The phrase “in Christ” is the key to the gospel. Paul uses the phrase “in Christ”, or a variation such as “in him”, 162 times in the New Testament and at least 35 times just in Ephesians. Peter and John use it another 20 or so times. We can’t really understand and make the gospel our own until we grasp the meaning of this phrase. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest aspects of the gospel for us to wrap our minds around.
Christ is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means “the anointed one” or “the chosen one”. In Old Testament times, prophets, priests, and kings were anointed with oil when they were set apart for their position. The anointing was a sign that God had chosen them for the work he had given them.
In English, we use the word “in” primarily to designate location. But in Greek, the word translated “in” has a wider variety of meanings. It could be used to mean “by means of”, “because of”, “through”, “with”, or “belongs to”.
The core of this concept is Paul’s statement that we are all born “in Adam”, but we can be spiritually reborn “in Christ”. We are all descendants of Adam, so we automatically inherit Adam’s nature at birth. When we are ”in Christ”, God treats us exactly like he treats Jesus, as sons and daughters. It all hinges on who we are “in Adam” compared to who we can become “in Christ”. Paul explains this:
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22 NIV
Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life.
1 Corinthians 15:22 NLT
So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
1 Corinthians 15:45-49 NIV
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
… Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:15, 18-19 NLT
When we are reborn spiritually, Paul tells us we become new creations “in Christ”.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
In some places “in Christ” is translated as “united with Christ”. That may help us think about it in another sense. Christ has become our representative, and his life and ours are now tied together, united.
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.
1 Corinthians 1:30 NLT
Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Philippians 2:1-2 NIV
So, we’re all born into Adam’s family, and in the process we inherit our sinful nature. When we’re born again, it’s into Christ’s family, and in that process we inherit Jesus’ nature, and we begin to become fit for heaven and the kingdom of God.
When you read Paul’s letters with this understanding of “in Christ” in mind, they come to life in a new way. When Paul uses the phrase “in Christ”, he is often explaining what God has done from the perspective of God’s own eternal plan and purpose.
“In Christ”, what is true of Christ is true for us
The most remarkable thing about being “in Christ” is Paul’s assurance that, in God’s sight, what is true for Christ is true for everyone who follows him in faith. This is the key to understanding large parts of the New Testament, especially Paul’s letters. N.T. Wright has written about this in a number of his books. In his commentary on Colossians he says:
“For Paul, part of the meaning of Jesus’ messiahship is that the Messiah represents all his people, so that what is true of him becomes true of them. This is what he has in mind when he talks about people being ‘in’ the Messiah, ‘in’ the king.
… because he was and is Israel’s Messiah, when he died and rose his people died and rose with him.”
Wright, N. T.. Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon (p. 158).
In Galatians 2, Paul was addressing faith versus works, and he tied his argument to belonging to Messiah, or Christ.
“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Galatians 2:19-21 NIV
N.T. Wright explains these verses in Paul for Everyone:
“Paul focuses his answer on the most basic point of all. God’s true Israel consists of one person: the Messiah. He is the faithful one. He is the true Israelite. This is the foundation of identity within God’s people. The question then becomes: who belongs to the Messiah? How is that identity expressed? Paul answers this with one of his most famous beliefs, which remains difficult for modern Western minds to come to terms with. Those who belong to the Messiah are in the Messiah, so that what is true of him is true of them. The roots of this idea are in the Jewish beliefs about the king. The king represents his people (think of David fighting Goliath, representing Israel against the Philistines); what is true of him is true of them.”
Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians (p. 24-25).
Wright also discusses this in his commentary on Romans:
“So where does that leave us? In a kind of no man’s land, half way between Adam and the Messiah, neither dead nor alive? No. Paul insists that we are now ‘in the Messiah’, so that what is true of him is true of us, however unlikely it sounds and however much it doesn’t yet feel true. And what is true of the Messiah, ever since the glory of Easter day, is that he is alive again with a life death cannot touch.”
Wright, N.T.. Paul for Everyone, Romans Part One: Chapters 1-8 (p. 101)
Paul often assumes that his readers already understand that for those who are “in Christ”, what is true for him is true for us. Romans 6 expands on the idea. This is the source for the phrase many pastors use at baptisms: “Buried with Christ; Raised with him to new life.”
Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Romans 6:3-5 NIV
Another good explanation of “in Christ” from a slightly different perspective is found in Jesus and the Undoing of Adam, by C. Baxter Kruger:
“The deepest joy in the New Testament lies precisely in the fact that it sees that in this one man, Jesus Christ, God was dealing not just with Adam or with a general Adamic existence, but with the whole human race. The New Testament does not leave us contemplating Jesus Christ from a distance. It leaves us seeing ourselves crucified with Christ, and raised up with him, and seated with him at the Father’s right hand. The apostle Paul sums it up in the simplest and most stunning statement in 2 Corinthians 5:14. Paul tells us that he reached a conclusion that changed both his own life and the way he saw history and every human being within it. The conclusion was that “…one died for all, therefore all died…” It was Jesus Christ alone who died and who rose again, but Paul sees clearly that the whole human race was bound up in what happened to Jesus Christ.”
“Paul does not explain how this could be; he is just thrilled and awed that it is. He sees that in this one man, God gathered the whole human race together.
… The foundational truth that makes the gospel good news to us, without which there is no good news at all, is the connection, the objective union between Jesus Christ and the human race. That connection means that one died for all; therefore, all died. That objective union means that the death of Christ was our death.”
C. Baxter Kruger, Jesus and the Undoing of Adam
(Kindle location 550 of 1139)
Later, Kruger applies this to the things that matter most:
“The miraculous and wonderful truth is that we were included in his baptism, in his life and death, in his resurrection and ascension. When he died, we died. When he rose, we rose. When he ascended to the Father, he took the whole human race with him to the right hand of God the Father almighty – inside the circle of all circles, into the very life of the Triune God.”
(Kindle location 877 of 1139)
Greg Boyd states the same truth a little differently:
“We are allowed by God’s grace to share in the cosmic victory Christ has accomplished through the cross. There is quite literally a new King on the throne. And all who will simply acknowledge this kingship have a share in his gracious kingdom, and even in his powerful authority over opposing forces.”
Boyd, Gregory A.. God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict (p. 252).
In other words, by grace, God invites us to share in Jesus’ victory over Satan and sin on the cross.
The Bible gives other examples of one man representing an entire nation or an entire race. We looked at The story of David and Goliath in Living Parables of Redemption. If David had been defeated by Goliath, their entire nation would have gone into slavery. Everyone’s fate was invested in and tied to the fate of their anointed champion.
Adam, representing the entire human race, was defeated by Satan in the Garden and his failure affected all of us. But now, the human race is represented by Jesus Christ incarnate, our Creator and the Sustainer of everything.
But for us, There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.
1 Corinthians 8:6 NLT
God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
Acts 17:27-28 NIV
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:16-17 NIV
Jesus didn’t leave us behind in the grave. The Bible tells us that when Jesus rose, we rose with him, born again into new life and a living hope.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you,
1 Peter 1:3-4 NIV
Our “Election” is an Election “in Christ”, For it Is Jesus Who is the Way to God
The terms “elect” and “election” are only used a few times in the NIV New Testament. Unpacking those verses helps clarify what is meant by “in Christ” from another perspective. To elect means to make a choice. Wherever the NIV uses the term elect, or election, the NLT translates it “God’s chosen ones”, or “those God has chosen”.
Before he created the world, God made choices that were determined by his intentions. We can think of these as the principles or guidelines for creation.
1. First, he chose to be our God, and for us to be his people. This is one of the most repeated phrases in the Old Testament, and forms the core of the new covenant.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33
2. Second, God chose his son Jesus to become the one chosen man who would act in our place as the one true elected human. Through history, God chose specific people or nations to accomplish his will in specific ways. But in Isaiah 42, God tells us he has chosen one man only, a chosen messiah, to represent humanity in the most significant role there is: to lead us out of Satan’s kingdom of darkness into God’s kingdom of light.
“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.
Isaiah 42:1 NIV
The next verses make it clear that Isaiah is talking about Jesus. God’s chosen one will be a “light to the nations”, will “open the eyes of the blind”, “free the captives from prison”, and “bring salvation to the ends of the earth”.
So God chose, or elected, one man, Jesus, to be humanity’s representative and champion. If we are to be chosen, we must be chosen “in Christ”. Our personal election is election in Jesus. Jesus Christ is the elected man. His people are elected in him, and in no other way.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will,
Ephesians 1:11 NIV
This concept of being chosen “in Christ” is foundational. Jesus may have had that pattern in mind when he said:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6 NIV
And a few verses later:
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14:20 NIV
Jesus is the only way for us to reach God, the source of truth and life.
To summarize, our “election” is an election “in Christ”, because it is Jesus who guides us to God the Father and the kingdom of God. Even before he had physically created the world, God chose to be our God and for his son Jesus to be the representative head of his people, and God built the world to comply with that foundational idea.
Belonging to Christ
Being in Christ is vitally important. So how do we come to be counted among those “in Christ”? The price of admission is faith. Those who are found “in Christ” are there because of their faith. Here is one of many examples:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 1:1 NIV
The New Testament writers all assure us, many times and in many ways, that no one can be accepted by keeping God’s law. Nobody can work their way “into Christ”. Getting right with God begins with believing him, in other words, through faith in Jesus.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit …
Ephesians 1:13 NIV
In each of the pictures of redemption we’ve already studied, redemption was a gift; those who were redeemed didn’t play an active role in the process. Consider:
Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah
God provided the sacrifice; the ram died, but Isaac lived.
Passover
God changed Pharoah’s heart; the Israelite slaves couldn’t.
Kinsman Redeemer
The redeemer paid the price; the redeemed couldn’t.
The Deadly Serpents in the Desert
God healed the people; they only needed to believe to be healed.
Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement
The scapegoat carried their sins into the wilderness; the people watched.
David and Goliath
David provided the victory; the Israelites watched (and cheered).
Hosea and Gomer
Gomer continued to wander; Hosea repeatedly redeemed her.
Accepting redemption as a gift is probably the most difficult aspect of the gospel for anyone to accept because it just doesn’t seem “fair”. The lack of a penalty doesn’t seem to fit the crime. How can faith be enough? How can forgiveness be so easily attainable? How can something as valuable as eternal life be practically free to believers? In our humanity, we would often rather justify ourselves than accept justification as a gift of God’s grace.
Yet over and over, the Bible tells us that belief and faith are the only way to God.
For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.
Galatians 3:26
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV
The Bible assures us that we can be adopted into God’s family, along with every blessing that brings, simply because we heard the truth and responded with faith. Perhaps part of our difficulty is that we underestimate the reality and the power of faith. We can’t leave this topic until we arrive at a better understanding of what the Bible means by “faith” and by “believing God”. What is true about the faith that holds us securely “in Christ”?
Faith may be intangible, but it isn’t nothing and it isn’t powerless. Jesus told us that even faith the size of a mustard seed could make mountains move. The Bible gives us a clear definition for faith in Hebrews.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1 NIV
Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.
Hebrews 11:1 NLT
So faith involves our own confidence and assurance in the reality of the God of the Bible and his son, Jesus. The objects of our faith are God’s promises and Jesus’ faithfulness. Based on that, we can start with a working definition of faith and see where it takes us. Consider this working definition:
Faith is the positive response of our heart to Jesus’ faithfulness and God’s grace.
Genuine faith is more than just intellectual agreement; it also involves the emotional response of our heart. And that response leads to fellowship with God. God enters into covenants with us, but never into contracts. So if your faith resembles a contract for fire insurance more than a marriage covenant, that would only be intellectual agreement, not genuine faith.
But intellectual agreement has a part to play in faith. Nothing in our definitions implies that faith is blind faith, or wishful thinking. Faith for Christians has to be informed faith, based on truth and aligned with reality. So genuine faith embarks on a life-long search for truth. And since our faith is rooted in Jesus, the best source for truth is the Bible.
Faith isn’t a final goal. The purpose of faith is to let us see that God and Jesus are redeeming creation, then to follow Jesus and share in the benefits of the new age and new covenant through mature Christian living “in Jesus”. Genuine faith will be seen in our everyday life:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
James 1:22 NIV
James is saying that God expects more of us than simply saying, “OK, I believe.” He was warning that if our actions don’t reflect what we say we believe, we’re fooling ourselves about having faith.
Jesus said something similar in the Sermon on the Mount:
By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Matthew 7:16-17 NIV
And John puts it even more strongly:
Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
1 John 2:4-6 NIV
Paul placed a high value on how believers should live our lives.
So, while it initially seems like faith is weak and insufficient as the ticket for admission into eternal life, we actually find that genuine faith calls us to become Jesus’ disciples, and that demands a complete overhaul of our life.
When Jesus called his disciples, his words were, “Come, follow me”. It was an invitation to become his apprentice. And just as Jesus’ disciples lived with Jesus, learned from Jesus, and became like Jesus, we’re called to do the same.
It isn’t just a one-time decision to accept what Christ has done that makes us Christian believers. We are believers “in Christ” because we have a relationship with Christ. Unless we nourish our faith through discipleship, learning from Jesus and becoming like Jesus, our faith won’t grow. It may even die.
Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, he gave his followers the great commission:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Matthew 28:16-20 NIV
Discipleship is the key to being “in Christ”.