We Have Been Buried

Chords: C G Am F (Repeat)

(click on play button to play, or on down arrow to download)

This song was written 2-3 years ago. At that time, I had seen something of the truth setting me free, and the Word of Christ dwelling in me richly, so I decided to memorise bible verses everyday. Whenever I stumbled across a new verse that I liked, I would add it to the list of verses I wanted to memorise.

The reason for writing the song is not so spiritual: I simply opened my bible to the verse and straight away knew “I can’t memorise that, it’s too long,” so I wrote a tune to help me remember it.

The reason why the verse was on my list to be memorised, though, is deeper. Thinking back, my first real turn to the Lord was around the same time I started to read a book written by Watchman Nee, “The Overcoming Life”. The first section of this book is simply a list of all the different kinds of sin that we commit and that exist in us, not just the obvious like stealing or murder, but things I had never thought or cared about before.

Reading this book led me to a thorough confession before the Lord, which was rare in my life, and I started to see something of how horrible I was as a fallen man.

Encouragingly, the rest of the book focused mainly on the fact that we died ~2000 years ago. Since we are one with Christ, when He died, we also died with Him. I am a fallen man, but it doesn’t matter because that fallen man is not only dead but also buried with Him. When we are baptised, it is like our old man goes into the water, but does not come back out of the water, for through baptism we are buried with Christ.

However, to be left dead and buried is not such a good thing. Although our old man has been stopped and can no longer live in his corrupt way, it would be terrible if our purpose in life was simply to die. God does not want a dead people, He is a God of life, a living God, therefore He raises us from the dead. This is why we do not stay under the water when we are baptised, because we are raised from the dead, not as our old man with his corrupt life, but with a new life, with God’s life.

Raised from the dead with the life of God, we now in our daily living are walking in newness of life. This is to live out the divine pure life in us, the life that cannot sin, the life that matches God.

A common problem with many Christians is that, although our old man is on the cross, he seems to keep getting down again; although he is buried with Christ, he seems to keep walking out of the tomb to resume his old living. Although our old man has died and we have been raised with a life that cannot sin, we still find that we sin.

This is when you need real, solid facts. To merely hope that the old man is on the cross will not work. We need to realise the fact, which is that our old man has been crucified with Him. If he gets down from the cross, you need to declare to him that he is still on the cross. If he walks out of the tomb, you need to reject his presence and remind him firmly that he is still in the tomb.

To change our hopes into knowledge of the facts, we need the Word of God. We may say to our old man “you are supposed to be crucified”, and he may reply “says who? I am sinning through you, doesn’t that clearly show I am not crucified?”. Without the Word, you have no proof, no evidence, and you will lose your arguments. Your word against the old man is not so strong, but God’s Word is very powerful.

This verse is one of the many facts proving that the old man is dead. Pray this verse, sing it, receive it until the fact becomes real to you. Then you can live the overcoming life.

Romans 6:4 – We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.
(30/4/11 edit by 0ptl: added soundcloud stream, added verse)