"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." (Rom 6:4)

How are we going to make sense of this amazing Scripture?

Let's start by reviewing our position in Christ from the beginning of our lives, and trace our position in Him through to the Resurrection: God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world and It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus. Therefore, wherever Jesus Christ went, we went with Him. When He went to the Cross, we went with Him and died with Him there.

At first glance this is a difficult concept, but as believers who benefit from the ground-breaking scientific discoveries of the 20th and 21st centuries, we can read the Word of God in the light of existing discoveries about God's universe.

For example, there is a strong scientific argument for the Big Bang Theory, which describes the creation of all that exists in the Universe from an infinitely dense point of singularity. Relate that to Colossians 1:16 ("in Him (ie Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible") and it becomes easier to see our position in Christ from before the creation of the world.

Furthermore, when the infinite Christ incarnated Himself as Jesus Christ on Planet Earth, He was fully God as well as being fully man, and therefore He contained within Himself the fullness of Godhead - ie infinity: "God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Col 1:19)

That's how we can scientifically understand and believe that we were indeed in Jesus Christ when He walked on this Earth and when He was crucified.

We were raised with Jesus Christ - but what does that really mean?

Well when Jesus rose from the dead, the nature of His body was strikingly different. So it follows that the true nature of our born-again bodies is also very different.

Ponder the following characteristics of Jesus after His Resurrection:

• He was no longer limited to space, time or gravity; He suddenly appeared among his followers and disciples - in different parts of the region and in Jerusalem - on a number of occasions.
• He was the same Jesus, and yet not quite the same. Mary only recognised Him standing near the tomb when He spoke her name. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus only fully recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread - then "their eyes were opened".
• He was eternal - immune from death - "we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again" (Rom 6:9). We were raised just as Christ was raised - and therefore we too are immune from death and are eternal.
• Since Jesus was no longer limited by space, time and gravity He was infinite, omnipresent. We share in His Resurrection and are also heirs with Christ Jesus, so it must follow that we too are infinite and omnipresent.
• All the above tell us that Jesus was raised as pure spirit - for flesh and blood cannot be eternal and infinite. The truth is, therefore, that we too are pure spirit.

Lest we are tempted to dismiss these truths because of lack of empirical evidence, it is important to revisit modern scientific discoveries once more.

About 100 years ago, Albert Einstein proved that matter and energy are in fact the same, and that matter is simply frozen energy. Light is energy and both God the Father and Jesus are referred to on several occasions as the Light and the Light of the World.

Other scientists built upon Einstein's work, and later it was discovered that we see and experience only a tiny fraction - some 0.04% - of the world around us. The vast bulk of what is there - we cannot discern with our physical senses.

We - and everything around us - are made up of atoms. We - and everything around us - are made up of atoms. It is astounding to consider that 99.99% of an atom is empty space, and that the apparent solidity of people and objects is, in fact, an illusion.

So solidity is real - but there is a higher, parent reality that is eternally real. Scripture expresses it this way: “the world which we can see has come into being through principles which are invisible” (Heb. 11:3, Phillips).

It's clear that scientific knowledge strongly reinforces and sheds light on scriptures and spiritual truths that have, for centuries, been considered largely as metaphors.

The time has come to see that they are much more than metaphor. These truths are waiting to be fanned into flame by the faith of believers. Then, along with St Augustine, we will be able to say, "Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe."