Listen:  123.2

The book of Ephesians speaks much about us being in Christ.  In Ephesians 1:1-2, the Apostle Paul speaks of our precious position as believers being ‘in Christ’.  That says, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”  Paul writes again in Ephesians 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”  Here, he explains that we who are ‘in Christ Jesus’, who were once far from the Lord, are now brought near by the blood of Christ.  This wonderful truth shows that, with our position as being ‘in Christ’, we are just as close to the Father as Christ.

Before exercising faith in Christ Jesus, our position was being ‘in sin’, as the psalmist writes in Psalms 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”  Paul tells us that before Christ, our position was being ‘in the world’, as we read in Ephesians 2:12, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”  But now, our position through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is that we are ‘in Christ’.  That is where we are; that is who we are; that is what we are…in Christ Jesus.  That blessed position gives us the assurance of our eternal salvation in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…”  That blessed position teaches us that all believers are joined together with Christ as we read in Romans 12:5, “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”  That blessed position shows us that by taking the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior, we become brand new before God as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”  There are so many other blessings that come to us from being ‘in Christ Jesus’, and these are just a few examples.

There is also a companion truth to being ‘in Christ’, and that is ‘Christ in you’ as the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 1:25-27, “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God the Son, has made us worthy for Him to come and make His abode inside each believer.  Blessed truth, especially to the Gentiles!  For the Lord to dwell among his earthly people, the Jews, was an accepted truth.  To think that the Lord would dwell inside each believer, even the Gentiles, was an incredible revelation.  May we, as believers, all rejoice in knowing, that in these frail and weak bodies of ours, Christ dwells.  2 Corinthians 4:7 tells us, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”  This treasure is, of course, Christ dwelling in us.

So, we have the wonderful truths that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us.  We might also want to consider the power we have ‘through Christ’, as we read in Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”  (123.2)