Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
(Romans 8:1, NIV)
Most Christan adults have read or heard this verse, written by Paul to the church in Rome. It is a verse that is quickly set to memory, and so finds itself quoted often.
I think, though, that this statement is often misused. Is it true? Indeed…and its truth is powerful and essential to our lives. The trouble comes when we misunderstand what is said, resulting in terrible misapplication.
We started some thoughts on whether it is good for us to long to physically see Christ while we live on this earth. For whatever reason, many have come to believe that they must see Him. Some believe that it will be a sort of seal of approval on their conversion. Others believe that you cannot truly profess to be a Christian until you have seen Him.
There are few in the New Testament who saw Christ following His ascension into the clouds. We talked about two of them in the previous post. Let’s look at one more, and then see if we can tell why they were allowed to see Jesus.
I was convinced that just two posts would take care of the thoughts I had when it comes to searching for one’s self, but as I prepared to close that second post, a thought came to mind. Many of us have read in Scripture and heard from the pulpit that when we come to believe in Jesus, we live from that point forward “in Christ.”
There are many promises to the believer, being in Christ. I once taught a six-week study on some of them. But I think that we have to be careful when we talk about being in Christ. If we were to take the spiritual word picture literally, to where we would clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ, would it be a one-size-fits-all situation? Let’s take a moment and talk about that.
Chris MacKinnon 