Colossians 1:22-23 tells us that Jesus has reconciled us in His physical body through death, so that He might present us to the Father holy and blameless and beyond reproach. We could not draw near to God while we were alienated and hostile in mind, and engaging in evil deeds. So God, in His infinite wisdom, placed us in Christ, that in the death of His physical body, our body of sin might be done away with, as it is written, “…knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin,” Romans 6:6,7. We have also been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, (Hebrews 10:10).
Paul tells us that we were foreknown by God and that He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren, Romans 8:29. He accomplished this by placing us in Christ when He was crucified, buried, and raised from the dead.
We were most assuredly in Jesus when He was crucified; we were in Him when He was buried; we were in Him when He was raised from the dead. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Christianity — “For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God IN Christ Jesus,” Romans 6:10,11. We are in Him, and we have been in Him since before time when God foreknew us and predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son. And we were in Him when He was crucified, buried, and raised up into newness of life. We are now the body of the risen Christ and He is the head.
Through His sinless life, the giving of His body, and the shedding of His blood, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, and made a public display of them, having triumphed over them. He is now the head of all rule and authority. Jesus is now a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, with no beginning and no end, and He has become the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him. And having been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin, He sympathizes with our weaknesses, and we may now draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, where we can receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ, absolutely nothing.
What a glorious and wonderful God we serve, full of mercy, compassion, and lovingkindness, who sent His only begotten Son to sacrifice Himself, so that we might be crucified, buried, and raised up together with Him, freed from sin and alive to the Father. We are forever in debt to the Father and Son. Thanks be to God that we will have eternity to praise and honor them.
In the most holy name of Jesus,
Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant
P.S. Please weigh everything I say on the scales of the Word of God before you discard them. May the Lord bless you.
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