To most of us, what we were before we found Christ so dominates our minds, so rules us, that we forget what we are now in Him.
We belittle our redemption and we magnify our failures.
Our weakness is ever with us.
We have forgotten that He is ever with us.
We have the “cross” religion rather than the resurrected life of the Son of God.
If we would persistently fix our thoughts upon what we are in Christ and what Christ is doing for us at the right hand of the Father, it would lift us out of weakness and failure, into His strength.
Set your mind on things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. (See Colossians 3:1–2.)
In Christ
“In Christ” is one of the key expressions in the Epistles.
Few have understood all that the Spirit meant when this expression was used by Paul.
You see, there are two expressions used: “In Christ” and “Christ in us.”
“In Christ” is our legal standing.
It is what He has done for us in redemption, what He has done for us in the courthouse of heaven.
When we speak of our being “In Christ,” that place began historically on the cross.
Jesus was never a substitute until He hung there.
He identified Himself with us when He took a physical body.
We did not become identified with Him until He hung on the cross and God laid our sin upon Him.
So the expression “In Christ” is the legal side of our redemption.
We were “in Him” in the mind of justice when He was nailed to the cross.
We were “in Him” when sin was laid upon Him. It was our sin.
We were “in Him” when He went down into the place of suffering.
We were “in Him” during those awful hours when He was separated from God and under condemnation, when the judgment for our sins fell heavily upon Him.
We were “in Him” when He paid the price and God legally justified Him, made Him righteous, and made Him “alive in the spirit.”
Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. (1 Peter 3:18 ASV)
We were “in Him” when He conquered the dark host of hell.
We were “in Him” when He put His heel upon the neck of Satan and took from him the keys of death and hades.
We were “in Him” when He rose triumphantly over all the host of the enemy.
We were “in Him” when He ascended from Olivet with His own blood into the holy of holies and there poured that blood on the mercy seat before the throne of God.
We were “in Him” when He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
We were “in Him” until His work was finished.
We were “in Him” until He was seated in the highest place in the universe.
We are “in Him” today, for Paul tells us God “raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6 ASV).
We are “in Him” in this sense. This is the legal side.
This is the courthouse side of the plan of redemption.
When the Father looks upon us, He invariably looks upon us as “in Christ” legally equal with our substitute.
Whatever He attempts to do in us experientially is on legal grounds.
This legal position in Christ guarantees an experiential fellowship with the Lord that will enable us to enter into any spiritual fellowship this side of heaven that will glorify the Father.
Our position is limitless.
All that He is to us legally, He can be experientially.
When I speak about being “in Christ,” I mean that we are in all fullness, all might, grace, authority, and dominion that Christ is in Himself.
When you speak about being “in Christ,” that is “as Christ.”
It is identification in the holiest, highest spiritual sense.
It is a oneness with Him that absolutely beggars any oral description.
These two wonderful words, “in Christ,” cover it. You see, the fact that we are “in Christ” means that from heaven’s point of view, Satan cannot reach us, nor touch us. His power is absolutely destroyed as far as we are concerned.
When Satan does touch us, it must surprise all heaven to think that such a thing could take place.
Satan must look upon it as a satanic miracle that he can break through the defenses of God and put diseases and sickness upon us and bring us under condemnation.
You see, there are two kinds of miracles: the miracles of God wrought by faith, and the miracles of Satan wrought by hate and unbelief on our part.
The Father is expecting us to occupy our position “in Christ,” where there is no condemnation, where we stand complete in Him, where His fullness and completeness become ours, and where the very strength of Christ becomes ours.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)
We are in a place where all grace abounds, where we are in the very grasp of omnipotence.
You see, there is no such thing as failure. There is no such thing as being defeated when one really knows that he is “in Christ,” for we were “in Him” in all His marvelous victories in redemption.
We are “in Him” now, seated in the highest place in the universe. All it requires is simple faith on our part to bring the power of God to bear upon our needs, whether for spirit, soul, body, finances, or deliverance. Our God is our very ally.