So that, if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: the primitive passed by, Lo! there has come new.
2 Corinthians 5: 17, Concordant New Testament
It's a phrase I've heard before but never paid much attention to. Yet when this pastor proclaimed it my ears were listening. In Christ. Two simple yet prophetic words. In Christ. For too many people, words mean things. The order we place our words in means things. Granted, this particular pastor was not saying Christ in me, but in Christ. Whatever did he mean? Did dude somehow have a understanding of something I didn't? I'm thinking not. But the words remain...in Christ. Tell me, what do you think of when you hear these words? If someone came up to you and said that you were in Christ Jesus, what would you think? Well, like I said, words mean things. For me, hearing this pastor recite these two words at once made me think of one thing, that at some point I had managed to become a personal part of Jesus. But is this really how it all went down? Perhaps that would be the narrative for some modern day evangelical or fresh out of Pharisee school pulpit pounder. But I know better. For my position in Christ Jesus has nothing to do with any efforts I have undertaken to somehow make myself better, stronger or more righteous. On the contrary, what my reality in Christ has everything to do with is my own realization of who it is I truly am. The apostle Paul proclaims this truth for us in Galatians. Paul understood that it was not by his own doing that he became in Christ. For he, Paul, was dead. Put to death and crucified upon the same cross as his Lord and savior. What remained to fill the empty space of his flesh...was Jesus. So it is with me.
With Christ have I been crucified, yet I am living; no longer I, but living in me is Christ. Now that which I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith that is of the Son of God, who loves me, and gives Himself for me.
Galatians 2: 20, Concordant New Testament
While I know and understand who I am in Christ Jesus, there was a time when I questioned the words "Christ in me." For if I have died with Jesus...is there even a me to begin with? The author Norman Grubb would say no. Grubb made famous the claim that the only independent self in the universe is God. Therefore, if there is no "self" for me to hang my hat upon, what is my identity? Well, as Paul so rightly claimed, my identity remains in Christ who lives in me. There is no longer any Scott...but Jesus who is in him. When I gaze into the mirror, I see Jesus looking back at me. This is, in theory, how we are supposed to approach the reality of Christ in us. No longer me...only Jesus. But the road to realizing Christ in us is unpaved and filled with the potholes of mainstream church teachings. At times, despite my own assurance of who I am, I have entertained thoughts of the old days when I was someone. This is a slippery slope because it could undoubtedly lead us astray back into the false belief that we are our own self. But how is it that I can be separate from He who created me? How is it that I can be anything but totally filled with Him who breathed into me the breath of life? These are the questions that need be asked if we choose to believe that we are somehow our own self. I refuse to refer to such people as unbelievers, but as someone who has never known the man inside.
There is no independent, self-operating self in the universe, except the One who calls Himself I AM {Exodus 3:14} and says, "I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside Me" {Isa. 45:5}.
Norman Grubb, No Independent Self
~Scott~
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