The key phrase that runs throughout Paul’s epistles some 64 times is the recurring phrase, the central theme of Paul’s theology, which is the expression “in Christ” or “in Christ Jesus”. This phrase is sometimes expressed by other synonymous phrases such as in Him, by Him, through Him, in the Beloved, together with Him, etc. If these phrases were removed from Paul’s writings, there would be very little left of Paul’s exposition of the good news of the gospel.
It is most important to understand what Paul means by the phrase in Christ or its equivalent. They are the foundational words of the gospel. Failure to understand them deprives believers of fully understanding the incredibly good news of the Everlasting Gospel and robs them of the joy, peace, and assurance of salvation.
There is nothing we have as Christians except we have it in Christ. Everything we enjoy and hope for as believers- the immediate and continuing joys of Justification by Faith, the ongoing experience of Sanctification, and the hope of Glorification– are ours only in Christ.
Outside of Him we have nothing but sin, condemnation, and death.
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” Ephesians 2:1-3
The phrase in Christ is based on Biblical solidarity, which simply means “the many in one.”
Scripture clearly teaches that God created all mankind in one man, Adam, and the word Adam means mankind in Hebrew.
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The word man is Adam in the original.
In the same way Paul refers to Christ as the last Adam.
Like the first Adam, Christ also represented and substituted the entire human race in His work of redemption.
Consequently, when Adam sinned, it affected the entire human race in four ways: sin, alienation, condemnation, and death.
But the incredibly good news of the everlasting gospel is that, when Christ came to this world, over 2000 years ago, He came to reverse the damage of the first Adam and redeem the entire human race.
Hallelujah!
God re-wrote the history of mankind through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, changing its legal status from condemnation unto death to justification unto life.
This this is what the truth as it is in Christ is all about.
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15: 21- 22.
