Three blessings in Christ

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Paul’s frequent use of words ‘in Christ’ or ‘in Jesus Chris’ have very important meaning. The reason is that the words ‘in Christ’ are appeared more than 169 times in the Pauline letters. The words ‘in Christ’ have some significant meanings.

First, the words ‘in Christ’ indicate a rapid change. As Paul said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor 5:17). This indicates becoming fundamentally a new creation in Christ, and also, the words ‘he is a new creation’ use perfect past tense verb to mean he keeps maintaining the condition of becoming new. Therefore, ‘one who is in Christ’ is more biblical expression than ‘Christians’.

There are only three references of ‘Christians’ in the New Testament (Act 11:26; 26:28; Pet 4:16). The reason for the frequent use of the term ‘in Christ’ is that a person who lives in Christ is a Christian who transforms completely and lives with a gift of an external life.

Secondly, ‘ in Christ’ means Jesus and his people are united as one. Our center of the union is the body of Christ, and spiritually we have organic relationship with Christ and dwell with Jesus in the heavenly realms (Eph 2:6). “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). But, we confess the same Christ with our lips, yet, we deny the union with other Christians. If we are genuine Christians in Christ, we ought to have the life of comforting each other, understanding each other, committing to Jesus each other. Through the prayer of the chief priest, Jesus instructed that this is what the real church is.

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