CHAPTER THREE
BY: GEORGE R. HAWTIN
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THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST AND OUR RELATIONSHIP TO HIM
“What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” 1 Cor. 2:11. It would be impossible for the creatures of the animal world to comprehend the things of the human world because these two realms are separated the one from the other by an impassable gulf over which neither creation can pass. Even so the things of God can no man know because the realm of God is as high above the human realm as heaven is high above the earth. Though we are so stranded and limited in our understanding of Him, and a great gulf lies between us, that gulf is only impassable to those who desire to live in the realm of the flesh and of the carnal mind. The gulf is not impassable to those who seek to live in the realm of the Spirit, for “we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God:’ 1 Cor. 2:12
Again it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” 1 Cor. 2:9, 10 Our faith must never stand on the wisdom of men. If we allow ourselves to stand upon such an unsure foundation as that, then we have no faith at all, or what we have is groundless and fruitless. The wisdom, which we speak, is not the wisdom of men. Faith cannot be built upon that. The wisdom, which we speak is the wisdom of God, a wisdom which none of the princes of this world ever knew. It is God’s intention to destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Therefore, He asks, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” 1 Cor. 1:19, 20.
When we endeavor to receive the revelation of infinite truth, we are often brought into conflict with that element of human wisdom, which asserts itself within us. It is then above all other times that unbelief raises its ugly head to shout aloud that these things cannot be. The wisdom of this world questions in unbelief, “How can man be one with man? How can saints be joined together in one body? How can they be knit together and bonded together in one?” “It is impossible,” the flesh declares in unbelief. “Such a thing is contrary to reason and contrary to nature and opposed to all wisdom.” Since, then, they cannot believe that man can be joined together in perfect unity, how much less can their minds believe that God Himself can become one with man and men become members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones, of His Spirit, and of His mind! How can man, born in sin and shapen in iniquity, be made to drink of the Spirit of God and live by Him? “The Bible sounds foolish,” unbelievers have told me, and so it does to some, but has not the Lord Himself declared this very fact to be so when He says, “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they axe foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.” Then again it is stated for all of us to hear that “the wisdom of man is foolishness with God.” David, pondering the wisdom of God, wrote, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” No, indeed! We cannot attain, for man himself is incapable of finding the way. Better far that we quickly abandon our human efforts lest we sink into the mire of unbelief.
It is when we reach the place where we willingly abandon all our human struggles, human efforts, and human dependencies, casting ourselves upon Jesus Christ who is the truth, the light, and the way, that we hear the Master saying, “When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, but He shall receive of Mine, and show them unto you.” That is the method by which the Father of lights reveals the hidden things of God to the human heart. That is how the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen by spiritual men, and secrets kept hidden from ages and generations are revealed unto us by the Holy Ghost.
No man who ever lived has fully grasped the completeness and the greatness of the work of reconciliation which God wrought in Christ when He made peace between man and God and brought us nigh by the blood that was shed on the cross. By the shedding of that blood He has reconciled all things unto Himself, whether they be things in heaven, or things in earth, and you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds, yet now has He reconciled and brought you nigh unto God. See Col. 1:20-22.
Faith is manifest in utter confidence in that which God has accomplished. Faith is not the product of the human heart, for it is written: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Eph. 2:8. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. When the spirit hears what God says, then faith grasps the lifeline that is anchored in Him who is within the veil, and we are lifted up into His realm. Only by revelation can we know Him and grasp the things He has to say. When the light of the Holy Spirit shines in, the mists that long have hung like a cloud over our minds, obscuring the glory of the celestial hills, are cleared away. Then the things, which were once unseen become clearly visible and the mysteries, which in time past baffled the mind, are unfolded and made plain. That which once was seen through a glass darkly is now seen face to face, and that which once was known only in part is now known as we are known.
Many times during my life I have had the joy of driving through the magnificent Canadian Rockies. The sight of their rugged, immovable grandeur has filled my soul with reverence, awe and wonder until I have marveled at the omnipotence and wisdom of God and wondered what power could have placed them there. On one of these occasions I was accompanied by a brother who had never driven through the mountains before and to my great disappointment almost the whole drive was shrouded in rain and mist. Mile after mile we journeyed and nothing could be seen except the black surface of the road upon which we drove, but the brother by my side drove merrily along, completely oblivious to the magnificence of the shrouded glory all about him, never dreaming that the mists were hiding some of the grandest scenery in all the world. As we drove along, he noticed I had grown quite quiet and, turning to me with a puzzled look, he said, “You don’t enjoy this, do you?” “Well, no,” I replied, “I don’t, because those mists are hiding such beautiful scenery from us.” Mankind in his unbelief goes along through life just like that, happy and content to hear the humming wheels on the hard surface of the road, never knowing at all that the mists of the natural mind are obscuring glories such as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man. Once the Spirit of God has parted the veil and the spiritual eye has beheld that which lies within, there can be no turning back. Neither can our eyes ever be content with the vain visions of earth, nor our ears satisfied with the discordant note of its songs.
“Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy.
Ear hath not heard its deep songs of joy.
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair;
Sorrow and death may not enter there.
Time hath not breathed on its fadeless bloom;
Far beyond the cloud and beyond the tomb,
It is there, my child, it is there.
Beautiful are these sacred words my mother sang to me when I was too small to fully grasp the beauty of their meaning, but since the Holy Spirit has come, I have found that even in this present world it is possible to stand on some spiritual Pisgah as Moses did and view the glory of the promised land from Gilead unto the palm trees of Zoar, or stand on some mount of transfiguration with Christ, as the disciples did, to behold in miniature the glory of the Son of man coming in His kingdom.
“There is a wisdom that may only be uttered among the mature – a wisdom, however, not deriving from the present age nor from the powers who are in control of this age, though their days are numbered. We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery – that hidden wisdom which, before the world began, God purposed for our glory; a wisdom which not one of the powers who control the present age have learned, for if they had learned it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. 2:6-8 (Weymouth). “As therefore you have received Christ, even Jesus our Lord, live and act in vital union with him; having the roots of your being firmly planted in Him, and continually building yourselves up in Him, and always being increasingly confirmed in the faith as you were taught it, and abounding in it with thanksgiving.” Col. 2:6, 7. Weymouth
My great concern as I unfold these truths is that readers and believers will fail to grasp them by the living faith of God. I am concerned and afraid that many who read will lay the book down or throw it away and forget to walk in the light that has been shed upon their path even as a man looks at his face in a mirror and walks away, forgetting what manner of man he is. The truth concerning the Christ body and our identity with Him is not one to be read with a sigh and then laid aside while we watch a football game, a sex scene, or a murder on the boob tube, but if we want to make heavenly treasures our eternal prize, we must cast our earthly garments from us and run with patience the race that is set before us. We must lay aside every weight and every besetting sin. We must put off all filthy communication, together with anger, wrath, envy, and every form of irreverence and blasphemy, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him set us an example in that He endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the majesty on high. We have no time to play church or play religion and we have no time to lose. Great tribulation has already settled down upon the earth, and I shall be surprised indeed if this decade passes away before the kingdom of God will come. The recession we are in will probably develop into a depression. The depression will bring a war, which will end with the battle of Armageddon, and that battle will end with the coming of Christ with His saints to put down all rule and authority. “But the saints of the most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even forever and ever.” Dan. 7:18. “Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that saints possessed the kingdom. . . . And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” Dan. 7:22, 27
I exhort, therefore, that prayers, intercessions, fastings, readings be made in our devotion toward God and that in all fastings and prayers the mind of Christ should be earnestly coveted and sought. We have no need to be ignorant concerning the things that are coming upon the earth, but we remain in ignorance if we continue as so many do – seeking God in our spare time while devoting our time and energy to the golden god of this age, which golden god men earnestly seek because gold alone of all gods will purchase things that can be consumed upon our flesh.
The more I read the book of Colossians, the more enthralled I become with its message. It is so far reaching in that it clearly shows that “God hath reconciled all things unto Himself.” The inspired writer then goes on to show how we can be delivered here and now from the flesh and every evil work, pointing out in so many remarkable ways our total identification with the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us how to set our affections on things above and not on things of the earth and how we can identify ourselves with Christ in death, in resurrection and ascension. If Christians would lay aside their seeking of earthly gain, would lay aside their gossip and foolishness, would throw their televisions to the moles and the bats, turn their eyes away from the vile scenes of earth and begin looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith, they would not know themselves in a year’s time. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved and, being saved by His grace, will be pointed to a cross – his own – which he must take up to follow Christ, joining in heart and spirit that great generation of crucified men who follow the footsteps of their Lord.
I walked one day along a country road,
And there a stranger journeyed, too,
Bent low beneath the burden of His load.
It was a cross, a cross, I knew.
I cried, “Lord Jesus,” and He spoke my name;
I saw His hands all bruised and torn.
I stooped to kiss away the marks of shame,
The shame for me that He had borne.
“Take up thy cross and follow me,”
I heard the blessed Saviour call.
How can I make a lesser sacrifice,
When Jesus gave His all?
My cross I’ll carry till the crown appears;
The way I journey soon will end,
And God Himself shall wipe away all tears
And friend hold fellowship with friend.
Paul in Colossians explained that peace has been made through the blood of His cross that men who were enemies and aliens have been reconciled to God and to each other that all may be presented faultless before His majesty with exceeding joy. In this book we are told that men who once were enemies have been knit together (Col. 2: 2), or as Weymouth says, welded together – welded together into one body and one Christ. The knowledge of it makes my ransomed soul sing for joy:
Crown Him with many crowns,
The Lord upon His throne!
Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns
All music but its own.
Arise, my soul, and sing
Of Him who died for thee;
And crown Him as thy matchless King
For all eternity.
We stated above that every one who has come into Christ is commanded to live and act in vital union with Him. Col. 2:6, 7. I remind you that we are speaking specifically to those people who above all others become vitally interested and fully absorbed in every aspect of this glorious mystery. To demonstrate our relationship to the Christ body the apostle seems to exhaust every means at his disposal that the fact of our holy union with Christ might be made clear. Thus, after telling us to walk in vital communion with Him, he then exhorts us to become rooted and built up in Him (Col. 2:7), and in yet another verse to be grounded and settled (1:23). David in one of his psalms sang that he was like a tree planted by the rivers of water, whose root would not wither, and therefore he would never be moved. It seems to me to be a very wonderful thing to be on a journey where we stand by faith, walk by faith, and run with patience while at the same time we are being rooted and grounded and not moved away from the hope of our calling. Only God Himself could devise such a blessed mystery as that! Wouldn’t you agree?
Now this state of being rooted and grounded in Christ and not moved away is a most wonderful thing. On beautiful Vancouver Island in Cathedral Grove there stands a mighty fir tree. It is much more than a thousand years old. It was a flourishing young tree when Alfred the Great reigned on the English throne in A.D. 871. It was still standing there when the Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Its roots were becoming more grounded and settled when the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. In 1492 when Columbus was on his way to America, it was stretching its mighty arms to heaven, and if it could have heard the news in 1815, it would have heard of the Battle of Waterloo. It was rooted there while the armies of the North and the South were locked in battle in 1860-65, and today its mighty arms, nourished and built up because it is rooted and grounded, are lifted up to heaven while the rustle of its boughs murmur a ceaseless praise to God on high.
Love sought its shade at eventide
To breathe its earliest vows,
And age was pleased at height of noon
To rest beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs;
The birds sweet music bore.
It stood a glory in itself,
A blessing evermore.
Thus shall they be who as members of Christ’s body are rooted and grounded in Him. From Him we draw our life as roots draw their food and sustenance from the earth, and it is by the life of Him that we are built up and grow to be a holy temple in the Lord, an habitation for God through the Spirit. The necessity, the benefit and the blessing of thus being rooted and grounded in the Christ is beyond estimation or any word of expression. There must come a time in your life, dear saint of God, when you stand rooted and grounded in Him even though every other tree in the forest has fallen and been uprooted by the withering storms that beat furiously about you. You must have noticed at times how some of the mightiest trees are actually standing upon great immovable rocks. Here before our eyes a lesson is given whereby we see the saint rooted and grounded firmly to the Rock of Ages, and, being rooted and grounded in Him, we are forever settled, never to be carried away by the winds of doctrine, storms of fate, or whirlwinds of testing. My saintly friend, if you depend on man, you receive only what man can give. If you wait for man to feed you, you forget that he also must be fed. When you ask others to pray for you, you forget that they, too, have need of prayer, but the man who is grounded and settled and built up in Christ will find the life of God flowing in his own spirit, his soul, and his body, which in truth belong to God.
We are at the hour in history when we will no longer be able to depend upon ourselves, much less on others, for our strength and sustenance. The hour has come when tribulation is sweeping away every refuge of lies. Its turbulent floods are eroding the sandy foundations from beneath our feet. The old dependencies of meetings, forms and ceremonies are at their end. If you have trusted in men for your strength, they will be taken away from you. If you have depended on others for your spiritual bread, they will be removed far from you; and all this will be that through the fires and floods of tribulation the badly soiled garments of the Laodicean age will be cleansed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.
The tribulations, which are now gripping the entire earth, are the birth pangs of the kingdom of God. God is calling upon the in-Christed saints to become more firmly rooted and grounded in Him so that amid the coming floods they will not be moved away from the hope of His calling. Long ago David, the man who through the dreadful tempests of life had learned to trust only in God to sustain him, wrote these wonderful words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be moved, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Psa. 46:1, 2 Wonderful were the words he spoke and wonderful was the deliverance God gave him, but God has reserved for you and me to see that day when the earth will be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea. These are the things that are now coming in fury upon the world, and when it is over, every man who has become rooted and grounded in Christ will be standing unmoved – not moved away from the hope of his calling.
Strong and firm through the passing years
I see a rock that stands out on the shore,
A rock of ages, cleft for you and me,
A rock that will endure forevermore.
The raging, tumbling seas of time may roll
Till earth’s proud empires crumble and decay,
And Thou alone shalt triumph, Prince of Peace,
When all the storms of life have rolled away.
C.S.P.
It would be of utmost profit for any of us to diligently study the oft repeated scriptural term “in Christ” and “in Him”. The mists and darkness of the age have obscured the meaning of those beautiful phrases from all but a few, but those words – in Christ and in Him – my saintly friend, have reference to a very special class of people, and that special people are the in Christ people. They are the people who are members in particular of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. We will take a little space here to refresh our minds concerning some of these beautiful statements where the term “in Christ” is involved and then we will see that those who bear the designation “in Christ” are by no means the ordinary rank and file of believers.
One of the most outstanding texts in which the expression “in Christ” is used is 2 Cor. 5:17. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The church system has become accustomed to noticing a particular text of scripture without regard to what is taught either before the text or after it. By this careless method men can make the Bible say anything they wish it to say. Many a preacher in our day stands up before a congregation to read a text of scripture, or perhaps half a text, or even one word, then closes his Bible, puts an elastic band around it, and begins to preach his sermon. The truth of the matter is that all he is really doing is using a particular text as a diving board or a launching pad from which to launch his sermon. Preaching from a text is in my opinion the poorest and most juvenile type of preaching that can be imagined.
With this thought in mind we might notice some of the words that precede this text, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.” Through the whole of the previous four chapters Paul has been building up to a point of experience which he here calls the in Christ experience. In chapter one he begins telling about the trials of the Christian way, showing how through them we are always caused to triumph in Christ. In chapter three he proceeds to talk about the law that ministered death to those who heard it and the coming of the Spirit who changed the unregenerate heart which the law could only condemn. He tells how the face of Moses shone when he received the law, which could only minister death, and from this fact he shows how much more glorious the ministration of the Spirit of life must be. He ends the chapter with these profound words of truth: “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is (or, where the Spirit is Lord) there is liberty. But we all, with open (unveiled) face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” Then, speaking of the trials of the way in chapter four, trials which are ordained by God to bring about the fullness of the in Christ position, he goes on to say, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” Verse 7. From there he speaks of the living faith in these saints, who now know that, if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. That house not made with hands, my friends, is really “My Father’s house,” the mystical body of Christ, which is the habitation of God through the Spirit.
It seems to me that the book of 2 Corinthians is a highly spiritual book, pointing us to our goal in Christ. In chapter five many things are told us about walking by faith rather than by sight, even showing how it is possible for one to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord. It is with all this promise of higher and more exalted experience that he comes to this in Christ verse, saying, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (creation).” I sincerely believe that the term “in Christ” must be applied on different levels of meaning. There is a small sense in which a new believer may be spoken of as in Christ, but he will have years of trial before he will come into the realm of which Paul is speaking here. To me, to be in Christ means much more than to be a mere believer, wonderful as that may be. That Jesus Christ should come into the heart of a repentant and believing sinner is a thing too wonderful to explain. It is something that has to be believed and experienced, but to explain such a heavenly wonder is beyond the ability of teacher, sage, apostle or prophet. An aura of mystery surrounds our being begotten of God, and because it is divine, it is totally beyond human expression. Wonderful as is this regenerating power of the Spirit of Christ within, we must ever remember that this blessed experience is only the hope of glory. When Jesus Christ comes into our hearts, this is not the end of the matter or the fullness of the in Christ experience. It is really only the beginning, as it is written, “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” John 1:12. Our justification before God, our knowledge of sins forgiven, is little more than a blessed hope of glory to come. When I speak of the glory to come, I do not speak of heaven or even of the kingdom, but the real glory that is to come is our place in the temple, which is His body. The sons of God are the body of Christ, the sonship company, which is the body of Christ.
Christ the head and Christ the body together compose the fullness of Christ. Therefore “Christ in you”, the repentant sinner’s experience, is the hope of a greater glory which will be ours if we are refined by much chastening and scourging which every mature son must receive that we may be included in the Christ body. That, to me, is the true meaning of the phrase “in Christ”. Christ in us is the hope of glory, but we in Christ is the glory, that the excellency of the power may be of Christ and not of us.
I do not wish to appear to be “splitting hairs” nor do I wish to invent doctrines, but to me it is increasingly significant that our Lord began His ministry as Jesus of Nazareth, then He is known to many as Jesus Christ or Jesus, the Christ, but Paul often favors the title, Christ Jesus. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins,” but to see Him as the Christ is to see Him as God’s anointed, the One tested and prepared to take the government of the kingdom and to reign. There appears to be a progression here, does there not, from Jesus to Jesus Christ to Christ Jesus? And I think the same progression is ordained to take place in the life of every believer from “Christ in you”, the hope of glory, to that perfect state of “you in Christ”, which is the glory.
My thought is that we should never use the term “in Christ” with lightness as though it were some simple means of salutation, but we should understand rather that to be in Christ is the ultimate goal of every Christian. It is the true glory for which we hoped. To be included in Christ, to be a true member of His body, the Christ body, is without doubt the great mystery, the hope and the prize of this present age. The body of Christ is the temple of the Lord. 1 Cor. 6:19. It is the habitation of God through the Spirit. Eph. 2:20-23. It is the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. It is the Father’s house of many mansions. Every member of the body of Christ is an individual abiding place for God. Each individual member is a mansion in “My Father’s house.” The body of Christ is a spiritual house, not made with hands. It is a spiritual, heavenly creation, eternal in the heavens.
I greatly fear that my explanation of the Christ body is very weak and perhaps tends more to mar the glory and beauty of that heavenly mansion than to succeed in describing and displaying it. Nevertheless, the spiritual man will grasp the significance of our position in Christ and will discern that to be a member of that holy temple is the prize of the age of grace. Notice Paul’s great desire and longing to be in Christ as he wrote these words to the Philippians:’ ‘What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 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 and be found in Him (that is, in Christ), not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.” Phil. 3:7-9. Then, after having expressed his burning desire to be associated with Christ in death and resurrection, he concludes the thought with these significant words: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Verse 14
To be in Christ Jesus is the high calling of God. If the Lord has any higher calling than this for the believer, then He has not as yet revealed it. It seems reasonable to believe that if a man of Paul’s age and Christian experience was still laying aside every earthly weight and pressing toward the mark, which he speaks of as in Christ Jesus, then it must indeed be a very high mark and a very high calling. Because of the gravity of the calling he exhorts us all with these significant words: “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded:” Verse 15. The term perfect here means mature. As many as be mature be thus minded. By thus minded he means that we should have the same mind as he had and the same fervent desire to reach the goal in Christ, that we should count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, the Lord, and count every earthly thing as dung that we may win Christ and be found in Him… that is, in Christ.
We are very near the end of the age. The multitudes who will be saved and cleansed during the great tribulation, which even now casts its shadow all about us, will not be included in the in Christ company. The in Christ company are those who have in their foreheads the Father’s name, but the multitude who will be saved during the great tribulation now developing on the earth will be those who stand before the throne with palms in their hands, a multitude which no man can number of every kindred and tribe and nation who have come out of great tribulation and made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb. Rev. 7:9-15.
I exhort the saints therefore to lay aside every weight and the sin, which so easily besets them. Begin to reckon the things of this present realm as vile refuse, for this world’s fading glory is nothing more than that. Do not set your heart on any prize but this – to be found in Him (in Christ). This attitude of heart demands prayer and fasting. It demands the laying aside of every weight that we, being stripped of all impediments, may run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the majesty on high, henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.
No passage of scripture in the New Testament is more capable of revealing our position in Christ than the wonderful prayer of Jesus in the seventeenth chapter of John. Notice how in the very heart of His intercession Jesus said, “Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee …” John 17:21. It is one thing for the Father to be in Him; it is a thing of greater glory still for Jesus to be in the Father. It is the hope of glory that Christ should be in me, but it is the glory itself that I should be in Him. Jesus considered that for Himself to be in God the Father was the glory, the greatest of all glories. This He makes plain in verses 22, 23 by saying, “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; . . . Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.” Verse 24. And where was that? Why it was in the Father, of course. “That they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.”
To further develop this theme let us notice a few more places where this term is used and see the significance of what is said. First, “there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus … For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom. 8:1, 2 The book of Romans is a progressive book. In chapter one the Gentile world is condemned. In chapter two the Israelitish world is condemned. In chapter three, justification by faith is introduced, and in chapter four, grace is shown to be entirely without human effort. In chapter five the believer is justified by faith in Christ and in chapter six he is shown his personal identity with Christ in death and resurrection. In chapter seven the justified man makes the distressing discovery that he is possessed of a carnal nature – a nature so contrary to God that it besets and hinders his every effort to walk with God; and though I hesitate to say so, I must confess that the vast majority of Christians, even those who were baptized with the Spirit, stop in the seventh chapter of Romans and never get any farther than that realm where they are continually at war with their carnal nature. To their amazement and chagrin they find that when they would do good, evil is present with them. These are the people who are always trying to overcome their carnality, but never succeed because “trying to overcome” is not God’s way of victory over the flesh. So Paul leaves the seventh chapter of Romans with these words: “0 wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” With the beginning of chapter eight the revelation of the new life in Christ Jesus is given to the apostle. Therefore he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus… for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
We are forced to the conclusion, then, that those blessed believers who through faith and identification with Christ in death and resurrection have reached the realm where their lives are continually ordered by the Spirit and have died to self as Christ died to self have reached the in Christ realm, and God Himself recognizes them as in Christ Jesus. Christ was in Paul long before Paul came to the blessedness of the Rom. 8:1 experience. It is certainly true that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. In Christ Jesus is the realm of no condemnation. In Christ Jesus is the prize of the high calling.
Now secondly, to be in Christ signifies that we have reached a place where carnal divisions are at an end. In Christ there are no sects and no denominations, no Jew, no Gentile, no bond, no free. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3:26-29. People who cling to sectarianism miss so much. “I am of Paul, I am of Appolos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ,” is the very spirit of sectarianism. To be in bondage to that spirit is to be kept in spiritual infancy. Paul distinctly said, “… For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?” 1 Cor. 3:3, 4 For a Christian to remain in denominations and sects where there is division and strife continually is to condemn himself to spiritual infancy and to render himself quite incapable of partaking of anything stronger than milk. Paul knew this when he said, “I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.” 1 Cor. 3:1
Due to the lateness of the hour there is no time to lose. It is time to come out of spiritual Babylon. It is time to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean thing that God may be a Father unto us and we may be His sons and daughters. Therefore we must conclude that all who are in Christ live in a spiritual realm without and beyond the sects and divisions of our time.
Thirdly, it is the in Christ company who are partakers of the first part of the resurrection. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thess. 4: 15, 16. It will not be long now before this greatest event of all ages takes place — the resurrection of the mystical body of Christ. The dead in Christ shall rise first. The resurrection will certainly include all mankind eventually, “for the hour will come when all who are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of (aionian) life; and they that have done evil unto (aionian) damnation (destruction).” John 5:28, 29. No event of the past will equal the first resurrection. It was of this resurrection Paul spoke, saying, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Cor. 15: 51-53
The time of the first resurrection is at the sounding of the last trumpet. The sounding of the last trumpet is recorded in Rev. 11:15. The sounding of the last trumpet indicates the end of the great tribulation, for at the sounding of this trumpet great voices were heard in heaven saying, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.” Personally, I do not believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. There is every evidence to believe that the tribulation has already begun. There will be a resurrection and the saints, when He comes, will rise from their graves and be caught up to meet Him in the air. They will go out to meet Him and usher Him in in all His glory, that when He comes all the saints may come with Him. The last trumpet is at the end of the tribulation and at its sounding the dead in Christ arise.
In Christ the fullness of God’s nature dwells embodied, and in Him we are made complete. Col. 2:9. Weymouth. Circumcision signifies the cutting away of the flesh, and in Him we are circumcised. Col. 2:11. Weymouth. In Him we are crucified. In Him we are buried. In Him we are raised from the dead to become a member of Him in resurrection.
“And to you – dead as you once were in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your natural state – He has nevertheless given you life with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions. The bond, with its requirements, which was in force against us and hostile to us, He cancelled and cleared it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And the hostile princes and rulers He stripped off from Himself, and boldly displayed them as His conquests, when by the cross He triumphed over them. Therefore suffer no one to sit in judgment on you as to eating or drinking or with regard to a festival, a new moon, or a Sabbath. These were a shadow of things that were to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” Col. 2:13-17 Weymouth
The mystery of Christ is the greatest mystery of all the ages, but we are soon to see it unfold. It must surely have been at the sounding of the seventh trumpet that John heard a voice “as a trumpet” talking and the heavenly voices saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” When John turned to see who it was that spoke, he saw one like the Son of man, whose voice was as the sound of many waters. Many waters signify many people, many sons. He fell as a dead man from the glory of what he saw, for this was the fullness of the man Christ Jesus. It was the Christ as He will appear at the end of this age, Christ the head and Christ the body forming one Christ, the Christ of God. Then shall we hear the Savior say, “Here am I and the sons which Thou hast given Me.” Amen.
