View 1:
I was dead and buried. The old man is dead and now I walk in a new life. It is a life of following Christ. I am happy in this new life. But the old man I was does not want to stay dead long. I want him to stay dead, but he is a zombie. I have to keep putting him to death.
Some people don’t believe in zombies. They think that once a person is dead, he is dead. Once the old man has been buried (although many don’t believe in burial) he cannot come back. After all, Paul says in Romans 6 that the newly living don’t act like dead men.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Rom 6:3-6)
This is the same Paul, though, that describes, in chapter 7, his struggles with the old man. That old man keeps wanting to come back. That is the same Paul that says, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” (1 Cor 9:27, NIV)
The old, buried man wants to come back to life. After all, I inhabit his body. This flesh in which I live belongs to him. He holds a lien on this house, and wants to evict me. The old landlord does not like the new tenant.
We must always be on guard against zombies. Most particularly, I should be on guard against the zombie that is me. I have to keep him dead until the apocalypse.
View 2:
I was dead. Now I am undead.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members [as] instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Rom 6:11-13)
It is now my obligation, my calling, to make others undead, too. My goal is the zombie apocalypse, when all those who think they are living become undead, like me. They say the zombie apocalypse will come when zombies reach a critical mass. The zombies that now are make more, who make more. Eventually the “undead” will outnumber the “living” and everything will fall apart. But isn’t that our goal?
It all started with one. “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1 Cor 15:20) Then a few thousand. And more, and more.
As one of the undead, it is my moral obligation to bring more into the status of undead. “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Rom 8:12-13) Paul felt that debt. “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” (Rom 1:14-15) What self-respecting zombie does not feel that obligation?