Having been created by Christ in Himself, what's next?
Having been created by Christ in Himself, what's next?
You seem to think it's a done deal....being reconciled by His death. Yet, something remains.
2 Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
Yes, something remains.
The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Hence, when a man commits sin, he must die so he can pay for his own sin he committed, for it is only through death that he can be freed from sin.
KJV Romans 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
But if man himself dies so he can pay for his own sin, he would have paid for the sin God hates, but God would have eternally lost the sinner He loves, having died separate from Him because sin separates man from God (Isa 59:2). Hence God, made a way whereby man could pay for his own sin and at the same time given another shot at life eternal.
God did this through the One New Man that Christ created in Himself: the Head is Christ, the Body is humanity - Jews & Gentiles - with all its sins, as Scriptures declare:
NAS 1 Peter 2:24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.
When the Head died, the Body likewise died:
NKJ 2 Corinthians 5: 14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again
KJV Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
1. That death reconciled us - His Body - to God:
NKJ Romans 5:10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
2. That death washed us clean from sin:
NKJ Revelation 1:5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood
3. That death caused us to be forgiven from all sins:
KJV Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
NAS Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions
4. That death sanctified or made us holy:
NKJ Hebrews 10:10 By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
NIV Hebrews 10:10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
5. And having been sanctified, He perfected us forever:
KJV Hebrews 10:14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
6. Through that death, He became the Mediator of the New Covenant:
NKJ Hebrews 9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
7. And under the New Covenant, God promises to remember our sins NO MORE:
NKJ Hebrews 10: 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," 17 then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."
Our dying together with Christ, was even more emphasized by the apostle Paul when in writing to the Galatians he said that he was crucified with Christ:
KJV Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Please take note that Paul was converted a couple of years AFTER the crucifixion, yet his statement blatantly tells us of his being crucified with our Lord, an event that occurred BEFORE he became a believer.
Therefore, our being in Christ having been created In Him through the creation of the One New Man did not result from our conversion, just like the experience of the apostle Paul who said he was crucified with Christ long before his conversion on the road to Damascus.
Having died together with Christ, the Bible says that we were made alive together with Him.
NAS Colossians 2:13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions
The 4-word English phrase "made alive together with" is from a single Greek word "suzoopoieo". To be made-alive-together-with Christ simply means that when Christ resurrected, we also were resurrected together with Him, being His body when He died - the Body of the One New Man, and hence, precludes the idea of being made alive one-at-a-time, as in, as each one believes. And through that resurrection, God caused us to be born again:
NAS 1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
Created in Christ through the One New Man that Christ created in Himself BEFORE He died, crucified with Christ and made alive TOGETHER WITH Him Who is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, we all are physically born into this world ALREADY in Christ, already part of His Body - the Church, already members of the family of God!!!
Good news for all, isn't it?
Yes, good news for all - Christians and non-Christians alike, because this tells us that we all are part of the body of Christ. We are all In Christ.
But does this mean that we all will make it to heaven and eternity? No sir! Why? Because there is yet blotting out of names from the book of life (Exo 32:32; Ps 69:28). And to be blotted out from the book of life is to be removed from the registry of heaven, dismembered from the Body of Christ, expelled from membership in the family of God.
But our Savior assures us that overcomers will NOT be blotted out (Rev 3:5); instead, they will be seated with Him in His throne even as He also overcame and sat down with the Father in His throne (Rev 3:21).
Therefore, overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21).
