Many believers do not understand what it means to be “in Christ” and therefore do not act as though it is true, so they do not realize what they have already inherited.
The Father has declared in the Word what we are in Christ.
We find believers seeking to obtain what love has already given them.
We ought to know what we are and what we have in Him.
First, what we have in Christ. “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13–14).
I shall use in this the first person singular, as W. J. Conybeare suggests.
Then it would read, “Who delivered me out of the authority of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom I have my redemption and the remission of my sins.”
Our redemption is from the dominion of Satan, and when Christ arose from the dead and presented His own blood before the supreme court of the universe, and it was accepted, our redemption was a settled thing.
Then He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. When he sat down, Satan had already been defeated.
Everything that justice had demanded had been accomplished.
Now God has a legal right to give mankind eternal life, but He had no right to give man eternal life until there had been a perfect redemption.
So, Romans 3:21–26 is the Holy Spirit’s exposition of this blessed reality: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets” (verse 21).
You understand that man’s basic need was righteousness, the ability to stand in the Father’s presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority, and so He declares that God has unveiled a new source of righteousness, and that source of righteousness is witnessed by the law and the prophets, “even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ” (verse 22).
And the strange thing is that it is based upon simple faith in Jesus, or in acting upon what God has said in regard to His Son.
“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (verse 24).
You understand, He was delivered up on the account of our trespasses, and He was raised when we were justified.
Now we can understand that we were justified freely by His grace, through the redemption God wrought in Christ, whom He has set forth to be a sin substitute on the ground of faith and His blood.
God did this to show His righteousness because He had been passing over the sins of Israel for fifteen hundred years.
Now it is demanded that the penalty be paid.
Jesus met that penalty and paid or redeemed the promises that were made each year by the high priest on the great Day of Atonement.
Jesus cashed in all those promissory notes and brought redemption to every man who had been blood-covered under the first covenant.
I think we ought to read Hebrews 9:12: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.”
I want you to notice that this redemption is an eternal redemption, that when Christ carried His blood into the Holy of Holies, and the supreme court of the universe accepted it, redemption was a completed thing.
For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? (Hebrews 9:13–14)
Dead works are those works that are done apart from the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it is called working for God not co-laboring with the Holy Spirit, it produces no eternal fruit.
Did you notice that the blood of bulls and goats only cleanses the flesh?
The cleansing of the flesh means the senses; it did not cleanse the spirit; it did not make a person a new creation.
And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Covenant, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. (Hebrews 9:15)
Now you can understand what he meant in Romans 3. He died for the sins of those living under the first covenant that had been covered by blood from year to year, that they might have their share in the inheritance and in this redemption.
The redemption “in Christ” not only reached forward to us but reached backward and redeemed every man under the first covenant who had trusted in the blood of bulls and goats.
Hebrews 9:26 now becomes clear to us: “but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
End synteleia– entire completion.
Ages-aiōn– Plural-this means the Kingdom has come which is in another dimension, where we have delegated authority in the heavenly places in Christ to enforce the kingdom of heaven upon the earth until all the nations become the kingdom of God and then Jesus delivers the Kingdom to the Father, and then the Kingdom will expand throughout the Universe where we will have ages to come.
Put away athetēsis– means cancellation. Sin hamartia– noun, singular, it refers to the old man. What we inherited from the first Adam. Jesus was the last Adam, which means the whole human race died with him on the cross-When Jesus was raised from the dead he became the second man, the head of a new race of people, the offspring of God, the same species. This is the Legal Aspect of Redemption; the vital aspect is a different subject.
Jesus has dealt with the sin problem in the eternal realm.
Those who are still lost have a sin problem, the new creation may have a sin habit, but that will be dealt with in the vital aspects of redemption,
When you find out your true identity now in heaven “in Christ”, it will affect your life on earth, because you will see yourself in a different way.
The sin problem has ended, and when you receive Jesus as the Lord over your spirit you have the legal right to eternal life, because God so loved him that He gave him His only begotten Son.
Redemption then is a settled fact, and it is possible now for a human to receive eternal life on legal grounds.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ.
Notice very carefully that in this new creation, the person who accepts Christ receives eternal life.
The old nature of the adversary is driven out of them, stops being in them, and a new nature is given to them.
Their spirit has once for all been enlightened.
Their soul, mainly “the mind” will need to be renewed. Our soul consists of our mind, will, emotions, imagination, our physical sense reasoning, our conscience and our daily choices.
The mind and spirit must be brought into fellowship (agreement) with each other, and that can only be as the mind is renewed through the Living Word.
Which may be different from the kind of teaching you were raised up in, which causes strongholds in peoples belief systems, which most likely will have to be dealt with through the intercession of others in the body of Christ, because these are strongholds in believers minds, and they are in deception because they have believed lies, their minds have to be deconstructed, before they can be renewed.
It is very important that the believer sees this fact, of legal redemption.
Romans 6:5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin, might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
The same truth is brought out in Galatians 2: 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God.
Our crucifixion and union with Christ on the cross belong to the legal side of the plan of redemption.
All that He did for us in His redemptive work is based on legal grounds.
He was delivered up on account of our trespasses.
He died for our sins.
He arose for our justification (that means to be declared righteous by YHVH).
Now notice Romans 6: 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin, might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
We died together with Christ. We were raised together with Him.
So, the old man, the sin nature, died with Christ.
If you continue to live in sin your life will be miserable, because your spirit has now a yes in it to God and desires that which is spiritual.
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and confess Him as our Lord, we become a new creation, and experientially that old man stops being and the new man in Christ takes his place.
But you still have a physical body with desires and a soul (human desires) that can be contrary to God, which means incompatibility, until it is dealt with.
This legal redemption has been a hard problem for many people. They say, “How can that be true in the face of Paul’s experience in Romans 7?”
Romans 7:7–24 is Paul’s experience as a Jew under the Law.
It should not be the experience of a new creation, but it is for many because they did not have an encounter with God as Paul-Saul did.
Paul said, “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin” (Romans 7:14).
The Law was fulfilled in Christ. No new creation today is under “the Law” today, including the moral law, there were three aspects to it.
We are under Grace which is the empowering presence of God to do what we could not do in ourselves.
So, the law of liberty we are under is much higher. To hate your brother is murder, “The Law” only dealt with the physical act of killing someone (but defending yourself is not murder, a lot of people had to kill people during wars, which is more like self-defense).
The Law said you cannot commit physical adultery, under grace if you just imagine it, you are guilty.
But as we walk with God, we begin to see the opposite sex the way that God see’s them, not looking at their physical appearance as an object of sexual gratification.
It is true, that a lot of Jews didn’t know that they died with Christ and that his old Law and the first covenant all ceased to be in Christ.
There was a transitional period, before what Christians call the second coming, which was actually the coming of Jesus where he allowed the roman armies to destroy the temple and the city of Jerusalem, where it made it impossible for the Jews to continue in the ceremonial aspect of “The Law” in killing animals.
But there are many comings of the Lord throughout the bible, and we are living in the time of His presence Parousia so that when your soul is renewed, he will come into your house and sit on your bed or appear to you, or you can enter the realm of the Spirit which is as close to you as the air you breath which is in a different dimension, like a parallel universe, and interact with the church in heaven and so forth which I will teach about later, I am just trying to teach on the legal aspect of redemption, so that you can see yourself the way YHVH sees you.
The Law was the Jews’ schoolmaster until Christ; not as some translators try to make us believe, that the Law is our schoolmaster to lead us to Christ.
The Greek text shows conclusively that the Law was until Christ, and when Christ arose from the dead and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, the Mosaic law stopped functioning.
There is no one under the Mosaic law today. They can’t get under it.
They may attempt it as many are doing today, but it is only a deception.
We have a new law that belongs to the New Covenant, of which Christ is the Head, and that new law is to govern the new creation in Christ Jesus.
So, 1 John 5:12–13 becomes a blessed reality:
12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
The believer has eternal life.
He has passed out of death into life; out of the realm of Satan into the realm of Christ; out of the realm of spiritual death where Satan reigns, into the realm of eternal life, where Jesus Christ reigns.
Notice the first sentence in 1 John 4: “4 You are (belong to) of (motion into) God, little children.”
We are of God. That fits in perfectly with John 3:6–7, where Jesus said to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
The new creation is born from above.
They came from God.
This new nature flowed out from the very heart of the Father into their spirits, when they crowned Jesus as Lord of their lives.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
When we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, then Romans 8:31–32 became an actual reality:
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
In the prior verse, you will notice that He has blessed us with “all spiritual blessings.”
Everything that Christ wrought in His redemptive work belongs to the new creation.
You do not need to pray for it or seek for it, nor believe for it; it is yours.
Philippians 4:6–7 gives us just another angle of our inheritance in Christ. “6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Then a miracle happens: “The peace of God, which surpasses all natural understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
When we know what our redemption means to the Father, and what He intended it should mean to us, then we pass out of the realm of worry and fear and doubt.
Not that I speak in respect of need: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content [independent of circumstances]. (Philippians 4:11)
Why can we be independent of circumstances? Because verse 13 says, “13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
You see, this redemption in the mind of the Father means a new creation.
It means sonship with all its privileges. It means we have come into the family and have family rights and privileges now that nothing can interrupt as long as we walk in love with Him.
The second fact is “what we are in Christ”.
It is necessary for us to review a little.
We are redeemed. Satan’s dominion over us is ended. He no longer reigns over us.
Not only are we redeemed, but the moment we came into the family of God, we became Satan’s master.
God has given to us a legal right to the use of Jesus’s name, and Matthew 28:18–20 declares:
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
How is He with us?
He is with us, in His name, in His Word, and in the person of the Holy Spirit and Christ in our spirit.
In Mark 16:17–18, He said,
17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
And verse “20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.”
You see, He has not left us at the mercy of an enemy.
The youngest babe in Christ has a legal right to the name of Jesus.
Not only that, but they have a legal right to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
This must get into your spirit.
Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1 John 4:4)
What will He do when He comes in? He will guide us into all truth or reality. (See John 16:13.)
He will take the things of Jesus and unveil them to our hearts. He will impart to us the very ability of God.
If you remember, before Jesus went away, He told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they be endued with power from on high.
That word power means ability, miracle working power.
The Holy Spirit was going to come into them with divine ability and make them masters of circumstances, masters of situations, masters of nations.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. (Isaiah 41:10)
That belongs to us today. That is a picture of the new creation.
Not only did He give us eternal life and the great mighty Holy Spirit to live in our bodies, but He has made us the righteousness of God in Christ.
Jesus’s life during His earth walk was amazing to men of physical sense knowledge.
Righteousness made Jesus absolute master of every situation, a master of all men because all men were sin conscious. Jesus was not.
Shakespeare said, “The conscience [sin] makes cowards of us all.” He struck the root of the sin problem.
When a man becomes a new creation, he receives the same righteousness that Jesus had.
Jesus becomes his righteousness. (See 1 Corinthians 1:30.)
That righteousness makes him a master of demons; makes him a master of circumstances.
The are not afraid of Satan, or anything Satan can do or has done.
The early church lived the new creation in reality. They were the righteousness of God in actual demonstration.
Not only did the early Christians have righteousness given to them but they were made the righteousness of God in Christ.
When they received the righteous nature of the Father, that nature made them righteous.
When they received the love nature of the Father, it made them sons of love.
That is the reason they could suffer any kind of persecution and yet love the persecutor.
Jesus loved Judas and the man who drove the nails into His hands and feet.
Paul loved the men who beat him and stoned him.
Stephen, when he was dying, said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (Acts 7:60).
That was a new kind of love the world had never known.
God is love.
The new creation has the love nature of the Father.
There is another outstanding feature that we must not overlook.
We have known God as a loving God, a just God, a holy God, but we have never thought of Him as a faith God.
That is an outstanding characteristic of God.
He created the universe by faith.
Everything that came into being at creation, came into being by faith. All He did was to say, “Let there be…” and things became. God is a faith God.
No doubt everyone reading this will look back at their early Christian life.
When they were first born again, they were filled with love; they were filled with zeal that was born of faith.
Could they have had the right teaching, they would have walked into a life of faith that would have shaken the community.
You see, we become partakers of the faith and nature of God.
That explains that passage in Romans 12: 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
Every person at the new birth has a measure of faith. That measure can be increased when they use it.
But under most teaching, what faith was given to them in the new birth is usually destroyed by physical sense knowledge teaching.
We must not neglect Ephesians 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
If we could continually remember that we are God’s new creations, that Jesus was the Author and Finisher of these new creations, just as He is the Author and Finisher of faith, then life would be victorious.
He gave birth to us in the agony of His substitutionary work. We are the product of that birth.
You see, we have become the sons and daughters of God. We remember that Jesus is our example.
Jesus never tried to believe. He acted on the Word of His Father. He never sought faith.
He said He did what His Father told Him to do.
We urge the unsaved to get something. We should urge them to act on the Word.
Jesus belongs to them. All they need to do is to confess His lordship, and the moment they do, they receive eternal life.
Believing is acting on the Word.
The believer is one who has acted on the Word.
The unbeliever is one who has not yet acted.
The one is a possessor; the other may be merely a seeker after something that they have not claimed as their own.
I want you to know in your heart that you are what He says you are.
He wants you to act it, to confess what He has done in you; what He has made you to be.
This will glorify Him and strengthen your faith.
To deny who we are, and to tell what Satan is doing in our bodies or minds, is denying what we are in Christ.
All things are possible now, for we are the children of God. We are united with Him.