How Are You IN CHRIST?

 

How are YOU in Christ?  Yes, YOU.

Whether you realize it, or not, you are in Christ.  You may not agree, but YOU are.

The question is HOW?  How are YOU in Christ?

There are two ways for humans to be in Christ — hypostatically and spiritually.

If you are human, then you are in Christ, hypostatically.

If you are a Christian, then you are in Christ, spiritually, as well as hypostatically.

In this study, we want to start our investigation into how we — you, I, the man in the street — are in Christ.

 

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When we were looking The Gospel in ‘P’s, we saw that God’s PROVISION is JESUS CHRIST, who solved the SIN problem by His death … and the DEATH problem by His resurrection.

We saw, also, that He was able to do that because He was able to die on our behalf … and on behalf of ALL humans.

What we started to do in our last session is to look at how Jesus Christ was able to die on behalf of ALL human beings, thereby making it possible for God to forgive ALL sins.

 

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How was God able to “save” us ?   

I put the word save in quotes because it’s a controversial view – still debated by some/many … even though the Bible makes it very clear that Jesus Christ is our Saviour.   Titus 2:11-13  2 Peter 1:1   1 Timothy 4:10.

 

SOME OF THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM LAST WEEK …

How did Jesus become our Saviour?

• He became our Saviour by paying for our sins.   1 John 2:2 

How did Jesus pay for our sins? 

• He paid for our sins by dying for us (dying in our stead), thereby paying the death penalty that each of us should have paid.  Romans 5:8  1 Corinthians 15:3    2 Corinthians 5:18-19 

How was Jesus able to die for us?

• He was able to die for all of us because He was Immanuel – God with us.   John 1:1-2,14   As such, He was fully God and fully Man, simultaneously … and was therefore able to be the perfect sacrifice …  Because He was fully Man, He was able to be the perfect representative.  Because He was fully God, He was able to be the perfect substitue.

How was Jesus Christ able to die for ALL of us?

• Christ was able to die for all of us because all of us were with Him when He died.  Romans 6:8  2 Timothy 2:11

How were we with Him when He died?

• We were able to be with Christ because we were IN Him.  John 14:20  Acts 17:26-28   Colossians 3:1-4    

 

SOME PASSAGES THAT SPEAK TO THE FACT THAT WE ARE IN CHRIST …

Romans 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.   

1 Corinthians 1:30 (NKJV)  But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption —

1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV) And because of him^[d] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

2 Corinthians 5:18-19   Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹ that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them ….

2 Corinthians 5:21  For He made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Ephesians 1:3-4  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, ⁴ just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, ⁵ having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, ⁶ to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Ephesians 1:7,11   In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace … 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will   

Ephesians 3:8-10  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;

Colossians 1:13-14   He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,  ¹⁴in whom we have redemptionthrough His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

1 Peter 5:14 Greet one another with a kiss of love.  Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

1 John 2:5-6 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. ⁶ He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Galatians 1:22 And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.

Philippians 1:1 Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

Philippians 4:21 Greet every saint in Christ Jesus.   The brethren who are with me greet you.

Colossians 1:2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 2:14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Judeans,

 

Passages such as this one (as well as passages such as John 14:20 and Acts 17:28) imply that all persons are in Christ … by virtue of being created in Christ … 

1 Corinthians 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.

Passages such as this one (as well as passages such as John 14:20 and Acts 17:28) imply that all persons are in Christ … by virtue of being created in Christ …

Colossians 1:15-17  He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; ¹⁶ for in^[a] him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers — all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He himself is before all things, and in^[b] him all things hold together.    

… but, then, we encounter passages such as the one below …

Romans 16:7 Greet Andronicus and Junia, my countrymen and my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

The use of the word, before, in the passage above implies that we didn’t all enter Christ at the same time … or that all humans are not in Christ in the same way … 

• ALL humans are united with Jesus Christ, hypostatically
• but only SOME humans are united with Him, spiritually.

 

1 Corinthians 1:30 (NKJV)   But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God — and righteousness and sanctification and redemption —

1 Corinthians 1:30 (ESV) And because of him^[d] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

1 Corinthians 1:30 (NLT)    God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 

Note the use of the word, “united”, with reference to our relationship with Jesus Christ.

In our next session, we will begin to look at THE THREE UNIONS OF JESUS CHRIST.