Reign of Grace Media Ministries

IN CHRIST

by BILL PARKER

Romans 8:1 -- There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are IN CHRIST Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:30 -- But of him are ye IN CHRIST JESUS, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

Ephesians 1:3 -- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST:

The goal of God's preacher in preaching any subject is to (1) glorify God; (2) exalt Christ, (3) see sinners brought to saving faith and true repentance; and (4) to edify God's people. We cannot accomplish this goal apart from preaching the Gospel -- God's promise of eternal salvation and final glory based on the righteousness of Christ. Why? Because it is upon the basis of the righteousness Christ established for His people that God is glorified as both a just God and a Savior, that Christ Himself is exalted and given the pre-eminence as the Lord of Glory, that sinners come to faith in Him and repentance of dead works and idolatry, and that believer's are established in the grace of God and, therefore, motivated to love, worship, obedience, and perseverance in the faith. So I want to preach that which God uses to glorify Himself, exalt Christ, save His people from their sins, and that which He uses to comfort and inspire all whom He saves.

With that in mind, let's consider one of the most frequently used and most important phrases in the Bible -- IN CHRIST, or IN HIM. This phrase, or its equivalent, is used in the Bible to describe (1) the state of the saved, the justified in Christ, (2) the wealth of spiritual blessings they have in Christ, and (3) Christ as the subject and object of our faith, worship, praise, rejoicing, love, and hope. It describes, therefore, for all believers, what we are before God, what we have in Christ, and the one to whom we look and in whom we rest for all of salvation. Therefore, we can conclude that all who are IN CHRIST are saved and shall be finally glorified. All who are not IN CHRIST are lost and shall be finally damned unless they obtain salvation from God in Christ. So, what is it to be IN CHRIST? What does it mean, and what does it involve?

I. THE BELIEVER'S UNION WITH CHRIST -- It describes that blessed, inseparable union that every justified sinner has with the Lord Jesus Christ. That union is three-fold. It is a union of

(1) Representation as Christ was set up and appointed, before the foundation of the world, to be the Representative and Federal Head of all whom God chose in sovereign election. If God had not chosen some, then none would be saved because all of us by nature, if left to ourselves, would never choose God. But election must be defined and preached in light of representation, or the elect's union with Christ. God chose a multitude of fallen, guilty sinners out of Adam's race and conditioned all of their salvation on Christ. "According as he hath chosen us IN HIM before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love" (Ephesians 1:4).

(2) Imputation meaning a legal exchange. God chose a people, but the people whom He chose are sinners. God could not give them the first spiritual blessing apart from His law and justice being satisfied. Therefore, having conditioned all of their salvation upon Christ, He sent Christ into the world to become incarnate, to obey the law, to suffer on the cross unto death, and that justly, having the sins of all His people imputed, or charged to, His account. In this, Christ, as the Representative and Surety of His people, satisfied God's law and justice for them by establishing a righteousness that enables God to be both just and the justifier of the ungodly. God, in time, graciously imputes, or charges, the righteousness of Christ to the account of each and everyone of His elect. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21). God is both gracious and just to save His people and give the whole inheritance of grace based on the righteousness of Christ, their Representative.

(3) Faith as all for whom Christ established this righteousness, all to whom God imputes it, immediately by His power in the preaching of the Gospel are united to Christ by saving faith and true repentance. They all, without exception, by the power of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and conversion, come to believe this Gospel and repent of dead works and idolatry. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 5:1).

All of this is based upon the merits of Christ's obedience and death for His people. None of it is conditioned on the elect. All of it is the fruit and effect of God's grace in Christ. There are so many gracious and glorious blessings that all believers have by virtue of our union with Christ. All who are IN HIM are equally saved, justified, sanctified, holy, fit, and qualified for heaven, and equally certain for heaven's glory and the whole inheritance of grace based on His righteousness alone. None of these blessings are to be attributed to our works and efforts at obedience. They are all to be attributed to the grace of God based on the blood and the righteousness of Christ (Eph. 1:3; Rom. 8:1,32; 1 Cor. 1:30).

II. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF BEING IN CHRIST?

A. First, let's consider some misconceptions people hold --

1. Some say that being in Christ means that God treats us "just as if we had never sinned." Many define justification this way. But we need to consider some things. Many times we use statements that sound right, but when we think about them in light of God's truth, they will not stand the test. Also, many times implications some derive from statements such as this can leave the wrong impression and be totally out of line with God's truth. For example, such a statement can imply that the matter of justification and remission of sin is not real as if God is not dealing with us justified sinners. It is as if one is saying that God is imagining something that is not true by denying the fact of sin. Those who make such a statement would deny that they are saying such things or that they mean to promote such implications, but we need to consider that we are preaching to people, and we need to make sure we are consistent with God's Word. Even though in Christ, by virtue of our oneness with Him, we are totally dead to sin (free from the guilt, defilement, dominion, and condemning power of sin), we cannot deny the fact of sin. The fact of sin will be forever. For one thing, all justified persons living now are still plagued with the presence, influence, and power of remaining sin. We will one day be totally free from this, but even then we will always praise Christ as the one who redeemed us from our sins. Our song in heaven will be "worthy is the lamb that was slain" -- slain for our sins. In glory we will forever be aware that we were redeemed from our sins by the blood of Christ and eternally justified based on His righteousness alone. In glory we will all praise God as the God of redemption, the God who justified the ungodly IN and BY CHRIST!

2. Some say that to be in Christ means that when God looks at us, He does not see us, He sees Christ. Let's consider this:

(a) God knows and sees all. He is omniscient. Consider the following --

Hebrew 4:12 -- For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. {13} Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

1 Samuel 16:7 -- But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Psalm 139:23 -- Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: {24} And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

(b) God sees when we sin against Him, and He sees when we obey Him. As John Owen wrote, we need to be careful that while maintaining the lack of merit in a believer's best works that we forget how God is well-pleased with our good works and displeased with our disobedience. The good works of a justified sinner are well-pleasing unto God, not because of any merit in them, not because they meet the requirement of holiness, and not because these works sanctify us or make us holy. God is pleased with them as they are the fruit and effect of His power and grace through Christ as they are performed by a justified sinner, and as they are motivated by faith in Him and gratitude to Him -- the certainty of eternal salvation and final glory based on the righteousness of Christ. Consider the following --

Hebrews 13:20 -- Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, {21} Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing IN HIS SIGHT, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1 John 3:22 -- And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing IN HIS SIGHT.

On the other hand, a believer's disobedience displeases God, not in the sense that it incurs His wrath or brings the believer under condemnation or any legal punishment. Our sins (past, present, and future) are completely pardoned and forgiven based on the blood of Christ. Our disobedience is displeasing to our Heavenly Father in that it is contrary to His revealed will and inconsistent with the great salvation with which He has blessed us. Consider when David sinned with Bathsheba. God saw what David did, and He was displeased --

2 Samuel 11:27 -- And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.

When Nathan the prophet confronted David concerning this sin, he said, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil IN HIS SIGHT? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon" (2 Sam. 12:9).

The repentance David experienced, as recorded in Psalm 51, came as the result of realizing that God had forgiven him of his sins based on the righteousness of David's Representative and Substitute, the promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Sam. 12:13; Ps. 32:1-2; 130:3-4). David suffered temporal consequences and punishments because he displeased the Lord and gave the enemies of God an occasion to blaspheme (2 Sam. 12:14), but David was a justified sinner. We who are saved by His grace are to seek to be obedient in all areas of God's revealed will. We are to seek to walk worthy of our calling, and our calling is of grace in Christ. Any obedience, no matter how sincere and genuine, that is not motivated by the assurance of salvation and final glory based on the righteousness of Christ is an abomination unto God as it is the fruit of self-righteousness. But the obedience of a believer, motivated by grace and gratitude, is a sweet-smelling savor unto God.

B. The reality of being IN CHRIST -- To understand what it really means to be IN CHRIST, we must understand three important things:

(1) Our persons and Christ's Person are two distinct things. Obviously, we are not Christ and He is not us. We must keep this distinction in mind because Christ must have all the preeminence in salvation. He is our Head; we are the body. The Head and the body are united yet distinct. His is the One who represents the many (Rom. 5:18-19). The One and the many are united yet distinct.

(2) The righteousness by which God justifies us resides in the Person of Christ as He produced it. We did not produce it! It is legally charged to us, accounted to us, and God justifies us upon this ground, but it resides with Christ, the Author of it. We can see this when we consider the fact of our sins imputed to Him. Our sins reside with us as we produce them. Christ did not produce them. He is sinless. But our sins were charged to Him, accounted to Him, and God poured out His wrath upon Christ based on the ground of our guilt and defilement imputed to Him so that He satisfied law and justice for our sins, not for His own. So, when God considers us IN CHRIST, He considers the fact that Christ in His Person represented our persons to the extent that everything He did for us is considered as ours. God sees our persons, but He judges our persons to be holy, unreproveable, unblameable, according to His strict law and inflexible justice (truth), based on the righteousness that Christ alone produced (Col. 1:22).

(3) We must always make a distinction between our persons (our state before God) and that which proceeds from our persons (our character, conduct, and works). That which proceeds from our persons (sin, our obedience and works) can never be the ground of our condemnation nor the ground of our salvation at any stage.

We can see this when we consider the distinction between Christ's Person and that which proceeded from His Person. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin;" (2 Cor. 5:21a). All the demerit, the guilt and defilement, of the sins of God's elect was imputed to His Person, yet all the guilt and defilement of their sins in no way affected His personal character and conduct -- HE KNEW NO SIN AND HE DID NO SIN! HE IS HOLY, HARMLESS, UNDEFILED, yet when sins were imputed to His Person, He became guilty, legally defiled, and deserving of God's wrath, not based on what proceeded from His Person, but based on sin imputed to His Person. He was justly put under the wrath of God for the sins of His sheep, and He satisfied law and justice by paying their debt and establishing a righteousness for them.

"That we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21b) -- When God saves a sinner, all the merit of Christ's obedience unto death, His righteousness, is imputed to that sinner's person, yet that righteousness, in and of itself, has nothing to do with that which proceeds from that sinner's person. Now there are things that happen in the justified sinner, such as regeneration, conversion, all the graces and gifts of the spirit, all which do affect the justified sinner's character and conduct, but the righteousness based upon which God justifies the sinner has nothing to do with anything that proceeds from our character and conduct. When Christ's righteousness is imputed to us, we become holy, unblameable, unreproveable as to our persons in God's sight -- all based on Christ's righteousness imputed. God justly saves us, keeps us, blesses us, according to truth, not based on anything proceeding from our persons, but based on Christ's righteousness imputed to our persons.

Now God sees us, and He sees that which proceeds from our persons. He sees our obedience and how it always falls short of the standard of righteousness. He sees our sins, but He cannot charge the guilt and defilement of those sins to our persons because He has already charged that to Christ, and Christ satisfied law and justice for them. God charged it to the Person of Christ our Representative, and they remained His until He fully satisfied law and justice for us by paying our debt in full --

2 Corinthians 5:14 -- For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, THAT IF ONE DIED FOR ALL, THEN WERE ALL DEAD:

This verse does not teach universal atonement as many claim. It is simply proving that if Christ died as the Representative of His people, then all whom He represented, all for whom He died, died with Him (Rom. 6:1-11). If they died with Christ, then they must be saved. Who are they? All who are made "new creatures" (2 Cor. 5:17), all to whom God does not impute their trespasses unto them (2 Cor. 5:19), all who are reconciled unto God based on the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20-21). We must understand, according to Romans 6:1-11, that all who died with Christ must be made free from the guilt, legal defilement, and condemning power of sin. Therefore, they cannot finally perish. They must obtain life through Him, and they must be brought to saving faith in Him. If not, His death, in and of itself, means nothing. Thank God "that if one died for all, then were all dead."

Romans 5:18 -- Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; EVEN SO BY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF ONE THE FREE GIFT CAME UPON ALL MEN UNTO JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE. {19} For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, SO BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE SHALL MANY BE MADE RIGHTEOUS.

Now I know that self-righteous religionists will always accuse us of not preaching and promoting holy living when we preach this great truth. They will say we are excusing and encouraging sin, but that is the only way they can see it because they have no true value for the grace of God nor the righteousness of Christ. They cannot imagine how a person can be motivated to obedience by anything other than legal fear of punishment or mercenary promises of reward. But no matter what self-righteous religionists think, these things are true, and these things honor God, exalt Christ, and they are so comforting and encouraging to us who are saved as know the depth of our sins and shortcomings. This ought to encourage all of God's children to seek to obey Him and seek to be conformed to Christ in our character and conduct as motivated by love to Christ and gratitude for the salvation He has freely given us.

We see a great illustration of the above truth in the Old Covenant with the high priest. He entered the holy of holies one time a year as the representative of the people, not based on anything that proceeded from his person, but based on the blood of sacrifice. He himself was a sinner in his own character and conduct and he himself needed an atonement. And here we see the greater glory of the New Covenant. Christ our Representative, our High Priest, went into the holiest of all, not for his own sins, but for ours. Under the Old Covenant only the priest could enter the holy of holies. The people could not go in, but under the New Covenant, all who are IN CHRIST can and should enter the holiest of all as God considers us holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in His sight based on the blood of Christ. Consider the following --

Hebrews 10:19 -- Having therefore, brethren, BOLDNESS TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS, {20} By a new and living way, WHICH HE HATH CONSECRATED FOR US, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; {21} And having an high priest over the house of God; {22} Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

The justified sinner's right and boldness to enter the holiest of all is not based on anything that proceeds from his person. It is based totally upon what Christ has accomplished for him by establishing a righteousness that gives him full right and title to enter the holiest. This is what it means to be IN CHRIST. Now, does this give the justified sinner a license to sin? Consider the next verses --

Hebrews 10:23 -- Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) {24} And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: {25} Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

The writer of Hebrews did not see it as a license to sin. He saw it as the greatest encouragement to perseverance, love, good works, public worship, and exhortation in the fellowship of believers.

So many religionists will admit God knows and sees all, but they use this to frighten sinners into legal repentance. We ought to tell men and women that God knows and sees all their sins, but we also ought to tell them what they do not know by nature -- that all their efforts to please God motivated by legal fear is nothing more that fruit unto death and dead works because they are the fruit of self-righteousness and the pride that God hates. To seek anything from God based on anything that proceeds from our persons is to deny His holiness and His grace, and it is to reject Christ and His righteousness (Gal. 2:21; 5:2-4). Our goal is that sinners seek God who justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness of Christ. We desire that they run to Christ and find salvation and relief in Him alone. To seek all of God's blessings based on the righteousness of Christ, by virtue of our union with Him, is honoring both to the Father and the Son.

In light of this great truth, we can see the reality and the futility of hypocrisy. The vast majority of churches are filled with hypocrites because they believe Christ died for all without exception and that salvation is conditioned on the sinner. This motivates sinners to seek salvation based on things that proceed from their persons, and God rejects this. It does not matter that the sinner will say that God enables him to do it, whether it is faith, repentance, perseverance, reformation, etc. If it proceeds from our persons, God cannot save us, keep us, bless us, or bring us to glory, based on it. God who is omniscient knows the difference, and He reveals this difference in the preaching of the law and the Gospel. But hypocrites refuse to admit of this hypocrisy and continue in unbelief. Are you willing to put your whole life, your efforts, beliefs, experiences, thoughts, your ties to friends and family, on the line by exposing them to the light of God's omniscience and God's Gospel? If not, you are not really seeking God nor His way of eternal life in Christ. You are seeking confirmation of what you already believe. But when God sends His Spirit to enlighten our minds and convince us of what He knows to be true, our whole life up to that point must be re-evaluated in light of Christ and His righteousness. Then you will see the reality of what it is to be IN CHRIST, and you will say with the Apostle Paul --

Galatians 6:14 -- But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

Philippians 3:7 -- But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. {8} Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.

This is the change of mind, the repentance, brought about by saving faith in light of God's omniscience and His standard of judgment revealed in the Gospel of Christ. We do not have to be hypocrites in light of God's omniscience. We do not have to lie. We know we are sinners, and we know the only righteousness we have by which God can justify us is the merits of Christ. We have seen the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and this is the cure for hypocrisy. We know "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).

One of the most astonishing facts about being IN CHRIST is that God knows everything about us, yet He still loves us! God's love is His purpose to save sinners based on the righteousness of Christ. God's love demands that He engage every attribute of His character to save all the objects of His love, all who are IN CHRIST. God's omniscience is one of the best proofs that His love is unconditional towards us and that salvation is unconditional towards us. This is what motivates us to rest in Christ and value His righteousness so much. God judges us righteous, holy, fit for heaven, and certain to be glorified IN CHRIST. We have suffered the full penalty of all our sins, not in our own persons, but in the Person of Christ our Substitute. We have kept the law perfectly, not in our own persons by our own obedience, but in Christ our Substitute.

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