“And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who
became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
Our union in Christ is much more than an association with Jesus. An association with Jesus is, in essence, having a “position” in Christ because we are justified. This popular seminary explanation of being in Christ tells us little; it is limited and lacking (l&l). When you hear, “It is our ‘position’ in Christ”, it is a hollow sound ringing out a warning. The noise is academia creating structure for the church where Christ’s life is not seen yielding His power in resurrected lives.
We are not challenging the validity of our position in Christ; it is most certainly true and does speak to our justification. Like many things containing truth, we get a warped sense of our identity when this is all we hear. We would go so far as to say, it actually vitiates our effectiveness, creating a skeleton without any tissue and muscle.
Justification will be more central to our discussion on righteousness in Christ, but we need to provide some mediation for our harsh observation. Yes, we are judged righteous through God’s sacrifice of Jesus for our sin, as expressed in the Greek aorist tense (Romans 5:1), telling us it was a completed act. It is also expressed in Romans 3:24 in the continuous present tense, telling us justification is also ongoing for the believer who is justified once and forever in the aorist tense. In other words, our justification or our “no condemnation” in Christ (Rom. 8:1) is also our resurrected Lord living in our mortal bodies giving ongoing righteous life, justifying us as sure as He is in us and we are in Him. So, while we are positionally, in Him justified, He is also working his righteous work in us so that the essence of who we are is also being expressed through our polluted souls as we are glorifying Him. No, we are not talking about sanctification; this is in addition to sanctification.
Our union with God through Jesus is reality touching all we are and do. It is not just a legal decree affecting our status; it also determines ownership and behavior complying with our redeemed position. This is wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption flowing out of God through us because we are in Him. “And because of Him you are …”!
Labels can be useful looking at the whole through its component parts. That is what we are about to do in our “In Christ” discussion. But, we must keep in view, these doctrinal terms (labels) are not meant to be separated or understood on their own merit, they are functions of the whole divine providence requiring all pieces in place, interconnected to be understood correctly. Wisdom flows to us who are redeemed sanctifying us in righteousness, they functioning together as a whole. These labels are tools of language helping us to hold on to a reality outside of our total grasp.
I was typing Romans in the ESV and became distracted by the wording in Romans 6:5, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” I wanted to know how Paul actually phrased this union with Christ in the Greek when it was saying, “we have been united with him.” I was recently gifted Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek NT and found this interesting observation concerning the use of “united with” in 6:5:
“The verb phuo means “to grow,” and prefixed proposition sun, “with,” thus, the compound word means “to grow up together with.” It speaks of a living, vital union of two individuals growing up together. The word could be used of Siamese twins whose bodies were connected at one point, and whose blood stream flowed through two physical bodies as it does normally through one. Here the word speaks of that vital union of the believing sinner and the Lord Jesus mentioned in verses 3 and 4 where God places him into Christ at the cross, to share his death and resurrection.”
Wuest gives us a graphic depiction of the general sense of what being “in Christ” is intended to convey. In this case, Paul is using συμφυτοι (united with) to describe our union with Christ in both death and resurrection. Our four gospel principles in 1Corinthians 1:30 are within this context.
We have available an “In Christ Sampler” of 73 NT scripture verses using the term “in Christ” or conveying the message of Christ’s intimate work within the believer showing how pervasive this teaching is used in scripture.
Wisdom is also a very broad term. It is, on the one hand, described as an attribute of God (Prov. 3:19, Jer. 10:12, Rom. 11:33), while on the other hand, a gift to man (James 1:5, 3:17, Eph. 1:17). The practical side of wisdom, as we are to grow up into Christ, might be that part of wisdom which we cultivate in acquiring truth.
John Fletcher (1729-1785) wrote several letters to a parishioner. These letters were published after his death as Christ Manifested. In this small book, Fletcher documents Old and New Testament scriptures arguing God provides an additional sense, a spiritual sense, to believers in Christ, enabling them to discern spirituals things from natural.
Two New Testament instances Fletcher uses are of a Greek word used in Phil 1:6 and Hebrews 5:14. Both are translated “discernment.” Discerning spiritual “good” from natural “good” certainly falls within the category of wisdom. It is this practical side of wisdom we want to consider.
Being in Christ is about knowing the living, resurrected Jesus and understanding spiritual things personally. This scriptural intimacy comes only come from God Himself. It is a discernment requiring mentoring from God through the Holy Spirit. Jesus told his disciples the Comforter would come and reveal Jesus. This is the mentoring now available in Christ by the Holy Spirit and might be described as discernment.
The person who is not in Christ is dead. The unregenerate are alive walking around physically but spiritually they have no life at all. When the scripture uses the term dead, it is from God’s point of view. This is the hinge on which the gospel door swings. God has reconciled people back to Himself but until they believe and accept God’s righteous provision through the blood of Jesus and His resurrected life, they literally are walking dead people. They are separated from Christ and strangers to God’s promises of life. They are without hope and without God (Eph. 2:12ff).
A miracle happens when a believer becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. He is “born again”! It is more than symbolism. The Spirit of God unites us into a union that put us IN Christ Jesus, we are “sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1Cor. 1:2). We are joined in a spiritual union just as though we are born Siamese twins, as Wuest describes, sharing the same blood and same mind (1Cor. 2:16b). It is not subject to temporal feelings, such as we experience with our five physical senses, but we do have a spiritual capacity, a spiritual sense, that is in tune with the Holy Spirit of God who has taken up residence within us.
Regeneration has taken place when we are born again. We are sanctified at this point and made holy just as Christ is holy. There are differing views on how this occurs within the believer.
I hold the view that our spirit is joined to God’s Spirit and this is the essence of who we are when we are created new in Christ. Our mind, our emotions and our will to choose, is singularly our corrupted soul requiring sanctification through our spirit/Spirit within us. We are allowed to put to death sin in our soul by our will through the power of Christ who has justified us and joined to our spirit. The sin in our flesh, that is our physical body, is not sanctified and is continually at war against our spirit/Spirit. Our body will be sanctified and we will be given a sanctified body like Christ’s at the appointed time. This is our hope.
We will discuss the sanctification process later, but may we say at this point, God is the one who does the sanctifying both in our essence through regeneration and the process of making our soul holy through the scripture, the exercise of our will and the desire of our heart. Each circumstance in our life provides us with a faith opportunity to put self to death. Our response to these circumstances in life trains us in discernment of God’s wisdom (Heb. 5:14). It is at this practical level of wisdom we want to provide a scriptural resource to growth in Jesus Christ. Wisdom in these circumstances is a benefit of being in Christ.
Click here for our first grace vocabulary word, “Discernment”. We hope by providing a collection of scripture references with associated comments, we will provide a resource taking our principles of faith to a more meaningful experience in grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
These are not answers to problems. They are rather resources already provided by our heavenly Father to enrich our growth in Him through His Spirit who dwells within us, providing us with wisdom to understand His purposes for each of us individually.