondering how the heck you are ever going to accomplish this feat? Even the strongest, wisest, most remarkable caterpillar could never cover that distance, let alone soar above it.

This is exactly the same for our old man. We may read the Bible and see what God is calling us to be – saints in His Kingdom who live righteously and love selflessly – and feel absolutely defeated by our limitations. Maybe we think that if we try really, really hard, we might become better people than we are, but it seems like an impossibility to be the new creation He sees us as. There is no possible way that we could soar far into the sky when we have a human nature that pins us to the ground. But that is because we weren’t meant to improve our “old man” so that he can function better and aim higher. It will never be enough. The old man has to die and a new man has to be formed.

This is the very thing that happens to a caterpillar in a chrysalis. It’s not a process that causes wings to sprout from their chubby bodies. What happens is a complete death of the cells related to the caterpillar. Its tissues are digested into a soupy goo, never to be resurrected. BUT lying dormant in every caterpillar is a set of imaginal discs made up of a minute amount of cells. These dormant cells are activated upon the “death” of the caterpillar and it is from them that the butterfly forms a completely new body and nature. 

Interestingly, this last stage of development during metamorphosis, when a butterfly enters into its adult state, is called “imago.” I can’t help but think of Imago Dei, latin for the image of God in which we were created, which was dormant when we were living in our “old man” and couldn’t be fully expressed until we died through baptism in Christ and were resurrected as a new creation.

The butterfly completes this transformation within the chrysalis, just as we complete it the moment we receive Jesus as our Lord. After this process takes place, the caterpillar’s old nature is dead and gone and cannot be revived. Even if a butterfly is on the ground instead of the air, injured, or feeling (or acting) like its old caterpillar self in any other way, it is still a butterfly. There is no going back. So too is our old sin nature dead and gone. This is a fact… one we are to “reconcile” as true whether or not it looks or feels true.

It’s important to note that there is no way around this death if we want to enter into the “likeness of His resurrection” and “walk in newness of life.” If a chrysalis is torn open even one day before this process is complete, the new life of the butterfly can’t come forth. So too, we can’t enter into resurrection life without identifying with Jesus’ death through faith in his finished work on the cross where we have been crucified with Him.

But of course it doesn’t stop with the death of the caterpillar – or our sin nature, but continues on into the “likeness of His resurrection.” God didn’t just smack some angel’s wings or a halo on our old body of sin, but we received a whole new nature; one that was made to live unto righteousness and reflect the image of God. It is His nature imparted to us through His Holy Spirit. It changes our starting point – who we now are, and from there it completely changes our ability – what we can now do. 

So if you have received Jesus as your Lord, whether you feel like it or not, you are a new creation; one that was made to soar above the ground at heights and distances that once seemed impossible.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 2 Cor 5:17

p.s. If you are wondering why, if we have been so transformed, we still struggle with sin, I am going to try to cover that in another post soon.