Do you ever wonder how far you would make it in a marathon or ultramarathon? I certainly couldn't run the whole thing, or half the thing. I could probably run a quarter of it and then would be looking for the shuttle. Maybe with the crowd urging me on, I could run a little farther. Finish it? Not a chance.
It's easy to think about faith in the same lens. We think that we'll do everything we can, and Jesus will do the rest. Maybe some people can get a little closer than others, but Jesus tops off all of us to make sure we're complete.
That's not the message of the Gospel. None of us are even close to good enough to justify ourselves before God. None of us have the power over death that God has. No, it depends on God, who joins us with Christ's burial in our baptism, and then raises us through faith. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead can and will raise us from the dead. We're foolish to believe we can get even close on our own.
This is great news -- it depends on God, who has proven to be more merciful than we can ever ask or imagine. In our baptism, we are buried with Christ (although we don't like to think about this part -- but to be raised indicates that we need to die first), and after our deaths, we are raised with Christ. What comfort, what joy, what peace can rest in our hearts when we look at death as the completion of our baptism, when we are finally and fully raised to new life in Christ.
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