“In Christ!” There are no more significant words in all of scripture than these two words. They are the very key to a proper understanding of the pre-eminent message that is being communicated throughout the New Testament - the Gospel of God's grace. These very simple, yet incredibly potent words, actually define all of existence; and in particular, define our own human existence. “In Christ” encapsulates the very context in which we live, breathe, move, and have our being. Yes, everything is fundamentally connected, held together, and sustained, "in Christ." In fact, all of existence finds its full conclusion, “in Christ" - with Christ being the very One in whom all things are finally summed-up, reaching their full conclusion! And so, what happened to Christ during His earthly existence directly involves, concerns, and implicates all of us. This is simply because being "in Christ" is the fundamental state of our human existence!
God embraced everyone, as well as everything within the entire Cosmos, through the very act of Christ's incarnation. This was the very moment when God (as Creator) became one (by way of being) with God's own Creation. As such, Christ entered right into the fullness of our human condition, assuming all that we are, through His own mortal body of human flesh. Yes, in the very person of Christ, divinity took up permanent residence inside of humanity, thus fundamentally uniting humanity into the triune God.
Subsequent to this momentous act, Christ worked out our full completion to a state of divine wholeness, through forging His own perfect way of being, inside of our human flesh. So, by becoming human, Christ graced us with His own divinity, imparting into humanity His own divine clarity and perfection of being - giving us His own conscious awareness regarding both God and self. In becoming human, Christ also overcame our sin within Himself - defeating our lies with His truth and conquering our darkness with His light. Thus, "in Christ," the entire world was being reconciled to God - meaning transformed into God's own state of being! Christ was resolving our flawed sense of self and our distorted way of being, to God's own clarity of self, and right way of being - that of perfect grace, truth, and love! In this way, we have all received Christ's own right belief, His own right way of thinking, and His perfectly right way of being - i.e., Christ's very own faith, faithfulness, and righteousness!
After some thirty-three years, having overcome our inherent state of blindness with the His own divine clarity, Christ then finally took down our corrupt way of being, through His death by crucifixion at human hands. The full fury of sin rose up from within humanity, as false belief (lies) generated such incredible hostility toward the One who is "The Truth," that we unjustly accused, condemned, tortured, and killed our very own Creator! The iniquity of humanity was directly poured out on Christ in the form of false accusation and condemnation to death, in the crown of throrns placed upon His head, in the utter rejection, insults and mocking so vehemently expressed, in the cruel lashings, in the very nails that pierced His hands and feet, in the spear plunged through His side, and in the abhorent brutality of being hung upon a cross to die. In this way, Christ entered into the very depths of our blackest darkness, meeting humanity right in the very worst of their corruption! But God, being so rich in mercy and boundless in compassion, turned this act of extreme enmity toward God into the final act of our salvation - so as to finally complete our deliverance from dysfunctional ways of being!
So, Christ bore humanity’s wrath (not the Father's) by allowing us to brutalise and kill Him, thus finally destroying sin itself in His very own death by crucifixion. In this way, Christ was the sacrificial Lamb of God who literally ‘took away’ (removed) the sin of the whole world (all inclusive)! Yes, we all died right along with Christ, because all are “in Christ.” This meant death to our distorted way of being, death to our own inner darkness, and death to the false belief and flawed understanding that has corrupted our humanity and reaped havoc on us all! Indeed, the death Christ died, He died to sin, and once-and-for-all!" So, through death, God completed the process of reconciling humanity to God (i.e. transformation into Christ's own state of being), thus putting a definitive end to all corruption - "in Christ!”
Through Christ's resurrection on the third day, we were all "born anew,” into the very fullness of immortal incorruptibility. Yes, everyone and everything was finally made complete, and reborn (from above) as a New Creation - "in Christ!" Thus, we all reach our ultimate completion, to a state of eternal perfection, with absolute wholeness as our very way of being, through resurrection - "in Christ.” Yes, Christ was actually God's plan for us all along; being the One who would accomplish all that was necessary for our eternal existence, in all the fullness of at-oneness with God. For from even before the foundation of the world, we were all predestined to be made whole, as the very children of God; which was always to be accomplished - "in Christ!” For in the timelessness of God, Christ was considered as crucified from even before the world began; meaning that humanity was actually found, and made whole “in Christ,” long before we were ever lost, and blind in Adam!
So, when He ascended into Heaven, humanity was finally taken home, to be with our Heavenly Father - "in Christ." Yes, when Christ ascended, we all ascended; and so where He is, so are we! We really are now all seated in the heavenly realms, face to face with the Father, at-one with God, at-home, and fully secured for all eternity - "in Christ!"
All of this happened as a historical reality, and as a purely benevolent act of grace on God's part. Yes, this is what is objectively true about us all - "in Christ!" In this way, everything pertaining to our human existence always hinged upon our fundamental union with God, "in Christ." Yes Christ, the God-man, the Mediator between God and humanity; He who makes one out of the two, and all within Himself! Christ has indeed freely done for all what was always necessary for our eternal state of well-being, in all the very fullness of God. We are indeed at-one with God, grafted into the very family of the Triune God, and thus adopted as the very children of God - "in Christ!" Reality itself is that humanity and God are inseparably intertwined, in a glorious eternal union of transcendent wonder, that was only ever possible - "in Christ!"
All this is of grace, which has absolutely nothing to do with anything that we must do! And yes, this is objectively true of us all, whether we believe it, or not! It is the truth itself that sets set us free; our belief and/or choice do not actually make God’s truth true! Christ, in Himself, has done it all for us, and even to us - such that “in Christ” it is finished, it is done! There is no separation from God, there is no distance between us and God. We are all the very children of God, simply because all are "in Christ!" Yes, all things really are finally made complete, perfectly whole, and just as they should be - "in Christ,” “through Christ,” “by Christ,” and even “for Christ!”
And so, the unadulterated Gospel is the astounding Good News about what has happened to us all, freely and fully - "in Christ." Yes, the Gospel of Jesus Christ informs humanity about what is already objectively true about us, one-and-all. This is the very truth of God that we all so desperately need to know - the very truth that has the power to bring freedom and life. But such knowing is only ever possible by the Spirit; as a personal awakening to God's truth from within.
It is through hearing this Gospel truth, that Christ's own faith is able to be awakened from within us, by the Spirit; thus confirming its reality from inside our very being! Yes, it is the Spirit who bears witness in us, affirming that we indeed are the very sons and daughters of God; found, restored, secured and at-one with God - "in Christ." Through the indwelling Spirit, who has indeed been given to "all flesh," Christ's own objective reality is able to become our own personal subjective experience. So, the Spirit makes known in us, what God has done for us, and what is already true about us - "in Christ." And this is what makes all the difference in our lives!