It is revealing that the writers of Scripture, even Jesus himself, resort to word pictures, similes, and metaphors to capture the mystery of union with Christ. The number of metaphors employed tells us that this is important; the variety of metaphors tells us that it is far reaching. But the fact that similes and metaphors—the language of poetry—must be used at all tells us there is no way to get at this truth directly. Images are necessary. Your imagination must be engaged for you to lay hold of your new life in Christ.
