|
"The glory
which You have given Me I have given to them, that they
may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me,
that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world
may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You
have loved Me." John 17:22-23
This precious prayer that the Lord uttered on the night
He was arrested should bring inexpressible joy to those
of us who have been saved. We have been glorified and
have been made one with the Father and the Son. Perhaps
what is most touching of all is knowing that our Father
loves us with the same love that He loves Jesus. How
blessed it is to be in Christ, -"To
those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints
by calling, with all who in every place call on the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from
God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor.1)
What does it mean to be in Christ and how do we get in
Him? First we cannot get in Him by our own power but
must be chosen in Him by the Father, -"Just
as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through
Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention
of His will." (Eph.1)
To be in Christ is to be identified with Him in His
death, resurrection and inheritance. We share in His
death through baptism which does away with our identity
in the first Adam. I was once Larry, the son of Adam,
the sinner, but now I am Larry, having been born of the
Spirit, a son of God in Christ.
Where my destiny once was connected to the first Adam,
now it is connected to Jesus, the last Adam in Whom I
have inherited eternal life in glory, -"The
first man, Adam, became a living soul, the last Adam
became a lift-giving Spirit." (1 Cor.15) And
where I once shared the curses of disobedience in my
father Adam, I now share the blessings and obedience in
Christ, the last Adam.
In Christ our sins are forgiven by the blood and our
old self identified with the first Adam has already been
crucified with Christ, -"Knowing
this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order
that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we
would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is
freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we shall also live with Him." (Rom.6)
In Christ sin is no longer our master, nor are our
daily sins imputed to us but come immediately under the
blood, -"Blessed are those
whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins
have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord
will not take into account." (Rom.4)
Adam is the head of a fallen race, but Christ
is the Head of a risen race, a new and eternal creation. Our
identity in Adam was crucified with Christ in order that
through the Spirit we might be born and joined to
Another, -"No one who is
born of God practices sin, because His Seed abides in
him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1
Jo.3)
The Spirit seals us in Christ, -"Having
believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of
promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance." (Eph.1) Sometimes
when a person wants to safely preserve an important
document they have it sealed in a container. The
document once had a separate identify but now shares an
identity with the container. Wherever the container
goes, the document goes - being sealed together the two
are one and share the same destiny. Since they are
sealed together, if the container is accepted, the
document is accepted. In Christ, we are accepted by the
Father and share His destiny.
|
