This study comes to us from an article written by Brother L. H. Bunker entitled,

“The Source of Our Life, Strength and Joy”

“To all the saints IN Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:1)

“The Apostle Paul was preeminently the Apostle of “the mystery” — that mystic union of Christ, the Head, and the Church, his spiritual Body. His letters abound in direct and implied references to the oneness of the Christ, a unity which Paul described as the “mystery which hath been hid from all ages and generations but now hath it been manifested to his saints.” – Col 1:26, 27, R. V.

Our Lord, during his earthly ministry, had also explained this oneness in words recorded in that treasured passage in the Fifteenth Chapter of John’s Gospel, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.”

Paul had never heard these precious truths from the lips of our Lord when on earth, but the deep significance of “the mystery” gripped his imagination, his understanding, and his heart. He never tired of writing and speaking about it to those newly converted Christians whom he addressed as “the saints and faithful brethren in Christ.” – Col 1:2.

The Authorized Version gives sufficient of the Apostle’s thoughts and reasoning to enable all who are “in Christ Jesus” to gain a glimpse at least of this profoundly important doctrine, and although much of the true meaning and beauty has been lost by the translators of the Authorized Version, these have been uncovered in the Revised Version of later date.

THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

 Paul described our relationship to Christ in-several ways. The first of these is summed up in the phrase “Through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In the letter to the brethren at Rome, Paul showed that being justified by faith we have “peace with God,” but he added that we have this peace “through Jesus Christ,” who provided the basis for our justification, “through whom also,” he continued, “we (the consecrated) have had our access by faith into this grace (this sanctification) wherein we stand.” (Rom 5:1, 2)

In the Second letter to the Church at Corinth (5:18) he wrote, “God reconciled us to himself through Christ.” “God was in Christ,” he explained, “reconciling the world unto himself” and, because we are called to be part of the Christ, he “placed in us the word of reconciliation (the truth in respects to the At-one-ment between Himself and men).”

The Authorized Version reads that “God… reconciled us to himself by Christ … and hath given us” (NOT “placed in us” as in the R. V. margin) “the ministry of reconciliation.” The truth is not lost entirely in the Authorized Version but the revision brings out clearly the otherwise hidden point of the unity of Christ and his saints. There are other passages where these fundamental thoughts are not clear in the Authorized Version., for example, in the original Greek Paul did not say that we obtain our salvation “by” our Lord Jesus Christ, as stated in the Authorized Version, but “through” him. (1 Thess. 5:9, R. V.)

Our heavenly adoption into God’s family was not as “children by Jesus Christ” but “as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:5, R. V.)

In other words, we were not adopted by Christ, but by God… through Christ. Again, the righteousness of God is evidenced to us “through [our] faith in Jesus -Christ” (Rom 3:22), NOT “by [the] faith of Jesus Christ” as the Authorized Version gives it.

“…the fruits of righteousness… are through [not by]: Jesus Christ” (Phil 1: 11), that is to say they are the fruits not of Christ’s faith, as the Authorized Version suggests, but of our own faith.

This aspect of Christian doctrine was a living reality to the Apostle. He not only gave thanks to God “through Jesus Christ” (Rom 1:8), and recognized that he received his apostleship “through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead” (Gal 1:1, R. V.), but he gave us a lesson in reverence when he offered praise “to the only wise God through Jesus Christ,” that is through him who, provided for us the way unto life. – Rom 16:27.

These two little words, “by” and “through” can have a definite impact on whether or not we are receiving the proper thought.

BEING IN JESUS CHRIST

The Apostle introduced another aspect of our relationship to the Lord in the thought that we are IN him.

Jesus illustrated this for us not only in the symbol of the Vine, but also in that of the Wedding Garment. The original meaning of the word translated “garment” was “anything to put on.” Paul put this thought into the words “As many of you as were baptized INTO Christ have PUT ON Christ. (Gal 3:27.) “There is therefore now no condemnation,” he wrote, “to them which are IN Christ Jesus.” (Rom 8:1.)

In other words we are justified, made right, covered by the “garment” of Christ’s righteousness, and thus protected from the condemnation which fell upon all men in Eden. Earlier in the Epistle (Rom 6:23) he had written that famous passage “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life” NOT “through Jesus Christ,” as in the Authorized Version, but “IN Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul then develops this thought by showing that he owed everything to the new life which he obtained in Christ Jesus. It was through Jesus Christ that this life became possible, but it was IN his Lord that he found the life itself. Nevertheless in his varied descriptions of this intimate relationship, he keeps us reminded that all these blessings come from the Heavenly Father. It is, he explained, “the high calling of God… in Christ Jesus” and “He that established us with you into [margin] Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts. (2 Cor 1:21 R. V.)

“Being confident of this very thing, that he which began a good work in you will perfect it [or as the Diaglott version reads “will continue to complete it“] until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil 1:6 R. V.) We can see that the Apostle’s confidence in his standing with God was based on the knowledge that he was IN Christ Jesus. In Rom 15:17 he expressed it in the following words, “Now IN Christ Jesus I can be proud of my work for God.” – Moffatt.

Being IN Christ Jesus was not only Paul’s source of life but also his joy and strength. It is obvious from his writings that he was conscious that his enjoyment of his heavenly Father’s blessings was only possible because he was in Christ Jesus. Without the covering of the merit of Christ’s righteousness, Paul knew only too well that God could do nothing for him during this Age and so, having found this life-giving covering in Christ Jesus, he had great cause for rejoicing in him. “I rejoice in the Lord greatly,” he wrote, and added in joyful confidence, “I can do all things in him that strengthens me.” – Phil 4:10, 13

Being IN Christ Jesus was such an entirely new life to the Apostle that from the abundance of his heart he gave us that beautiful and dramatic thought, “If any man is IN Christ, he is a new creature.” In the margin of the Revised Version there is an alternative rendering which makes Paul’s thought even more striking: “If any man is IN Christ, it reads, “There is a new creation.” (2 Cor 5:17) Paul was not describing merely a simple moral development, (but a physical change of nature as well).

To be in Christ, he showed, is nothing less than a complete change of nature (from the human nature to the spirit nature), and so he constantly emphasized that if we are to obtain this new nature, this new life in Christ Jesus, the old nature (the human nature, the will) must first be put to death sacrificially after the pattern set by Christ himself.

“Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to ‘God which is your reasonable service.” (Rom 12:1). “I have been crucified with Christ”, he wrote to the Galatians, “and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me, and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God…” (Gal 2:20) Once again the Authorized Version misses the full force of the Apostle’s reasoning when it translates the last phrase, “I live by the faith of the Son of God,” for Paul was clearly explaining that the life of faith which he enjoyed was his life in Christ.

This important feature of doctrine contains also the most precious assurance. Having emphasized that the saints IN Christ had “died,” Paul wrote “and your life” (that is the new life), “is hid with Christ in God.” (Col. 3:3) The manifestation of this new life is not, however, to be hid in any other sense; others are to see the effect of this great change and our Heavenly Father looks for evidence of the working of his spirit in us as we follow in the footsteps of our Lord.

In the sixth chapter of Romans the Apostle, having explained that our baptism INTO Christ was in reality baptism into his death, added “…that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk” (now) “in newness of life.” (Rom 6:4) In this new walk we have an active part to play, not only in developing the graces of the new creature, but also in crushing every remnant of rebellion by the old nature. We are to “mortify the deeds of the body.” (Rom 8:13) In Paul’s life this was no mere theory. “I bruise (discipline) my body,” he told the brethren at Corinth, “and bring it into bondage (subjection)” and, showing the gravity of this personal responsibility, he added, “Lest by any means after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected (disqualified).” (1 Cor 9:27) In this exhortation the Apostle demonstrates very forcibly that although in one sense the flesh is already “dead,” the dying human nature engenders within itself those forces which war against the new nature. So Paul exhorts us to fight to make sure that the destruction of our old nature is complete.

We will continue with next post.