“In Christ” Remix

A couple of posts ago I shared an extended quote from T.D. Bernard on the New Testament’s breathtaking presentation of the believer’s life “in Christ.”  I especially love the last paragraph of the citation and thought that reformatting and slightly editing Bernard’s words might be helpful to grasp the sweeping nature and significance of our union with Christ.  I’d encourage you to carefully read (or re-read) Bernard’s words and consider your position “in Christ.”

Bernard says that…

• churches are “in Christ”
• people are “in Christ”
• they are “found in Christ” and ” preserved in Christ”
• they are “saved” and “sanctified in Christ”
• they are “rooted, built up,” and “made perfect in Christ”
• their ways are “ways that be in Christ;” their conversation is “a good conversation” in Christ
• their faith, hope, love, joy–their whole life is “in Christ”
• they think, they speak, they walk “in Christ”
• they labor and suffer “in Christ“
• they sorrow and rejoice “in Christ“
• they conquer and triumph “in the Lord”
• they receive each other and love each other “in the Lord”
• the fundamental relations, the primary duties of life, have been drawn within the same circle:
  • “The man is not without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord.”
  • wives submit themselves to their husbands “in the Lord”
  • children obey their parents “in the Lord”
  • the broadest distinctions vanish in the common bond of this all-embracing relation:
    • “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ; there is neither Greek nor Jew, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; they are all one in Christ Jesus.”
• the influence of it extends over all of our activities:
  • men “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”
  • the truth which they hold is “the truth as it is in Jesus”
  • the will by which they guide themselves is “the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning them”
• this character of existence is not changed by that which changes everything else (death):
  • those who have entered on it depart, but they “die in the Lord”
  • they “sleep in Jesus”
  • they are “the dead in Christ”
• “when he shall appear,” they will appear; and when he comes, “God shall bring them with him,” and they shall “reign in life by one — Jesus Christ.”

With good reason Bernard tries to press upon us the staggering significance of the truth of our position in Christ:

“[Believers] are not merely professors of his name, learners of his doctrine, followers of his example, sharers in his gifts…. They are not merely men ransomed by his death, or destined for his glory.  These are all external kinds of connection[s]…. But it is assumed in the Epistles, that believers in Jesus are no longer living a life that is only external, and, as it were, parallel to his life. They are in Christ Jesus, and he also is in them…. Believers are in Christ, so as to be partakers in all that he does, and has, and is. They died with him, and rose with him, and live with him, and in him are seated in heavenly places.”

Why does this matter for me? Because…

“When the eye of God looks on them they are found in Christ, and there is no condemnation to those that are in him, and they are righteous in his righteousness, and loved with the love which rests on him, and are sons of God in his sonship, and heirs with him of his inheritance, and are soon to be glorified with him in his glory. And this standing which they have in Christ, and the present and future portion which it secures, are contemplated in eternal counsels, and predestined before the foundation of the world.”

Great material for meditation!  I think I’ll copy the bullet list above into my journal for continued, repeated reflection.