In an earlier chapter we saw that faith is more than a mere mental assent to the gospel message; it is a heart obedience to the truth as it is in Christ. The importance of this truth as it is "in Christ" cannot be overemphasized because it is the very heart of the gospel message. The ground of our salvation is God's agape love which is unconditional, self-emptying, and everlasting (see Romans 5:5-10; Ephesians 2:1-6; Titus 3:3-5: Jeremiah 31:3). But the means of our salvation is the truth as it is in Christ. We must understand what it means to be "in Christ" if we are to fully understand the gospel message. Our faith must be rooted and grounded "in Christ." Otherwise, our subjective experience of salvation will be marred.
God sent Jesus to be the gospel, the good news of salvation. But He appointed the apostle Paul to be the one to most clearly explain this good news (see Romans 1:1; Ephesians 3:8,9). Paul's letters make up almost half of the New Testament, and when we examine them carefully, we find this key phrase, "in Christ," running through them all. In fact, if we were to remove this phrase, "in Christ," from Paul's writings, there would be very little left of his exposition of the gospel! It is the central theme of his theology. Altogether, this phrase, in its different forms, appears more than 160 times in the New Testament. Sometimes we find the idea expressed in slightly different wording such as, "in Christ Jesus," or "in Him," or "by Him," or "through Him," or "in the Beloved," or "together with Him," etc. These all mean the same thing.
We have absolutely nothing as Christians except what we have received "in Christ.'" Everything we enjoy, experience, and hope for as believers— the peace that comes through justification by faith, the victorious life we experience through the process of sanctification, and the blessed hope of glorification we look forward to—is ours always and only "in Christ." Outside of Him we have nothing but sin, condemnation, and death.
Jesus Himself first introduced the truth behind this phrase, when He told His disciples, "Abide in Me" John 15:4). Abiding "in Christ" is the foundation of the gospel experience, so unless we understand what Jesus and Paul are talking about, we will never fully understand and appreciate the gospel.
Let's examine, then, what the New Testament means when it talks about being "in Christ." Just as Nicodemus had a difficult time understanding what Jesus meant by the new birth, so we, today, have difficulty understanding what Paul means by the phrase, "in Christ." Especially is this a difficult concept for the western mind that is accustomed to thinking in terms of the individual. When we read what Paul wrote about being "in Christ," we begin wondering, "How can I, as an individual, be in someone else? Even more, how can I, who was born in the twentieth century, be in Christ who lived almost 2,000 years ago?" The idea makes absolutely no sense to our western way of thinking. As a result, we ignore or misinterpret this expression "in Christ" and therefore miss the very core of the gospel message. Yet our whole understanding of the gospel hinges on understanding the significance of these two vital words.
When we read what Paul has written to believers in the New Testament, he seems to be saying that we Christian believers were actually together with Christ when He died, was buried, and rose to life. That somehow, "in Christ," we did those things too when He did them and that we are now actually sitting with Him in heavenly places (see Ephesians 2:5, 6).
What does Paul mean?
For Paul, the "in Christ" concept is based on the biblical idea that the whole human race shares a common life and therefore is considered to be a single unit. We call this idea, "solidarity" or "corporate oneness." What does the Bible teach about solidarity. Let's look at two texts.
The first is Romans 9:12. Speaking of the unborn twins of Rebekah, Isaac's wife, Paul quotes Genesis 25:23, "It was said to her [Rebekah], 'The older [child] shall serve the younger.' " At face value, it sounds as if God is predicting that Esau, the older twin, would serve Jacob, the younger. But the fact is, this never happened.
However, when we examine the original statement in Genesis from which Paul is quoting, we discover that God had something else in mind. In Genesis, God actually says to Rebekah, "Two nations are in your womb ... And the older shall serve the younger" (Genesis 25:23, emphasis supplied). He is saying that the descendants of Esau will serve the descendants of Jacob. This actually happened.
God sees not only Esau and Jacob in their mother's womb as individuals; He sees two nations—the descendants who would come from them. All those thousands of people who would trace their lineage back to Jacob and Esau are considered to be one with their ancestor. This is a "solidarity statement," and it is typical of the way the Bible views a whole group of people—or indeed, the whole human race—as being one single corporate unit.
The second text is Hebrews 7:7-10. Here the writer of Hebrews uses the solidarity concept to prove that Christ, as our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, is superior to the Levitical priests of the earthly sanctuary. To us, today, his argument seems hard to follow. But remember, he is writing to Jewish Christians of New Testament times who would be familiar with the idea of "solidarity," so his argument based on that concept would be convincing to them.
Here is the reasoning behind his argument: Christ, he says, is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, not Levi. After all, when Christ was born, He was not born into the tribe of Levi. So from that standpoint, He isn't even eligible to be a priest. That is why the writer of Hebrews goes to some lengths to establish that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, not Levi (see Hebrews 7:12-17).
Then he goes on to argue that Levi and the Levitical priests are inferior to Melchizedek and the priests of his order. How does he prove that? By showing that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek thus indicating that Levi acknowledged Melchizedek to be the greater.
But wait a minute! How could Levi have paid tithes to Melchizedek when Levi wasn't even alive until long after Melchizedek's time? The two individuals didn't even live at the same time!
For the writer of Hebrews and his first century Jewish readers this was no problem. Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek (see Genesis 14:18-20; Hebrews 7:4-10), and Levi, Abraham's great grandson, was "in Abraham's loins" although still unborn when this happened. Given the idea of solidarity, the writer and his original readers would have no difficulty understanding that Levi paid tithes to Melchizedek "in Abraham." Levi could be said to do what actually was done by his great grandfather Abraham because they were really a single unit.
According to the plain teaching of Scripture, God created all men in one man, Adam. That is why when Genesis 2:7 says that God "breathed into his [Adam's] nostrils the breath of life," the original Hebrew word for life is in the plural form. This means that when God created Adam, He was creating not just one man, but the whole human race in that one man (see Acts 17:26). In fact, in Hebrew, the very word, Adam, means "mankind."
So, when Satan caused Adam to fall, sin and condemnation were not confined only to Adam himself; sin and condemnation entered the whole human race (see Romans 5:12, 18; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22). Adam had no children when he fell; all his posterity was still "in him" and therefore was implicated in his sin, just as Levi was implicated in Abraham's tithe paying.
Of course, this does not make us guilty of Adam's sin. That is the heresy of the doctrine of Original Sin. Guilt, in a legal sense, involves personal volition or responsibility, and God does not hold us guilty for Adam's sin in which we had no choice. We do, however, suffer its consequences since Adam passed on to his children a life that had already sinned and, as a result, stood condemned to death (see Romans 5:12-18; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 22).
But the wonderful good news of the gospel is that just as all are condemned to death in one man, Adam, so God has redeemed all in one man, Jesus Christ. How did He do it? By using the same principle of solidarity. At the incarnation God united, in the womb of Mary, the divine life of His Son with the collective life of the human race that stood condemned and which needed redeeming. In this way Christ became the "second Adam," or the "last Adam." In reality, He became us, and we became one "in Him."
Although this corporate oneness with Christ in His humanity did not save us, it did legally qualify Christ to be our substitute and representative, just as the first Adam was our representative when he fell. Hence, by His perfect life, which met the positive demands of the law, and His sacrificial death, which met the justice of the law, Christ re-wrote our human history. And in His resurrection, He changed humanity's status from one of condemnation to one of justification (see Romans 4:25; 5:18). This is what constitutes the fantastic good news of the gospel (see 1 Corinthians 1:30, 31; Ephesians 1:3-6; 2:5,6).
As our substitute, Christ had to meet the full demands of the law—both its positive demands, as well as its demands for justice—in order to save sinful humanity. By doing this, He obtained legal justification for all mankind and became the Saviour of the world (see Romans 5:18; 10:4; Titus 2:11; 1 John 2:2). This is God's "indescribable gift" to every human being (see 2 Corinthians 9:15).
Unfortunately, many have great difficulty understanding how this "in Christ" idea can be possible. They have no difficulty accepting the fact that all humans were created in one man, Adam. But how could God collect and put all humans into Christ 4,000 years after creation? This may seem impossible from a human standpoint, but let's not forget that "with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).
Really, we shouldn't ask, "How can this be possible?" We should ask, "What does Scripture teach?" After all, the Bible declares many things to be true that our human minds cannot fathom, yet we accept them by faith. A good example is the uni-personality of Christ, the fact He could be at the same time fully God and fully man in one person. After struggling with this truth for some 300 years, the Christian church finally decided, at the council of Chalcedon, to accept this mystery as a fact.
Likewise with the "in Christ" motif. We may not be able to understand how all the aspects of solidarity may be possible, yet because Scripture clearly teaches it, we accept it by faith. The major issue is not whether we understand this truth; the issue is: Does Scripture present the "in Christ" motif as a fact, and if so, are we willing to accept this biblical truth?
The following diagram illustrates how God rewrote our human history in the God-man, Jesus Christ, thus changing our legal status from one of condemnation to one of justification. The circle represents Christ's divinity, while the human figure in the circle represents the corporate humanity that Christ assumed at the incarnation in order to be our substitute and the Saviour of the world.
By His perfect life, Jesus, the God-man, met the positive demands of the law. This was symbolized in the sanctuary service by the spotless lamb, the lamb without blemish. By His death, Jesus met the justice of the law, signified in the sanctuary service by the sacrificed lamb consumed by the divine fire on the bronze altar. In the resurrection, Jesus raised the redeemed human race—glorified and cleansed of its sinful nature. Thus, through His earthly mission, Christ became forever the righteousness of every child of Adam. And this righteousness is made effective individually when it is received by faith (see Acts 13:39; Romans 1:16, 17; 9:30-33; Philippians 3:7-
The "in Christ" understanding of the gospel also solves an ethical problem. Many non-Christians have difficulty understanding how God can justify and give eternal life to sinners who believe in Jesus Christ. They see the following ethical problem: God's law condemns sinners to death (see Galatians 3:10). Yet, God gives these condemned sinners life on the basis of what someone else (Jesus Christ) has done (see Romans 4:5)! Many see this as a make-believe righteousness and an ethical problem.
The answer lies in the idea of "in Christ." The humanity Christ assumed really was our corporate humanity that needed redeeming. Because we were "in Him," through our corporate humanity, we lived the perfect life He lived—"in Him." We died the death He died—"in Him." What He did, we did—"in Him." This is no make-believe righteousness. "Christ is the end [fulfillment or termination] of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4; see also Galatians 3:13). That is why faith involves a heart obedience to the gospel, because the life, death, and resurrection of Christ is our corporate history. If that history is to be effective in us, God's supreme gift to mankind, the gospel, demands our surrender to what God did with us in Christ. The objective good news of the gospel is a truth that applies to all humanity, but only those who believe will actually be saved experientially (see John 3:16).
Understood in this context, true justification by faith prevents what many conservative Adventists are afraid of—namely antinomianism, or what is commonly referred to as "cheap grace." Cheap grace is the idea that Christ did it all, and I don't have to do anything—the idea that I can live as I please, and as long as I believe in Christ, salvation is mine.
In contrast to cheap grace, true righteousness by faith means that we identify ourselves with Christ and Him crucified. And since Christ died on the cross "to sin," we likewise consider ourselves "dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:10,11). This is true obedience in faith to the gospel, and it is the true significance of baptism (see Romans 6:3-11; compare also E. G. White, SDA Bible Commentary, 6:1075, "Many Buried Alive").
Christian faith is more than merely a mental assent to truth; it is participation in Christ's life and death. This is what Jesus meant when He said to the Jews, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you" (John 6:53). This is the true righteousness by faith message God brought to His people some one hundred years ago. And when the church, as a corporate body, accepts this truth and surrenders to it, God will take over and lighten this earth with His glory.
Furthermore, when the gospel is proclaimed in the light of the "in Christ" motif, there is no excuse for any person to be lost. According to the New Testament, a person is not lost because he or she is a sinner, but because of unbelief—willful, persistent, and ultimate rejection of the truth as it is in Christ (see Mark 16:15, 16; John 3:18, 36; Hebrews 2:3; 10:26-29). This is why Christ will not come to take believers to heaven until every person who has reached the age of accountability hears this good news of the gospel and makes a choice, either for Christ or against Him (see Matthew 24:14).
Since the "in Christ" motif constitutes the very heart of the gospel message, let's note what some Bible students—Adventists and others—have said about this idea:
As human nature was present in Adam, when by his representative sin he ruined his posterity; so was human nature present in Christ our Lord----Our nature is his own. He carried it with him through life to death. He made it do and bear that which was utterly beyond its native strength (H. P. Liddon, University Sermons, 225, 226).
If Christ took our nature upon him, as we believe, by an act of love, it was not that of one but of all. He was not one man only among many men, but in him all humanity was gathered up. And thus now, as at all time, mankind are, so to speak organically united with him. His acts are in a true sense our acts, so far as we realize the union. His death is our death, his resurrection our resurrection (Brooke Foss Westcott, The Gospel of the Resurrection, 39).
When God's Son took on flesh, he truly and bodily took on, out of pure grace, our being, our nature, ourselves. This was the eternal counsel of the triune God. Now we are in him. Where he is, there we are too, in the incarnation, on the cross, and in his resurrection. We belong to him because we are in him (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together, 35).
Jesus Christ was the representative of humanity, and humanity centered in him, and when he took flesh, he took humanity... .This is the most glorious truth in Christianity. It is Christianity itself; it is the very core and life and heart of Christianity (W. W. Prescott, 1895 G. C. Bulletin, 24).
But I can envision some readers saying, "What about Ellen White? Does she have anything to say about the truth as it is in Christ?"
My response to this is a most definite yes! She has much to say about this glorious truth. Normally, I am not impressed when someone gives me pages of Ellen White quotations which they have collected on any given subject. The reason is simple: one can make Ellen White say almost anything by stringing together a list of carefully selected quotations, many of which are taken out of context. However, for those who would like statements by Ellen White on this subject of what Christ accomplished for the human race in His earthly mission, please consider the following:
By His obedience to all the commandments of God, Christ wrought out a redemption for men. This was not done by going out of Himself to another, but by taking humanity into Himself. Thus Christ gave to humanity an existence out of Himself. To bring humanity into Christ, to bring the fallen race into oneness with divinity, is the work of redemption (Selected Messages, 1:250, 251).
Blessed is the soul who can say... I am lost in Adam, but restored in Christ (Sons and Daughters of God, 120).
For every human being Christ has paid the election price. No one need be lost. All have been redeemed. To those who receive Christ as a personal Saviour will be given power to become sons and daughters of God (Letter 53, 1904).
He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes, we are healed. This penalty Christ bore for the sins of the transgressor, He has borne the punishment for every man (Manuscript 77, 1899).
Christ came to the earth and made an offering of such value that He redeemed the race (Letter 67, 1902).
With His own blood He has signed the emancipation papers of the race (Ministry of Healing, 90).
No sin can be committed by man for which satisfaction has not been met on Calvary (Selected Messages, 1:343).
The world does not acknowledge that, at an infinite cost Christ has purchased the human race. They do not acknowledge that by creation and by redemption, He holds a just claim to every human being. But as the redeemer of the fallen race, He has been given the deed of possession, which entitles Him to claim them as His property (Letter 136,1902).
As Christ bore the sins of every transgressor so the sinner who will not believe in Christ, . . . who rejects the light that comes to him, and refuses to respect and obey the commandments of God, will bear the penalty of his transgression (Manuscript 133, 1897).
The fact that all people are resurrected, some to eternal life and others to eternal damnation (see John 5:28,29), indicates that Jesus actually redeemed the entire human race. If any are lost eternally, it will be because they have willfully and ultimately rejected the salvation God has already obtained for them in Christ (see John 3:18, 36). That is why "this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations," before the end of the world will take place (Matthew 24:14.)
In concluding this important chapter, let's consider some of the glorious blessings we sinful humans receive as a result of this truth as it is in Christ, which we receive by faith alone:
1. Peace with God. This is the first and immediate blessing we receive through justification by faith in Christ (see Romans 5:1). This means there is "no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). In view of this fact, Christians can come boldly to God, with full assurance of salvation, since God no longer looks at them on the basis of their personal performance, but on the basis of what Christ has done for them in His holy history (see Hebrews 10:19-22).
2. Assurance of forgiven sins. When we accept by faith that we are "in Christ," we can know that all our sins have been forgiven. We can know that we therefore stand perfect before God in Christ—without spot or blemish, now and in the judgment (see Ephesians 1:3-7; 1 John 2:1, 2). As Ellen White admonishes us, "We are not to be anxious about what Christ and God think of us, but about what God thinks of Christ our Substitute" (Selected Messages, 2:32,33).
3. New birth. Justification by faith also brings about the new birth. This means the old is gone and the new has come (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). This exchange of our condemned life for Christ's righteous life is the result of our faith obedience to the gospel message. It gives us not only the title to heaven, but also makes holy living possible through the power of the indwelling Spirit (see Romans 8:9-11; Galatians 5:16). As Paul expressed it: "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24, 25). This is what it means to be standing in grace and rejoicing in the hope of glory (see Romans 5:2; 1 Corinthians 15:9, 10; 2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
4. Adoption as children of God. Because of our faith union with Christ, one of the great privileges we receive is that we become the adopted children of God (see Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:4, 5; 1 John 3:1, 2). This means we become "joint heirs with Christ" (Romans 8:17) and will reign with Him a thousand years during the millennium—and then throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity in the earth made new (see Revelation 20:6; 22:5)! No wonder Paul speaks of this privilege as "the exceeding riches of His [God's] grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).
All these blessings come to us because "He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin [singular, meaning what we are totally by nature and performance] for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). But this wonderful truth as it is in Christ, becomes an impossibility if in any way we make a distinction between Christ's humanity and the humanity He came to redeem. As our substitute, Christ was one with us, since He was the second Adam. That is why He was called Immanuel, God with us (see Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23).
And since we were in Him by God's act, we can legally claim by faith all that He accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection. That's why Jesus declared that those who believe in God who sent Him, have already passed from death to life (see John 5:24). This is the incredible good news of justification by faith, the fruit of which is holiness of living.
Some, however, raise this objection to the glorious idea of "in Christ." "If we actually obeyed the law in Christ," they say, "isn't this just a subtle way of saying that we actually saved ourselves? Isn't this really a form of self-righteousness that deprives Christ of the glory He deserves?"
The answer is NO! A thousand times NO! No credit can go to us, since we weren't responsible and played no part in the actual obedience of Christ. God does not hold us responsible or guilty for Adam's sin in which we personally had no choice. In the same way, we get no personal credit for the obedience of Christ, in which we had no choice.
However, just as Adam's sin condemned all humanity to death because we were in him when he disobeyed God's command in the Garden of Eden, in the same way, we can legally claim the righteousness of Christ by faith, since God united His Son to our corporate humanity in the incarnation in order that He might be our Substitute, Representative, and Surety in His work of redemption. But all the glory must go to Christ—and Christ alone.
This is the context—the truth as it is "in Christ,"—in which we must examine the human nature of Christ. This is the only way to come to a correct and meaningful understanding of the subject.
In the first place, Christ's humanity reconciled us to God (see 2 Corinthians 5:18), since it was in our corporate humanity that He assumed in the Incarnation and in which He fully satisfied the demands of the law—both its positive demands as well as its justice (see Romans 10:4).
Second, what Christ accomplished in His humanity, through the power of the indwelling Spirit, becomes an example for us who have obeyed this gospel by faith and experienced the new birth. The same power that overcame and condemned sin in Christ's flesh, which was our very flesh, is now made available to us (see Romans 8:2-4).
This is the precious message God brought to the Adventist Church more than a hundred years ago. Unfortunately, it was rejected to a large degree. But thank God, He has not forsaken us. In His great mercy, God is trying His best to restore this message, in its fullness, if we will only be willing to put aside our preconceived ideas and come together in the spirit of humility and Christian love to study that which is everything to us—the humanity of the Son of God.
Key Points in Chapter Four The Truth As It Is in Christ