To be, or not to be. “In Christ” 9/14/14

To be in Christ is some what obscured. If we better understand what this means we can better know the gift of God given to us “In Christ” Jesus.

Let’s start with the name Jesus. Unlike how we think of names like John or Jane or what ever. Names for the most part have a certain ring without much association. Many parents may research name meanings to pick one but for the most part a name is not also used as a word. The name of our Lord is how ever different in that regard. His name has specific meaning. Like some cultures with the last name. Like Schumaker, or Smith Â or Carpenter, the name is also a word and associates with the trade of that family. We will see that Jesus came in the name of the Father.

When Mary and Joseph were instructed to give a name it was for this very reason. He meant what the word, or name meant. There is a lot ofÂ ambiguityÂ andÂ confusion over this name partially because of how it has evolved over the years. We use the name “Jesus”. But if we dig into how this name wasÂ developedÂ into the name Jesus we see that thereÂ is a lot justÂ underneath the surface to understand. The name Jesus was properlyÂ interpretatedÂ “Joshua” in Hebrews 4. All other renderings in theÂ Greek were translatedÂ “Jesus”.Â Both names Jesus and Joshua come from the Greek word #2424 and isÂ directlyÂ referencedÂ from HebrewÂ #3091 and means “Yeshua saved”.Â

We can correctly understand more about His name as we study the name Joshua. The Hebrew concordance shows # 3091 broken down comes from #3068+7 meaning Jehovah, or Yehovah, which is commonly translated into “Lord” and # 3467 and in Hebrew pronounced “Yahsha”. It means “savior” to make safe, free, delivered and succor. So when people heard the name they understood that Joshua/Jesus was the savior, or deliverer by His name. Isn’t that the very role Joshua theÂ successorÂ of Moses pictured?

And here again.Â WhenÂ the people cried out of Jesus saying “Hosanna, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”. They understood thatÂ HosannaÂ was this same name.Â AsÂ you trace it back from the Greek into Hebrew we see from Psalms 118.25 which is worded “Save now! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Nah means now. So what you would have heard would’ve been Yasha now! (save now) Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yasha. The name and the phrase are completely inter-changible.

When people said “Jesus” they knew His name meant savior, the one who makes free, safe and succor. The deliverer and Â redeemer.

So the one from God who comes in His name and saves. His name is what He does. When we say that we are “in Christ” we should understand it as they did that we are in the anointed of God who saves, frees, delivers, redeems and makes save and succor because we are “in Christ” and not because He must come back to do that later. If we think the Jesus Christ must come again to do that then we do not have faith in what His nameÂ meansÂ and I guess His name really doesn’t mean what the word means. So be it according to your faith. IsÂ He or isn’t He what all the testimony says He is?Â

So when John the baptist sent message to Jesus asking “are you the coming one, or do we seek another”. “Jesus denied not but said “go tell John what you see and hear. That the blind see and the lame walk”. All this accomplished immediately at His word. He demonstrated the gospel with “power unto salvation” which is to be with Him where He is in spirit and truth

Okay then His name means all those things. Now if we see that it means that in contrast to something then we get a bigger picture. God created the contrasts of light and dark and such for definition and the contrast of being “in Christ” is to not be “in Adam”. Here we have the old creature and the new creature. So when scripture says we are a new creature this is what it means. Just as all things are in Christ, it is the “all things” of the new creation. All things have their fulfillment “in Him”, in Jesus Christ. The first man Adam of the flesh with earthlyÂ possessionsÂ to return to dust and theÂ new man ChristÂ born of the spirit with heavenlyÂ possessions seated in the heavenlies. One creature with a sin nature and the new one “Righteous even as He is righteous. (1 John 5..)

So when scripture says that “He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies”. It is as it was pictured “in Joshua” They had to move forward into the promises and appropriate them by faith. We do this now that we have become a saint, meaning one whose identity is “In Christ” “If God said so, we are able”.

Didn’t we take on our new identity at baptism where we bury the old man by the working of faith to be raised new “In Christ”? That the Adamic nature has passed away and “all things become new” as we associate with Christ’s death and His resurrection?

This is what baptism means, and if we take ourÂ proclamationÂ from baptism at faith value then we do not have to look to our physical body to die for our being risen “in Christ” to be our newÂ reality. We died because He died. We are risen because He is risen, we are seated with Him becauseÂ He is, and we are all thatÂ right now because “As He is so are we in the world”. So if we are “In Christ” We are where He is and we have forgone the need to personally experience death to be resurrected at some future point in time, for “He by the grace of God has tasted death for every man”.

So the price is paid. Even as Christ told His disciples ” As I said to the Jews that you cannot follow me, you too cannot follow me now, but you shall follow me after ward”. He spoke of His death and resurrection. We follow Him now. And this means to follow Him where He is as He prayed in John 17. This is W.W.J.D.? Not random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty, but “That where I am you may be also”. To “follow theÂ LambÂ whereverÂ He goes”.

Here then we no longer identify with our old Adamic sinful nature by being “In Adam”, but we take His gift we identify as “In Christ” in His death and His resurrection now becoming our death and our resurrection gifted to us from the working of the cross and the life of Jesus Christ on earth. We proceed forward in this new life.

If Romans could be reduced to a main theme it is this which we speak. The new life in the spirit.

It is as if you are in a car race and you see a jalopy off the track, broke down headed the wrongÂ directionÂ with your name on it. You can go stand next to it inÂ shame or go to the winners circle where the victory party hasÂ commenced. Are you in the old creation of the flesh? Or the new being “In Christ”? And from Joshua “choose you this day!”

So our first step was baptism which was alsoÂ symbolized in the Passover. This is your cross over from death to life. Even as the Egyptians lost their first born, youÂ became one of Gods. We do not follow Moses for their dead bodies died in the wilderness because they would not believe. They had not faith. But we do however resume our journey with Joshua/Jesus. Our promise land is His word full of promises. And if you are new “in Christ” and all things are new, then unlike Adam who walks the earth created for him by the first word, Christ being the Word of God, and we walk in the promises, this happens “in Christ in the heavenlies, and not “In Adam” on earth. Then after we are in the land of His word we journey to the heavenly city that was portrayed in the earthly city called Jerusalem. You see even as Joshua was instructed to lead the people into the land to give them theirÂ inheritanceÂ and He did so, he still spoke of another dayÂ symbolizingÂ that what they did only mimicked the spirit but that there was also more.

The same wayÂ withÂ Jerusalem. And this was the reason the Lord had them build up and inhabit Jerusalem, to be evicted some 30 plus times. From 1 Corinthians 13.– when that which is perfect has come that which is in part is done away with”. This is speaking about spiritual harvests into the ever ready Kingdom of God when He takes away the physical. Hebrews 8..”He takes away the first to establish the second. The physical has trae in value for the eternal. Gal 4 But after faith has come you are no longer under the law, and other teaching tools.

So if we can see all the Old Testament earthen pictures as spiritual realities to pursue and obtain, then we do not need a physical cityÂ anymoreÂ at all. TheyÂ had the old pictures, but we have the prophetic word more sure. Their very accounts written down for our understanding sustain us in the here and now if we take them as heavenly manna and not being ignorant not knowing His word and power in the gospelÂ actuatedÂ by faith.

The only thing thatÂ keeps us out of truly being “in Christ”isÂ believingÂ in false doctrines. There are many who trade the truth for “the lie if possible toÂ deceiveÂ the elect” ThatÂ Jesus must come again to save us as though He didn’t perform salvation right the first time. Salvation is not a down payment as though it’s a holding cell. “You are complete “in Him” who is the head of all power and principality” now if you are “In Christ”.

You cannot be “In Christ” and not be with Him. And if you are “In Him” and with Him who said “Lo I am with you always”. Who also said “I will never leave you or forsake you”, why then must He come a 2nd time to do something as though you do not have? Â Pursue the matters in faith.