One morning after church perhaps a generation ago, waiting for me out on the parking lot were two younger guys, whom I knew and trusted.  One asked me whether I understood the meaning of the Apostle Paul’s term, “In Christ”, which we find sprinkled generously throughout the Newer Testament.  I replied that I had always presumed it to mean that we’re trusting in Him as our Savior, and therefore we’re “in Christ.”  Then I looked at both of them and shrugged!

The other gentleman smiled and asked, “Would you like to take a deeper look into what it means?” while handing me an audio-cassette and a typed sheet listing numerous Scripture passages.  I think I still have that sheet, tucked in a Bible in my office!  The following is the fruit of my re-research and my deeper dive into the Scriptures for a broader, firmer grasp of this ground-floor Truth.  We’ll begin with:

Part I – The Family of Earth: All in Adam.

 “GOD formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (literally ‘lives’) and man became a living soul.”  (Genesis 2:7)  The name “Adam” means “mankind”. The Creator vested in Adam the power to generate collective life in his own likeness.  Adam’s wife, Eve, was in Adam, as his body was the source of the substance that comprised her body, her tissue, her cells and DNA. (Genesis 2:21-23)   Note that Adam aptly describes Eve here as “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh … for she was taken out of man.”  (v.23)

Adam is the common biological father of the human family; and all the life that’s ever been generated on earth is Adam’s flesh.  He was the first “representative man”, and all who’ve drawn breath since Creation were “in Adam”, and are therefore extensions of his life.  Adam was verily the human race in one man, and you, as a partaker of this same flesh, are an integral constituent of Adam’s family tree!  Eve and her children, and her children’s children, and so on, were wholly Adam’s flesh, as they were all in him. The origins of the entire “flesh-pool” of humankind were in one man.  Let’s revisit Acts 17:25-26. “GOD … gives life and breath to all … and has made of one (blood) all nations of men.”  Thus, all of mankind are literally one flesh, one blood, one family – all from one, all in one!

GOD created Adam with conditional immortality, the potential to live eternally. But He also entrusted Adam with free moral agency, or free will.  No, freedom of choice did not originate at Burger King!   GOD gifted Adam with freedom to think independently, to reason, deduce, and choose to submit or rebel. Our first parents yielded vital freedom when they chose to trust GOD’s adversary in Eden; however, the Savior Jesus purchased it all back the day He went to Calvary!

Scripture says that we, the generations of Adam, have inherited his wayward nature, and have developed the propensity to seek our own path. We’ve cultivated the inclination to trust in our own judgment, (Isaiah 53:6) but what manner of fruit has trusting in ourselves produced?  Your own Bible testifies of GOD’s indictment on humanity.  In fact, Ephesians 2: 2, 3  states boldly that we are by our very nature “… the children of wrath, fulfilling without restraint our own self-serving desires.”  GOD’s displeasure with “all-in-Adam” is startling to hear, and sobering to ponder. (Proverbs 14:12)   But, Praise GOD!  He provided the Second Adam!

Part II – “All in Christ”

The biological father of the human family, Adam, failed his test, so GOD sent the “Second Adam.”  Do you know Him?  Paul calls Jesus “the Last Adam”. Jesus was the second Corporate Man; the second Representative of humanity, in Whom was all flesh.  GOD made from “Adam-1”, all nations. (Acts 17:26)   We are the descendants of that First Adam, the fallen bloodline into which Jesus was born.  Speaking of His miraculous incarnation, Jesus said to the Father: “A body You’ve prepared for Me.”  (Hebrews 10:5)   Jesus “put on” Adam-1’s flesh, and the Son of GOD became Adam-2, the Son of Man.  He became we.  Why would He do that?

The answer is in Ephesians 1:10: “… that in the fullness of time, He (GOD) might gather together into One all things, in Christ, both which are in Heaven and which are in earth.”  GOD gathered all into the One we know as Jesus, the Last, or Second Adam.

Here in 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul writes: “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the Last Adam was made a quickening (life-giving) spirit.”  Jesus divested Himself of the majesty and glory that was His with His Father from time immemorial; and plummeted to the very depths to which mankind had fallen.  He

descended through 4,000 years of human de-generation, to begin at ground-zero His ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), namely the full restoration of the Family of Earth once more to the image of GOD.

The Second Adam began exactly where the First Adam had fallen. Jesus “put on” Adam-1, and wore our carnal flesh, the very flesh that so desperately needed to be redeemed.  Scripture testifies that Jesus was born of a woman, incarnate in fallen humanity, under the Law of Sin and Death.  Adam-1’s bride, Eve, was verily “… flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone.” (Genesis 2:23)   And in Ephesians 5:30 we learn that we, the Church, Adam-2’s bride: “… are members of His body, and of His flesh, and of His bones.”

The most powerful, the most indefensible, and the most valid criticism from pop- theologians, non-believers, atheists, agnostics, and in more recent years from Islam in particular, is that it is unjust and utterly ridiculous – some will even say it’s laughable – to believe and to teach others that an individual can bear the guilt, and receive the due punishment for offenses committed by another individual.  What does GOD’s Word say?  The prophet Ezekiel 18:20: “… the soul that sins, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor shall the father bear the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.”    Their criticism is valid!

We 21st Century westerners are, perhaps to a fault, so individualistic in our thinking, whereas our Heavenly Father employs what we might call “corporate reckoning.”  For example: He names collective-humanity “Adam”, the name of the individual from whom mankind has descended.  He reckons all the children of the patriarch, Jacob, their tribes and their generations, as “Jacob”.  And after Jacob’s name is changed to Israel, GOD refers to his generations, and eventually the entire, collective Nation of tribes, as “Israel”. That’s reckoning corporately.

Let’s follow the bread crumbs:  In Genesis 25:21-23, GOD says to Isaac’s wife, Rebecca, “Two nations are in thy womb”, referring not only to those overactive, twin fetuses, Jacob and Esau; but referring as well to the entirety of the tribes and nations which would eventually descend from each!  He further foretold that the elder would serve the younger, which proved to be history in advance!

Then, there’s Paul’s statement, which he intended to substantiate the superiority of Melchisedek’s priesthood to the Levitical order.  Paul contends that Levi paid tithes to the High Priest, Melchisedek, which is simply a physical impossibility!  They did not live at the same time, but were generations apart.  Witness here GOD’s corporate reckoning clearly illustrated.  A firm grasp of this is crucial to an understanding of how His “salvation for all” works: The author of Hebrews explains that Levi was in the loins of his great-grandfather Abram (Abraham) when Abram rendered his tributes to Melchisedek (Genesis 14:18-20).  Therefore, Abram’s actions are attributed as well to Levi, because Levi was “in Abram”. Therefore, what Abram did, Levi did in him!

 I’m so glad our Father reckons His justice, His Redemption, and His Salvation corporately, because without such merciful, all-in-one, group-accounting, the Cross could avail us nothing individually, and Adam’s race would be forever lost. The capital example of all-in-one reckoning is the legal class-action.  In a basic class action, an advocate will present before the court the common petition of an entire group or class of individuals. Those who comprise the class are afforded the option to choose to participate or to decline.  Through the duration of this action, the advocate is the legal surrogate for the entire class.  By law he is “them”, they are “in Him,” and what he does, they do in him.  When their advocate wins judgment in their favor, those who’ve opted to participate in the action will share in the benefits derived.

Our Advocate and Counselor, Jesus Christ, stood before Heaven’s Judgment Bar at Calvary on behalf of the whole class of Adam’s fallen lineage, Christ was the human race on the Cross.  Robed in Adam’s flesh, Jesus was there “in us”, and we were right there “in Him”. What He did before GOD’s Tribunal, we did in Him!  Jesus won His cosmic class-action for the Family of Earth, accomplishing it while clad in Adam-1’s carnality. What renders Christ’s victory a “lead-pipe cinch” is that it’s an already-completed, historical fact!  You are now invited to participate, although it’s now fait accompli, knowing that you’ll be united with the Victor, should you elect to anoint Him as your own, personal Heavenly Advocate!   Are you “in”?

Part III – “The Family of Heaven and Earth”

Just as there is a human family, there is in the Heavenly realms a familial hierarchy which Scripture refers to as “the Family of Heaven and Earth”.  Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, “I bow my knees unto the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in Heaven and earth is named.” (Ephesians 3:14, 15)  There’s GOD the Father; and there’s His Son, Jesus, the Word; and we are GOD’s children of adoption. (Galatians 4:4,5)  Jesus the Son is our Elder Brother. The Apostle John writes, “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons (first-generation children) of GOD.  Beloved, now we are the sons of GOD.”

So, how can all this come to life for you, personally?  We’ll put some wheels on it now:  “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD,” and “the wages of sin is death”.  Moreover, as Hebrews 9:22 clearly states, “without shedding of blood, there is no remission.”  Ours is a blood debt.  But the good news is that Jesus consummated in His own flesh the death of Adam’s collective generations. The blood Jesus shed, without which there’s no remission, is the same “one blood”, the First Adam’s life-blood referred to in Luke’s Gospel, of which “all nations” are made! (Acts 17:26)   At Calvary, Jesus, “in Whom was all flesh.” was the collective human family.  His Judgment death is your Judgment death; His shed blood is your shed blood!  As Levi was in Abram, so were You in Christ.  And what Jesus did, you did in Him.  “But we see Jesus, who was made … for the suffering and death … that He, by the grace of GOD, should taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9)

By our nature, we are morally corrupt.  Not only do we commit sin, but we think sin.  It’s how we’re bent.  It’s what we do and  who we are in Adam-1.  Jesus, by His very nature is righteous.  He is holy and righteous. That’s Who He is!  Yet He became sin for us.  He was made One of us, One like us, becoming the embodiment of the totality of the sins of the Human Family.  And on His Condemnation Tree, He obliterated sinful human-ness, so that we may become the righteousness of the Father through rebirth in Jesus, and be thereby restored and glorified in Him. The operative term here is “in Him”, in Christ.  It’s higher than “One-for-all”. Jesus’ standing Judgment as all of man is deeper and wider.  It’s “everyone-in-One, and that One is Jesus Christ.

Here’s the sum and substance of the matter: “What Jesus Christ did in the flesh, we did in Him.  And this is the most glorious truth in Christianity.  It is … the very core and life and heart of Christianity.  He took our flesh, and our humanity was found in Him; and what He did, humanity did in Him.” – Theologian W.W. Prescott, from his 1895 classic, “In Christ – The Divine-Human Family”.

GOD’s collective reckoning is the very mechanism through which Jesus’ righteous life, His oneness with the Father, His accepting your condemnation, His death at Calvary, and His resurrection to life eternal, become yours forever!

Speaking of the Father, Paul says, “of Him are ye in Christ.”  (1 Corinthians 1:30)   It’s through no merit or action of our own, but solely of GOD’s volition!  The Creator put all of man into one Man, Jesus; then He put Him to death at Calvary, and in so doing, satisfied the claims of GOD’s Law, once and forever.

Paul offers the text-book definition of corporate reckoning: “When One died, all died,” (2 Corinthians 5:14) and “For as in Adam, all die; even so in Christ, shall all be made alive,” (1 Corinthians 15:22) because in Him alone is life eternal.  If you have Jesus you have eternal life.  Period! (1 John 5:11, 12)  Do you have Jesus?

True to His long-ago promise, GOD has by no means cleared the guilty.  He has not left the guilty unpunished. (Exodus 34:7)   Rather, He has put the guilty to death, the just wages of sin, in Jesus Christ!  Justice is fully served, yet central to the process, GOD’s incomprehensible mercy and grace are lavishly dispensed.

 “For He (GOD) hath made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; (Why?) that we might be made the righteousness of GOD in Him (that’s, in Christ).” (2 Corinthians 5:21)  The Son of Man was without sin, yet He was made to be the emblem of sin for us, in order to accomplish our complete remission.  Jesus willingly “put on Himself” our condemnation and “wore” our soiled garments to Judgment; and we were there at Calvary in Him!  The Apostle Paul reminds us that “GOD was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.”  (2 Corinthians 5:19)  Then, Paul testifies in Galatians 2:20   “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ Who lives in me;”

 Listen to the red-letter words of Jesus in John 14:11: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”  The Family of Heaven and Earth is reunited and reconciled in one Man, the GOD-Man Jesus: The Father in the Son; the Son in the Father; you in Christ, and He in you.  That’s corporate reconciliation in One!

Have you wondered whether you’ll be accepted of GOD?  Paul’s letter to the Church at Ephesus delivers that welcome news for you: “… to the praise of the glory of His (GOD’s) grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.”  (Ephesians 1:6)  Note, that’s past tense!  The very moment you received Christ as your LORD, you were accepted in Him, because He is GOD’s Beloved!

The good news gets even better, as “… we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose”. (Ephesians 1:11)   Further, you were “…chosen in Him before the foundation of the world,” (Ephesians 1:4, 5)   GOD’s express purpose from the beginning was for your redemption in the Son of Man!

Moreover, your inheritance comes with a warranty!  Paul writes that Jesus is your surety and guarantee that the Resurrection and eternal life are certain!  He further reveals that the Holy Spirit is GOD’s pledge that His Word is sound.  You’ll find this in: Ephesians 1:13:  We are “sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance and our redemption …”   Hear now GOD’s warranty on His own Word: “My covenant will I not break, not alter the thing that is gone out of My mouth.” (Psalm 89:34).  His Word will stand forever!

Presently, you are in Christ by virtue of being a part of His Body, which is the Last-day Church, and  “… He is the Head of the body, the church.”  (Colossians 1:18)   Moreover at this moment, Jesus is seated at the right hand of GOD in the Heavenly realms, and as a member of His Body, your redeemed flesh is already in GOD’s presence in the glorified Body of Christ!  Turn now to Ephesians 2:6. See it and believe it!   Share this with someone special.  What more could our Father and His dear Son possibly do than what They’ve already done for us?  King David expresses his gratitude: “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Psalm 116:12).

Jesus’ deepest desires now are: 1) to continue to dwell within you; 2) to replicate in you His character and  His temperament; 3) that you will abide in Him; 4) that He may restore in you the image of GOD, from which we all have fallen, but which is being restored in Adam-2!  He invites you: “Abide in Me, and I in you.” (John 15:4).  Seek His face and invite His presence!  “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.” (v.5) … that is, nothing of any eternal value.  It’s His invitation for you to join Him in what He’s doing!

 

“…We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which GOD has before ordained that we should walk in them.”  (Ephesians 2:10).  He longs to produce in you the good deeds and the righteous life that He produced in Jesus, while Jesus was cloaked in humanity.  Listen to Jesus’ mighty promise for you in John 14:12: “He that believeth on Me, the works that I do, even shall he (or she) do also; and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto My Father.”   This relationship with Jesus is a most-unique, reciprocating “one-ness,” which the Bible calls the “Mystery of GOD”, Christ in you!  (see Colossians 1:26, 27).

GOD laid the foundation of His Eternal Church on some earnest-hearted, blue-collar-types.  He assembled  together some common fishermen, one overly-outspoken, impulsive fellow, a couple of men known as the Sons of Thunder, a lapsed tax-collector, and a reformed hooker.   However, He was able to meld these precious souls into one indominable unit, and use them mightily, because they were willing to submit to His Lordship, and cooperate with Him for the advancement of His Father’s Kingdom!  They were thoroughly “in Christ” and He was fully in them!

GOD has delivered to you the whole package in Jesus!  Are you willing to serve as an instrument of His righteousness?  This is how ordinary folks can make the Invisible GOD visible to those around us!   His rich, ripe fruit will begin to appear on your tree for others to see and know that you are abiding in Christ, and that He is actively at work in you!

Our Father in Heaven – Let me abide deeply in You, and may all the fullness of the Godhead dwell in me, that I may think Your thoughts, speak Your words, partake of Your divine nature, and be motivated by Your purposes.  Finish in me the Mystery of GOD, that I may have a part in hastening Christ’s return.  In the worthy, holy name of my LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ I pray.    Amen

Genuine thanks to –
W.W. Prescott, Jack Sequeira, Frank Gonzalez, Dale Martin, and The Holy Spirit, Who has been sent to give us understanding and to lead us into all Truth!