IN CHRIST, HOW AND WHO?

Of the many assumed beliefs, one of most prominent ones found amongst most of Christianity is the idea that we must do something in order for God to place us in Christ. Or, to put it another way, everyone is outside of Christ until they meet a certain requirement (usually to believe), and then God puts a person into Christ.

I am aware that there may be other views than this one, but I am merely sharing the prominant one that you will most likely be taught.

For most of my life as a believer, I have always assumed that I was in Christ because of my coming to that point in time when I believed in Him. Although I have always been a questioner of things, that was one thing I had never questioned...until recently.

I was challenged in a tape series I had been listening by the statement that nowhere in scripture does it speak about us being in Christ because of anything we do. So naturally, I had 2 choices. I could do the easy thing, which most people do, and just ignore the comment as not true, and forget about it. Or I could take that comment seriously and seek for myself to see whether this fundamental (or so I thought) truth was in fact true.

As usual, that is precisely what I did, and, so far, I have not found one verse which backs up this idea of how one comes to be in Christ. In fact, I have since found that my being in Christ is the same reason you are in Christ, and that everyone is in Christ, even unbelievers. It is because ALL of humanity was, and always has been, in reality, in Christ, although not in the way we might think.

You see, before Christ was the Christ, or the anointed one, he was the word, the dabar of God. That dabar is the means by which all things came into existence as we know it today. Furthermore, it is by means of that dabar that all things continue to exist. In other words, in a very real way, in the spirit realm, his word has always contained, and will always contain, that which exists.

That dabar became flesh and was anointed as the one most call 'Christ' today. In that human body, and as a person, he accomplished all that his Father had prepared a body for him to accomplish. Yet, the dabar was still sustaining the universe, even while the dabar was being expressed through the humanity of Jesus.

When we read of the many 'in him' statements, particularly in Paul's writings, it is simply speaking of how God accomplished the various things he set out to accomplish. It was all done 'in him.'

Having said that, the idea that everyone was born in Adam, and thus, not in Christ, until one believes, and then gets placed out of Adam and into Christ, is not the way scripture speaks of being in Adam and in Christ.

Think of what it means to be born in Adam. To help us, we will use a seed to illustrate. What is the purpose of a seed? It has only one, which is to be planted, die, so that the life inside can be made manifest, grow, and bear fruit to further propogate itself. Until that happens, the seed is dormant, neither technically alive nor dead.

That seed has an outer shell, the part we see. This is meant to contain the life, the dna of the plant, inside it. That outer part represents Adam, the soulish man. Within that seed is contained every other seed that will ever exist out of it, BOTH the outer shell and life within. So we can say that every other seed that will eventually come, is in that original seed.

That life within, that inner part, represents Jesus, our life, and our spirit, that which is of our Father, breathed into us, that is, the outer shell, our body. Just as that life inside, combined with the shell outside, makes a seed, so to does the spirit in man, combined with the physical body, make a soul.

Contained also in that dna of the life inside the seed is the dna of the life of every other seed that will eventually come out of the original.

Taken together then, we can say that both the outer part of the seed and the inner part of the seed originally existed in both the outer part of the original seed AND, at the same time, in the inner part of the original seed.

Likewise, all that would come out of Adam and all that would come out of Christ existed originally in Adam, the man, from the beginning AND, at the same time, in Christ, the life by which anything that lives does so.

The shell part of the seed exists in order to die, thus releasing out of death the life within it. Until that occurs it is dormant, or, to put it another way, it appears to be dead.

All of that which is of Adam the man, must die. This is what Paul said, simply as a reality, when he wrote:

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
(1Co 15:22 WEB (R))

This statement only makes sense when it is read as a scale, whereby both sides hold equal amounts of the exact same thing. In this case, the thing being held is simply referred to as 'all.'

Also notice that the statements 'in Adam' and 'in Christ' speaks of the means by which all die, and also are made alive. This statement is true for every single human being. Every one of us who have ever lived have been born in Adam, not because of a decision we made, or because we believed it to be true, but simply because we existed originally in him when God formed him. Like him, that part of us that is in Adam must die. In fact, Paul speaks of that death in this way, that 'all ARE dying.' This is not something we have to make happen. This is also not speaking of something that no longer happens. It is something that is brought to pass for each of us by our existence in this physical realm. As the seed teaches us, it is the outer part of the seed that dies. This is a necessary part of the purposes of God. And, as stated before, that death is necessary because it is from that death that the life inside breaks forth.

This is what Paul meant when he spoke of those same ones, the ones dying in Adam, as being made alive. Out of our death in Adam comes life in Christ. In Adam and in Christ-the means by which these things takes place. When you read of anything occuring in Christ, just remember that it is the same as anything that took place or is taking place in Adam. Being in Christ in no more a choice for us than being in Adam. Both are true by God's design, and both are the means by which, when taken together, his purposes to have a garden full of beautiful fruit bearing trees are realized.

Ron