“IN Him” is a small phrase that can be easily overlooked or it can radically transform your life, as it has my life.
Let’s take a look at each word in that phrase. “IN” has
been well described as “the biggest little word in Scripture.” “IN” speaks of union of being united with.
“For as IN Adam all die, so also IN Christ all will be made alive.”
1 Corinthians 15:22
A person is either spiritually dead IN Adam or truly alive IN Christ. “Him” is the reference to Christ Himself. My true
walk is IN Him, IN union with Christ Himself, what a glorious truth!
Oh how God wants us, His children, to know about being in Him, of being IN His Beloved Son.
God spiritually united me to Christ, and because of this union I died with Christ and I was resurrected IN CHRIST. God took me out of Adam and gave me new life IN Christ. I became a new man IN CHRIST with a new walk IN CHRIST.
“For if we have become UNITED with Him in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be IN the likeness of His resurrection.”
Romans 6:5
In this verse, united literally means being grafted into Christ, as a branch is grafted into a tree. As a branch derives its life and fruit from the tree so do I derive my true life and
fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22) from Christ.
James Boice in his Romans commentary presents this helpful summary regarding the phrase “IN Him”:
What has the Holy Spirit done for our salvation? He has joined us to Christ so that we become the beneficiaries of all Christ has done...It is terribly important and perhaps the most
critical doctrine of salvation in Paul's writing. Paul used the phrases “IN Christ,” “IN Christ Jesus,” “IN Him,” or their equivalents, 164 times in his writings. We can hardly emphasize this enough.
My true walk is rooted in my union with Christ and His Cross and resurrection.
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death,
so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we too might WALK in newness of life.”
Romans 6:5
Because I am united with Christ in His death and resurrection I have a new walk. Because I am united with Christ in His life, I have a true walk.
I've had so much on my heart to share in
resuming my Rest Stops. Although in the last two Rest Stops, I may have tried to put too much into the small space provided.
The foundational truths of this Rest Stop are best learned in a verse-by-verse study of Romans. I hope to regain my stamina to again teach (walk) my brothers and sisters IN Christ through Romans in group settings and in one-on-one discipleship sessions as I used to love to do before my stroke.
“Rejoice IN the Lord always;
again I will say, rejoice!” Philippians 4:4.
Gregg