With / In - Part 2
October 29th 2023,
Last week we started a new series called With / In.
This one is a really DEEP dive into the differences & compliments of what it means to be “with Christ” vs. “in Christ”, & we spent a lot of time talking about prepositions!
Our KEY VERSE is a great one to memorize–especially with this new understanding & viewpoint on the differences in these phrases.
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.
Another scripture we looked at is…
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.
We talked about the fact that “WITH” means you’re near, alongside…perhaps at the same time & place having the same experience…
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. A mom being IN labor is vastly different than just being WITH child.
As we were studying this, Heather mentioned that in her commentary they defined “WITH” Christ as having to do with UNITY … and being “IN” Christ as having POSITION and/or INSTRUMENTATION.
Galatians 2 – “I have been crucified WITH Christ…”
We were not WITH Jesus in the flesh, having the same experience along side Him when He was crucified, yet Galatians tells us “WITH Christ” nonetheless… could it be that, as Heather’s commentary mentioned, there was a UNITY with Christ at His crucifixion …
Likewise 1 Corinthians 15:22 (NASB) tells us, - 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
or HERITAGE or as children of Adam, when he sinned then our inheritance is sin as well. This inheritance…the fact We were not WITH Adam when he sinned but since we were “IN Adam” from the standpoint of POSITION that we are born “IN sin” makes us unrighteous or OUT of right-standing with God. (there’s that “WITH” or UNITY idea
again…we’re OUT OF UNITY with God.
But something about the crucifixion WITH Christ or our UNITY with Christ, makes us righteous again. The end of our key verse Galatians 2:20 – “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” the fact that Jesus “loved me & gave himself for me.” and then my our “FAITH in” the fact that Christ did this means that we’ve been brought back to UNITY WITH God and even more… now I am IN Christ!
Romans 5:8-11 – 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Here in Romans 5, Paul keeps explaining this Adam / Christ thing…
12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
15…For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. …
18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
So even according to these scriptures, we were IN Adam (IN=position.. Our POSITION is in sin, in Adam) … but since by the Grace of God and by Faith we have been ‘crucified WITH Christ, (WITH=union) Our union, allegiance, membership is with the crucifixion of Christ… then we get NEW identity, NEW heritage, NEW family name and move from being WITH Christ to our new position “IN CHRIST”.
Ephesians 2:8 – 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.
Remember: we live at the intersection of FAITH and BELIEF. Faith = GOD’s supernatural power based on His Word (Romans 10:17 “...faith comes by hearing & hearing by the Word of God…”)) and BELIEF = our action BECAUSE of the catalytic, supernatural faith God provides.
Again… Gal 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ (UNION) and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. (POSITION) 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.”
When we are crucified “WITH Christ” we have the opportunity to be made new IN Christ… new position, new heritage, new identity… 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. :
SO what are we supposed to think or do if we read here that we’re “dead to sin” yet we still struggle with some area of life… anger, gossip, lust, dishonesty… anything…
Let’s read one more fairly lengthy passage & see what we can learn…
Romans 6:What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk
in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
8 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.
Do we KNOW that we’re dead to sin?
Are we DEAD to sin but still living in it?
How much of our not ‘living in’ is because of not ‘knowing’ (“Knowing this…”)
I’ve used this illustration before but these two brothers, Zsolt and Geza Peladi of Hungary, were living in poverty, living in a cave, eking out a living selling what they could find in the streets or trash. But in early 2009, a group of lawyers from Germany researched till they found them and went to the cave to tell them that they, along with a long-lost sister in the US were the only living relatives of a woman in Germany, their Grandmother, who had left them an inheritance worth over $6.6B.
These brothers’ POSITION was a life of poverty simply because they didn’t KNOW that their grandmother had billions. Because Zsolt & Geza’s mother had severed ties with her family and then had abandoned her children, they didn’t have UNITY or the opportunity to be WITH their true family… and they lived in a POSITION of poverty because of not ‘knowing’.