As believers in Jesus we cannot and will not ever get over the amazing reality that we have been made one with Christ! Bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, His very body on earth and He our Head in heaven. As Paul wrote, “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit!” United with Him as a branch on a vine, one.
Jesus prayed for this reality to come to pass as the day of His death was approaching, saying, “Father, as I am in you and you are in Me, as we are one, may they who believe on Me be placed in Me and I in them that they may also be one as we are one.” Jesus said that by virtue of the Holy Spirit coming inside of us that “the Father and the Son would make their abode within us.” John writes that “as He is so are we in this world.” As He is righteous, so are we righteous, with His righteousness as a gift. Truly an amazing reality. It is in essence “the truth that sets you free” once you see it.
Religious or legalistic people, both believers and unbelievers, have a hard time “seeing” this truth from the scripture because they are constantly remembering their sins. Under the law sins were to be remembered by design yearly, monthly and even daily, but under the New Covenant of grace sin is not remembered by God. As it is written, “In this New Covenant I will remember your sins no more and I will be merciful to all your iniquities.” In Christ we are no longer in our sins and no longer in the flesh, but in the Spirit and in Him, our righteousness. In the New Covenant of grace God no longer counts our sins against us. He counts His righteousness for us. I must be one or the other. I cannot be both. It’s impossible to be established in grace and grow in an awareness of your union with Jesus if you are constantly seeing yourself in need of forgiveness and cleansing from your sins on a daily basis. I John 1:9 has got to be the most wrongly taught verse in all of scripture. But I’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Union with Christ is the true Sabbath rest. The Christian life is not about trying to get somewhere, rather it is all about awakening to what is now the reality in Christ. The believer is awakening to what is. We sit with Him in heavenly places. We rest with Him in heavenly places. His work is done. It is finished. We have been made one with Him and we can hardly take it all in.
– James Barron
Well said brother…. God bless us as we grow in Grace!
Almighty is my best friend in my life;and up to now no one i had founedd like him who will give good suggestion to me;be with in troubles;save me from satan;help me to do good things and so many are there i can t express in words i feel so lucky to be his friend and he is my friend so i wish every to be as his friend for ever for ever and ever and dont forget him in any situation b’cos he is waiting for u to help when u ask him with so much of love to gods children sining of joshuva
the pray he said and that was when i was so into god i felt like well i dont know how to explane. but god have chnegad my life so much and i would not be here if it was not for him and have such great parents and family and friends THANKS GOD FOR EVERYTHING YOU DID IN MY LIFE I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AND CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU SEE YOU IN HEAVEN :):):):):):)