The mystery of the economy of the Resurrection

To continue with Gregory of Nyssa, he has an interesting analogy in his Argument against Apollinarius about the Resurrection. He suggests that if a reed were split entirely in two, and the points of one end were joined together again, the points at the other end would naturally line up as well. In this same way, the union of the body and soul that occurred in Christ at the Resurrection "brings all human nature, by its continuity, when it has been separated by death into body and soul, to their natural union by the hope of the Resurrection, effecting the concurrence of what has been separated." This is what Paul wrote of in Corinthians 15, that as we all die in Adam, so in Christ all shall live. As with the reed, from Adam's end our nature was split by sin - our body and soul being separated at death, but from Christ's end "nature assumes itself again, its division being completely united in the Resurrection of humanity according to Christ." Gregory points out that "we die with him who died for us; but since it is necessary for us to die willingly with him who willingly died, it is fitting to understand this to be the death which comes to those by free choice (baptism)." He believes that freely dying with Christ is the prerequisite for our sharing in the Resurrection. To draw this to a conclusion, Gregory again alludes to Paul - "we were buried with him by baptism into death, that by imitation of his death, the imitation of his Resurrection might also follow."
I don't know what your thoughts on baptism are (whether one must be baptized to "get to heaven" or whatever), but I believe it is helps to think about how all aspects of the spiritual life are connected and this reed analogy does that in a holistic way. Our participation in Christ in all things is essential if we intend to understand the nature of his love and dare to live with that same type of love in all we do.