A sow, in communion with the mind of God will always have a deepening apprehension of the value of the precious blood of Christ. While this is ever true, it is important not to lose sight of any part of the truth of God. Now in prayer and thanksgivings the expression is often heard, that “we who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” A single glance at the above scripture will show that this is only a part of the truth, and that a most weighty part in this case has been omitted. “But now,” says the apostle, “in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off,” &c. It is not only, therefore, the efficacy of the blood to which reference is made, but also to the place of the Christian before God; viz., in Christ Jesus. There are the two things—our being in Christ, and the fact of being made nigh by His blood. Nor in the teaching of this epistle can these two things be dissevered, as “in Christ” is, if we may so term it, the keynote of the epistle. This is shown by chapter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” And this, we learn from the next verse, is in pursuance of God’s eternal counsels; for it goes on to say, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” From this we learn the necessity of holding fast to our being “in Christ;” for in truth we have now no other standing before God. If not “in Christ,” our standing would be in Adam, in the flesh; and on that footing God could not have anything to say to us, except indeed in judgment. From all eternity, therefore—before the responsible man, Adam, appeared on the scene—He chose us in Christ, the man of His counsels, thus purposing for us a place of everlasting security and blessedness in His own presence. But if He would have us before Him in Christ, He would also have us in a condition suited to the place; and therefore He has determined that “we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” As seen in chapter 1: 3, every blessing is possessed in this epistle as being in Christ. It is thus in Him that we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins; in Him that we have obtained an inheritance, &c. (vv. 7-11) How blessed then to know that before God we were always seen in Christ; that though, in the history of His ways, we were once in the flesh, Adam, as the expression of man in the flesh, has forever found his end judicially in the cross of Christ. Our place, therefore, and our spiritual blessings, are now characterized by the position which Christ Himself occupies, as the glorified Man, in the presence of God.
It should be added, for the help of the reader, that “in Christ” has not the same meaning necessarily in all the epistles. The term must be interpreted according to its context, and according to the distinctive truth of the epistle in which it is found. To lose sight of this tends to obscure these characteristic differences, and thus to deprive the saints of some of the most blessed portions of their heritage.
E. D.