We will not completely be "alive," in the scriptural sense, until our body has been made alive.

Think carefully about the above passage.

We will not be alive until Christ returns. This means we will not be eternally alive in our body, which is the way God intends for man to be.

I think the reason we have not been too concerned with the resurrection of the body is due to the poisonous influence of Gnosticism. Gnosticism teaches that salvation is in the mind and what happens to the body is not significant. This is the very opposite of the Christian salvation, which is pointed toward the redemption of the body—much more so than has been preached in the Christian Era, I believe.

We will be united with Christ in His resurrection, in an inward "firstfruits" sense now, and then fully at His return. But our union with Christ in His resurrection must be attained to, as Paul emphasized. It does not just happen because we at some point have taken "the four steps of salvation."

For we know our old self was crucified with him so the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— (Romans 6:6—NIV)

"Our old self" refers to our original, adamic personality. The "body of sin" is speaking of the sin that dwells in our adamic personality. God crucifies with Christ our first personality—all of it—in order to get at and destroy completely the body of sin that is in us. All things are to be made new in our personality and all things are to be of God.

The purpose of doing away with the body of sin in us is so we no longer will be in slavery to sin. It is at this point that those who view Paul's discussion in the sixth chapter of Romans as referring to something existing abstractly, a sovereign state of grace, leave the doctrine of the Apostle Paul. Paul is not referring to an abstract sovereign forgiveness but to release from the bondages of sin; to an actual, observable change in our behavior. Such change is absolutely necessary if we are to attain to the resurrection into eternal life.

Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:7—NIV)

When we die we automatically are freed from the Law of Moses. The Law has dominion over us only as long as we are alive in our adamic personality.

It is true also that a dead body does not sin. It does not behave in an unlawful manner.

Paul is exhorting us to count ourselves dead with Christ so we may be freed from the legal obligations of the Law of Moses. Also, since our adamic nature, our first personality, now is on the cross with Christ, having died with Him, we no longer are obligated to live in our old, sin-prone nature. It is not reasonable, not fitting that we should do so. We have no obligation to that which is crucified with Christ to live according to its desires.

To be continued.