In Christ
"Are you talking about salvation?” A 14-yr old boy recently asked me.
By faith, by the Spirit, and in Christ — I cannot escape these three themes this year. They are pressed upon my heart with great urgency.
Oh, to grasp them better, to represent them as they actually are, to do justice to the gloriously unbelievable truths, so far beyond our human ability, in the flesh, to comprehend.
“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14)
Yet, comes the promise, “We have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God…And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit…we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:12-13,16)
Therefore we press on! Looking quickly at our union with Christ.
“What do you mean by in Christ? Are you talking about salvation?” A 14-yr old boy recently asked me.
I fear such is the state of many. Though the union may be true of them, they do not understand or realize it, and thus struggle to experience the subsequent effects of being fully in Christ.
To summarize my response, “When I say ‘In Christ’ I am talking about salvation, but sometimes salvation can imply a focus on where we go when we die. In Christ implies a focus on the current reality, the right now kingdom and temple of God in our midst collectively and individually.”
A Scripture I wish I would have been able to recall in the moment, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3)
To quote from the Westminster Catechism:
66. What is that union which the elect have with Christ?
The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God’s grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.
Spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably — to the extent that Peter can say we have become “partakers of the divine nature.” An idea which some of the early church fathers pushed to the brink of orthodoxy. Namely, St. Athanasius, who, in his defense of the divinity of Christ, “On the Incarnation,” wrote, “God became man so that men might become gods.”
While some constantly feel the need to work their way into abiding with Christ, to keep themselves attached to the vine by their efforts, and others insist that the residual sin nature is far too entrenched for us to ever actually, “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” what is the proper understanding of our union with Christ?
Though I hope to cover this in more detail in the future, for now I turn to a sermon delivered by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981), titled, “Union with Christ.” I’ve pulled out key excerpts below, doing my best to transcribe them accurately:
The Spirit baptizes us into the body, and that joins us to Christ. It is a wonderful, mystical action of the Spirit. It is He who puts us into the body of Christ — baptizes us into the body of Christ.
Everything that happens to Him happens to us. Not only justified, not only forgiven, the most glorious aspect of salvation is this — that I am in Christ and Christ is in me — this union. And we must never forget to realize that.
If we are not presenting that, we are not evangelizing fully. We mustn’t evangelize by saying, ‘Come to Christ and He’ll do this, that, and the other for you. No, no, the glorious thing about salvation is I’m taken out of Adam, finished with it, dead to sin, and I am in Christ. And all the blessings that come to me come because of my union with Christ.
You can’t be a Christian without being united to Christ. It’s true of all Christians.
Something that has happened to us, something that is true of us. It’s the action of the Holy Spirit upon us. We may not be aware of it as we ought to be. If we were saved by out understanding and experience of truth, then God help many of us. Thank God we’re not saved by that. We’re saved by this tremendous action of God through the Spirit who takes us out of Adam, incorporates us, implants us into Christ. That’s the thing that saves us and it happens to all of us.
Paul is anxious that we should realize it and understand it and then draw our deductions from it. He’s not dealing with experience, but status, position — and there are only two positions. We are all either in Adam or in Christ. There is no middle position. No beginning and then you go onto something else.
We are baptized into Jesus Christ Himself, the Person. Not parts of Him or aspects, but all of Him, the whole of Him. (1 Cor. 1:30)
He cannot be divided, to take one part now and then another part later. You either take all of Him or none. We are complete in Him now, not we are going to be complete. (Col. 2:10)
We must get rid of this notion of experience, feeling. You may go on to experience these things progressively later, but it’s true of you now.
He is all of this to me NOW.
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This is certainly only scratching the surface. But in hearing this, does not your heart burn within you? Oh for a greater understanding and more realized experience of Christ in us, the hope of glory.
By faith, by the Spirit, and in Christ — may we be such a people.
In love,
Derek