Devotionals on In Christ

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• When we come to see that all the old nature was taken down into the death of the Cross, and in Christ Jesus we are completely clear of its penalty and power, it is then that we begin to welcome the work of the Cross upon all that of which the Holy Spirit convicts us.
• Our acceptance with God in Christ is perfect, and therefore unimprovable.
• Our acceptance is in Christ,' and therefore eternal; the enjoyment is by the Spirit,' and therefore (because of the working of the flesh) often hindered. -J.B.S.

• What is needed isnot that they should die again, but that they should come toaccept their once-for-all death in Christ in relation to whateverthat may be that has come up, and let it go and be set free fromthat law of sin and death.

• New Man in Christ And God’s children became that new man in Christ; a corporate man; a race; a creation.
• God’s children became the Church, the new creation, which is His body - the Church, the fullness of Him” Ephesians 1:23.  For 2000 years the church of Christ has been quietly growing into a corporate body, and God is bringing that new creation in Christ into His planned fullness: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: Ephesians 4:13.

• In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, (KJV)In Christ also we were made a heritage, (RSV)Ephesians 1:11
• Our Inheritance In Christ we have obtained an inheritance and look forward to a glorious future. This is no trifling legacy but one that we have been promised by God Himself. This is no ordinary heritage but one that is bountiful in both quality and quantity.
• Christ’s Heritage In Christ, we have obtained a glorious heritage and anticipate a glorious future..
• but in Christ we are also made to be His precious heritage – for we are His trophies – for Christ Himself is to receive His own special reward, as promised of the Father.
• But we are also made to be His heritage so that He will be glorified in all His saints. He will be regarded with wonder on that day by all who have believed, including you, because you believed. 2 Thessalonians 1:10 We, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, are to be to for the praise of His glory.
• but what God has sovereignly purposed God will surely, sovereignly bring to pass, for all that God has purposed has its central hub and outer circumference in Christ.
• Extravagant Grace Let us marvel at the enormity of our inheritance in Christ and our glorious future.
• IN CHRIST.

• Grace Thru Faith - STUDY Precious Peace How wonderful to know that the love of God is towards us, in Christ Jesus.
• Too often we dismiss that great truth that we are accepted by God in Christ.
• that we treat His love and grace and our position in Christ lightly.

• Many have been on our position in Christ rather than the circumstances of life; looking away from the world and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Living by faith which comes from hearing and not by sight or signs or dreams – putting off the old man in Adam and putting on the new man in Christ – recognising our heavenly home is a greater reality that this sin-sick, cursed world. Many such writings have been on waiting – waiting God’s time and waiting God’s way.

• Grace Thru Faith - STUDY There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.
• There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit?
• Oh yes, there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, none… but there are consequences if we do not live in spirit and in truth.
• Accepted in Christ God does not change, and He recognises Christ’s work on the cross as finished and complete –  and because of that, God accepts you in Christ.

• Pray and Praise For you tarnish your life with much fretting. You spoil your walk with much worry. Fretting and worry crush the treasures that the Lord has to offer, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, confess your faults and your needs, and His peace that surpasses understanding will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.

• Abiding in Christ, as we have often said, is the opposite of abiding in ourselves.
• To abide in ourselves is simply to try to do this living, and this working for the Lord, of ourselves; asking the Lord to help us to do it, instead of recognizing that a Life wholly pleasing to God has been lived and that faith appropriates that accomplishment in Christ.
• Abiding in Christ is simply doing everything, meeting everything as out from Christ.

• A Holy Temple God has been building a holy temple of holy people, day by day for 2000 years.. a unique ‘new creation in Christ’ ..  a singular people, set apart for God..

• All of God promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding es!(2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT)

• He expressed the true, magnificent depths to which God’s love, in Christ, ascends.
• This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith in Christ. 1John 5:4

• separation from God forever and only the shed blood of the Son of Man could have paid for our sin – and only the resurrection of the Son of Man would give us newness of life – a new life in Christ – a new creation in Christ.

• Unreachable Standard The unreachable standard of God’s Law was to be set aside for a new life in Christ. A man seeking to live by any Law must be prepared to keep every part of that law.
• But a believer with a new life in Christ is to live his life by grace and not by works of the Law.
• New Life in Christ A man who seeks to live by the Law must be prepared to keep every part of that law, but the one who died to the Law with Christ has been given a new Christlike nature. A Christian with a new life in Christ must die to self so that Christ lives in him.

• If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.

• Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus Philippians 2:5
• Matthew 11:29 – but Paul exhorts us to think with the mind of Christ in all things: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus .
• Jesus said without Me you can do nothing. (nothing in your own strength) Paul concludes that in Christ... I can do all things through His strength.

• What of those that are a new creation in Christ – where do you and I fit in?
• The old creations in Adam and Jacob are joined by a new creation in Christ.
• New Man in Christ And so Israel was set aside..
• God raised His Seed and through Him and created a new creation in Christ – the Church.
• And for 2000 years the new man in Christ is the one through whom God works.
• the Church – through whom He will work for the new man in Christ was to become the mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ – until it is no longer I that lives but Christ – that lives in me.
• Law and Grace The work through Israel was through the works of the Law – which failed. The work for the Church must be carried out in Christ – which cannot fail.

• To rightly divide the gospel of God is to know how to live in Christ.
• To rightly divide the creations He made is to know who we are in Christ.  And there’s one area of division that many Christians have overlooked - Heavenly and earthly promises that link with heavenly and earthly dominions.

• So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:7
• Thy Will Be Done Paul reminds us: let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus… Philippians 2:5  Isaiah prays: have Thine Own way Lord – Thou are the Potter , I am the clay.

• Inner Peace This positional truth needs to be accepted and reckoned on as fact. It is the glorious truth that we can live in consummate, inward peace in Christ. It is an amazing fact of scripture that nothing need disturb our peace of mind. It is the thrilling assurance that we are delivered from the fear of the future – because your life is hid with Christ in God. 1Cor.16:13
• Spiritual Blessings God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. God the Father chose you and me in Christ before the foundation of the world. God preordained that we are to be adopted as His sons because of the Lord Jesus. God has blessed us with abundant blessings, in and through His beloved Son.
• He Continues: Let us cease laying down to the saints long lists of ‘conditions’ of entering into the blessed life in Christ; and instead, as the primal preparation for leading them into the experience of this life, show them what their position, possession, and privileges in Christ already are.
• Secure Position The world is indeed falling apart before our eyes, but we are positioned in Christ..
• ow. Never let the quaking circumstances of life shake your trust in God. Never let the devastation of this terrestrial plain rock your trust in Him. Never allow circumstances to shake you out of your secure position in Christ.
• Men’s hearts are failing, for fear of what is coming onto the world, for lack of knowledge, and the hearts of many believers today are also being shot to pieces – because they have not yet accepted their secure position in Christ.
• Practical Possession Your position in Christ is a practical possession and a real reality, but we have to reach out and confidently appropriate what is already ours.

• Godly Challenge All he writes is for doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness. His writings give us the bedrock upon which to stand and to live for God, in this evil day. The godly wisdom he wrote is directed at a Christian’s growth and sanctification, and we in this generation do well to study carefully his instructions and warnings. He writes to the saints in Christ Jesus – to those that are set apart unto God.

• Impossible Standard The reality that the Law, in which Nicodemus trusted was related to the flesh, must have been shattering to this religious-minded Pharisee – this esteemed teacher. Though the Law was God’s benchmark for the man that is born of the flesh it was an impossible standard to keep – but the new life in Christ, which is a gift of God’s grace to the one that believes, is a new work of God in man – a new creation in Christ Jesus.

• One New Man But many lessons they needed to learn would come through the apostle Paul. They would have to come to understand that God is no respecter of persons – but it was to be a steep learning curve for every Jewish believer in Christ. They would need to accept the gospel was equally for Jew and Gentile alike. They would need to come to an understanding of the one new man in Christ.

• a position in Christ, seated in heavenly places.

• But for those who have broken free from the bondage of man-made rules, and trust in Christ’s finished work alone, discover the Bible to be their sole Source of divine authority and the  singular sufficiency for every aspect of their Christian life.
• Our position changed from being in Adam to being in Christ and our identity changed from being a child of wrath to a child of God.

• Without His saving grace, we would remain dead in trespasses and sin – but thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory over sin and death – in Christ.
• Declared Righteous – in Christ But God is not dealing with us as unsaved sinners.
• The judgement we deserve was poured out over Christ, Who bore our sins, and we have been declared righteous by God, and because He is righteous, we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
• No Condemnation – in Christ We are sinners saved by grace and there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• But we are sinners saved by grace and there is no condemnation – there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus the Lord.

• Old or New A believer must know and understand the nature of his new life in Christ and apply it, and he must understand the nature of his old sinful life to oppose it.
• They have no link to God, because they have not yet trusted in Christ as their Saviour and been given a new, born-again spirit.
• Now we are servants of the new nature in Christ rather than the old sin-nature, and these verses contrast an unbeliever’s former relationship as slaves of sin with a believer’s new relationship to their new life-in-Christ, which we all receive at salvation and which has made us all servants of righteousness.
• Death or Life A slave of sin functions through the old sin-nature, while a slave of righteousness functions through the new life in Christ.
• A servant of sin relates to the old sin-nature, while a servant of righteousness relates to the new life in Christ.
• The old sin-nature is in servitude to sin and functions under the law of sin and death, while the new life in Christ is in servitude to righteousness and functions under the law of Christ – the Spirit of life.
• A believer has two choices – he can either submit to the evil enticements of the sin-nature, or he lives his life through the new life in Christ.
• However, the more we starve sin by submitting to the new life in Christ, the more our new nature will grow.
• The new nature in Christ (the spirit of righteousness) is able to cancel out the activity of the old nature, but the choice remains with the believer, and so an inner conflict begins to rage: for the flesh has a strong desire against the spirit, and the spirit has a strong desire against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

• Let the fellowship of your suffering be your Job experience and count it all joy… now thanks be unto God Who ALWAYS causeth us to triumph – in Christ. 2 Corinthians 2:14

• And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

• The enemy has filled the minds of many believers with the delusion that they are poor, and in their poverty they must work and grind and toil in order to buy the blessings which are already theirs in Christ.
• It is time to see that all you need you have in Christ.

• He gave us new spiritual life in Christ at the resurrection (Rom. 6:4, 5).

• All flows from the soul being consciously in the place where it is set, in Christ risen.

• Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly, beyond all that we ask or think, according to the Power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.
• Far More Abundantly Let us take God at His word. Let us believe in the rich resources of our reliable Father. Let us trust Him to supply us with the above-all abundance and riches of His grace, for in Ephesians 3:20-21 we read: Now to Him Who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us to Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever AMEN and AMEN.

• We are in Christ – complete in Him – accepted in Him, and our reward is in Him.
• He ensured that all who trust in Him can know undeniably they’re secure in Christ, for our security does not rely on our righteousness but the righteousness of Christ.
• Every expression of salvation is secured in Christ’s righteousness – by His grace.
• Past, present and future salvation is planned, performed, and finished – in Christ.
• God’s Plan God could not have conceived of anything more to save the children of men. God could not improve on anything that He has provided for us in Christ.
• His purpose in Christ is devoid of any spiritual want or need – and it is ALL grace.
• Our Portion Our identity in Christ means total identity with His person; character; essence.
• Our Completeness Absolute fulfilment for humankind is found in Christ alone – and nothing else.
• Christ is the fullest and most complete source of all God’s blessings to us.  And this completeness in Christ provides the most meaningful joy for our soul.
• The Father could not improve on anything that He has provided for us in Christ.
• The Father has given us a glimpse into all that He has planned for those in Christ.

• The presenting' spoken of is the outcome of my knowing my old man to have been crucified (Rom. 6:6), and my reckoning myself alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11).

• for your acceptance is IN Christ and in Christ alone.
• There is nothing we can do or say to lose His acceptance of us – but in everything, we always are and always will be accepted in Christ.

• Preordained Acceptance But God preordained that all who believe in Jesus are fully accepted in His beloved Son. The peace and love and acceptance of God is only through His beloved Son. Without assurance of this precious fact, many live a life of daily dissatisfaction. Without confidence in His Word, many spend their years in constant mistrust. If the failing beauty of a wife doesn’t influence the ardour of a devoted husband, how much more God’s never-failing acceptance is of the believer in Christ. God’s acceptance of you and His acceptance of me is based on one thing – the finished work of the Lord Jesus, on Calvary’s cross: being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Accepted in Christ But “Oh Dear!” – you cry.
• If we fail to keep His command and seek to live by self instead of in Christ.
• Bestowed Grace William R Newell puts it this way: There being no cause in the creature why grace should be shown, the creature must be brought off from trying to give cause to God for His care. He has been accepted in Christ, who is his standing! He is not on probation. As to his life past, it does not exist before God – he died at the cross, and Christ is his Life. Grace, once bestowed, is not withdrawn.. for God knew all the human exigencies beforehand.
• acceptable) – is to fail to see yourself in Christ only.  6)  To be disappointed with yourself – is to have believed in yourself.  7)  To be discouraged is unbelief – as to God’s purpose and plan of blessing for you.  8)  To be proud, is to be blind!

• God Himself has told us in His word that we are accepted by Him - in Christ.
• God accepts US, because we are IN-Christ – we are accepted 'in the Beloved. Our acceptance is based on one fact – we are accepted because we are in CHRIST.
• Established Position There is nothing that can make us more acceptable to God than we are, in Christ. There is nothing that can ever remove us from our established position in Christ.
• We are accepted in Christ – accepted in HIM.
• And all who believe gain this free gift of acceptance in Christ.
• We have done nothing and can do nothing to merit acceptance by God in Christ.
• Acceptance by God depends on faith in Christ – trusting His finished work.
• God expects us to believe what He says – to believe that we are accepted in Christ.

• worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3) Failure to live the Christian life is due to one's utter inability, but it is all governed by the Father.

• Now the way out is to be found in a clear-cut recognition of the fact that, as Paul says in Romans 8:1, There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' Let appearances, voices and feelings to the contrary be what they may, still this is a fact.

• Complete in Christ A believer’s acceptance by God starts and ends at rebirth and we are complete in Him.
• New Life in Christ Christ’s Life has no place in the old life.
• It is the new-life in Christ and not the old-life in Adam that the Spirit will sanctify.
• Our Sanctification Sanctification can only take place in the new-life in Christ.
• God deals with all believers on the grounds that in Christ YOU died.
• We have to ask Him to examine our rebellious and carnal nature – to know the difference between 1) Christ as substitute and Christ as representative. 2) between sanctification truths and identification truths. 3) between the new-life in Christ and the old-life in Adam. 4) between the spiritual believer and a carnal Christian.
• Death no longer has dominion over Christ, for the death that Christ died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God – likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• God... who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3)
• Let us remind ourselves of the Word which is at the basis of our meditation: i>The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.That means that all the resources which are in Christ are available for us.

• Sublime Expression No other New Testament phrase occurs with greater frequency than “In Christ” No other more vital, biblical formula is so often presented as being “In Christ.” Sometimes it is BY Him, sometimes THROUGH Him or WITH Him or IN Him, but the intrinsic meaning of this glorious phrase – is His all-inclusiveness.
• Biblical Declaration In one magnificent consummate declaration, we are told the purpose of this “IN” – that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, — IN HIM.” Eph.1:10.
• God Himself purposes and plans to sum up all things in Christ. God Himself determined that in the eternal, nothing has any place except, IN HIM.”
• All things are to be summed up in Christ.
• It is not just life; acceptance; redemption and righteousness that are in Him, but the creation; our hope; spiritual blessings; consolation… and consummation – and Peace and Effectual Prayer and Strength and Riches are all “In Christ”.
• It includes our escape from condemnation and those that are the dead In Christ too – Yes!
• and His Body, the church, are one in Him – and we are all complete in Him: for in Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him, Who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
• yet they continue to shout of His glory day after day after day after day – and one day, the heavens also will be gathered up, in Christ.
• Should not I, who am blessed with all divine blessings in heavenly places in Christ –  point to the One Who will one day be ALL in ALL?
• Spiritual Truths It is all about Christ and everything is to be in Christ.
• He has Raised us together in Christ Jesus.
• He has made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
• We are fitly framed together in Christ; Gathered together in Christ;  Builded together in Christ;  Knit together in Christ; Working together; Striving together; Perfected together in Him.
• United in Him Soon the whole church is to be united in Christ.
• Soon and very soon we will all be glorified together with Him -In Christ.

• The one who doesn’t live grace-promise-faith way doesn’t negate his eternal security in Christ, but will live a defeated Christian life, for eternal security “kicks-in” immediately at rebirth, and each person of the Godhead guarantee their eternal security.
• Accepted in Christ Life experiences, feelings and pressures may all combine to cause a believer to doubt the truth of God’s word, but life experiences, feelings, and pressures are no criterion for God’s truth.
• From the moment a sinner believes in Christ by faith, God undertakes to keep that believer eternally secure, and it remains God’s responsibility from that day forward, for we are all accepted in the Beloved – forever,

• Complete IN Christ May we pray in unhindered fellowship with God, May we be properly clad in the Lord Jesus Christ. May we pray aright in spirit and in truth – in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may be effective in the intercessory battle of the ages – a battle already won that is soon to be concluded – IN Christ.

• GRACE – which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.2Timothy 1:9

• His work made all believers complete in Christ and accepted in the Beloved.
• Heavenly Deposit The indwelling Spirit was given as a deposit – that we can live godly in Christ Jesus..
• Christ’s Life But how do we use this deposit of a full; triumphant; victorious; enduring life..?  Well, it all goes back to recognising who we are in Christ and then appropriating it!!
• Scriptural Truth These glorious scriptures tell us all we need to know about what we are in Christ.
• By Faith May we all appropriate all that we have in Christ – by faith.. so that He may work through us be glorified in all we think and do and say – by faith

• The believer, having received the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' comes under the influence of the law' of that Spirit (Rom. 8:2).
• The operating principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' ever works in the direction of profound self-judgment, and of the consciousness that we have in the Lord Jesus not only righteousness, but a divine Source of satisfaction and strength.
• And thus it makes the one in whom it operates free from the law of sin and death.' It gives the consciousness that divine goodness is an unfailing resource for our hearts, and that all the treasures of that goodness are stored up in Christ Jesus, that we may learn them there, and find the life of our spirits in the growing knowledge of Him. -C.A.C.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' made me free from the law of sin and death' - not the life,' but the Spirit of life,' - not our effort, but divine strength; not self-occupation, but occupation with Him in whom we are before the Father, and in whom the divine favor rests upon us full and constant, because on Him it rests. -F.W.G.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2).

• and His grace continually draws you and me: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus – that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church, to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
• a testimony of my close friend and sister in Christ – a testimony of the way God has worked in one life..

• Abiding in Christ We are called to walk as Christ walked and live as He lived – to abide in Him.
• Spirit and Truth You are abiding in Christ if God’s Spirit DWELLS in you – is at home in your heart.
• walking in the power of the Spirit, for the Spirit of God dwelt in Christ.
• God’s Spirit was at home in Christ.
• Like Christ We are all called upon to live as Christ lived, and it is not an impossible task. We are all commanded to abide in Him and we are given the means to do so.  But we can only live as Christ lived when we abide in Him and rest in Him – and we can only abide and rest in Him as we live as Christ lived. We can only abide in Christ when His Holy Spirit is at home in our hearts.
• The moment a person believes in Christ the Spirit indwells that person.

• Standing Firm A watchful prayerfulness and a prayerful watch is linked is with patient endurance, and patient endurance is linked with standing firm in Christ. Patient endurance is to do with standing firm in the evil day, Paul warns us to:- “Stand therefore … and having done all, to stand.” Ephesians 6:13 And the Lord Jesus Himself in this same context earnestly exhorts us to:- Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is” And He tells us:- “Take heed – See, I have told you all things beforehand.”
• We are to be ready and watch in every season and pray continuously, so that having done all we are able to stand firm – in Christ

• He modelled the only way that mankind can live a godly life – in Christ Jesus.

• and have come to fullness of life..  for in Christ we too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—reaching full spiritual stature.

• All who are in Christ are expected to live their lives as His life living in them.
• Christ the Head As the Son looked to the Father – so the body must look to the Son. As Christ abode in the bosom of the Father – we too must abide in Christ.
• for the works of the flesh will profit nothing. Remember – it is not what is done for Him, that is important, it is what is done by Him through the believer, as he remains in Christ.
• Remain in Christ Day by day the most important work a believer can do is to remain in Him.

• Indeed, he was able to say with confident assurance, I am persuaded that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus..

• but to stir expectation in the human heart. The new was the full revelation of Himself in Christ: I and My Father are One.  And for 4000 years God prepared the way for the dawning of the Day-spring.  And 2000 years ago the Day-star from on high visited man.
• And knowledge of this Son of God is the secret given to the believer in Christ.
• in Christ..

• Unique Occasion Pentecost was the birthday of the Church – it was a one-off, unique happening. Pentecost was the launch of the Church – through whom God would now work. Pentecost was a unique occasion and part of the bridge between the old and new. Pentecost was the point when the Church began – and we are all one IN Christ.

• And yet many of us as believers present the same failure - flaunting and mishandling our spiritual riches in Christ Jesus.

• Being accepted in Christ and complete in Him is the fixed status of all believers.  But chose to disbelieve the truth, and you will build up a lie in your mind.
• Complete in Christ All those that are born from above are already complete in Christ.
• Accepting that we are complete in Christ is just believing the Scripture as truth.
• Believing that we are accepted in Christ is simply trusting God’s word, as fact.
• Lying Influences Circumstances of life and wickedness in the world may seem to scream the reverse, but you must never base your faith in Christ Jesus on your feelings – nor must you allow the circumstances of life to influence your trust in God.
• Paul’s Words Given the facts of their high character and destiny as saints Paul says; ‘I therefore … beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called’ Ephesians 4:1 Let us cease laying down to the saints long lists of ‘conditions’ of entering into the blessed life in Christ; and instead, as the primal preparation for leading them into the experience of this life, show them what their position, possessions, and privileges in Christ already are.
• Believe and Act Sparks is basically saying that all we are and have in Christ is already ours. To appropriate it is simply to believe it to be true and then act on that truth. It is to change from asking for what’s yours already – to thanking Him for it! It is actually accepting what is already yours in Christ, with thanksgiving and praise.
• I know this is quite likely to meet with words like, I just don’t understand …  but appropriating our birthright and position in Christ is really very simple. It’s a move from a murmuring mentality for what you want – to grateful thanks for all the riches of God’s grace – you already have, in Christ. Murmuring and complaints are always linked with loss of fellowship and unbelief. Thanksgiving and confession is always linked with fellowship and trust in God.
• Believing that we are accepted in Christ is simply trusting His Word as fact.
• Accepting that we are complete in Christ is believing the Scripture as truth.
• The only practical reaction to being complete in Christ is grateful thanks.

• As babes in Christ we are left for a season in the old surroundings, because the time is not yet ripe for us to know our high calling, and the discipline needed for the heirs of God.

• Confusion and Consternation One area causing Christians confusion and consternation is – 'am I truly saved?' This is a question that bothers many believers. 'Am I really part of God’s family?'  This is not just the few, but many born-again people just doubt their security in Christ.
• Finished Work Yet we have an assurance, from Scripture, that our salvation in Christ, is secure.
• Devastating Doubts Assurance and eternal security is probably the most comforting doctrine for believers, for our security rests in Christ’s finished work, and to doubt it can be devastating.
• Christ’s Sacrifice One of the main reasons for our lack of security in Christ rests on our impressions.
• When we doubt our eternal security – it shows a lack of faith in Christ’s sacrifice.
• Emotions can oscillate and are no criteria on which to rest our security in Christ.
• Reasons for Insecurity There are other reasons we doubt our assurance in Christ, and our secure salvation.
• and you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

• And I, in my nothingness, had ceased to look for good in myself, and began tasting the deep joy of being in Christ, and free to have Him as my Object; while as to life, I entered in some degree into the blessedness of knowing that it was not I, but Christ liveth in me.' -C.A.C.

• The one spiritual baptism positions the believer in Christ' (Rom. 6:3, 4; Gal. 3:27; Col. 2:12), and into His Body (1 Cor. 12:13).
• One in Christ' positionally, can never again through all eternity be out of Christ' positionally, as that position depends wholly upon the efficacy of the finished redemptive work of the Son, and does not hinge upon human merit or faithfulness.
• The Holy Spirit gives a living knowledge; His light is the light of life; He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.' We see the Father and the Son as seeing us.

• Man’s 2 Natures As children of God we were given a new life in Christ – a baby life that needs to grow. Our life should be a fruitful, victorious life that matures into a spiritual believer – a life submitted to the Spirit, so it may be conformed into the image and likeness of Jesus. But we still have a sin nature that seeks to gain supremacy over our new Christ-life. We were freed from its power over us, at the cross, but it remains our deadly enemy.
• 2 Opposing Natures The more we feed one of these two bitterly opposing natures, the more it grows and develops – and the stronger it becomes the greater its capacity for good or for evil. The new life in Christ, we received at salvation, is the very life of Jesus Christ, that was breathed into us by God’s Spirit, so we could grow in grace and spiritually mature.
• Old Nature and New Life The old sin nature we received from Adam is at enmity with God and kept us in bondage and condemnation, but it was crucified with Christ, and its power was severed at the cross – freeing us forever from the bondage of sin and death.This new life in Christ is His sinless life – which was imparted into our very beings. The old sin nature is our terrible Adamic heritage – which keeps us in bondage to sin. Unsaved men can only function under the power of the old sin nature, and whatever they do, whether good or ill, is worthy of nothing more than God’s utter condemnation.
• New Life in Christ The new life in Christ should be nurtured, while the old sin nature must be subdued, and though all Christians are positionally sanctified, (set apart unto God), we must also grow in our Christian life to be practically sanctified – and it’s all by grace. Whether we are talking about our sanctified position or the sanctifying process that continues throughout life – our spiritual growth, our growing in grace, our maturing in the faith and the good works that God has prepared for us to do, are ALL by grace.
• In this way the new life in Christ will have a chance to grow and mature, and gradually be conformed into the image and likeness of the Lord Jesus. If we ignore the clear guidance in scripture on how to live a spiritual life, that’s pleasing to God, and submit to the old sin nature, we place ourselves back under the bondage of law.
• Put on the New Let us put to death the deeds of the body, so our new life in Christ can grow: for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. Let us not copy the behaviours and customs of this world, but rather let us submit to the Spirit, so that God can transform us into a new person..

• All sharing must be motivated and governed by life: the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2).

• The Last Adam Behold the Man; the second Man; the last Adam in Whom a new race began – the new creation in Christ.

• [God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

• No-one is condemned because of their sin, because Christ died for the sins of ALL. Those who don’t trust in Christ’s work on the cross have chosen to exclude themselves from the free gift of grace, that has been offered to them by their Creator God.
• Condemnation is the fruit of unbelief in Christ Jesus – resulting in eternal separation.
• Such thinking enlarges the gaping void and widens the great divide between all who believe in Christ Jesus our Lord – and those that condemn themselves through unbelief.

• Integral Not Additional If John and Paul clearly teach that salvation is the gift of God’s grace alone, by faith in Christ how can we reconcile the issue of repentance.
• Work of Christ If we don’t repent or change our mind – we remain dead in our trespasses and sins. When we do repent or change our mind about God’s free gift of grace, that is offered to all sinners who are dead in trespasses and sins we are born again.. and the Holy Spirit places us in Christ as part of God’s family – FOREVER. Let us never add to the amazing work of Christ on the cross when by His blood alone He paid the price for your sins and mine. But rather let us simply accept God’s free gift of grace – by faith alone.

• God does not see us in ourselves He sees us in Christ.

• For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10).
• If we have the Lord Jesus Christ risen and in heaven as our Object, we shall prove the power of His resurrection, not only in lifting us up when we are conscious of our exceeding short-comings, but in strengthening us to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus' (Phil. 3:14).

• On the human side, man is conscious of doing only what he actually does: he chooses as an act of his own volition to receive the grace God offers in Christ Jesus.

• Positional Truth We are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus and this verse can also be translated: it is through faith in Christ that all of you are sons in union with Christ.  These believers knew about their heavenly heritage and their position in Christ, for in the next verse we read: for as many of you as were baptised into Christ have put on Christ.
• He placed us in the body of Christ the moment we believed and our position in Christ is an eternal and unbreakable union with Him.

• Written Word Will I without reservation trust the revelation of God’s written Word, when all around me, in my personal experience, flatly contradicts this?  Will I hold fast unreservedly to the revealed One given of God – in Christ, when overwhelming circumstances dictate the opposite.

• Full Stature We are not only to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness but to live our lives as He did..

• Christ’s Representatives We should love and protect all those that are brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
• We are the workmanship of the Spirit – created in Christ to do good works through Him.
• Unique Creation Collectively we are one new-man in Christ – a unique creation – a peculiar people. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly – each part with its own special use.

• It should grieve us to realize how many abandoned babes in Christ there are - spiritual orphans.
• that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light' (1 Pet. 2:9).  But ye are...that ye should.' We believe in Christ's power and desire to win others, but for what?

• In the beginning they were a heavenly people, with everything for them in heaven, in Christ, and being drawn from Christ in heaven.

• The law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2). ...hath made me free....' Let me walk in it; let me enjoy it, and I am free.

• He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' (Eph. 1:3).

• The new man in Christ must be put on.

• Difficulties and trials are inevitable as we travel through life, but how important for Christians to understand the cause of sin, the effects of sin, the consequences of sin and how to live godly in Christ Jesus.
• Difficulty and disappointments are integral to the believer’s world, but in Christ, we have been supplied with all we need to live a godly life and we are even exhorted to be joyful in our sufferings.
• And although the power sin has been severed in our life, and we have been given a new live in Christ, believers still commit sins and although forgiven through the blood of the Lamb, often have consequences to face.

• There is nothing more needful than a life that simply rests in Christ Jesus.
• Everything we need to live a Christocentric life is found exclusively in Christ, and we have been given the heavenly riches of God’s grace for we are in Christ.
• We have been given every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, for we are in Christ.
• All the resources we need to live a godly life, pleasing to God are given us in Christ.
• Spiritual Believer When we claim the benefits of our heavenly riches in Christ we abide in Him.
• When we abide in Christ, we have simply appropriated the riches of God’s grace – and the end result is a simple, beautiful, purposeful life that keeps Jesus central.
• Both have been given the heavenly riches of God’s grace, for BOTH are in Christ.
• Abiding in Christ Both have been endowed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places – in Christ..  but only one is abiding in Christ and living the Christ-life – the spiritual man.  Only one has appropriated their heavenly portion, which is theirs in Christ..
• There is nothing more needful than a life that simply rests in Christ Jesus – and a life with Him as central, is a life that’s simple, beautiful, purposeful, and fruitful.

• God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.
• God’s Blessings It is the Father that has blessed us in the heavenlies, in Christ.
• It is the Father Who bountifully blesses us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
• God’s Omniscience God in His omniscience knew all who would believe on His only begotten Son – and He chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world to be His children.
• God in His eternal attributes endued man with free-will to accept, or to reject Him, and God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, set apart, and blameless before Him – in love.
• God in His grace chose us and in His grace sought us and in His grace He saved us. And God in His grace placed us IN CHRIST, that we should be holy for He is holy,
• God’s Christ It is by God’s doing we are in Christ Jesus and eternally united with Him, and to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ - the power of God and Christ -the wisdom of God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption 1Corinthians 1:24
• He made us pure and holy, and He freed us from sin. 1Corinthians 1:30 God in His grace chose us to be in union with Christ and in fellowship with Himself – not because of our own merit but by His amazing and eternal grace, and God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him – in love.

• In Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.
• All the fullness of God in Christ for us!

•  For we worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3).

• Christ our Righteousness Because we trust in Christ, He is our righteousness, our holiness and redemption. We have nothing at all to boast about, except in the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. Far be it from any of us who are His children to boast except in the cross of Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me – and I to the world. Galatians 6:14.

• It is a matter of the work of God in Christ, and the purpose of God in Christ: and these two things must both have their place.

• In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ. (Colossians 2:9,10 NIV)
• If God has revealed His mind, His thought in Christ; if all that God intended has been brought to us in a personal revelation: God has followed that up by the fullest provision in Christ for its realization and its attainment.
• So that every need of ours is supplied according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
• In Christ there is not only a standard set, but every kind of provision for attaining to God standard.
• All the secret resources of God to reach His end are there in Christ for us.
• God thought is centered in Christ in heaven, and God resources are centered in Christ in heaven.
• That means that the Lord people in this dispensation are essentially a heavenly people, and that means that it is quite impossible to attain unto God thought or to know God resources in Christ until we are a heavenly people.

• Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. . .

• But there is an altogether different life, different because it is based on the entering into something already completed in Christ; not something to be attained to but rather that which has already been accomplished.

• I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

• The new will is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new life in Christ.

• My God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 ESV)
• This means Christ recognized, Christ known, God in Christ, and that on the ground of our utter separation unto Him.
• There is all the difference between trying to work for our justification, and working because we are justified; between trying to work for our perfection, and working because our perfection is secured in Christ.

• Confused Christianity But the work and wisdom of God does not come through the best efforts of man. The ‘new creation’ in Christ is independent of man’s humanitarianism – but too often man’s perception of the Church is confused with true Christianity. And too often man’s perception of Christianity is confused with the true Church.

• In Christ you have been brought to fullness.Colossians 2:10
• and because we are in Christ, we have been brought to complete fullness. There is nothing lacking in the Christian, because we are complete in Him.
• And if we are not secure in our position in Christ, we will be swayed by alternatives.
• Sufficiency in Christ Like them we are to remain alert and not be robbed of our sufficiency in Christ, for the vain teachings in these traditions is not in accord with God’s viewpoint.
• Paul knows that the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ – and in Him we are complete.
• Paul’s Exhortation He exhorts us not to be shamed into keeping any aspect of the Mosaic Law, for the Law was fulfilled in Christ: therefore, do not let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day.
• Knowledge of Christ Then as now, the issue in Paul’s mind was our completeness in Christ.
• His urgent desire was that all believers truly understood who they were in Christ.
• He wants us to know that everything that God desires us to be is in Christ.
• Christian completeness has everything to do with being complete in Christ.

• Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5).
• The spirit of death, or the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus?

• Satanic Strategy But Calvary is the secret. Satan's satanic strategy is to destroy man's relationship with the Lord. He can't remove our eternal security for that is set, secure in Christ.... but he seeks to damage our relationship with Christ.

• Oh, I am so glad that it was God that came in Christ, GOD that came in Christ.
• It was God in Christ, the absolutely and altogether holy One in whom there was no sin, who came in incarnation; and in virtue of that Divine nature in its perfection Satan in his authority is defeated - on that ground.
• I try the reins.... Though all that be a fact, you and I can stand now in the presence of God as sinlessly perfect, not in ourselves, but in Christ, as having absolute sinless perfection put to our account by God.

• In Christ, God put to death our old man that we might be delivered from the power and dominion of sin in our lives.

• Rest in Christ One wonderful thing about the 'Rest' that the Lord invites us to participate in is that we are to rest with Him – Come – Ye… Come Ye Apart..

• And after initial acceptance in Christ, is the 'learning obedience' in life.
• Hid in Christ And it is this... God’s children are 'complete in Him'.
• Now, complete means just that:- totally, absolutely, unconditionally complete in Christ.
• for if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17a Second, as we hold to this fact by faith, we are brought into the practical reality of it day by day in our experience.
• and we can rebel or we can submit. We can remain a babe in Christ – OR we can mature in the faith. We can get stuck feeding on the milk of the word – OR we can start to eat strong meat. We can grieve and quench the Spirit’s work in our lives – OR we can grow in grace. All these are vital principles of the Christian life – and all these truths are foundational gospel facts and Jesus is coming back very soon – are you ready?

• The spiritual is complete in Christ: like Christ ….
• We were born into Him and God has made us complete in Him: if any man be in Christ he is a new creature in Him. 2Cor.5:17.

• Position in Christ Believing our position in Christ is an inner confidence and conviction, received by faith.

• Oh, the depth of the riches of the grace of the Father – for it pleased Him that in Christ, all fullness should dwell. “Consider” the place of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the esteem of the Father.

• Forgiven by the Lord The gentle handmaiden of the Lord is in equal need of His grace and forgiveness, but once forgiveness is bestowed, ALL condemnation is eternally removed, forever: for there is therefore now NO condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

• He has always God in Christ.

• God has taken the old creation and has condemned it in Christ, and is now working on the new creation.

• Ours is the choice - not I, but Christ (Gal. 2:20); His is the work, for He is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2).
• The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is. -A.M.

• Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5)

• Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creation, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:39).

• and all His promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ in Christ Jesus..

• We were 'in Christ' when He died and so His righteousness is imputed to us. Christ not only paid the price for our sins but He also broke sin’s power within our life.

• That implies something altogether other than what we are, and it is important to see what God says, and how God views those who are represented as being in Christ, and in whom Christ is....
• Oh, that we might recognize this, that in Christ in us, there is the embodiment of God thought, and He is able to speak so of us.

• His risen new life comes from the second spiritual birth, in Christ Attempts to amend my old life is to deny that I am nothing.
• Of all the needy classes of people, the neediest of this earth are not those who are having a heartbreaking, agonising struggle for victory, but those who are having no struggle at all, and no victory … and who do not know it, and who are satisfied and jogging along in a pitiable absence of almost all the possessions that belong to them in Christ.”
• End of Self It is when Self is identified as irreparably damaged and incapable of improvement, that we are brought to the end of our self-life and cry out at long last. Self must no longer have sway in my life,  for it is not the “old I” but the “new life in Christ” that lives – and it must only be Christ.

• The power of the old sin nature was broken by the death of Christ. When He rose from the dead, our new nature in Christ identified with His resurrection.
• The righteousness of Christ is imputed to us – in our new life in Christ, for Christ is the power of God and that power has raised us up into newness of life.

• God always keeps the revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations.
• The principle, the law, of the manna, is that God keeps revelation of Himself in Christ bound up with practical situations of necessity, and we are not going to have revelation as mere teaching, doctrine, interpretation, theory, or anything as a thing, which means that God is going to put you and me into situations where only the revelation of Christ can help us and save us....

• Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24).
• We cannot enjoy acceptance but in the way in which it was acquired or effected for us, and if we are in the acceptance we know that no improvement of the flesh could commend us to God, and that we cannot be before Him but in Christ.
• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3)

• But being in Christ, and knowing it by the Holy Spirit, and what it involves now has dropped out of their creed altogether.

• Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.2 Timothy 3:12

• In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.2 Corinthians 5:19

• Pneumatology – unless rightly-divided,  the Scriptures can be accused of distortions.  Bibliology – God’s work in the church is mixed up with His plan for Israel.  Ecclesiology – our position in Christ, and spiritual inheritance is confused.

• I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).

• Everything which has to do with the realization of God's purpose in creating man, and this world, and its universe, is a matter of knowing God in Christ, which, of course, means knowing Christ.

• There the believer shared the death of the Lord Jesus; for when he became a believer, the life he received was life in Christ, that is, life out of death, resurrection life,  newness of life'; and the relation to sin and the law which Christ had, became those of the believer!

• Like Christ: the longer we meditate on that word, the more we realize how impossible it is without the other: In Christ.

• Fullness of Life I am sure all true believers in Christ want to come into a vital relationship with God.
• I am sure many in the church of Christ long to be effective in their service to Him, but fullness of life and service in the inner man is birthed from Christ’s imputed life..  and for a believer to live in newness of life in Christ – he first must die on the cross.
• Many Members The church of Christ is not an organisation but an organism… a living thing and the church of Christ is made up of many members who are all in Christ, And like all living things the church is not an end in itself but points to a larger end.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

• He expects them to realize their position of absolute oneness with Christ, for He ‘has blessed them with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ’ (Eph. 1:3).” -F.J.H.
• Be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. 2:7, ASV).

• And we are in union with Christ – for we are saved by grace through faith in Him. We have entered a glorious state and are seated in heavenly places – in Christ,  and the present work of the Spirit in us, is to conform us into the likeness of Christ.
• Foundation and Focus All that are in Christ will take on His perfect character, for we will be like Him, and God’s ultimate plan is that humanity is a manifestation of His beloved Son. He will be preeminent in all – and all will be summed-up in His wonderful person.

• Paul’s Epistles Paul’s epistles give us much to rejoice our heart, for we are positioned in Christ. We are seated with Him in heavenly places and have been endowed with eternal life. We have become children of God, joint-heirs with Christ and in-dwelt by the Spirit.
• He comes using beguiling words and deceptive tricks designed to deceive and delude, and Paul is keen that our security in Christ helps to ward off these seductive advances, this I say, lest any man should deceive you with enticing words. Colossians 2:4
• So how do we who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus heed Paul’s warnings?
• Paul delighted to see how disciplined they were and how firmly they held to faith in Christ..
• Rooted and Grounded As we trust in the Lord and apply our faith in Him – so we grow more and more. As we become rooted and grounded in Christ – so we become more like Him. As we become more like Him – so we are more established in the faith.
• Words of Wisdom Paul’s epistles give us much to rejoice our heart, for we are positioned in Christ. Paul’s words of encouragement rejoice our heart – and Paul’s words of wisdom provide us with some very timely warnings.

• So be of good cheer..  the Lord has not only revealed Himself in Christ – the Lord is still revealing Himself by His Word and by His Spirit.

• The sum of everything in the new creation is in Christ, or, to put that in another way, it is outside of man himself.
• Although Christ, the sum of the new creation, may be in us, that new creation will remain in Christ, and we are only in it by reason of our union with Him.
• We shall find that the main obstacle, the main enemy to our fullness in Christ, to all that the new creation means, will be ourselves in some way.

• God’s purpose spans far greater horizons, which is the believer’s sanctification. It is being established in the faith – spiritual maturity – growing in Christ.
• Wise Words “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13,14 “Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you.” Philippians 3:12ff

• Nothing you can do, or omit to do, will influence His acceptance of you in Christ.
• Everlasting Who shall separate us from the love of God In Christ Jesus?

• New Creation The second Man (the last Adam)  was to become the federal Head of a new creation of man… the new creation in Christ, Who was a Man from heaven.
• It was our kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who by His death and resurrection was qualified to become the Last Adam – the final federal head of God’s new and perfect creation in Christ.

• But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ (Eph 2:13).
• As a consequence I rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh' (Phil. 3:3).

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing … in Christ.Ephesians 1:3
• God has secured all and every single possible spiritual blessing – in CHRIST.
• Yes and Amen All that we need or could need, both now and forever, are 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ.
• Our blessings in Christ touch everything in time and stretch through eternity.
• James 1:17  God has blessed all and every saint with every spiritual blessing – in Christ.
• Secured in Christ These blessings from God circumnavigate all we could think, imagine, or hope.
• Such blessings are far beyond the bounds of human understanding and reason – and all are secured in the heavenlies, for all are fixed in Christ.
• Completed in Christ From Genesis to Revelation there are promises of blessings that have past. From start to finish there are countless blessings that are still yet to come. Every blessing we have is so secure that God wrote it in the past tense – and all are completed in Christ and all are secured by His sacrifice.
• Blessings for today and bright blessings for tomorrow are 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ.
• He has blessed us with ALL and EVERY spiritual blessing IN CHRIST.
• In Christ Let us accept His many blessings by faith.
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing - in Christ.

• Comfort and Care Exhortation and encouragement is a beautiful aspect of our Christian life. Peter is the apostle that encourages us to care for one another, in Christ. Peter tells us: above all, keep loving one another earnestly, for love covers a multitude of sins. 1Peter 4:8.  We should be concerned for the well-being of fellow believers in many ways.

• Do not ignore the important sanctification process – but live by faith, for without faith, (faith in Christ) it is impossible to please God.

• You advance spiritually by finding out what you really are (in Christ), not by trying to become what you hope to be.
• The only possibility of spiritual progress lies in our discovering the truth as God sees it; the truth concerning Christ, the truth concerning ourselves in Christ. -W.N.

• One Foundation There is but one foundation on which true faith can be built. 'Examine yourself,' Paul encourages, 'examine yourself to see if you be in the faith…' 2 Corinthians 13:5  'Faith is the substance of the hope set before us in Christ….
• Substance of Hope Faith is the substance of the hope set before us in Christ..

• Death To Sin Paul tells us that we who are believers in Christ, “died to sin.” He tells us that sin is not a present state but a past event.
• We may permit sin to influence us – but in Christ, we have received the power to overcome sin.

• Church-Age Truth The mysteries of the Church as the body and bride of Jesus Christ came from Paul. The necessity of grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone were all from Paul’s pen. The task of unveiling many church-age mysteries were also entrusted to this apostle.

• Scripture Truths In Galatians 5:6 we read that: in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.. while in Romans 5:16 we read: therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace.
• Pleasing God Faith is critical in averting our sight away from our current circumstances, and faith is equally critical in recognising our present position “in Christ,” where we are seated together with Him in heavenly places… where life’s earthly conditions have no influence on our heavenly position, in Him.

• Only a regenerate man has had the breath of life breathed into him by the Spirit of life.  Only a believer in Jesus is able to function on the spiritual plane – by faith.  Only a new man in Christ, who has passed from darkness to light can act by faith.  Faith is simply believing God.  Faith is simply trusting God to do what God has said, and faith comes by hearing which comes through the Word of God.

• If we consider what were some of the practical factors in Christ's crucifixion we realize that His sufferings were caused by men's fickleness, bigotry, fearfulness, jealousy and treachery.

• Victory in Christ O death, where is your sting?

• All three statements are addressed to the believer – the one that is in Christ.
• The knowledge of the living Lord alters everything for the one that is in Christ.
• as long as we are His own – For I am persuaded that neither death nor life….. nor things present nor things to come…. can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Directly we are born again we are positioned in Christ for time and eternity, but fellowship with God and unity with the Spirit can be damaged and broken.

• Everything of God for humanity, (past present and future) is bound up in Christ, for He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
• Spiritual Understanding And through the writings of Paul, we are told how to live in Christ..
• In Christ Jesus tells his disciples: 'all things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father..

• True spiritual experience will result from our standing immovable in our position in Christ.
• Whatever may have been our experience of holiness, and the measure of spiritual attainment in the past, we can never get beyond the need of abiding in Christ and the continuous reckoning of faith. -R.W.

• No Condemnation Paul reminds us that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
• There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, and the verse continues… who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

• Accepted in Christ We’re accepted in Christ – but God accepts us only through His beloved Son.
• We must accept as fact what has already been made ours through faith in Christ, but we must be aware of our need of these truths in our daily walk – and only the Holy Spirit can reveal these truths to the seeking believer: for the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him: neither can they be known to them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1Corinthians.2:1 There are many ways to live that fail to deal with ‘self’ and the ‘self-life’. We have to recognise that God’s way, to self-denial, is at the cross.
• And it is the same Word that tells you that you as connected with Adam, died with Christ, that your old man was crucified, that since you are in Christ you shared His death unto sin, and are thus to reckon your present relationship to sin in Christ – as one who is dead to it, and alive unto God” (Romans, Verse by Verse, p.227).
• Maxwell: “Believers in Christ were joined to Him at the cross, united to Him in death and resurrection.

• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)
• The law of theSpirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sinand death.

• But now in Christ Jesus ye, who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.Ephesians 2:13
• Sinner or Saint There is no more hopeless and helpless state than to be an unbeliever in this world, but there is no more eternally glorious hope than to be a believer in Christ Jesus.
• Positioned in Christ But at the point of salvation, every one of these deprivations melted into the morning mist.
• We were removed from the filth of Satan’s kingdom and eternally positioned in Christ – and nothing in heaven or earth can secure this forgiveness – but Christ’s blood.
• Our future was secure in Christ, and peace with God was swept into the peace of God.
• Brought Near Every barrier to God is lifted and every blockade to redemption has been removed, for in Christ Jesus, we who were far off have been brought near, by the blood of Christ. Simply believing in Christ has lifted every shackle with which we were bound.

• Every unbeliever has a choice – to accept or reject God’s free gift of deliverance, and all who reject salvation by grace through faith in Christ, are condemned.
• But in Christ, our sin nature died at the Cross and we were raised into newness of life.
• who shall deliver me from this body of death? Then he finally understood that victory over his sin nature was found in Christ: but thanks be to God Who has given me the victory IN Christ Jesus my Lord.
• Old Sin Nature The old sin-nature was crucified with Christ and we became a new creation in Christ.
• Final Deliverance We are to live in the world but not be influenced by its evil power – for we are in Christ. All creation groans and the weary world waits for the appearing of the sons of God.
• Freely Delivered In Christ we have been freely delivered from all that condemns and controls us.

• No wonder of all his writings the fiercest, the fieriest is his letter to the Galatians, the letter of our liberty in Christ and it begins with this God revealed His Son in me and that set me free from all other things.

• God has said, The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' The believer has sinned, and has died in Christ's death.

• Be forgiving one to another, just as God also forgave you – in Christ.

• As Christians we are going to be controlled by one of two powers: the self-life, or the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

• These are obstacles that are strewn in your path, to perfect you in Christ. He who began a good work in you will continue until you are like Him.” Phil.1:6

• and my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.Philippians 4:6,19
• God will provide according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
• Will God provide, according to His glorious riches in Christ?
• How can I cope – and how can God cope?  Can God really provide… according to His glorious riches in Christ?
• Health may fail; work disappears; friends desert you; family can betray you… so HOW can God provide according to His glorious riches in Christ?
• He has chosen us in Him to be His children, and He has raised us up to be seated in heavenly places… in Christ!

• Accept the staggering truth contained within the following astonishing verses. The eyes of your understanding are being enlightened; that ye may know what is the Hope of His calling, and what are the Riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (and that includes you – beloved child of God), according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 1:18-20

• God in all His fullness was pleased to live in Christ. (Colossians 1:19 NLT)
• It is a glorious thing to come into touch with God in Christ but it says here that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31).

• He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

• Secured in Christ Christ and His coming kingdom is the hope set before us.
• Satan seeks to shipwreck the soul who is not securely anchored in Christ – but the Anchor of the soul is indeed sure and steadfast… so we must lay hold on that hope set before us – for our hope is secure in Him.
• Secure in Christ Are you anchored on Christ and is your hope in Him or have you fastened your anchor to the things of this life? Will your anchor truly hold in the tumultuous tempest of this life by resting and remaining in Christ, body, soul, and spirit?

• He will provide all my needs, in Christ according to His great goodness.
• Equipped in Christ A benefactor is one that supplies the means for a genius to do his work unhindered and a musician, master, or artist is thus enabled to concentrate on his creativity. A virtuoso is equipped to centre unhindered on his inspirational work until the final stroke of the magnificent masterpiece is concluded.
• Like the musician, the master, the artist, or the virtuoso we too have a heavenly Benefactor, and like them we too can be inspired to carry out the work He has for us to do. But God will equip us, in Christ, to do the particular work He has given us to do… so that the work and service He has prepared for us, will be well-pleasing to Him.

• He is always there, for His promises are ‘Yes’ and ‘Amen’ In Christ.

• Victory in Christ He will strengthen with His power to enable us to face all situations of life.
• He will give us the heart to step out into the unknown – fearless in Christ’s victory.

• A Maturing Grace It is only as I am prepared to decrease and allow the Lord to increase in my life, that faith in self will be gradually replaced by faith in Christ – and the faith in which I live..
• in ME – will be the faith I live in Christ – until it is no longer I that live, but Christ Who lives in me. Galatians 2:20

• You are the Rock of my salvation; protected in the cleft of the Rock... covered, cleansed, purified in Christ.
• Manhood and Deity And mysteries of all mysteries is that the Father chose us In Christ, before the foundation of the world!

• and renew a right spirit within me..Psalm 51-10  And the answer is Christ – and in Christ alone.
• All relationships must be viewed from the angle of my relationship with the Father – and it is in Christ and in Him alone that we shall attain to purity of heart.

• Let this MIND be in you… let this REASONING be in you, that was in Christ Jesus.

• Tripartite Salvation Our spirit is saved at the point we believe in Christ as Saviour.
• Our soul is being saved throughout our entire Christian life and our body will be saved at the end of this church dispensation when the dead in Christ shall rise first and then we that are alive and remain, shall be caught together with them, to meet the Lord in the air – and so we shall ever be with the Lord.

• Foundation of Truth To counter distortions of the truth, Paul gave strict instructions to believers to be rooted and grounded in Christ, and not to be tossed hither and thither by every whim of doctrine.

• Proverbs 22 This directive to love the Lord with our whole being should be our joy and delight, and were we to apply this in our lives, our joy would be complete – in Christ.
• Every promise of God is 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ to those that are His children, but this is a promise from God that partners with our own responsibility as parents.
• Given to God When you give your children to the Lord He will fulfil your heart's desire, for they love the Lord your God with all their heart – and develop a sincere faith – in Christ… and when they are old they will not depart from it.

• Do not lose the present value of it by always living mentally or hopefully in a time when you will be out of it, but go back there and recognize that if you are the Lord's, if you love God and are called according to purpose (as you are if you are in Christ), God is seeking to do something with you and in you by means of the conditions of your present situation.

• Rom.8:28. There may be ramifications for seeking fast-track spiritual development, and there may be consequences for a paucity or lack in a spiritual life, but there will also be reward… if that one earnestly seeks God in his lack, indifference, disinterests or rebellion, for God has a purpose for all that are blood-bought saints in Christ Jesus – but He chooses to do it His way, and will often wait many years for our compliance.
• the promises of God are all ‘yes’ and ‘amen’ in Christ 2Cor.1:20. Let us accept that God’s best purpose in our life is being carried out despite life’s twists. We are being changed into the likeness of Christ so that we too will be a sweet aroma unto the Lord..

• In Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.2 Corinthians 5:19

• Yet His omnipresence takes on a new, and unsurpassed dimensions in the Christian, for He takes up permanent residence within the being of the believer in Christ.

• For the believer in Christ, God ensures that everything in life works together for our eternal benefit, and for His greater glory.
• And God has purposed redemption for all who trust in Christ Jesus as Saviour.

• He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
• He knew you would be one that would place your trust in His beloved Son, and so He chose you in Christ before the world was created.
• The Son of God God’s plan before the foundation of the world was to place His own children in Christ.
• This is why Christ so stressed in John 15, of what it meant to be in Christ.
• Check out Paul, for he u this point about being in Christ.

• Faith in His word translates into Hope in His word: for if in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are of all men most miserable. 1Cor.15:19
• Godly Instructions And in Romans 12, Paul tells us how to live:- we being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another – having then gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: If prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering.

• for He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.
• In Christ, the Beloved, we are redeemed, released, purchased, and paid for.
• In Christ, we are chosen and positioned with Him in high and heavenly places.
• In Christ, we’re adopted as sons, given an inheritance, and made joint-heirs with Christ.
• He has made known to us the mystery of His will – summing up all things in Christ..

• Ransom Paid It was paid in full by the blood of the lamb – the willing Sacrifice Who paid our debt. We were released from Satan’s clutches with a ransom, paid in Christ’s own blood.  The ransom price for our freedom was the life of the Lord Jesus – His life for ours.

• Comforting Words How we delight to stand on the precious promise of God, in those times of difficulty and distress, knowing they are all ‘yes’, and ‘amen’ in Christ.
• Greater Plan Every believer in Christ rejoices in their salvation, knowing that their sins have been forgiven and that they have received eternal life – knowing that they have a glorious inheritance, which is laid up for them in heaven.
• our position in Christ and our relationship with Him, that we can be assured that all things work together for our benefit – not only today but eternally.
• Yes and Amen In the meantime, in His grace – let us rest on the precious promises of God knowing they are all ‘yes’, and ‘amen’ in Christ – knowing that all things work together for good to those that love God..

• He came to demonstrate how the life He lived was the only life that would ever please the Father – a life that He Himself would impart to all who believe in His name – a new life – a new life in Christ – a new life born of the Spirit – a new creation.
• A New Life No surprise that Nicodemus did not understand all these concepts that Jesus taught – for the new life in Christ was a mystery – a mystery, which from the beginning of the world was hidden in the heart of the Father, Who created all things by Jesus Christ. The mystery of the new life in Christ was hid from saints and prophets of old. This was a mystery that had been hidden from ages and from generations – and yet it was a mystery which would one day be made manifest to his saints – to you and to me.

• let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus..

• Such integration of heart, conscience, and will come only as we remain in Christ.

• He is the perfect pattern for all of humanity. God’s plan for those that are in Christ is that we are conformed into His likeness.

• God’s Peace Yet Peace with God is a free gift of grace that is freely available to all who will put their trust in Christ for Salvation.
• For the sinner, it’s a choice to believe in Christ Jesus as Saviour.
• In Christ But Jesus said, I have told you about these things that will happen in this world, so that in Me, you may have peace.

• We are all part of the body of Christ and we all have our own particular part to play, but this mortal life and our eternal future are bound up in Christ, the beloved of God.
• Eternal Purpose Being born into God’s family is our first step along the road of our new life in Christ.

• He did all according to God’s eternal purpose, from the foundation of the earth – the plan, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: Eph.3:11

• Your position in Him is pre-eminent: God raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

• Christ – All in All The evil behind the hand of Amalek must be fought from generation to generation, until all things are brought together in Christ – and Christ is all and in all.

• to learn to be led by the Spirit and live in spirit and truth – to learn to abide in Christ and remain in Him.
• The 'new-life' in Christ is a baby-life that must grow and develop into maturity.
• Transformation Process Then God uses life’s circumstances to start to conform us into Christ’s image. This transformation process into Christ-likeness is no rhetoric or foolish notion. This is a life that lives and moves and has its being in Christ and Christ alone.
• In our own strength, it engenders despair – but in Christ, it is gloriously achievable.

• No, em>of all things.That is Paul great word all the way through: em>all things, ...all things, ...all things,and in the end, em>to sum up all things in Christ.And if I need to safeguard, I am not talking about universalism.

• There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.Galatians 3:28
• One New Man in Christ The time had come when the Church was to be the vehicle to witness of God’s grace.
• There would be neither Jew nor Gentile, but rather one new man in Christ.
• for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

• a plan involving spiritual war that will continue through centuries.  A plan that will continue on until all things are consummated in Christ. A plan you and I are part of. A plan to bring forth the eternal fullness of Christ.

• God has promised to live in the one-new-man in Christ (not the old sinful man) and that one-new-man is to live in a state of perfect dependence upon the Lord his God. God is working in you, enabling you both to desire and work out His good purpose. God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

• Rest in Christ But how can striving towards godliness harmonise with the Spirit’s work in us? How can the diligent pursuit of sanctification be compatible with resting in Christ? How can striving towards holiness be rooted and grounded in the passivity of grace?

• Divine Purpose God knows the end from the beginning and He knows all who will trust in Christ. God predestined all who would believe in Jesus to be conformed into His image. God was well-pleased with the Lord Jesus, Who is His only begotten and beloved Son, and it's God’s divine purpose is that His children are made in the likeness of Jesus Christ. We are to all to be conformed into the image and likeness of God’s dearly beloved Son, and it is the Holy Spirit Himself that is to do this amazing work in the life of a believer.
• Fullness of God This aching to know Him more intimately should be the deepest desire of our heart too.. yet the more we know of Him, the greater His infinite fullness is opened up to us – for in Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

• For by grace are ye saved through faith in Him (trusting in Christ Jesus – with no add-ons) and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

• Because we are in Christ and identified with Him, we can access His life in us.
• Paul tapped into the abundant supply of God’s sufficient grace, which is in Christ.

• We have died to sin; not in ourselves, but in Christ,' and our death with Him is as sure as His death, and since we died with Him it is impossible for His death to be certain and ours uncertain.

• The motivating principle of the old life is the law; the motivating principle of the new life is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

• In self we are crippled; in Christ we conquer.
• The great secret of abiding in Christ is the deep conviction that we are nothing, and He is everything. -A.M.

• The new man in Christ will humble himself.
• Peter tells us to: humble yourself, under the mighty hand of God.  The new man in Christ will submit to His way and His time and listen and learn.
• High Calling The new man in Christ will be the one trusted to enter the spiritual battle.
• The new man in Christ will be an overcomer, if he holds fast to the end.
• Oh, what lessons there are for all to learn, who also travel the believer’s path in this world, as we accept the deep and unanswerable questions in our lives, and press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

• The 'Old Man' is everything within a believer – that is not of Christ and not In Christ.
• But the only way to be rid of his manipulating the religiosity of the 'Old Man', is to have an increasing reality of the 'New Man in Christ'.

• This is God's love in Christ....

• When we begin to comprehend Romans Six, we know that our death in Christ unto sin was completed at Calvary.
• When we have been in Romans Seven for a time, we come to realize that we have been struggling to produce that which God has already accomplished for us in Christ.
• When we thereby come to Romans Eight, we know at last that the Holy Spirit will produce in our experience what God completed for us on the Cross and in Christ our life.

• The secret of a victorious life is knowing Him intimately and abiding in Him: you in Me, and I in you John 15:4 which is: Christ in me and I in Christ.
• We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, whilst walking this sin-soaked world.

• [God] hath raised us up together; and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

• Easy as A B C Union with Christ or being placed in Christ, is as simple as A-B-C, for it is a result of simply trusting in Jesus as Saviour.

• The present application of God’s Word, enables us to live a godly life in Christ Jesus.
• Future prophecies, in Scripture, secures our hope in Christ and develops our faith.
• to understand the gospel of the kingdom, and the gospel of the grace of God – to understand the old creations in Adam and Jacob and the new creation in Christ.
• the new creation in Christ.
• In Christ, we are seated in heavenly places, but satanic rule trespasses our position.
• prepared by the Spirit to bring forth the fruit He requires; saved Jews and Gentiles, participating in a spiritual battle and heavenly war.. a bride for Christ, prepared as co-regent with Him in His heavenly kingdom – the one new man in Christ – the Church.
• Overcoming And the one new man in Christ, is seven times exhorted to overcome in the spiritual war, for overcoming is God’s will for all believers.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us in heavenly places … in Christ.Ephesians 1:3
• Magnified Blessings God has blessed us in heavenly places – literally He has blessed us in the heavenlies. God has blessed us in Christ – literally we share in all that rightfully belongs to Him. God has blessed us – but often we don’t comprehend the magnitude of His blessings.
• Heavenly Blessings It was His purpose, His plan, and His desire to bestow on us His heavenly blessings. He predestined us to be adopted as His sons according to His good pleasure, and this blessing in the heavenlies was purposed in Christ – and we are in Him,  for all blessings we have in Christ are simply blessings in heavenly places – and because we are in Christ we are blessed in the heavenlies – in HIM.
• Hope in Christ It was God’s purpose to redeem us through the blood of Jesus and to forgive our sins, and He purposed this heavenly blessing in accordance with the riches of His grace.
• God willed to break down the wall of separation between His holy Self and fallen sinners,  that we, who are the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His glory.
• where Christ Himself is seated.  And we who are in Christ are blessed in the heavenlies – for we are in HIM.
• Incomparable Power God revealed His incomparably great power when He raised Christ from the dead. Then God placed all things in heaven and earth and below the earth under his feet, so that we who are His body would have the same mighty power in our lives – and because we are His body and we are in Christ, we are blessed in the heavenly places.
• He brought us out of darkness into the glorious light of the great gospel of Christ, for we are God’s handiwork and are created in Christ Jesus to do good works,  which God in His grace has prepared for us to do in advance.
• Glorious Inheritance God has bestowed on all His holy people the riches of His glorious inheritance. Our future home is assured and our place of residence is the heavenly Jerusalem, and that inheritance is ours through Christ Who is seated in heavenly places – for all blessings that we have in Christ are simply blessings in the heavenlies – blessings we have in Him.
• Christ’s Supremacy Christ is Himself already seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high – in heaven. Christ’s supremacy was authorised by the Father when He was raised from the dead,  and God has put everything in subjection under His feet, until Christ is all and in all – and our blessings are secured in heavenly places for they are all in CHRIST.
• and God has placed all His born-again children in Christ – in heavenly places.
• Believers are eternally located in this secure position because we are in Christ..
• Heavenly Sphere All believers are in Christ and at this present time are seated with Him – in Christ. All Christians are in Him and forever seated with Him : in Him, in heavenly places.
• God has bestowed on us blessings of position, privilege, power, and responsibility, for this is a spiritual conflict with principalities and powers in heavenly places – and we are in Christ; identified with Him and our sphere of operation is heavenly.
• The privileges and blessings bestowed on all in Christ – are in the heavenly realm, and we are to live and function in the spiritual realm, because of our union with Christ.
• Our physical position is with our feet planted on the earth - the terrestrial plane, but our eternal, spiritual position is in Christ in heavenly places - the celestial sphere.
• Eternal Perspective Because we are already positioned in Christ, we are eternally safe and forever secure, and our life should display a heavenly attitude and reflect an eternal perspective. Our heart and mind should be set on heavenly things – for we are already in Christ, and we are blessed – already blessed – we are already blessed above all measure in Him.
• We are heavenly beings that are passing through. We are to set our hearts of heavenly things not on earthly things – for we are in Christ.
• We may be poor in the world goods, but we have every spiritual blessing, in Christ.
• We may be surrounded by trouble, but our hope in Christ is guaranteed by God.
• We may be perplexed and cast down, but in Christ, we have all that makes for life.
• Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us in the heavenlies … in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

• He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion... and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:20,21; 2:6)

• We live in Christ for sanctification.
• Victory in Christ But until that time of future bliss we live on this earth with its trials and pain, and every day we have a choice..
• Christian Challenge And Paul reminds us how we are to live each day of this life: brethren, he writes, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil.3:13, and THEN comes the challenge: therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind. Philippians 3:13ff

• But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the Blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13).
• To know the Lord Jesus is to love Him; and to love Him is to insist on being with Him; to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).
• Hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ' (Eph. 1:3).

• God did not help the sinner to be born again... He gave him a new life in Christ.
• the Old “I” must remain on the cross/ The old man must be crucified.The new man in Christ alone is the one that God lives in and works through.
• The Spirit of God lives in the spirit of man, the new man in Christ, which cannot sin, as John told us.
• “Whoever has been born of God (the new man in Christ) does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God”.
• Your new soul-life is the new man in Christ, the spiritual man that works for good.
• Appropriate that which is already yours in Christ:-

• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2)

• In Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.Colossians 2:3
• Christ Jesus The man or woman that has been placed in Christ is indeed blessed beyond compare..
• for hidden within Christ is a great treasure trove of all-wisdom and all-knowledge. Christ – the third person of the trinity was made man and became God incarnate. Christ was Son of Man Who was born – yet He was the Son of God Who was given. The fullness of deity dwells in Christ – and in Him is all wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:9 All that God is and all that God knows is present in the person of Christ Jesus.
• With our finite minds, we are incapable of understanding the essence of the infinite God – nevertheless, all the wisdom and knowledge of God is hidden in Christ in its entirety. Man, a fallen creature was incapable of meeting and communing with a holy God, but God in His mercy and love revealed Himself, in Christ Jesus – in His fullness.
• Veiled in Flesh The eternal self-existent, holy God clothed Himself in flesh to reveal Himself to man. The sovereign Creator chose to unveil Himself to you and me in time-space history. The absolute Lord of the universe came to dwell with us in the form of mortal flesh – and all the essential and unique characteristics of God are contained in Christ.
• Person of Christ The self-existent Christ is absolute and complete in all aspects of His causeless being. The immutable Christ is absolute truth, entirely dependable, totally faithful, and true. The infinite Christ has limitless knowledge, immeasurable power, perpetual presence – and in Christ are hidden all the treasures of God’s eternal wisdom and knowledge.
• Incarnate God His love is measureless and scoops into its skirts boundless mercy and eternal grace. His immeasurable holiness acts in absolute righteousness and unquestionable justice. The fullness of God has been manifested in the self-revelation of Himself, in Christ.  And in Him are hidden all the treasures of God’s eternal wisdom and knowledge.
• Astonishing Privilege The man or woman that has been placed in Christ is indeed blessed beyond compare, for hidden within Christ is a great treasure trove of all-wisdom and all-knowledge.
• So what are we, who are in Christ, to do with this astonishing privilege we have?
• Second Since we are in Christ we are to keep on being built up and strengthened in the faith. We are to remain firm in the faith and overflow with thanksgiving and praise to Him. Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed – and overflowing with gratitude. Colossians 2:7
• Fourth We are to fully accept who we are in Christ and the position we have in Him.
• We are to trust the Scriptures as truth that has been given to us by almighty God. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in human form. Colossians 2:9
• Fourth We are to know and accept that we are complete in Christ and need nothing more. We are to recognise Christ as the full and final authority over all rule and principalities. We are to trust all that Scriptures tell us of the treasures that are contained in Christ – For you are complete through your union with Christ, Who is the head over every ruler and authority – principality and power. Colossians 2:10
• Deity of Christ The man or woman that has been placed in Christ is indeed blessed beyond compare, for hidden within Christ is a great treasure trove of all-wisdom and all-knowledge.
• and in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
• With our finite minds, we are incapable of understanding the essence of infinite God – nevertheless, all the wisdom and knowledge of God are hidden in Christ in its entirety. Let us take time to mine out those hidden treasures by getting to know Him more.

• We are His blood-bought children whose assurance in Him is secure, for His promises are true – they are 'yes' and 'amen' in Christ.

• There they stagnate, in dire need of the fresh streams of living water that come from seeing their position in Christ.
• hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

• Where would souls be put if they were simply and definitely instructed in Christ Jesus and Him crucified and risen; connected by faith with the living One, who was crucified, and whose death terminated man in the flesh? -J.B.S.

• His sinless life and perfect example demonstrated that in Him we too can live godly..  not in our own strength, for in ourselves dwells no good thing.  But in His strength and power and sufficiency we CAN live godly in Christ Jesus.
• but so that He could become our LIFE in US – so that in HIM we too can live godly in Christ Jesus.

• A believer may thus inherit patience, and although he may be but a babe in Christ, he is seen to be more stable than a more advanced believer, because whatever goes wrong he stands unruffled.

• Be found in Christ – (in Christ alone) not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith.Philippians 3:9

• Binding Truth The Lord’s return for His little flock is Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus, and the greatest joy will be to see Him as He is and to be made like unto Him – and these truths are as binding on the heart of God as the blood-drenched cross.

• forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

• For we are to live IN Christ and TO Christ and BY Christ and FOR Christ.

• Chosen in Christ He chose us In Christ from the foundation of the world. He purposed to make us holy as He is holy. He started to conform us into His image when we first trusted in Him..

• We are children of light; children of the day – and so we are to be clothed in Christ.
• This protective breastplate of faith and love is our covering of Christ’s righteousness, for the heart that abides in Christ is the one that stands firm in the day of trouble.
• The former enables the patient tenacity of trusting faith in Christ Jesus.
• All three unite in our future promise in Christ when we shall see Him as He is – for all are founded in the assured anticipation of the glory that shall be revealed.
• Clothed in Christ We belong to the day, for we are children of light... let us, therefore..

• Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!
• Bounteous Heritage Paul adds one building block of glory onto the next in his epistle to the Ephesians. He edges onward from one wonderful level to another as he fine-tunes our inheritance. He outlines the significance of our adoption as sons – our bounteous heritage in Christ.
• A special body; a unique body; a single body with many members united in Christ.
• A New Creation A new creature; a new man; a new creation; a new nature; a new life in Christ.  A new body that is being conformed into the image and likeness of her Saviour – a unique body that is possessor of the life of Christ and the nature of her Lord.
• God’s Building-Blocks God’s building-blocks of grace and glory are erected in the amazing book of Ephesians. We move from one marvellous level of grace and glory to the next glorious peak. We are permitted to fine-tune the incredible truth of who we are in Christ.  And it is all by God’s grace, through faith in Christ Jesus.

• Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

• Position in Christ We were no longer foreigners to God but were brought close to Him through Christ..  and you know what… it is by grace – by grace alone and only by God’s grace. And if ever this fails to knock us speechless, we need to look again at our position in Him.
• We became part of the one new man in Christ – His Church; His Body and His Bride.

• It is as we abide in Christ and walk in the spirit that we are kept from disobedience.
• A believer that abides in Christ is a life that maintains fellowship with the Father.
• Motivating Factor We cannot abide in Christ in disobedience, but only as we delight to do His will.
• of abiding in Christ – of abiding in love.

• Christ and the new you must be resurrected – and the new man in Christ put on.

• Our old sin nature for a new position in Christ..
• Full Identification Because we are in Christ, we are committed to God as was the Lord Jesus.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies … IN CHRIST.Ephesians 1:3
• Positional Phrase There is no more compelling and meaningful expression for a believer than 'in Christ'.
• Permanent Relationship When we first believed in Jesus we were placed in a permanent relationship with Him. The old former life in Adam was forever replaced with our new, eternal life in Christ. We who were dead in trespasses and sins were made fully alive and given His life.
• Union with Christ We are positioned in Christ the moment we trust Him as Redeemer and Saviour. We are placed in union with Christ the moment our hearts declare 'I believe'.
• He places us IN CHRIST.
• These and many other acts of the Spirit take place to position us IN CHRIST.
• Life of Christ Forgiveness at the cross is the first of numerous acts of the Spirit in a new believer… but from the beginning, we are placed in Christ.
• Destiny of Christ We share in the DESTINY of Christ He raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies – in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:6

• It is the little group of words: ‘in Christ’ : ‘in Him’ : ‘in Christ Jesus’.  And it is also found in the phrases: ‘in Whom’, ‘by Whom’ and ‘of Whom’.
• This little, almost insignificant term cradles in its arms a most powerful meaning. 'In Christ' indicates a close, intimate, living union with our resurrected Saviour – Jesus.  'In Christ' is a positional truth that is found in Scripture, and applies to all Christians.
• Position In Christ All believers whether old or young, male of female; Jew of gentile – all are 'n Him'.   Whatever people group; both bond or free; new or seasoned saints – all are 'in Christ'.
• Church-Age Reality Our personal identity in Christ, and He, in us is the most stunning church-age reality... and not one believer should be uninformed about this amazing, beautiful privilege.
• Sometimes we discover that things are 'through Him', 'with Him', 'of Him' or 'by Him', but our position in Christ is the most important truth Christians should understand.
• In Christ As believers, we are going to spend eternity with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
• Let us unhesitatingly familiarise ourselves with all that it means to be IN CHRIST.

• Ditties of Grace Some use little catchy ditties or rhymes to remind themselves of God’s grace: Given by God mercifully, Riches in Christ bestowed freely, Atonement sacrificially, Christ in us the hope of glory, Evermore undeservedly.
• down and initiating reconciliation of man to Himself. (Jn. 1:14; 2 Cor. 8:9)A..It is God’s Abundantly giving us more than we could ever expect or deserve. (Jn. 1:16; Rom. 5:17; 2 Cor.9:8; Eph. 2:7; 1 Tim. 1:14)C..It is about God Caring enough to send Jesus to die in our place. (Eph. 1:7; 2 Thess.2:16)E..It is about being Eternally unendingly, unconditionally accepted in Christ. (Eph.1:6; 2 Tim.1:9; Titus 3:7)
• Special Grace But there is a special grace for those that have accessed salvation by grace, through faith: Strombeck writes the following: Grace is God’s provision to bring into being, sustain and perfect His new creation in Christ.

• Body in Christ We are united as one body in Christ because we have God’s indwelling Spirit – now. We’re bedecked with the unsearchable riches of God toward us who believe – now. We are graced with all the highest privileges that God has granted to humanity – NOW.
• We have the Spirit of power and might: Who wrought in Christ and raised Him from the dead – the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He performed in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.  Ephesians 1:19-20

• Name of Jesus This is a lesson that so many Christians simply fail to understand or to apply,  and the result is a life that is lived in defeat instead of a victorious life in Christ.

• GALATIANS show that Faith in Christ alone – the Father’s Loves.

• The answer is this: that you are able to see in a living and ever-growing way God thoughts as centered in Christ.

• Beloved of God Every child of God is in Christ and every believer has been accepted because of Him. We are in Christ and we are accepted by God and we are loved because of Jesus.

• Strength of Christ Being kind to one another; tender-hearted; forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

• Though He slay me, yet shall I trust Him. Yes, Beloved, it is to draw you with cords of love into His deepest secrets – where you, 'in Christ' live in quiet, humble submission to His Word – where Christ in you becomes an Anchor for other hurting souls in your journey into faith.

• created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
• Your eternal salvation is secure in Christ – completed the moment you believed – when you were born from above by the Spirit.
• Sanctification does not depend of what you do but who you are In Christ.
• An Example Paul who throughout his life spread the gospel in every part of the known world, reached toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. He wrote…. I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind I reach forward to those things which are ahead.
• He said, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
• Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

• He continues:- 'that we may present every person mature' (that is full-grown, fully initiated, complete, and perfect) – perfect, complete, whole in Christ (the Anointed One).
• He goes on:- 'for my concern is that their hearts may be braced (comforted, cheered, and encouraged), so they are knit together in love – in unity and in oneness – in Christ.'
• Wrestle in Prayer Should we not equally, as part of His body seek to do the same – in Christ? Should we not like Paul wrestle in prayer for other believers to be perfected In Him?
• people bound up, devoted and given over to carrying out His plans to the uttermost – which is the perfecting of the saints – in Christ.

• Life of Faith By faith we BEGAN… 1 Corinthians 15:1-4By faith we STAND… 1 1Corinthians 16:13By faith we WALK… 2 Corinthians 5:7 Colossians 2:6By faith we LIVE... Galatians 2:20By faith in CHRIST and by faith in Christ alone.

• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).
• He will learn to understand how completely death makes an end of all self-effort, and now, as he lives in Christ to God, everything henceforth is to be the work of God Himself.” -A.M.

• It is knowing the Lord, God in Christ; for the way in which God has joined Himself to us is in Christ, not apart, and the way in which we have been joined to God is in Christ, not apart.

• The fact is this, that what God is after is not to do things for you and for me, not to impart things to you and to me, not to show things to you and to me, but to bring us to some fresh apprehension of God in Christ.
• Worship is the first, the continuous and the final factor in the knowledge of God in Christ, and is basic to everything else in our relation to Him.
• God dealings with us are governed by this supreme aim: that He might make known to us Himself in Christ; but this comes by illumination, and that illumination is by the touch of Christ.

• Let me point out that in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden, and the Lord's will for us is to come to an ever-growing realization and personal appreciation of Him in Whom all the fullness dwells.

• For we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, and we are sanctified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, – and we will be glorified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone: for whom He predestined He also called, and whom He called he also justified, and whom He justified He also glorified. Romans 8:30

• In Christ Jesus we are motivated by a higher law, the law of the Spirit of life' (Rom. 8:2).

• Does it affect their standing in Christ or their position in Him?  No!

• Early in Christ’s ministry, the disciples believed the Lord because of His signs, but to develop into mature believers, they were to be participators of His life.
• Today, subjective participation in Christ’s life will avail a victorious Christian life.

• and let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.

• Therefore… The book of Hebrews spends eleven chapters warning of the need of faith in Christ. For over ten chapters we are given a series of warnings and a succession of truths. The next chapter outlines a cloud of faithful witnesses that are examples for us to heed..

• We are to pray in spirit and truth; to pray without ceasing; to pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ; to pray for our families and leaders of the nation..
• Spiritual Choice We are the children of God and we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus, and one of the most precious gifts that we have received is the privilege of prayer.

• In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (Gal. 6:15).
• Holy, just and good' it is, but the Christian's rule of life is in Christ. . .

• And, as in deliverance from the power of sin, there is no freedom from law apart from the death we shared in Christ on the Cross.

• Our liberty in Christ, that comes by grace through faith, dominates the pages of Galatians as point-by-point Paul warns of the serious consequences of legalism – of deserting the liberty of the gospel of grace for the shackles of a works-based ‘gospel’.
• Infants or Sons We were all made children of God through faith (justification – initial believing in Christ) and we should be living as sons of God through faith (sanctification – growing in grace).
• Paul is telling the Galatians that they should be growing in the grace of Jesus Christ, but despite their position in Christ and union with Him – they reverted to infancy!
• Resting in Christ Let us not be like the Galatians who deliberately put themselves back under the condemnation, by trying to please God in their own strength instead of resting in the liberty of Christ’s finished work – He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law on our behalf through His sacrifice.

• Believers are seated in the heavenlies in Christ, and are spiritual people with a sanctuary in Heaven.
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2). -G.G.

• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
• The law is for the man who departed from God - that man has been removed from God's sight in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I rejoice that now by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus' I am free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2).

• It is akin to a seed: the life of the Lord Jesus within must grow; and it would be against the laws of nature and grace alike if we expected from the babe in Christ the strength that can only be found in the young man, or the rich experience and stability of the fathers.
• I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).

• The growing believer finally learns to trust but one source of motivation: the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:2).

• It is a matter of what God is doing, and life-union with Him in Christ for the accomplishment of that.

• Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.Colossians 1:28
• – the new life in Christ and not the old sinful Adamic nature).
• 3-times Blameless 1) Past:- that once for all salvation of the spirit: I am born again – blameless. 2) Present:- that ongoing, lifelong salvation of the soul (our new live in Christ and not the old sinful Adamic nature): I am being sanctified – blameless. 3) Future:- the soon to be salvation of the body: glorified, I will be glorified – I am being saved – I will be saved – all blameless.
• Blameless IN Christ.
• blameless in Christ.
• Blameless in Christ His grace is indeed sufficient to fulfil His ideal in you and in me.

• Covered in Christ Let us seek to remain in direct unity in the bond of love and fellowship..
• To be clothed in the armour of our warfare, which means to be covered in Christ for we live in dark days.
• To recognise our sins and humble ourselves before God, and to intercede on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

• Self Identified When Self is identified as irreparably damaged and incapable of improvement, we are brought to the end of our 'self-life' and cry out at long last, “self must no longer have sway in my life.” For it is not the “old I” but the “new life in Christ” that lives, and it must only be Christ.
• To rise into the newness of His life in you – the old Life must remain crucified,  until the NEW Life in Christ becomes.. not I that lives but Christ that lives in me.”
• But one thing I do forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

• Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began (2 Tim. 1:9).

• The new life in Christ takes a lifetime of growth.
• Old and New Life At the same time, the old self endeavours to get down from the cross and resume control – and a battle ensues between the old sin nature and the new life in Christ.
• Tug-of-War Sometimes it’s not an easy decision for a believer to submit to the Holy Spirit of Christ, for the old nature lusts against the new life in Christ.
• Often a tug-of-war ensues between the old sin nature and the new life in Christ, but the old life and the new nature can never live in harmony with each other.
• Christ is All in All God’s long-term plan is that Christ is all and in all – and we are to be in Christ. As I cease to exist so the life of Christ begins to grow and develop in me. As my old self ceases to exist – so my new life in Christ begins to grow.

• Abiding in Christ A life of entire consecration, to the glory of His name. A lesson of perfect conformity, to the nature and character of the lovely Lord Jesus.
• For God dwells in Christ, and Christ lives In God - and we are In Christ!
• you will ask whatever you will – and it shall be done. If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you. For in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And so by virtue of our position In Christ and our union With Him, whatsoever you ask will be done.
• A promise which is 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Christ?

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3).

• Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14).

• It is for His eternal plan and purpose, to bring all things together in one – in Christ – and this is ultimately for our eternal joy and benefit.

• In HIM dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, All the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form – in Christ.
• All the essential essence of Deity inhabits Him in bodily form, The entire fullness of God’s whole nature dwells bodily in Christ, AND YOU HAVE BEEN MADE COMPLETE IN HIM.Colossians 2:9
• Adequacy in Christ We must not let anything rob us of our understanding of our adequacy in Christ.
• Scriptural Truth Don’t be robbed of the scriptural truth that in Christ dwells all the Godhead bodily. You are once for all and forever, in time and eternity – totally complete in Him.
• Nothing need be added to what you are in Christ, for you are complete in Him.
• Nothing can be removed from who you are in Christ, for you are complete in Him.  Our completeness is an unchangeable fact, contained in Holy Scripture.
• God’s Gift to Believers From God’s perspective... if you are IN Christ you are complete in Him.
• In Christ, you are totally adequate to meet all of God’s demands and requirements.
• The key is to be in Christ..
• Identified With Christ Everyone who hears the gospel and believes in Jesus is placed in Him immediately. Anyone who trusts God, to take care of all our sin, is immediately placed in Christ – dead to self and alive to Christ – identified with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
• By grace ,we share in Christ’s righteousness, His son-ship, His heir-ship, His destiny – and nothing in heaven or earth can remove us from this position of grace, for we are eternally and forever secure in Him.
• All the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form – in Christ.
• The entire fullness of God’s whole nature dwells bodily in CHRIST – AND YOU HAVE BEEN MADE COMPLETE – IN HIM.

• Saving of the Soul Paul writes in First Corinthians 15: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable. 1Cor.15:19. 'But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul'.

• That is to be in Christ - a new creature.

• “Now thanks be unto God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ” (2 Cor. 2:14).

• And there is nothing that can deliver us from it but that entire willingness to die to the old man, which comes when by faith we understand that we have died in Christ Jesus. -A.M.

• We must desperately mean business, and come to the place where we say: Lord, I am set upon all that Thou dost mean in Christ.

• He was even in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Cor. 5:19).

• Should we not have faith in that ALL God’s promises to us are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus our Lord?

• The freedom is so entirely in Christ Jesus, and the maintenance of our living union with Him is so distinctly and entirely the work of divine power, that it is only as we see that the Spirit dwells within us for this very purpose, and know how to accept and yield to His working it, that we can really stand in the liberty with which Christ has made us free. -A.M.
• Have not some given up hope that words like I have been crucified with Christ,' the world is crucified to me,' baptized into His death,' dead unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus' should have become truly intelligible and helpful?

• All he needs for maturity is encompassed in his new life. All a Christian needs, is in his new life in Christ and he is complete in Him, for nothing can be added and nothing can be subtracted – for Christ is ALL in ALL. He is ALL we need and we are COMPLETE in Him.
• The Old Life But the old life in Adam contains the antithesis of the new life in Christ. The old, sinful Adamic nature is the entire opposite of the new life in Christ.
• The new life in Christ must be the life within that grows into the likeness of Christ.
• Incorruptible Seed We are born again of Christ and not from the old corruptible old Adamic seed: you are not born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. 1 Peter 1:23   We are born a new creation in Christ.
• We are a new man, with a new life in Christ –  and all that is of the old must go.
• The old and the new must not be combined, for the old life in Adam is at enmity against the new life in Christ.
• Christlike Nature It is not to be the old ‘ME’ but the new ‘ME’ that has supremacy in the life I live, so that it is not I that lives, but Christ Who in me Galatians 2:20…  so that it is not the old sin nature but the new Christlike nature that develops – for ye are in Christ and ye are complete in Him. Colossians 2:10
• Process of Maturity BUT… it does not end there. The new nature of the born-again believer makes that saint complete in Christ. This allows the life of Christ to be exhibited in the believer, which matures over time.
• Fruitfulness is all encompassed within the new life of Christ alone, and the new life in Christ is received at rebirth, by every believer.
• God Works Within We are to put off the old and put on the new and then... we are just to rest in Him, for it is God who works in us (through the new life in Christ) Both to WILL and to DO of His good pleasure.

• to understand they are totally and unreservedly accepted in Christ: accepted in the Beloved.
• until we stand on the promise of our position in Christ – we miss the mark in our commission.

• Only the one that abides in Christ, the true vine will bring forth fruit..

• Faith in Christ Christ became a permanent resident in our heart the instant we trusted Him as Saviour. His indwelling Spirit took up His habitation on the basis of faith in God’s Son, but the Spirit of God has an ongoing work throughout the rest of our life… by faith.
• In love..  so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 
• Height of God Grace The height of God’s grace reaches into heavenly places where we are seated with Christ. The height of God’s grace is found in Christ Jesus our heavenly Lord and King.
• has raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus – far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come – so that in the ages to come He might show forth the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

• All the promises in His word are yes and amen in Christ – for me.

• In every circumstance of life be thankful; for this is God's will in Christ Jesus respecting you (1 Thess. 5:18, Wey.).

• Through all of this, our Lord clung in faith to… My God – just as we, in Christ, must cling in faith to… our Father, Who art in Heaven.
• For HIS sake there is now no condemnation for we who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• For we have been crucified with Him and we are risen with Him– and we are made to sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Abiding in Christ.

• Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 that... having made known to us (the Church) the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times, He might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him, Ephesians.1:9
• New Man in Christ And HOW has God determined to do this?
• a deep, deep work, in the inner man of the new creation..,  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Ephesians.4:13 And that’s the new man in Christ.

• The Christian life is not regulated by Moses and the Law, but lived by the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

• The unsaved sinner has the need of a Saviour and the Spirit convicts him of this need. When the unsaved sinner has been born again this initial need is satisfied – and from that day he is accepted in Christ..

• Covered in Christ We need to be undergirded with His truth and remain covered in His righteousness. We should minister the gospel of peace and have trust His word implicitly – as fact. We should take the helmet of salvation and the believers’ sword, which is God’s Word.

• God’s word is unchanging and His promises span from generation to generation, and like Nehemiah, we can plead the promises of God for His Body, the Church – that we all will be sanctified in Christ, as God conforms us into Christ’s likeness.
• Let us intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ, that we may all become mature.

• (God) hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6) We are to settle down to live and grow precisely where we have been re-born: in Christ Jesus above.

• “In Christ” that man is loved and precious..
• He will only resurrect the new creation In Christ – and that is non-negotiable. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature… a new creation.

• Insufficient Law The Law may be perfect and man may desire to obey the perfect Law of God, but it is insufficient to save a guilty sinner – and we discover it to be a ministration of death – for it tells us God’s standard for man, but then shows us that we can only fail. The Law may be good and spiritual and the born-again life in Christ may desire to keep God’s commandments – but the old sin nature is carnal and in bondage to sin. This is why Paul failed when he tried to keep the Law in the strength of his old fallen nature, which caused him to cry out:- Oh wretched man that I am!
• Natural Man However hard man tries, it is impossible for him to keep the requirements of the Law. One only has to be born as a son of Adam to be condemned to death – eternal death. Natural man / unsaved man is dead in his sins and born under condemnation. No wonder the disciples asked Jesus in astonishment – Who then can be saved?  No wonder Paul warned the Galatians of the Law’s restrictive nature, when he said: before faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed.  Galatians 3:23
• Restrictive Measure The Law though perfect, had no way to remove the death sentence – so death reigned from Adam’s fall to Moses and continued to rule from the time of Moses to Christ. The Law was God’s perfect tool to direct us to Christ so that we might be justified. But the Law can be equally problematic to the one that has been justified, for if one starts to live a Christian life under the restrictive measure of the Law of Moses or any self-imposed legalistic system, it can only be done by the old sin nature being guided by the lust of the flesh and not the new nature in Christ, that is led by the Spirit of God.
• Gift of Grace God’s condition for salvation was to believe – believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation was His free gift of grace to everyone, who would believe in His beloved Son.  And one thing that happens to a believer is that he becomes a new creation in Christ.
• Open Secret It was living his life, through the new-life in Christ, that was given to Paul – when he was born again, that was Paul’s open secret of how to live the victorious Christian life. It was living this new-life in Christ that broke the power of sin in Paul’s life. It was living this new-life in Christ that delivered Paul from the body of death. And it is living our Christian life, by means of the new born-again life of Christ in us, that will give you and me the victory over the power of sin in our lives too.

• New-Creation A new creation and new federal Head was to be the new order of redeemed humanity. New, born-again creatures in Christ – that were to become partakers of the divine life. A heavenly people with a heavenly inheritance – a heavenly king and heavenly home.

• A New Life In Christ we belong to a new order – a new creation, with a new heart and a new life. The old self which used to be the dominating influence in our life has been exchanged.
• We now have a new life in Christ and we are to dress ourselves in the spiritual man.
• We are to put away all the influences of the natural man and the carnal Christian: if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
• Christ in Me However old or young in the faith we are we all are to put on the new man in Christ, We are to put away all that is old and put on the new – until Christ is formed in us. The new man is to be the manifestation of our Christian life – Christ living in me.
• Paul talks of the renewing of our mind – our thinking process is to be made new, for it is out of the heart that actions are conceived – out from thoughts of our heart. The old has gone and we are to be new – made new in Christ.
• We must, therefore, be transformed by the renewing of the spirit of our mind. Our minds are to be quickened by the new nature in Christ – our new reborn spirit.
• Godly Nature Our new life has been created in Christ’s righteousness and holiness of the truth.  And the old sin nature does not want to be superseded by the new godly nature.
• And we are to become kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one other – just as God in Christ Jesus also has forgiven each of us.  Ephesians 4:32.
• We have all been given a new nature in Christ – a new life in Him - Put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:24.

• If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new  (2 Cor. 5:17).
• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free (Rom. 8:2).

• In the same way you also must regard yourselves as dead in relation to sin, but as alive in relation to God, because you are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:11, Wey.).

• Once we come to rest in the fact of what He has accomplished for us in Christ, there need be no concern as to how and when He will carry it out in our daily life.

• If I am a babe in Christ, where there is true lowliness of heart, I display God, as a babe manifesting Him; but if, as a babe, I am attempting to manifest Him as a man, there will be frustration and failure.

• Once the Holy Spirit instills within our hearts the hunger for God's very best, all must and will become secondary to this supreme goal:  . . .the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:14).

• Both must be counted upon if we are to abide in Christ, and walk in the Spirit, as set forth in Romans Eight.

• Reject the old life on the basis of your death in Christ on the Cross, and count yourself alive in Him until He makes experiential your resurrection position.
• Do not forget that you must stand firmly upon the specific truths: dead indeed unto sin - alive unto God in Christ Jesus' (Rom. 6:11).

• It was here that you were designed to be godly and guiltless before Him in Christ.

• For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:10).

• We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:5 ESV)
• For the practical purposes of God in this age Christ is the One Body holding fast the Head, and the business of every member is to realize more and more fully the meaning of this incorporation and oneness of identity.... Ours it is to see that we are utterly in Christ, and living by the Spirit.

• Oneness in Christ as a Body fitly framed together is what is portrayed.
• That is giving diligence to keep the unity.... Life is by unity, and unity can only adequately be found in Christ being in His place as the One for whom we let go everything that is personal.

• Applied in time (in Christ’s millennial age), when He will wipe away every tear.

• If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV)
• On the other hand,it shows us that His being there, and our being in spiritualunion with Him, means that for all spiritual purposes andresources, we also are in the heavenlies in Christ.... Let us ask the Lord to give us a real, spiritual, quick, living apprehension of this great truth concerning our Lord Jesus, the great realm of the new creation into which we are brought, and let us apply it, practice it, put it into operation from day today.
• Remember you are in Christ, Who isVictory, complete, final victory.

• with every spiritual blessing – in Christ Jesus Ephesians 1:3
• Propitiation Price It was in the heart of the Father from before the world began to redeem mankind. The propitiation price for sin was agreed – in the eternal council chambers of God. This was according to the eternal purpose that God has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• God’s Blessings God the Father is to be blessed for the blessings He has bestowed upon us all, and we are blessed to be the recipients of His so great salvation – in Christ Jesus.
• Our Father Blessed be the God and Father of OUR Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed US in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing – in Christ Jesus OUR Lord, our Lord.

• When one walks by faith in Christ we have abiding access to the very Spirit of God.

• The Holy Spirit has come in relation to the end, and the end is the inheritance in Christ, and flesh moved by Satan rises up to frustrate that end, and to rob you of the inheritance.

• Thus it is that we now find everything in Christ and so can go over and possess.
• It is that we have come to the place where all things are in Christ and He is everything our very Life and being.
• Your inheritance is not here on earth, it is in Christ in the heavenlies; not in yourselves, your fullness is in Him.

• For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
• Salvation in Christ The gift of God is salvation through Christ and eternal life is a beautiful consequence. Salvation is offered to all and given to those that believe on the Son of God: for all have sinned and the wages for all is death – but God sent His Son so that all who believe in His work on Calvary would be saved.
• Total Righteousness And His gift to all who trust on His name is a justifying righteousness:- regeneration; sanctification; glorification; a new creation in Christ, and the grace of God and peace with God, and faith and hope and love and joy, and the indwelling Spirit and a heavenly inheritance – and eternal life: for He washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

• And God raised us up and seated us together with Him in heavenly places – in Christ Jesus.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies … IN CHRIST.Ephesians 1:3
• Summary Statement There is no more compelling and meaningful expression for a believer than 'in Christ'.
• Fully Alive When we first believed in Jesus we were placed in a permanent relationship with Him. The old former life in Adam was forever replaced with our new, eternal life in Christ. We who were dead in trespasses and sins were made fully alive and given His life.
• Positioned in Christ We were positioned in Christ the moment we trust Him as Redeemer and Saviour. We were placed in union with Christ the moment our hearts declare 'I believe'.
• The Holy Spirit baptises us into the Body of Christ – ie He places us 'IN CHRIST'.  The moment we believe we are born again..
• These and many other acts of the Spirit take place to position us IN CHRIST.
• Union With Christ Forgiveness at the cross is the first of numerous acts of the Spirit in a new believer… but from the beginning, we are placed 'in Christ'.
• God raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenly realm, in Christ Jesus.
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies … IN CHRIST.

• And these superlatives describe our position in Christ.
• that we should be holy, without blame, before Him in love – in Christ and in love.
• Accepted in Christ Ephesians gives us a glimpse of the wonders of being accepted in the Beloved - in a fountain of superlatives and glorious truths that God bestows on His Church.
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places – in Christ.

• To be in Christ is a matter of Life and not of legalism.

• There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).
• The answer to that is there is now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.'

• Romans Eight describes the experience of the believer who knows what it is to be in Christ, and who is being made free experientially from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

• Obedience is a necessary step towards being conformed into the image of Christ. Obedience frees us from the bondage of sin to the liberty of life in Christ Jesus.

• Spiritual  Discernment And it is through Christ that we have been so endowed. It is by Christ that we have been brought into God’s family. It is in Christ that we stand and in Him that we are accepted by the Father.  It is Christ and Christ alone that is the means that has brought about our eternal bliss.  All Scripture is given by God to teach, train, and encourage the whole church of God, but the wealth of knowledge within its pages are only for those that trust in Christ.  The unsaved man is incapable of trawling the depths of the wealth of Scriptures..
• Present Reality We are to know the guarantee of heavenly blessings as a present reality, which was manifested in Christ’s resurrection and exultation to the throne of God.

• Spiritual  Discernment And it is through Christ that we have been so endowed. It is by Christ that we have been brought into God’s family. It is in Christ that we stand and in Him that we are accepted by the Father.
• All Scripture is given by God to teach, train, and encourage the whole church of God, but the wealth of knowledge within its pages is only for those that trust in Christ.
• Present Reality We are to know the guarantee of heavenly blessings as a present reality, which was manifested in Christ’s resurrection and exultation to the throne of God.

• He heard of their trust in Christ and longed for them to know their position in Him.
• Blessed Hope What a joy for Paul that these Ephesians believers had such a love for their Lord, and how he longed that they fully appreciate the blessed hope they have in Christ.
• Spiritual Understanding Paul not only prayed for revelation and insight but enlightenment and illumination. Paul not only prayed that we understand our position in Christ but our future hope.
• He prayed this light would saturate our understanding of our blessed hope in Christ.
• Spiritual Inheritance Paul also prayed that we would know who are in Christ – know our position in Him..  permanent position that is as secure as the eternal Lord Jesus Who placed us there..  union with Him that guarantees our adoption as sons and our an eternal heritage – a union so intimate that we are part of His body – and He indwells our mortal frame.
• Unlimited Greatness The unlimited greatness of God’s power is working within all believers in Christ.

• Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
• Spiritual Revelation How we love Paul’s prayer for God’s revelation to the church – in Ephesians chapter one. He prays that we understand our favoured position in Christ – and His fullness in us.
• Fullness of God’s Love As we abide in Christ so He will dwell in our hearts by faith – with thanksgiving..  That we may not only know about God’s love, but to know God’s love in reality.. that we not only know He is life – but to have His life living within our heart – that we might be filled will all the fullness of God’s love – as an actuality.
• Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, AMEN

• And yet he goes through the faithless struggle once again before he sees that his daily Christian life is also a finished work - complete in Christ.
• What believers need is the simple faith that the establishing in Christ, day by day, is God's work - a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it.
• The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work. -A.M.
• Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, . . .

• If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17).

• He will seek to dethrone you from your God-given position in Christ.
• Position But our worthiness is not of us but from faith in Christ, And our eternal seat is secure for we are positioned in Christ, And we have been forever accepted by God because of Christ. This is why it is vital to know our God and to know our position in Christ.

• Just before He ascended on high He promised that not many days hence, they would all be baptised in the Spirt, placed in Christ, and empowered to proclaim the gospel.
• Samaritans & Gentiles Added We read in Acts 2 of the day that Jews were placed into the body of Christ – Pentecost. We read in Acts 8 that Samaritans were added to Christ’s body – through Philip’s ministry, and in Acts 10 Gentiles were included in Christ’s body at the house of Cornelius, a centurion – when Peter was urged by the Holy Spirit to go to the house of a gentile.
• One Body in Christ So the Church in this age, was commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations.
• It was to include peoples of all races and nations – for Christ died for all – and all were to be one in Christ in the power of the Spirit – a united body, for by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Matthew 16:18

• You are accepted In Christ.
• In Christ But God sees you and God sees me through the lens of the beloved Lord Jesus.

• Similarly, when the Father placed  us in Christ,' He also made provision in Him for our whole life.

• The feeblest member of the family of God has this place of security, and is perfect in Christ.
• We are spiritually both in the wilderness and in Canaan; we are partakers on earth of the heavenly calling, and we are seated in Christ in the heavenly places.
• The enjoyment of the favors of the Father to us, in the heavenly places in Christ, enhances the sense of His favors to us in the wilderness. -H.F.W.

• Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3b).

• Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).
• Can anything affect your heart so much as the way the man in Christ is received in the new position?
• But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13).

• Pictorial Illustration Our wise God had already purposed that He would make a new creation – in Christ.
• New Man in Christ Before the world began the Lord knew that the old creation in Adam would fall.
• Before the foundation of the world, the Lord had planned the new creation in Christ.  From the beginning, the wonderful story of the new man in Christ was taking shape. In the eternal council chambers of the Godhead, Christ’s body was being planned.
• Plan of Redemption God made an entirely new creation in Christ from the flawed clay that we’d become.
• God made an entirely new creation in Christ – re-generated but not re-educated.  But there was a difference – a staggering difference between the old and the new.
• Old and New Natures The new man in Christ was now a fallen creation – not an innocent creation.
• The old sin nature meant that man could NEVER, EVER do what pleased God, but alongside the old sin nature was the new nature in Christ – the new life of Christ.
• Imputed and Inherent Sin So things are very different for us. We are created new creatures in Christ – not innocent, but saved by grace through faith.

• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Ephesians 1:3
• It gives occasional flashes of the depths of the riches of the glory of God, in Christ.
• Supernatural Creation He picks up sinners from earth’s miry clay and forms a new vessel for His pleasure. He transforms a filthy, broken, sinful soul – into a glorious, supernatural creation. He changes a sinner of Adam’s old creation –  into a saintly new-creation in Christ.
• His Eternal Plan God’s majesty, might, and matchless grace is displayed for all who will look and live. His eternal plans, which He purposed in Christ, is mapped out for all who have eyes.
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Ephesians 1:3

• In Christ There are two important truths that all Christian need to learn and understand.
• The first is our POSITION in Christ and the second is our CONDITION.
• Position in Christ Our POSITION is the glorious, and unchangeable union we have with the Lord Jesus.
• We are in Christ and we are effectively already seated with Him in heavenly places.
• We are placed in this eternally, perfect position the moment we believed in Christ, We were baptised into the body of Christ; positioned in Christ – in union with Christ.
• What a privileged position!  Those baptised into this position by the Spirit at rebirth are seen as perfect as Christ!  Believers in Christ are forgiven their sins, and clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
• This is our position in Christ and God sees us as perfect, through Christ’s own perfection – but our position is not the same as our condition.
• Condition in Christ Our CONDITION relates to our current situation as we journey through our life. Our condition as we travel through life may seem to conflict with our position in Him.
• The life-circumstances we face often seem to contradict our perfect position in Him.  But our position in Christ is as secure and steadfast as the eternal character of God.
• We are to believe the truth that is laid out in the word of God – to trust His word.  But we are also to LIVE the truth – to live our lives as unto the Lord – in Christ.
• Work in Progress Positionally we are eternally perfect – and it is impossible to improve our position – at rebirth, we are irrevocably placed in a perfect position of permanence – in Christ.
• At rebirth, we are babes in Christ and have to grow in grace and learn obedience.
• Rather, remember your position in Christ and trust Him in every condition you face.
• In Acts 26:18 we read: by faith in Christ they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified, while in Romans 6:19 we read: just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to moral impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.
• Children of Light This is the score: Before we were saved we were absorbed with me, myself, and I – but once we were born-again we were positioned in Christ – positionally pure.
• Since then you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God and let us grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ... for in Christ we all are “quickened,” “raised up,” and “made to sit” together with Christ For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

• The Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
• Of God are ye in Christ Jesus' (1 Cor. 1:30).

• For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ will all be made alive.1 Corinthians 15:22
• For just as those in Adam will all die – so those in Christ will all be made alive.
• Those positioned in Adam will die – but those positioned in Christ will live.
• Humanities Choice Every single person has a choice to move from being in Adam to being in Christ. Every member of humanity has the choice to change camps and swap parties. Every person who ever lived has a positional identification with Adam or Christ – but how few make the choice – how few consider the eternal ramifications.
• In 1 Corinthians 15 we read: – so also in Christ, all will be made alive. All who transfer from Adam into Christ are given eternal life.
• In-Christ Every member of the human race that trusts Christ – is born again into Christ. All who trust Christ as Saviour become God’s children and joint-heirs with Christ. All in Christ have been regenerated, forgiven, and clothed in His righteousness.
• Each person has a positional identification with Adam OR with Christ..  but every person has a choice to move from being 'in Adam' to being 'in Christ'.
• Faith Alone Everyone that’s “born again” is in Christ – but all the unsaved are outside of Christ.
• Eternal Consequences One day those in Adam will be eternally separated from those in Christ. One day those in Christ will live eternally – through the ages to come. One day those who reject Him will be thrown into the lake of fire: for as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
• Romans 5:12-14 In Romans 5:12-21 Paul spells out our positional identification in Adam or in Christ:- When Adam sinned, sin entered the world.
• For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ, will all be made alive.

• It is only in Christ; and his song of triumph results from the joy of having found out that he is complete in Him.' -H.A.I.
• I have strength for all things in Christ who empowers me - I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me (Phil. 4:13, Amp.).

• Finished Work If you have even one doubt about the provision of God, you are in this category. If you have a question-mark over the promises of God, this applies to you, too. If you doubt God’s love or question your security in Christ, you deny His cross..  for these are wrong perceptions of Christ’s finished work on the Cross – this is an incorrect understanding of all God’s attributes – His justice and love.

• Sigh of the Heart Praying is releasing the sigh of the heart into God’s presence. Praying is resting one's weary soul on the bosom of the Father. Praying is revealing a confidence in the power of the Spirit. Praying builds up our assurance of our righteous covering in Christ.

• hath quickened us together with Christ and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' (Eph. 2:6).

• High Priestly Intercession Just contemplate the enormity of what is being outlined in these few short verses. Christians are afforded a portion in Christ’s ever-continuing High Priestly intercession. Believers are chosen to join in interceding with their High Priest – our Lord Jesus: and the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. Rev.8:5

• For we are God's [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, (taking paths which He prepared ahead of time) that we should walk in them - living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live (Eph. 2:10, Amp.).
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3, ASV).
• and it is all done; He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenlies.

• Those who accept God’s free salvation, by grace through faith in Christ, are saved.
• Grace Thru Faith Predestination is based upon God’s grace, which is accessed by faith in Christ alone.
• Predestination is not the whim of a random, heavenly dice – but faith in Christ.
• Predestination is a non-meritous response, to God’s gracious provision in Christ.
• Predestination has not one iota of human merit attached, but is by faith in Christ.
• Predestination is based on grace alone, by faith alone, in Christ alone – period.

• A Christian should know who he is in Christ; know his Position in Christ – know; his Authority in Christ; know his Effectiveness in Christ Alone; know that without Christ we can do nothing – know that I can do all things in Christ Who strengthens me. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. 2Cor.10:4

• And one maturing saint observes that – It is highly possible for a man, after having found justifying rest in Christ, to enter upon a state of deep need as regards sanctifying rest.
• Once that man becomes a believer he has two natures: 1) a gross, mature, arrogant sin nature and 2) a new little 'baby nature in Christ.
• God not never no-how will change that old nature to become the new nature. God only will change, develop and conform our new, little baby nature, in Christ. That old sin nature (that old Adamic nature) the 'old man' must die, daily.
• The new 'born-again' nature in Christ must grow – subduing the old nature.

• Let the same disposition be in you which was in Christ Jesus.

• Every loss in the life of self brings greater gain and profit in the new - our life in Christ.

• He is accepted by the Father, clothed in Christ’s righteousness, eternally secure and loved by the Father.
• She received the same privileges as spiritual giants like Peter, Paul, John and James, for along with every born-again child of God, there is no partiality or favouritism with Him – we are all one in Christ, and yet we all have to mature in the faith.

• a promise that is 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Christ:- Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved… For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we 
must be saved – except Jesus, for Jesus saves… Jesus, remember me..

• Create in me a clean heart O Lord – a new creation in Christ… and renew a right spirit within me – the holy spirit of purity.

• We can do nothing to alter this shocking state of affairs, other than believe in Christ.
• There is therefore now – no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• What a glorious place to be and this is the position of all saved believers in Christ.

• Thatis but to say, repudiate Adam, whether it be in body, soul orspirit, and stand in Christ for whatever the need may be.

• He begins to recognize that God expects only failure from the flesh, never success, but that in Christ' is his sanctification, his growth.
• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).

• I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.Philippians 3:14

• Eternal Hope He has established the eternal love of the Father towards us, in that while we were yet sinners… Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 Yes, and He placed us in Christ, and He seated us together with Him in heavenly places..
• Word of Hope Let us lift up our voice and sing with the sweet Psalmist of Israel who reminds us to hope in God, and to hope in His Salvation, and to hope in His Word. Let us delight in the reassuring words of the apostle to the Gentiles, who excites us that our hope, our joy, and our crown of rejoicing, is rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming to set up His kingdom. Our rejoicing is in Christ – in Christ alone.

• What believer but knows from the experience of the deceitfulness of his own heart, that, had we power in ourselves instead of in Christ, we should be something.
• Now one may use the fact of completeness in Christ to make one independent.

• Our primary concern is to trust Him, and rest in Him, while  it is God who confirms and makes us steadfast and establishes us...in Christ (2 Cor. 1:21, Amp.).

• In Christ Do not get tense.

• And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:7, ASV).

• A superficial acquaintance with God's plan leads to the view that while justification is God's work, by faith in Christ, sanctification is our work, to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced and by the aid of the Holy Spirit.
• Thus will you understand and prove what it is to abide in Christ our Sanctification. -A.M.

• Resurrection is God's horizon in Christ.

• And yet He chose to reveal Himself to those who believe in Christ Jesus.

• In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. (Colossians 2:9,10 NIV)

• Specific Laws The believer in Christ is given in the Word of God very, very specific ‘laws’ – not the Law of Moses, for though perfect – the Law given to Moses kills - but principles that if acted on and appropriated would change their lives.

• The Law is a teacher to point us to Christ – to show us the way and to point to truth.  But many in that period of Law found GRACE in the eyes of the Lord..  for many in that period of Law BELIEVED the Word of the Lord.  And many were made righteous in Christ, as recorded in Hebrews chapter 11.
• New Creation in Christ Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection gave birth to a new creation in Christ..
• Temple of the Lord Our bodies become the temple of the Lord – through the indwelling Holy Spirit and we find we have a position in Christ and are now seated in heavenly places.  We discover we are to be the bride for the Son – without spot and wrinkle.

• The Church:- New Creation And all people reside in the kingdom of darkness, with one exception. The Church:- the new creation in Christ is born-again into the kingdom of light.
• John 16:33 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution in this world. 2 Timothy 3:12 Satan has blinded the hearts of those that are perishing and lost in their sins, but the venom of Satan’s spiritual realm is specifically targeting two creations – Israel – the old creation in Jacob; and the Church – the New Creation in Christ.

• Those who appropriate their position in Christ feed no longer merely on the manna, which represents Christ as supporting our life while we yet know Him not' as regards any intimate fellowship.

• Roman Road We should know, understand and apply the law of life in Christ Jesus, and Romans 6 is a vital passage, which describes this victorious Christian life, but is founded on an understanding of the previous chapters.
• Chapter 3: all men are guilty before God and righteousness only comes by grace, through faith in Christ.
• And although chapter 6 rejoices in the victorious Christian life, chapter 7 brings us to a jarring halt, as we tumble headlong from the glittering mountain top to the shocking realisation that the reality of our own life does not mirror the requirements of a holy God – rather our lives demonstrate the opposite of what we were called to be in Christ,  and we cry out with Paul: O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?
• In chapter 3 we discover God’s plan of salvation, which is grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone – and we are saved and praise God, worshiping Him with grateful thanks.
• grace alone by faith in Christ alone, and in chapter 5 we discover His promises are yes, and amen in Christ.
• The reason most Christians have to go through the Romans chapter 7 experience, is by living under the wrong law – living under the destructive law of sin and death rather than the liberating law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
• A Beautiful Understanding It is only when a believer comes to the point of true wretchedness of soul and inner brokenness and despair, that in desperation he is able to cry: who can deliver me from this body of sin?  Only then can he come to an understanding that of himself he can do nothing, but that in Christ I can do all things..

• Have you been planted in Christ crucified?

• Exercising Patience Many of us would nurse our grief without crying if we were allowed to nurse it, but in Christ, we can exercise our patience, not only in sickness but in the street.
• Patience-In Christ In Christ…  we can bury our sorrows, not in lethargy, but in active service.

• We never get into conflict with Satan until we realize our privileges in Christ.
• The forgiven man is on an altogether new ground with God; he is on the ground of grace - grace which is set forth in Christ.
• If they saw that the power of the old man was broken on the Cross, and that in Christ they are new creations before God, they would walk here in deliverance.

• Believers in Christ are called by many names and known by a variety of titles. They are the “new man in Christ”; “the body of Christ”; “the new creation – His “children.” They are known as “Christians”; “His little flock”; “sons of God” and “the bride of Christ”.
• Our righteousness results from our justification in Christ and rests on His perfect merit..
• and all our righteous acts are prepared in advance for us to do - prepared by God, for we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared, in advance, for us to do.
• Righteous Acts When we abide in Him in spirit and truth, our righteous acts are acceptable to God..  for the spirit works in us, both to will and to do for God’s good pleasure – such are the righteous acts of the new man in Christ.
• Until then we are to live and work and have our being, rooted and grounded in Christ.
• Righteous acts are not performed by us – but through us, as we remain in Christ.
• Righteous acts don’t have their source in my old sin nature but in the new life in Christ: for in myself I can do no good thing, for all my righteousness is from the Lord… not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness which is from God by faith.” Philippians 3:9
• In Christ Alone For without Christ I can do no good thing. BUT I can do all acts of righteousness through Christ Who gives me the strength.

• Justification Many teachers consider discipleship as integral to the initial stage of salvation… making discipleship a requirement of salvation – an add on to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ..” But salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
• It is a beautiful, free gift of grace, which is extended to all who trust on Christ Jesus. It is only the believer in Christ that can be sanctified and set apart unto the Lord – BUT not all Christians are prepared to progress along the path to spiritual maturity – not all Christians grow in grace, and many simply remain in spiritual infancy all their lives. Only believers can be set apart to God – but not all will identify with the cross of Christ. Only believers can grow in grace – but not all will take up their cross and follow Him. Only believers can become TRUE disciples of Jesus – but not all believers will become disciples.
• God’s Gift Salvation involves what God gives to us – His own life, not what we give to Him, for Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
• Remember, in Christ’s economy it is only believers who are called to be disciples and forsake all for Christ’s sake – but it is a free-will choice to live as unto the Lord and to submit to His guidance – but never a requirement of salvation as widely taught today.

• Believe in Christ… believe on Jesus..
• This complicates the simple message of salvation by grace alone – through faith in Christ.
• Act of Consecration This beautiful act of consecration may be a result – but is not a condition of salvation Paul tells us that if it is not by faith – then it is not of grace. A carnal believer will certainly suffer loss of rewards – but never his eternal salvation, which is always and only by grace – through faith – in Christ.
• Some people add works of the flesh, works of the Law – self-imposed rules or Church regulations and a variety of ‘add-ons’ to the basic gospel of salvation by grace – through faith in Christ Jesus, while others insist on actions relating to eating or drinking – places of worship or times and seasons – spiritual fruit or gifts of the Holy Spirit.

• Maturing, sanctifying grace takes ugly scars from the cross of your life and beautifies them – but the measure of how you meet your trials, is the measure with which you will gain – and you can only meet them victoriously in Christ, as Christ lives in you.
• You can only meet them by grace… through faith … in Christ.
• Immersed in Christ So how do you achieve the spiritual command to remain in Christ and He in you?
• Abiding in Christ In a similar manner, when you are in Christ and He is in you, every aspect of life is touched by Him..
• Some years ago I spent one whole summer just reflecting on abiding in Christ. Christ in me and I in Him.
• In every aspect of my life, I just meditated on what it really meant to be in Christ. Christ in me and I in Him.
• Pondering on abiding in Christ and He in me changed my entire life.

• In order for us to be satisfied with our Father, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil. 3:3).

• Cloak of Pretence Is your ‘old man’ crucified on the cross? Is your ‘old sin nature’ nailed to the tree? Are you allowing the ‘new man in Christ‘ to be daily conformed into His image?
• Self’ disguises itself in the likeness, pretence, and mask of the ‘new man’ in Christ.
• Spiritual Pride ‘Self’ must remain forever cross-bound if the new nature in Christ is to grow and mature, for spiritual pride is only 'Self,' pretending to be the “new man” in Christ.
• Nothing can ever remove us from the love of God which is In Christ Jesus – nothing, but we can either choose to remain in constant fellowship with the Lord..
• There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus, for we are accepted. 2.

• The man in Christ has only His past and that is perfect and acceptable to the Father.
• The believer shares the Lord Jesus' Cross knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him' Rom. 6:6); His death:- ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God' Col. 3:3); His burial:- we were buried with him by baptism into death' Rom. 6:4); His resurrection:- as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we' Rom. 6:4); His ascension:- made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus' Eph. 2:6). -F.J.H.
• There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1).

• For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10).

• and I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness – which is from the law, but that righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith.

• He becomes related to US.  SECOND: we live in Christ for sanctification..
• The old creation in Adam has become a new creation in Christ, and works are not to be ministered as penance or done to recompense God.

• We are sanctified. We are positioned in Christ and we are positionally sanctified. We were positionally sanctified when we were justified by faith in Christ, but must move to practical or progressive sanctification, if we are to grow in our Christian life.
• Born-again Life When we were reborn, we received a brand new baby life – our new life in Christ, but the old sin nature will remain in our dying bodies until we are glorified – until Christ comes to take us home to heaven.
• But the old nature seeks to regain supremacy over our new life in Christ. Only the new, born-again life that is positioned in Christ is positionally sanctified – and Only that new born-again life in Christ can be progressively or practically sanctified. The old sin nature is incapable of godly living.
•  New Life in Christ If we are to be practically sanctified, it can only take place in our new life.
• Only our new life in Christ can be holy..
• Sinless Perfection It was John who said that whoever abides in Christ does not sin – nor can sin. This has nothing to do with the erroneous teaching of “sinless perfection..” This verse simply refers to the new life in Christ – the new life does not sin. The sinless life of Christ that is imputed to all believers, does not sin..
• Old Sin Nature However, the believer who does not abide in Christ, and has not set their life apart unto God will live from the source of the old sin nature, which can do nothing but sin!!  The believer’s old sinful life can never be sanctified, for it is riddled with sin. There is nothing in the old sin nature that is acceptable to God and any attempts to set apart our old sin nature unto God will utterly fail. Until we go to be with the Lord, both the old sin nature and the new life in Christ are in bitter conflict – for the spirit lusts against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit.
• Abide in Him May our new, born-again life in Christ be progressively sanctified. May our new, born-again life in Christ be practically sanctified. May our new, born-again life in Christ be set apart unto God, for only as we abide in Him will we grow in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• In Christ you also, when you HEARD the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and BELIEVED in Jesus, were SEALED with the promised Holy Spirit.Ephesians 1:13
• whereby God Himself marked (or sealed) every believer with the indwelling Holy Spirit, by giving every Christian the permanently, indwelling Spirit of God, as the pre-payed earnest of our inheritance in Christ – which confirms us as His own purchased possession – bought with the price of the blood of Christ.
• Scripture alone provides the truth of the when, where, why, and how of our 'sealing'. 'In Christ you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Jesus, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.' Ephesians 1:13
• Down Payment We are placed into the body of Christ the moment we first trust Jesus as Saviour. First, we had to hear the gospel of truth, for faith comes by hearing the word of God. Then we had to believe the gospel of truth and all who believe in Christ are saved – and through believing in His name we were given the right to become His children.
• He sought us and saved us and sealed us by grace – through faith in Christ.
• You were regenerated by the Spirit – born from above and made a new creation in Christ. You were baptised by the Holy Spirit..
• FIRST God the Father is the warrant that seals the believer, the moment he believes, and He has placed an unbreakable seal upon our lives and given up the indwelling Holy Spirit as the promissory down-payment that His purchase possession is secure in Christ, until the Lord returns to take us to be with Himself.
• Blood of Christ The seal of God, whereby we were sealed of the Holy Spirit, is the gracious act of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, at the point of saving grace whereby God Himself marked or sealed every believer with the indwelling Holy Spirit, by giving every Christian the permanently, indwelling Spirit of God as the pre-payed earnest of our inheritance in Christ – and which confirms us as His own purchased possession – bought with the price of the blood of Christ.

• God, Himself, has made each and every blood-bought child complete in Him. For of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:30
• The rags to riches fairy-story of poor Cinderella is our reality in Christ.
• Our salvation in Christ is the true rags to riches story.
• We are accepted in the Beloved. We are complete in Christ. We are destined to rule and reign with Him.

• for there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
• Deliverance FROM Sin The remedy that God has provided for SIN is deliverance through crucifixion.  The old sin nature is cut off at the place of death – as we remain 'in Christ'.
• Placed in Christ When we were born again, we were placed in Christ – baptised into His body. When we were born again we were moved from being 'in Adam' to being 'in Christ.' When we were 'in Adam' we were imputed with Adam’s old sin nature, but when we were reborn 'into Christ' we were imputed with His righteousness. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:14
• Christ gained power over sin and death in our lives, when He died and rose again, because we are new creatures in Christ we are no longer in slavery to sin.
• By Grace Through Faith It is by grace that we have received forgiveness of our sins. It is by grace that we have been delivered from the power of sin . Remember:There are 2 fundamental SIN problems, but BOTH are dealt with at the cross of Christ. It is by grace through faith in Christ that we appropriate forgiveness – of SINS. It is by grace through faith in Christ that we appropriate deliverance – from SIN.

• Now you are on the march for the Father's very best as it is in Christ Jesus.

• There Is No Limit To God's Favor Toward Those In Christ. -W.R.N.

• True, our bodies are to be changed, and those who have died in Christ are to be raised as to their bodies, but now we are raised with and are made alive in Him.
• And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

• After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. (1 Peter 5:10 ESV)

• The tragic mistake of thousands of believers is in trying to live in two worlds at the same time - in nature and in God, in self and in Christ, in the flesh and in the Spirit, by faith and in independence, by abiding and by effort.

• Christian Spirituality And nearly a hundred years ago, Norman Harrison put it this way:- “It remains for the spiritual man to prove the reality and worth of his spirituality, by laying hold of all his resources in Christ.. by giving them practical expression in day-by-day living. And in a day when the Christian life claims but slight attention.. or even respect, from the world – what a call for spiritual stalwarts, fully-developed, determined by His grace, to demonstrate the beauty, power, and practicality of the Spirit-life – to an unbelieving, even scoffing social order.”

• They were still babes in Christ. Despite his teaching, Paul could only feed them with simple truths..
• It means a dying to self..daily, for there is only one spiritual walk – and that is not by self,  but in Christ.

• Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.Philippians.2:5

• It is just as much your privilege to behold Christ as any man's in this universe, and, that being so, it is just as much your calling to minister what you see in Christ to others.
• The difference is not in God, it is the difference between the mediators, and the difference in the position which we occupy because of the Mediator; we are now in Christ, Who satisfies God.
• The Lord give us the ministry issuing from a continuous and ever-growing contemplation of His fullness in Christ.

• But a Christian may remain a babe in Christ... as we are warned in Hebrews 6. Such a Christian is stunted – and called by Paul in 1 Corinthians a carnal Christian.
• Growing in Grace Unless a child of God is “ready to grow” – he’ll never reach “spiritual maturity.” Growing in grace – maturing in Christ, is sometimes called “consecration”.

• God’s Will For You In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Corinthians 5:18.
• We do not seek after the knowledge of man, and we do not apply our own wisdom in a matter… we search it out in Christ.

• The whole accomplishment of God in Christ is on thebasis of Divine Life mediated through faith.

• For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. (2 Corinthians 3:14)

• From eternity past and into eternity future – forever loved, forever: in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

• How important for us to stand firm in Christ’s strength and not be moved.
• Christian Responsibility Every Christian has the right to approach God’s throne, for we are accepted in Christ.
• Should we not similarly stand in the gap for brothers and sisters in Christ, who like the world are being overwhelmed with the cares of this life – who seem to have lost hope in the Lord’s return to claim His precious bride.
• How important to ‘stand firm in Christ and not be moved.

• and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:4;6).
• You must abide in Christ in heaven before you can descend with heavenly ability to act for Him down here.

• That His death procured the payment of sin's debt, so that the debt being paid, the believer might be in a position to keep the law, and that, accordingly, the law, and not the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,' might be the believer's rule of life. -H.F.W.

• Others are pushed into leadership positions, while still babes in Christ.

• God’s Grace Paul’s epistles give descriptive details of the riches of God’s grace towards believers. He details over and again our position in Christ – our privileges and our possession. He desires that our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is firmly fixed on truth and not on the philosophies of man.
• He warns of a thief in our midst that seeks to rob believers of our sufficiency in Christ.
• It seeks to steal our sufficiency in Christ and replace it with a man-centred mindset.
• But these philosophies castigate our position, possession, and privileges in Christ.
• Undermining Faith This mindset of the world is rooted in the traditions of man and human viewpoint, and such a perspective robs the believer of all that it means to be IN CHRIST. We must be alert to the many ways that the enemy seeks to undermine our faith.. not allowing ourselves to be swept into the ungodly philosophies of this world – and not permitting false teachings or spiritual powers to rob us of our joy in the Lord.
• Positional Identity We must be aware of the importance of our positional identity in Christ Jesus. We must recognise that we have been sanctified through Christ – once and forever.
• We must have confidence in the heavenly position to which we have been elevated. We must understand the eternal plan and purpose that God has for each of His own. We must rejoice in our spiritual blessings and glorious identity in Christ Jesus. We must renounce all the lies that the enemy uses to undermine our faith in God.
• Eternally Secure Let us be aware that the enemy seeks in many directions to rob us of our position...  but our position, possessions, and privileges are eternally secure in Christ.
• INSTEAD… INSTEAD... live your lives, by faith in Christ.

• I can only remind you again of what a large place that has in the Word of God: be strong, be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

• In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (1 Thess. 5:18).

• Walk Worthy Having been taught who we are in Christ, believers are called to walk worthy, our life is to be a light shining in a dark world – a world where evil is increasing.
• Once we take, as actuality, what is already ours in Christ – we are living by faith.
• We need to know our position and privilege in Christ – our possessions and heritage – and then we need to put it into practice – to appropriate it.
• Sufficient in Christ God knows we will be defeated if we try to meet our own needs outside of Christ. He knows that we won’t be victorious, unless we appropriate His Word of truth.
• And so for the first 3 chapters in Ephesians, we are taught who we are in Christ.

• Remain in Christ Teach me Lord to REMAIN IN CHRIST– teach us to remain in His love and guard and keep ourselves in the love of God; to expect and patiently wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ – Who will bring us unto life eternal.

• There are two sides; one, that you are cleared from the old in the eye of God in the Cross; the other, that you are now new in Christ risen.
• For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death' (Rom. 8:2).

• Christ’s First Advent The inerrant Word of God authenticates to the letter the fulfilment of every single prophecy of Christ’s first advent, but had the Lord Jesus not been fully Man as well being undiminished Deity, many of those prophecies could never have found their true fulfilment in Christ – for the Messiah of Israel must be born of the seed of a woman – He must be the offspring of Abraham.

• God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, – in Christ Jesus.Philippines 4:19
• All-Sufficient God For God is able to make all grace abound to YOU, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 2 Corinthians 9 God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory, in Christ Jesus..

• You say, here is something wrong here, this does not tally.There is the kitchen aspect of the spiritual life: all those practical, everyday, humdrum things where the beauty of the Lord must be seen, just as much as up there in the heavenlies in Christ.

• Many live in defeated disillusion, rather than glorying in Christ’s Cross..

• Yet conversely, Paul gave strict instructions to be rooted and grounded in Christ – not tossed hither and thither by every whim or fancy teaching, calling itself truth that we should no longer be children: tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lay in wait to deceive.
• Truth is the spirit of Christ, living in and acting through the believer in Christ – transforming the one truly submitted to Him, for you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

• The book of Job takes us from the old creation in Adam to the new creation in Christ… from a self-dominated life to a spirit-dominated life.
• Spiritual or Carnal The book of Job takes us on a journey – from the New Creation in Christ, through a spirit-dominated or self-dominated life. The book of Job takes us – from rebirth to the day when our eyes are opened, and we shall see Him as He is. The book of Job takes us….

• Life of Faith Hebrews is not written to newborn babes in Christ, but is meat for the mature man.
• We are to put away all that diverts us away from faith in God and trust in Christ – and we are then directed to strip off the one sin, which so easily ensnares us.
• Trust in Christ The sin that trips us up and clings so closely is unbelief – as exemplified in Israel, for without faith it is impossible to please God.
• Hebrews 12:1 The besetting sin of so many maturing believers is a lack of faith in God’s Word, because the focus of so many believers is trust in self and not trust in Christ.

• or will you be so often checked by events and happenings of life, for you will follow the controlling signal, which is found in Christ alone. Keep on keeping on with your God-guided life.

• Better Everything In Christ, we have a better rest.
• In Christ, we have a better promise.
• In Christ, we have a better sacrifice.
• In Christ, we have a better high priest.
• In Christ, we have a better resurrection.
• In Christ, we have a better inheritance.
• In Christ and Christ alone we have ALL that we need.

• Romans 5 and 6 In Romans chapter 5 we are told that sin is dealt with by the BLOOD of Christ. In Romans chapter 6 we see that sin is dealt with by the CROSS of Christ. In Romans chapter 5 the BLOOD of Christ removes us from the penalty of our sins – we are forgiven by the shedding of Christ’s blood. In Romans chapter 6 the CROSS of Christ removes us from the power of sin – we are delivered of sin’s power because we are in Christ – identified with His cross.
• The sinner is justified by the blood of the Lamb and clothed in Christ’s righteousness.
• Both the forgiveness of sins and deliverance from sin are gifts of grace to all believers – and we appropriate both forgiveness and deliverance by faith in Christ's sacrifice.

• We, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. (Romans 12:5)

• as God, Who from before the foundation of the world, chose us in Christ to be members of His body.

• Position in Christ For we are only accepted by God 'in the Beloved].
• Sixth, that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ and Seventh, lost in wonder and in praise in the knowledge of Himself. So after the product of 'initial faith' – is the processes of 'sanctifying faith'.
• After initial 'acceptance in Christ' – we are to 'learn obedience' in life.

• Carnal Christians Paul says this to the carnal Corinthian Christians: “and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.
• Paul speaks to the Corinthian Christians as ”carnal” – as babes in Christ.
• A babe in Christ must grow into spiritual maturity.
• The carnal believer is one that remains a babe in Christ.
• for the old sin nature overshadows the new life in Christ.

• Our Life in Christ Satan cannot touch anyone that has a new life in Christ.
• He cannot touch the SOURCE of our life in Christ, for God is its source.
• Satan cannot touch the source, channel, power, sphere, or duration of our life in Christ.
• Abundant Life Death is forever behind the believer. It is true that many have fallen asleep in Christ – physically died, but to sleep in Him is never death, but life and life more abundantly.
• Those asleep in Christ for 2000 years of church history, will rise first.
• Yes, scripture tells us “the dead in Christ will rise first.” 1Thess.4:16  Then those believers in Him that are living – that are still alive, will meet Him in the air: Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. 1Thess.4:17

• Instructions To Follow We are told to abide in Christ, but some choose not to abide in Him. We are called to walk in the light, but some choose to walk in darkness. We are directed to walk in the spirit, but some choose to walk the way of men. We are instructed to walk in truth, but some deny the Lord that bought them. We are commanded to walk in newness of life, but some choose to walk in the old flesh.
• Position and Condition Some believers allow the trials and circumstances of life to shipwreck their faith. They only see the condition of their life instead of accepting their position in Christ. Oh, the trials of life are waxing worse and worse, but faith holds fast to His Word.
• Oh, they are saved if they believe in Christ, for God spoke and His word is true, but this grieves the Spirit and quenches the work He desires to do in that life.
• Carnal Way Some believers unconsciously and unknowingly do not take the spiritual way. Their dear desire IS to walk in the spirit, in light and truth, and to abide in Christ,  but there is a blockage that has barred their way – a resister, blocking their path,  and most if not all great men and women of faith have faced this exact difficulty.
• Spiritual Way Yes, we are commanded to abide in Christ..
• If your deep desire is to walk in spirit and truth and abide in Christ, He’ll show you how and He will direct your path, but He’ll do it His way.
• We are to abide in Christ.

• Murray Explains Andrew Murray explains:- A superficial acquaintance with God’s plan leads to the view that while justification is God’s work, by faith in Christ… sanctification (growth) is our work… to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. As a result, many sincere Christians set out on this path..

• Paul was to be God’s revealer of the great doctrinal truths of predestination, election, justification, sanctification, glorification, and our heavenly position in Christ Jesus – but the wider plan of God for the Church age was waiting to be opened up by Paul.
• Trust in Christ The disciples all loved their Lord, but there was much they did not understand.. and so the Lord Jesus had to comfort them saying, Let not your hearts be troubled – you believe in God – then believe in Me – believe in ME

• Have this mind [attitude] in you, which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5, ASV).

• Legalism puts you back under the law and is an enemy of the crucified life in Christ.
• Legalism is a false gospel, placing untaught believers back under condemnation – yet there is no condemnation in Christ.
• Man-Imposed Legalism All rules and every restriction to a greater or lesser extent are man-imposed laws.  But, we have died to the law in Christ, Who put the power of the law away, forever.
• We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
• The old sin nature, which can also display religious piety, was crucified with Christ, and the new nature in Christ now lives in us – old ways are done away with.
• Dead to the Law The key to Galatians is that because we are 'in Christ' we were crucified with Him.
• Being 'in Christ' we are dead to the law and all its power and yet we’re alive to God.
• So being 'in Christ' we are dead to the law, which originally accused us!
• Christ in Me We must start to realise that the new life in Christ is complete in itself.  There is no need for rules and regulations, rites and rituals or laws that enslave us.

• God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus.... (2 Timothy 1:9 ESV)

• Son of God Those who believe in Christ’s equal deity with the Father declare as truth, that the virgin-born babe of Bethlehem, Who lived as the biblical Jesus of Nazareth and died on a cross – was pre-existent in uncreated eternity and became fully human as the infinite God of the universe and Creator of all things – the Son of God and 2nd person of the Holy Trinity.

• The three-fold element of spirit, soul, and body is still to be found, yet not now in Adam, but in Christ.
• There is a new outfit in Christ for our hearts, but there is always the necessity for our standing with the Lord in what is of Himself.

• Living Organism The one new man in Christ is not a sterile organisation but a living organism.
• The Church is the worldwide body of believers in Christ, and He is the Head.
• Guiding Principle God often uses the natural life as a guiding principle for the spiritual life, He takes foundational truths from the physical and applies them to the spiritual,. The first creation in Adam contains principles that apply to the new-creation in Christ. The first man became a living being but Christ became a life-giving Spirit. 1Corinthians 15:45
• Life and death in the old has its counterpart in the new-creation in Christ.
• Our old life in Adam must die if the new life in Christ is to grow and be fruitful.
• Spiritual Entity The Church is the worldwide body of believers in Christ and He is the Head.

• Nothing will remain in this universe eventually but what is Christ, and we must recognize that everything for God's ultimate purpose is bound up with and in Christ, and it IS Christ.

• The new creation is in Christ.It is not in you, and not in me, and never will be.
• All God's fullness is in Christ.

• Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Ephesians 1:3 NIV)
• You have not to define and explain to such people whatit means to be in the heavenlies in Christ.
• If so, go up and possess; appropriate byfaith the fullness that is in Christ for every need which arises, for every demand which confronts you.... Let us face the whole issue in this definite way: Lord, it is clearly represented in the Word that You are the fullness of God for me!