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I’ve mentioned before that the most powerful two-word combination ever is the phrase: In Christ. It’s who we are as Christians. And interestingly, it is who we are whether we know it or not.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
The word life comes from the Greek word zoe meaning new life, or literally, the God-kind of life. So what kind of life is in God? In short, we could say our Father God has all wisdom, all ability, and all love.
Therefore, Jesus was helping us understand He is the way to the Father, the truth of the Father, and the container of the Father’s wisdom, ability, and love. In other words, Jesus is the container of LIFE.
Consider this:
“For God so loved [us] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting LIFE” (John 3:16).
“…I have come that [you] may have LIFE…” (John 10:10).
What else was Jesus talking about but that we may receive the God-kind of life? –that we may have ALL WISDOM, ALL ABILITY, and ALL LOVE within ourselves. EW Kenyon said, “[If this is true], it doesn’t seem to me that we can ever be weak or failures again.”
I love that! While it is so true, it also explains why people struggle with understanding who we are in Christ. The enemy is the author of weakness and failure, therefore he will do his utmost to keep us from receiving any revelation that would say otherwise.
But the truth is: We are in full union with Diety.
Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We might better understand this if He had said, “I am the trunk; you are the branches…”
The trunk is the main, solid structure which holds the branches. It is also the part that is seen, versus the roots, which are the hidden part of the trunk. Jesus said He was connected to the Father and had His life in Him. Then Jesus said because we are connected to Him, we too have LIFE flowing into us.
So think about this: No branch can be any closer to the vine than another branch. Every branch has the same union with the vine that they may bear fruit. (This eliminates all comparison!) You and I have LIFE in Christ. We have been IN-CHRISTED.
“In-Christed” is a biblical idea referring to the fact that we have been ENGRAFTED into Christ.
Romans 11:16 in the Message Translation helps us understand this concept: “Behind and underneath all this there is a holy, God-planted, God-tended root. If the primary root of the tree is holy, there’s bound to be some holy fruit.” Why? Because there’s LIFE in the vine! And that life extends to and feeds the branches (us). The branch is in full union with the vine. We (as branches) are in full union with God. What’s in Him is in us!
