WE HAVE RUN through some astounding passages in Romans about the results of being in Christ. Before we can go on with any sense of certainty we must face this question: Is this being in Christ a theological concept, or is it a fact in life? If it is a theological concept, then we investigate it as we do any other verbal proposition and come to our intellectual conclusions. It may be intellectually satisfying, or it may not be. In any case the life is not changed one way or the other. Suppose this being in Christ is not a figure of speech, however, but a fact; then we are up against a life decision and a choice: we are actually in Christ, or we are not—what are we going to do about it?
If Paul’s emphasis on being in Christ is a theological concept imposed on the facts of life, it is one thing; but if it is something exposed out of reality—an experimental fact—then it is quite another thing. If it is a theological concept, it is out of harmony with the Christian faith. It would be the Word become word—a theology, a philosophy, a moralism. But the Christian faith is not the Word become word, it is the Word become flesh. That makes it different, radically different from all other faiths—all of them are the Word become word—they are good views. The gospel is not good views, but good news. This being in Christ cannot be a concept, but a condition. It is not a proposition—it is a position. We are actually in Christ. It is a world of its own, with its allegiance, its loyalties, its attitudes, its outlook, its very life. The person who steps into Christ becomes as different from the ordinary man as the ordinary man is different from the animal. It is not merely a change of location; it is a change of life. It is a world within a world—a world of freedom amid a world of bondage; it is heaven amid hell.
O Jesus, being in Thee is such bondage and such freedom; such exacting laws and such exulting liberty. When I am in Thee I walk the earth a conqueror, afraid of nothing, afraid of no one. My only fear is to step out of Thee. Keep me “in.” Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I pass from “in Christ” as a concept to an experience. I’m in Him, therefore in everything in Him.
