I Am in Christ Ephesians 1:1
Notes
Transcript
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Our identity in/with Jesus Christ
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Our experience of Being in Christ
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Our Conformity to Jesus Christ
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.
Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Our Righteousness in Christ
And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone,
but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord,
who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.