IN CHRIST JESUS
Galatians 3:26-28 NKJV
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
When I came back to the Lord in 1981, I began attending Lakewood Church. This was the old Lakewood Church in a tin building on Wayside Drive in Houston. The church was a long way from where I was living in Clear Lake City, but I gladly made the drive. I knew I was home the moment I walked in the door.
I became involved in serving as an usher and started attending a class for single adults on Sunday mornings. Church services were held Sunday morning and night and also on Wednesday night. The services always lasted more than an hour, but I did not care. I was happy to be there. But people were telling me things that puzzled me. They kept telling me that I needed to know who I was in Christ. And I did not understand.
The Kingdom of God is entered into. We do not know everything and are continually learning. If we stay with the truths of the Scriptures, we tend to see more and more. If we get frustrated at what we do not understand, we run the risk of limiting ourselves in our ability to comprehend. So, I stayed with the teachings and the things that I did not understand, and the Holy Spirit, the great teacher, helped me. One area He helped with was understanding what it means to be in Christ. And eventually the phrase, who you are in Christ, made sense.
Paul had great insight into what happens to the one who makes Jesus the Lord of their life. Much more than heaven when we die, being in Christ is a spiritual position with unlimited resources. In our verses for today, Paul, by the Holy Spirit, shares some powerful truths about who we are in Christ.
We are now all sons of God through faith in Christ. That means whether male or female, in Christ, we are all sons. Remember that sons were the only ones who typically received an inheritance in the day the Scriptures were penned. Women were treated as second-class in most cases. Paul goes on to say that we have put on Christ, and now whatever we are, naturally speaking, becomes secondary.
The Jews were big on being Jewish, but in Christ, that was secondary. So there was no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile, non-Jewish people. In Christ, being a slave or a free person was secondary. Imagine what a shocker this was for a culture steeped in slavery. And being a male or female becomes secondary to the spiritual condition of being united with Christ, being in Christ. Once again, this was a major revelation to a culture where women were not treated well. But for all these groups and classifications of people to be superseded by being in Christ, it had to be mind-blowing for the people in Paul’s day.
APPLICATION
I have recognized that the concept of being in Christ is both new and different for many people today. I can tell as I am speaking that many are puzzled, just as I was when I heard the truths that are spelled out in Paul’s letters to the churches. But stay with it. Spiritual understanding comes gradually, but the results gained by understanding are life changing. I am still gaining in my knowledge of what it means to be in Christ. I have not arrived, but the pursuit is well worth the effort.
PRAYER
Lord, please open my eyes so that I may understand the riches of what it means to be in Christ.