"IN CHRIST"

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

“Faith in Christ means union with Christ; and until we realize the central place this thought holds in Paul’s life and experience, many of the richest treasures of the Gospel must remain sealed from our sight… The religion of Paul is something quite simple. It is communion with Christ. The critics of Paul must give full weight to his constantly repeated words “in Christ”. The mystical Christ could do what the idea of an earthly Messiah could never have done. This conception, first expressed in the Fourth Gospel, then fully developed in the epistles of Paul, has been the life-blood of Christianity from the beginning. The intimate relationship with the Spirit-Christ is unquestionably the core of the Christian religion. Union with Christ is the brief name for all that the apostles mean by salvation. For Paul and John oneness with Christ is to be redeemed, and to be redeemed is oneness with Christ. Sanctification seen in its true nature is the unfolding of Christ’s own character within the believer’s life.” (James S. Stewart – Adapted)

Being a Christian is not something one does. Being a Christian is something one is. There is the constant tendency, one may say constant danger, of externalizing our religion, of merely going by the rules, performing the rituals, adhering to the customs, rather than becoming through and through a new creature “in Christ”, one who, being filled with the Spirit of Christ, is daily growing more and more into the image, and the character, and the life of Christ.
Is it “Christ who lives in me”, or is it just me living my life with a little Christian whitewash coated over? No one but the individual can answer this question.
It is not a matter of legalistic conformity, this ideal of being “in Christ”, or of having “Christ within”, it is a matter of life!
Let us not be content with a cheap imitation; let us choose the real thing!

Larry Atkin, Preacher