Being IN Christ Jesus was also explained by the Apostle in another series of word pictures, in the first of which the consecrated followers of the Lord are likened to members of his Body.

In the twelfth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians he used this metaphor to explain how unity in Christ’s Body permits of great variety in the personal qualities and abilities of its members. “Now hath God set the members every one of them in the Body as it pleased him.” “God tempered (composed) the Body together.” “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Cor 12: 18, 24, 27) “One Body and one spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling.” (Eph 4:4)

The thought that we, with all the imperfections that are associated with us, are part of the Body of Christ is sometimes difficult to comprehend. Even as new creatures we drag around with us “this body of death,” and although “with the mind [we] serve the law of God … with the flesh,” we serve “the law of sin.” (Rom 7:24, 25, R. V.) In this life our weak flesh has to do service on behalf of the new creature, so Paul explains that we are to use our new wills (the will of Christ in us) “as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” (Rom 6:13) Our first responsibility, he shows, is to ‘keep our justified human nature under control.

In the parable of the Vine, Jesus explained that under the influence of our human inclinations our new nature may also develop unfruitful growth. Our Lord told us that “every ‘branch that bears fruit” God prunes so “that it may bear more fruit.” He will cast away the weak unfruitful growth, but he performs this work in us only because we are already united to the Vine. In other words, if we are to have God working in us to perfect us, we must first be (in the vine), IN Christ Jesus. God will continue this work in us so long as we show signs of fruitage, but if we prefer to be drawn away from the sun and air and allow our old human inclinations to draw us down into the unhealthy shade where the branches bear no fruit, then he will cut us off from the Vine, and we shall be out of the Body of Christ. Paul understood this so clearly that he told us over and over again that our chief responsibility was to suppress those natural inclinations which would draw us away from Christ.

Using another metaphor he explained that we are stones built up upon the foundation laid by the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the corner stone. United in him, every part of the building, closely joined together, will grow into a Temple consecrated by its union with the Lord and, through union in him you also are being built up together, to be a dwelling place for God through the spirit. (Eph 2:20-22) In this picture we can envisage as with Solomon’s temple (the type of the ‘Christ in glory) that each stone has to have its imperfections chiseled and polished away before being fitted into place. So we too are being prepared as “living stones,” Just as the typical temple was dedicated for use before it was completed, so it would’ appear that most of the Temple “stones” are now united with the “Head” and the antitypical Temple nearing completion is now in service, preparing for the great work of blessing all mankind. Paul expressed an associated thought in the words, “God being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us together WITH Christ and raised us up with him and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Eph 2:4-6 — see also Col. 3:1)

Probably the most beautiful picture (or metaphor) of our relationship to Christ is that of the Bride and Bridegroom. Paul, who regarded his spiritual life chiefly as a war against the flesh, had little to say on the bridal relationship, but to him it was pre-eminently the symbol of purity. “I espoused you to one husband,” he wrote to the Church at Corinth “that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.” (2 Cor 11:2 R. V.) In his first letter he had rebuked them in the words, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? … But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1 Cor 6:15-17)

CHRIST IN US

With this thought we pass to the last of Paul’s studies of our relationship to Christ. He showed that our life IN ‘Christ is dependent on our having the spirit of Christ in us, for that spirit is our source of life. “If any man has not the spirit of Christ,” he wrote, “he is none of his” (Rom 8:9) or, in other words, only that which possesses the spirit of “life” can exist in the “living” Body of Christ. Paul gloried in the knowledge that “Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20), and in his first letter to the brethren at Corinth he affirmed that “we have the mind (the holy disposition) of Christ.”

Paul also showed that if we are to have the privilege of Christ dwelling in us, we must expect to attract to ourselves the same sort of criticism and undergo the same ostracism and humiliation which fell upon him. He reminded us that we have consecrated to a life of sacrifice, during which we must expect to suffer without fighting back. Paul also identifies this aspect of his new life with that of his Lord, and described his own experience as “always bearing about in the body the dying [literal, the putting to death] of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body” (2 Cor 4:10) or, in other words, just as our Master, who was without sin, sacrificed his whole life, so must we do likewise, and by cutting out all else, make room for our Lord to dwell in us.

With similar thought Paul described himself as “a bond-servant of Jesus Christ.” The bond-slaves of Paul’s time had the brand-mark of their owner. In the same way Paul looked on the scars of the ill treatment he had received as “the marks of Jesus” in his body. (Rom 1:1; Gal 6:17) Paul regarded it as a great privilege to be his bond-servant and he invites each one of us to “suffer hardship with me … as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2 Tim 2:3) and gave us as a guide the simple standard, “If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a bondservant of ‘Christ.” (Gal 1:10) He obviously did not regard it merely as a duty, but as a great privilege. He lived in the spirit of Christ’s consecration, “I delight to do thy will, O God,” and did not believe in suffering with a heavy heart.

The Apostle also set us an inspiring example in his attitude to his bond service. To Paul, affliction was evidence that the Father thought him worthy to share in full the life of Christ, and thus it was a cause for rejoicing. In the letter to the “saints IN Christ Jesus at Philippi” he emphasized this privilege that “it hath been granted in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer in his behalf.” (Phil 1:29) This one many who profess faith in Christ forget about.

“Yea, he wrote to the youthful Timothy, “all that will live godly IN Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” (2 Tim 3:12) Perhaps this rejoicing demonstrates above all else the spiritual vitality of the Apostle. When in company with Silas he had suffered physical ill treatment, been thrown into jail and deprived of all outward source of comfort, he did not react with heaviness of heart, but “sang praises unto God.” “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake,” he wrote to the Colossian brethren,” and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions (sufferings) of Christ in my flesh, for his body’s sake.” (Col 1:24) There was also a challenging note in his attitude to adversity.

He posed the question as to whether these afflictions shall prove so trying as to “separate us from the love of Christ?” “No,” he replied, not “tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword . . . in all these things,” he triumphantly concludes, “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” – Rom. 8:35, 37, R. V.

If we would emulate the great Apostle let us first follow his example and make sure that the working out of our consecration keeps us living IN Christ Jesus. This is the only source, not only of our new life, but also of our strength, our joy and our confidence. Paul sums it up for us in a very few words in the eighth chapter of Romans, “. . . “ye are… in the spirit (IN Christ Jesus), if so be that the spirit of God dwells in you…. If any man has not the spirit of Christ he is none of his…. If by the spirit ye mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live. For as many as are led by the spirit of God these are sons of God . . . heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified with him.” – Rom. 8:9, 13, 14, 17, R. V.

Continued with next post.