In Christ

I said yesterday that in Christ we exchanged places.  We did not ACTUALLY exchange places, since Jesus is and always has been sinless, and we still sin.  But, God reckons our counts us as though we are righteous IN CHRIST (meaning He imputes (gives) us Jeus' own righteousness).  God has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12); cast our sins behind Him ((Isaiah 38:17); promised never to remember our sins (Isaiah 43:25); hidden them from His sight (Isaiah 44:22); and cast them into the depth of the sea (Micah 7:19).  This is called "positional" righteous as opposed to practical righteousness - we are righteous in God's eyes ONLY because we are "in Christ.". 

I stress in Christ, or in Him, or in Jesus, because the Bible uses that phrase over 75 times in the New Testament, and since it is used so much, it is important.  We became "in Christ" when we were saved.  How did this happen?  According to Romans 6:3-11, we were "baptized into Christ Jesus".  Baptism simply means immersion.  John the Baptist immersed people into repentance.  Here we are immersed into Christ.  The passage says that believers died with Hm, are buried with Him, and rose from the dead with Him to go on to newness of life.  According to Jesus, "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you...If anyone loves Me, he will kee My word, and My Father will love Him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him." (John 14:16-17; 23).  So, not only are we in Him, but He is in us.  Our baptism into Christ joins us.  Therefore, Paul writes:  "For th death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Through Jesus' death and resurrection, our own baptism into Him, and Him indwelling (living inside us) - we become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).  He sees us as sinless in Christ.

Thiis positional sinlessness cause some to believe that once saved, we never sin.  Yet they forget that our position is only secure "in Christ".  The Pharisees were "self" righteous in that they believed they could earn their way to heaven through their own efforts.  Yet, Isaiah 64:6 says, "But we all are like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like a filthy rag."  That passage does not speak of our sins or faults, but says OUR "righteousnesses" are like filthy rags.  Jesus told His disciples, "It is the Spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing."  It was Paul's greatest desire that He might be found "in Chist", not having my (his) own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith."  Yet he goes on to say, "Not that I have already attaind, or am already perfcted; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me." (Philippians 3:9; 12).

Paul knew that in positional terms, He had God's ighteousness -- that of faith, not of works or self-effort, yet he also knew that He was not perfect.  He pressed on for perfection, not to be saved, not adding works to the law -- he had already said that he did not want the righteousness which comes through the law.  In Galatians 3:2-6, he told the church at Galatia that they were foolish to start in faith and then fall back on works.  Then why press on?  He stated in Philippians 3:12 that he wanted to "lay hold of" (know in a practical way) the perfection that Christ had already "laid hold of him) for.  In other words, he wanted to know in practical ways what God had already done for him positionally -- not to get to heaven, but because it is who he was "in Christ".    He simply wanted to be who He was.  And, actually, if our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), then it is only natural that we would want the same things that God in us wants.  But I will go more into that next time.