The phrases “In Christ, In Him, In Whom,” are phrases seen in Ephesians 1:3-15 in reference for reasons to “BLESS,… PRAISE… SPEAK WELL OF HIM,” who has “BLESSED” us! When we “Bless” God, we speak well of Him. When God “Bless’s” us, He does Good to us! And the way God has blessed us in Ephesians 1 is reasons for us to speak well of Him! The letter is written to those who are “In Christ,” and these blessings He has bestowed are exclusively for those and only those who are “In Christ!” So what does it mean to be “In Christ?”
Paul gives us insight in Galatians 3:26-28 where he writes,
“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.“{NLT}
“But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ’s life, the fulfillment of God’s original promise. In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. ” -{ Gal 3:26-29 The Message}.
To be “IN CHRIST,” is to be in the family of God, “children of God.” But are we not all ‘children of God?” John writes that there are TWO FAMILIES, “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. “-{1 John 3:10}. So, ‘NO’ not everyone is a “child” of God, only those who are “IN CHRIST!”
The Scripture speaks of being ‘In Adam’ and ‘In Christ.’ Two groupings. To be “In Adam” and to be “In Christ.” God sees two types of groups, families.
“ For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. “-{1 Cor 15:22}
“Adam, who was the “Federal Head” of the race, transgressed and fell, in reality, he took the entire human race with him [Illustration below]. Due to Adam’s sin all humanity was separated from God, inheriting death, “Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…” (Rom. 5:12) [Emphasis mine]
To be in Adam is to share in all that he did and was. That is, to possess by inheritance “spiritual death” and a sinful nature…to have by birth the inherent tendencies and character of the person Adam. By examining John 8:44 we can gain a fuller understanding of Adam’s fallen nature. The Pharisees were prideful, self-righteous sinners…rebels who were opposing Jesus, manifesting Adam’s nature, verse 44 reveals the source of this nature, “Ye are of your father the devil…” – {AW Weckeman}
All people are born “In Adam”- in the family of Adam , and are sinners by inheritance, birth and choice, but when God convicts a person of their sin and they repent towards God, turning their back on self rule, and to God and submit to the reign of Jesus Christ to rule over them, save them from the power, penalty of sin and submit to Him as their LORD and Savior, immediately they are translated from the kingdom of darkness and spiritual death to Life and newness of Life and the righteousness of Christ is now their standing before God.. They stand “complete”-{Col 2:10/ The word “complete” speaks of “no deficiency.” There is Mo Deficiency in their salvation; No deficiency in their forgiveness, No Deficiency in their Savior! “Therefore, having been justified by faith, [a]we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”-{Rom 5:1-2} Declares Right with God, a new standing in grace, in the eternal favor of God based on the sole work of the LORD Jesus on your behalf, to satisfy God’s perfect standing, we now are in the “family of God.’ as we are “IN CHRIST!”
“IN CHRIST” There is ETERNAL SAFETY AND SECURITY!
When Noah got in the Ark along with his family, he was “SAFE” from the judgement of GOD who flooded the earth with water and all were drowned except those in the ark! God’s wrath was poured out against the sin of people committed against Him.The “wrath of God,” is God is god’s response to sin and disobedience against Him! “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. “-{Rom 2;5}
“ The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.-” -{Rom 1:18-27}. People know who God is as He has made it evident to them in CREATION and in their CONSCIENCE but they CHOOSE to reject Him and they spiral down into depravity of sin exchanging the natural for the un- natural! And God’s wrath is upon them… But instead of taking us out, He is long suffering not willing, desiring any should perish but all come to repentance! God commends all people everywhere to repent, Paul said. But we are told they will not so as not to Glorify God, John wrote in the Book of Revelation.
John the Baptist spoke of the wrath to Come;”But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducee coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? “-{John 3:7}
The “Wrath of God,” is God’s righteous anger to punish that which is vile and offensive to Him, sin against Him. And Offensive to His holiness, righteousness and a violence against His Love.
“BUT GOD…”
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”-{John 3;17}. God has made Provision to escape His coming wrath by pouring out His wrath on His SON on the cross, and He who knew no sin became sin that we may become the Righteousness of God “IN CHRIST.” He took our sin and gave us His right standing with God and adopted us into His family and this we are “IN CHRIST”… CHILDREN OF GOD. SAFE AND SECURE ETERNALLY SO IN HIM…FROM THE WRATH OF GOD!
“Kept by the Power of God….”-{1 Peter 1:5} The word”kept” is a military term, “guarded,” and who is that guards our soul for eternity, so it can never be lost, abandoned or taken from us? God Himself! What a truth to meditate upon! Paul wrote,
“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.” No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. “-{Rom 8:31-39 NLT}
So we flee to Christ, and as we do in true repentance turning from self rule to submission to Christ’s rule in our lives we are translated from “IN ADAM” to “IN CHRIST” and as a member of His family, have been gifted a new standing with God, one of eternal favor- {Rom 5:2}, A New spiritual heart; and Blessings that Paul refers to in Eph 1:3-15 and much more. A Good study for you is to open your Bible and read Epehesians 1:3-15 and underline the phrases In Christ, In Whom, In Him…” and note the blessings, that are now yours as a member of the family of God!
John wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as He is. “- {John 3:1-3}
“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, “-{John 1:12}
“IN CHRIST”- CHILDREN OF GOD!
“ For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.“”-{Gal 3;26-28 NLT}