For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his,
we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.
The seed of our fully union with the resurrected life of Jesus is planted in our baptism, where we "were indeed buried with him". But the reality of dying to the old self is something we have to work out in our lives over time. Our "old self was crucified with him" but it still rears its head in our lives, even as baptized believers. There are some cases where believers do achieve this perfect conformity even in this life. The martyrs, by their death, perfectly embody it. And we ourselves shouldn't put it off. The sooner we can fully embrace the life of "Christ, raised from the dead" over whom "death no longer has power" the better. But the good news is that the process is inexorable unless we choose to abandon it. We cooperate with it, but it really is a divine power and a "newness of life" bursting forth in us. It is a seed that will grow eventually if we do not choke off its life.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
If we had to rely on ourselves to work out this conformity to the Paschal mystery of Jesus, if we had to die to self through the resources of the self, we would have every reason to worry about the outcome. But this is not our situation. Our situation is that Jesus himself is working to complete the good work that he began in us (see Philippians 1:6). The ways in which our own lives must be conformed to Christ are multifaceted and complex, but in Christ we can have a simple confident trust. We don't need to map out all the complexities of our paths if we place our trust in him.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.
If we try to carry our lives in our own hands, to ensure salvation by the efforts of mind and will, we will find it as though we are trying to carry water. We will keep slipping through our fingers. But this isn't the truth of our reality as baptized Christians. Are lives are not in our own hands. We are not the ones who have to ensure our own salvation.
The souls of the just are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.
We are called to surrender and relax into and then to rest in the hands of God. We are not called to jump into a furnace to prove ourselves as gold. It is God who proves us. He himself has mapped our lives in such a way that way can all be sacrificial offerings, not charging headlong toward sacrifice, but as offering he takes to himself. We are in his hands and his hands will make us what he wants us to be.
Those who trust in him shall understand truth,
and the faithful shall abide with him in love:
because grace and mercy are with his holy ones,
and his care is with his elect.
That we are in God's hands is the great hope of those who have died in Christ. If they were not yet perfectly conformed to Christ but died in union with him their transformation will not be aborted but rather brought to completion, even "in the twinkling of an eye" (see First Corinthians 15:52) as the all consuming fire of God (see Hebrews 12:29) destroys all that is not compatible with love and holiness, changing all of us, at least in a limited sense, into himself.
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD
for years to come.
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