No Understanding

 

Ephesians 2:13

“But now in Christ Jesus,” what amazing words, what truth, and I’m sad to say that a large part of the population of the church has no understanding of “Who they are in Christ Jesus.  I am not writing as one who has lived the victorious Christian life since entering into Christ Jesus some 43 years ago, in a hotel room in Victoria, Texas.  I was taken captive by the enemy of my soul, captive by ignorance of God’s word, and by a bad case of the flesh.  But God, who loves me, kept sending messengers to tell me about life in Christ, and about already being eternal.  It may come as a shock to many who are in Christ that the “But now in Christ Jesus,” means the very moment Jesus entered into your life, it was an exchanged life, it was life in the fullness of Christ Jesus.

This life finds us in a body of many, “But as it is God who arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”  The first day, the moment, the “But now in Christ Jesus” happens in your life, you enter into the body of Christ, and He calls it the Church.  It does not happen by joining a group that meets in a building, that we wrongly call, a church.  It happens the moment the “But now in Christ Jesus” happened in your life, and God the Father who knows you has placed you in His Church to fill the spot only you can fill.  When the “But now in Christ Jesus” happens to you, the apostle Paul tells us, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16)

“But now in Christ Jesus,” we are more than conquerors!  The apostle Paul asks this question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:35) Paul answered his question in verse 37-38, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

The message is so clear, for all who enter into Christ Jesus are part of His body, the Church, and many will see tribulation, and distress, even persecution and famine, but none of those things can separate us from the “But now in Christ Jesus.”  Jesus said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  (John 10:10)   Jesus is not talking about in heaven, but now!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice