In Christ #2

This week is a continuation of last week on our Identity in Christ.

A) We are not:

1) what we do

2) what we look like - you are not your body - you have a body - it a earth tent. When you die the real you leaves your body. The immaterial side of you leaves your body.

3) In fact you are not a thought, you are not a feeling, you are not a will. You are a spirit who has those things.

B) The real of me is in Christ.

The real you has been born again. You have the nature of God. You have the life of God in your spirit man.

The Bible says "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).

And, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

This eternal life He came to give us is the nature of God

John 5:23 NASB95

23 so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

It is described by the Apostle Paul in:

Second Corinthians. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17,18 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

We see here that the new creation was prophesied in the old testament.

EZEKIEL 36:26,27 26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

We are what Christ says we are. Thats our Identity. Who we are in Christ.

The Word Christ means: Its not Jesus’s last name but a title.

christos in creek. It means the anointed one and His anointing. It’s were we get the name crisco. Its a oil that represents the anointing or the smearing of the Holy Spirit.

Representative:

In Adam/In Christ

Romans 5:15 NASB95

15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

1 Corinthians 15:22–23 NASB95

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,

Ephesians

Life Application Bible Commentary, Ephesians God’s Overflowing Kindness / 1:1–14

GOD’S OVERFLOWING KINDNESS

Ephesians

1. Our Position in Christ—“SIT” (2:6)

2. Our Life in the World—“WALK” (4:1)

3. Our Attitude to the Enemy—“STAND” (6:11)

Ephesians 1:3 NASB95

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

Notice it’s past tense: he has blessed us. This verb means “to benefit, to prosper, to give contentment.” Here Paul used the past tense (“has blessed”), indicating that this prospering of believers had already occurred—even from eternity past.

Because God has already blessed believers, we need not ask for these blessings but simply accept them and apply them to our lives. Because we have an intimate relationship with Christ, we can enjoy these blessings now and will enjoy them for eternity.

Life Application Bible Commentary, Ephesians God’s Overflowing Kindness / 1:1–14

The phrase heavenly places occurs five times in this letter:

1. Believers are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the “heavenly places” (1:3).

2. Christ is seated at God’s right hand in the “heavenly places” (1:20).

3. We have been raised up to sit with Christ in the “heavenly places” (2:6).

4. God is being made known to the rulers and authorities in the “heavenly places” (3:10).

5. We struggle against the spiritual forces of evil in the “heavenly places” (6:12).

Blessings: what are these blessing that He has blessed us with?

Life Application Bible Commentary, Ephesians God’s Overflowing Kindness / 1:1–14

OUR TRUE IDENTITY IN CHRIST

Romans 3:24

We are justified (declared “not guilty” of sin).

Romans 8:1

We await no condemnation.

Romans 8:2

We are set free from the law of sin and death.

1 Corinthians 1:2

We are sanctified and made acceptable in Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:30

We are righteous and holy in Christ,

1 Corinthians 15:22

We will be made alive at the Resurrection.

2 Corinthians 5:17

We are a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:21

We receive God’s righteousness.

Galatians 3:28

We are one in Christ with all other believers.

Ephesians 1:3

We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:4

We are holy, blameless, and the objects of God’s love.

Ephesians 1:5–6

We are adopted as God’s children.

Ephesians 1:7

We are forgiven—our sins are taken away.

Ephesians 1:10–11

We will be brought under Christ’s headship.

Ephesians 1:13

We are marked as belonging to God by the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 2:6

We have been raised up to sit with Christ in glory.

Ephesians 2:10

We are God’s work of art.

Ephesians 2:13

We have been brought near to God.

Ephesians 3:6

We share in the promises of the gospel,

Ephesians 3:12

We can come with freedom and confidence into God’s presence.

Ephesians 5:29–30

We are members of Christ’s body, the church.

Colossians 2:10

We have been given fullness in Christ.

Colossians 2:11

We are set free from our sinful nature.

2 Timothy 2:10

We will have eternal glory.

Life Application Bible Commentary, Ephesians God’s Overflowing Kindness / 1:1–14

IN CHRIST

Although you have the blessing of a special relationship with Christ, do you sometimes experience the tension of being a Christian in a non-Christian world? It’s like having one foot on a dock and one foot in a boat leaving the dock. Jesus acknowledged this when he prayed for us in John 17, saying that we would be in the world and yet not of it. The reason we experience this struggle is that we are “in Christ” (we have a relationship with him). Formerly we were “in Adam” (according to Romans 5, unbelievers are totally identified with Adam’s sin); we were fallen, thoroughly stained and twisted by sin, unable to please God. But now, by God’s grace, we who believe are “in Christ”: still fallen, still sin-scarred, but now we are made right with God through faith. When the pressure and temptation of the non-Christian world seem too strong, don’t be surprised and don’t be discouraged. God has begun a new work in you, reversing the effects of the Fall and restoring you to what you were intended to be, a new person—“in Christ.” Keep him as the Lord of your life.