With / In - Part 1
October 22, 2023
Today we start a new series called With / In … it’s going to be a study of the differences AND the compliments of what it means to be “with Christ” vs. “in Christ”... In the last series–our flyover through the book of Acts–we talked pretty extensively about the NEW NORMAL Christian Life that we have when we are Baptized in the Holy Spirit. This is actually a step BACK into a look at the truth of what we have & who we are even without the superpower of the Holy Spirit.
Let’s jump right into scripture and go from there.
Galatians 2:20 (NASB) - I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This is a really well known verse, often quoted & memorized… it’s a great one to memorize for encouragement… but the main reason we’re looking at it as our key verse for this series is because it very clearly lays out the differences between these two words - “with” and “in”. Honestly, we COULD HAVE called this series “Prepositions” because we’re going to really pay attention to these specific words that CONNECT one thing to another in the sentence… Remember prepositions from school? “Above/beneath, after/before, before/behind/beside, on/off, over/under … there are lots. And of course “with” and “in” are part of this list too… our teachers used to say “anything a rabbit can be with a log…over, under, beside…”
So our passage here, Paul tells the Galatians it’s possible for me to be “crucified with Christ” and then for Christ to live “in me”. And we’re going to get pretty deep into what it means for us to be “in Christ” … but this Galatians passage has the idea of both IN and WITH so we’ll stick with that for now… say it again… [repeat scripture]
Let’s look at a few more scriptures & pay special attention to these prepositions…
Romans 6:8 (NASB) - Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let’s break it down a little & see what each of these IN & WITH passages can mean.
What does it mean to be “WITH” something or someone… you’re near, alongside…perhaps
at the same time & place having the same experience… “WITH”...
But to be “IN” something is an entirely different thing altogether. To be IN the Army is vastly different than just being WITH the Army. from grade school, the relationship between the rabbit & the log is vastly different when you say the rabbit is “IN” the log vs, “WITH” the log.
Let’s look at more scripture…
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NASB) - 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
Were we WITH Adam when he sinned? There having the same experience beside him? No… but we were in a sense IN Adam when he sinned.
The strange thing about this way of thinking is that our key scripture Gal 2:20 says that “we WERE crucified ‘WITH’ Christ…” not “in” Him…
This is where we work on some of the distinctions of “with” and “in”...
My name is Smith… it’s an overly-common English name, somewhere way back in my lineage, I have to assume that whoever took the first name “Smith” was a maker of something…a blacksmith for iron work, a silversmith, a goldsmith… but in any case, I’m a SMITH. I didn’t CHOOSE my name. I didn’t go through a list of good potential names & pick it. It wasn’t my doing at all… I’m a Smith because my father was a Smith, and he because HIS father, my grandfather, was a Smith. I was BORN as a Smith, INTO the Smith family. If I ACT like a Smith, I’m a Smith and if I act UNLIKE a Smith, I’m still a Smith. If I become the President of the United States I’m a Smith or if I become a beggar in the street I’m still a Smith. None of my actions will make me anything but a Smith. I was BORN into “Smith”.
Likewise we were BORN into sin. Since by birth we came from Adam, we are a PART of him. We are sinners not just because of our actions but because we were ‘in Adam’ with he sinned. , we sinned IN Adam because we were ‘IN’ him when he sinned. We wern’t nearby or WITH him… but we were IN him. Since this is true, none of our actions can make us LESS of a sinner anymore than any of my actions can make me less of a Smith. It is IN our nature.
It’s funny how often in our society we DO take the last name to MEAN something… if someone from that family has done something amazing and has “made a name for themselves” we say “OH, you’re a Sanders as in Prime Time DION Sanders… that must mean…” … “OH, you’re a GATES as in Bill & Melinda Gates that must mean…” … or negatively… “OH, you’re from the Dhamer family as in Jeffery Dhamer the serial killer…?” When I was a kid, there seemed to be ‘that one family’ from every small town that just had that bad reputation, “Oh you’re a JACKSON…” whatever… none of these people CHOSE to be that last name, it was chosen for them by the family they were BORN INTO.
But what if you could change that?
I know of a man who grew up in my small town…never knew his real father & mother, he was raised by other family, and any family he DID know about had a horrible reputation–his family NAME had a horrible reputation–but he truly never felt like he really fit that family anyway. He grew up & fell in love with a girl that I grew up with in my church: She was from a great, loving family, her father was a Doctor, upstanding in the community. This young man fit right in with THAT family and when he & the doctor’s daughter married… she didn’t take HIS last name. Instead this young man CHOSE to legally change his name to become a son of the doctor.
The bad reputation that he had because of his original last name wasn’t a problem of BEHAVIOR–he was a well-behaved, good man– But it was a problem of his HEREDITY. I’ll say it again: his problem was a problem of HEREDITY not BEHAVIOR. So to fix it, he couldn’t change his ACTIONS, he had to change his PARENTAGE. He became a son WITH a new last name so that he could do away with the name he was born INTO.
So it is with us… we are not crucified WITH Christ by changing behavior, we have to have be ‘reparented’.
Look at Eph 2…
Ephesians 2:1-10 (NASB) - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
That OLD name you were born INTO (sins & tresspasses) had to be done away with… so GOD “who is rich in mercy” … according to Gal 2:20 has CRUCIFIED us with Christ and according to Eph 2:5 “made us ALIVE WITH Christ”... and created a new “IN”. You are now IN Christ.
Let’s look at it another way: Annette’s seventh great-grandfather was a great Native-American chief, Joseph Brant … met with kings, princes & was a friend to George Washington. He fought against the French in the “French & Indian War” in the mid 1700’s. What would have happened to Annette and what would have happened to Trin/Ella/Levi if Joseph Brant had been killed in that war before he had children? They would not exist. It’s not possible for Joseph Brant to die his death & Annette/my kids to still live their lives. If HE had died, they would not live…their life is derived from him because, they were IN him.
Likewise, the problem of our Christian life is that we were born IN sin because we were
born IN Adam. How then can we get “OUT” of Adam & out of sin?
Watchman Nee :: There is only one way. Since we came in by birth we must go out by death. To do away with our sinfulness we must do away with our life. Bondage to sin came by birth; deliverance from sin comes by death—and it is just this way of escape that God has provided. Death is the secret of emancipation. “We... died to sin” (Romans 6:2).
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV) - Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 (NASB) - 21 For since by a man came death, by a man also came the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.