In Christ

We had a great time on the weekend away, having loads of fun together doing things like grass sledging, abseiling and pot holing.

We also had some great sessions of learning about God, and on Sunday we talked about what it means to be in Christ. I summarised it in 4 main points:

1) The wrath of God has been absorbed in Christ.
God is a holy God. Sin is completely disgusting and offensive to him, because he is so holy, and his wrath is the just anger that he feels towards sin. Because he is just he can't allow sin to go unpunished, but because he is also merciful he doesn't want us to have to face his wrath, so he sent Jesus to face it instead. It says in 1 Peter that Jesus bore our sins in his body when he was on the cross, he took the punishment for them and absorbed the wrath of God that should have been poured out on us.

2) We have been transferred from Adam into Christ.
Romans 5 talks about this. It tells us that “sin came into the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” We are all born into sin, and are in Adam; it's like being on a sinking ship. But Romans 5 also says “as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.” Jesus' act of righteousness, going to the cross, led to justification and life for us, he is like the lifeboat that has come to rescue us from Adam's sinking ship, we have been transferred from Adam's sinking ship and into Christ's lifeboat. The cross was the transfer fee that he paid to get us there.

3) We have been clothed in Christ.
Since we have been transferred into Christ, the bible tells us that we can approach God with boldness, because we are now clothed in Christ's righteousness. We looked at Zechariah 3, where it talks about how God removes our filthy garments and replaces them with pure ones.

4) We are secure in Christ.
Romans 8:37-38 says it best: “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation , will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing in all creation can separate us from God!


Hope this is helpful!

Mary