Life In Christ

Like everyone else, I was always looking at Christ in me. Those verses kept coming to the forefront of my thoughts. It wasn’t until recently that I began to ponder on myself in Christ. This is the love relationship that we have with Him. He is us and we are in Him. It’s no different than Jesus relationship with Father.

John 14:⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” ⁸ Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.” ⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? ¹⁰ Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. ¹¹ Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Our life is to be a mirror to Jesus’ life. This is why in Antioch people began to call them Christians (Christ like ones) as they lived like Christ did. When you look at the verses above, Jesus’ life was the Image of God. We as sons, are to take on His Image which takes us back to Genesis 1:26 where God said “Let Us make man in Our Image.” Romans 8:29 proves this point.

Acts 11:²⁶ And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.

Romans 8:²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Many don’t realize that this is the gospel. We are being transformed back into His Image. First we are to be born again. It’s not about saying a prayer like many are led to believe which they refer to Romans 10:9. The jailer in Acts 16 asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” He was told to believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. His entire family were then baptized into the Name of the Lord Jesus. Being born again is the removal of sin from your life. This is the baptism of repentance. Now that you have repented and turned away from sin, you get to be clothed with Jesus’ righteousness. One place in the bible, it’s referred to as the armor of God. Another place it’s referred to as the armor of light. When we put on His righteousness, we are back into His Image. This is revealed by those who live by faith.

Romans 1:¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. ¹⁷ For in it (the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written: “But the righteous one will live by faith.”

Romans 13:¹⁴ But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

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

Yes Jesus is in us, but our life is in Him. This is why Jesus told His disciples and us that we must deny ourselves. by doing this we pick up our cross which is His righteousness, we put it on as a garment like armor and follow Him. It’s put on His righteousness that is the key to live in Him. Jesus gave us His righteousness as a free gift. Jeremiah mentions this twice that the Lord is our righteousness.

Matthew 16:²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

Romans 5:¹⁷ For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Jeremiah 23:⁵ “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord,
“That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;
A King shall reign and prosper,
And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
⁶ In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell safely;
Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jeremiah 33:¹⁵ ‘In those days and at that time
I will cause to grow up to David
A Branch of righteousness;
He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved,
And Jerusalem will dwell safely.
And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

Paul understood the importance of being in Christ when he spoke to the Greeks who wanted to understand this new teaching

Acts 17:²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’

Paul told this to the church in Ephesus.

Ephesians 1:⁴ 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,

Ephesians 1:⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace ⁸ which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, ⁹ having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, ¹⁰ that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 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, ¹² that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. ¹³ In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

Paul told this to the church in Colosse/

Colossians 1:¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. ¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, ²⁰ and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Colossians 2:⁶ As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. ⁸ Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ¹⁰ and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. ¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,¹² buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

I pray that this blesses you. Be blessed my friends