Day 66: What Does it Mean to Be IN Christ?
2 Corinthians 5:17
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – Behold, what is new has come!”
“In Christ” we are new creations—people with a New Origin, a New Destiny and a New Purpose. We have passed out of Death into New Life, and this New Life is shaped by all that Christ is for us.
To be “in Christ” is to be completely accepted into the life, love and power of the One True God. The Father, Son and Spirit have welcomed you in their eternal joy, glory and fellowship through your trust in Christ. As you live in line with the truth of this new position and identity, you will be able to experience more and more of the security, satisfaction and significance that only this relationship with the One True God can grant. Knowing who you are in Christ will equip you to deal with the external battles that come from the Devil at work in the World and also your battles with the Sin that still lives in your Flesh.
What Have the Father, Son and Spirit Done for Us?
For today’s reading, we are going to focus on an extended passage in Ephesians 1. In this passage, Paul simply overwhelms us with all of the blessings that have come to us because of the Father, Son and Spirit’s work for us. Read the passage then answer the following questions.
WORDwork:
Ephesians 1:1-23
From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus. 1:2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
>>We are Blessed by the Father:
1:3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. 1:4 For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we may be holy and unblemished in his sight in love. 1:5 He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will– 1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.
>>We are Redeemed by the Son
1:7 In him (In Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. 1:9 He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, 1:10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth. 1:11 In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will 1:12 so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.
>>We are Sealed by the Holy Spirit
1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)–when you believed in Christ–you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
In verse 3, to what extent has God blessed us?
Observe these verses very carefully and in your margin write down a word or a phrase that lists all the things that God has done for us in these verses.
>In verses 3-6, what has the Father done for you?
>In verses 7-12, what has the Son done for you?
>In verses 13-14, how does the Spirit work in you?
Why did God do all of this for us? (Notice verses 4, 6, 7, 12, 14)
You Are Blessed by Father in the Son through the Spirit
In the Greek text, this passage is just one very long, run together sentence. This marvelous text is just an explosion of praise to God. It is as if Paul is so overwhelmed by all that Father God has done for us as believers that he gets excited and starts talking and doesn’t know when to stop. We too should be totally overwhelmed by all that our Father has done for us in Christ through the power of the Spirit. In this study, we are going to work through all that is mentioned in the text. For now, just be overwhelmed by the “Big Picture.”
We have divided the text above into three sections that are developed around the work of the One True Triune God in our salvation. Notice the three Big Ideas in this passage:
1. We were Blessed by the Father
2 We were Redeemed by the Son
3. We were Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Paul starts this section: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God is blessed in the sense that He is worthy of our praise and thanks. When we say that God is blessed, we are saying that He is worthy to be seen as the source of all that is good, true and glorious. Notice at the end of each section Paul says, “to the praise of the/his glory.”
The reason that God should be praised and given thanks is because of His blessing us “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” When Father-God blesses us, it means something a little different:
KEY Definition: Blessing
When we are blessed by God, this means that He speaks to us and enables us in a way that equips us to accomplish the purposes for which He has created us.
God has blessed us – He has given us every good thing that we need for our journey here on Earth toward our home with Christ in Heaven. Christ has done all that is necessary so that we can be in right relationship with God. By the work of God’s Spirit, we are now equipped with everything that we need spiritually to sustain and complete our journey. There is nothing that you are lacking to complete your journey to Christ. Spiritually, you are complete. Peter states this very plainly:
2 Peter 1:3
… His divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich personal knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.
We are loved by God with a love that is beyond our comprehension; we should be people who are characterized by that same amazing love. We have been forgiven by God in Christ; this calls us to be people who forgive. We have received God’s mercy and grace in Christ; we should be people who are characterized by mercy and grace. The blessings that God has given us in Christ are all blessings that shape who we are and what we do.
All of the blessings that we are going to discuss in this study are what some refer to as “birthright blessings.” All of these blessings came to us the very minute, the very second that we became aware of God’s work in our life and in hope placed our final and ultimate confidence and trust (faith) in Him. There will be times when you are depressed, frustrated, and beat down by the circumstances of your earthly journey. When those times come, that is when you should set your mind on all the things that God has given you in Christ – all the things that we will explore in this study. Rediscovering “every spiritual blessing in Christ” that you have either ignored or overlooked or forgotten will remind you that you now possess all you need to make each day an adventure instead of an ordeal.
As you discover all of the blessings that you have in Christ, you should start to commit some of these verses to mind and remind yourself, “In Christ I am redeemed.” “In Christ I am forgiven.” “In Christ I am alive”… As we learn to see ourselves as our Heavenly Father sees us, we become the people that He desires for us to be.
*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.
