Sunday MattersSample

Corporate worship is designed to define for you, explain to you, and celebrate with you the wonder of the grace of your eternal union with Christ.

One of the most beautiful, heart-changing, and life-giving truths of the gospel is the truth of our union with Christ. When you hear, “union with Christ,” do you understand what it means? Does the glory of those words fill your heart? Does the thought of your union with Christ give you reason to get up in the morning, even when life is hard? Does it make you never tire of singing and celebrating God’s grace with your brothers and sisters in the faith? Do you know what your union with Christ has to do with who you are and what you do every day? Do you grasp how it is meant to infuse you with help and hope? Do you know how it is meant to produce in you a heart of humble, unshakable gratitude right here, right now? Do you live in the peace and rest of what it means to be united to Christ by faith?

There is a reason union with Christ is such an important truth to understand and live in light of. Human beings made in the image of God live life based not on the facts of their existence but rather on their interpretation of the facts. God designed us to be meaning-makers. This capacity was given to us so that we could know God, know ourselves, and understand God’s revelation of himself and his will for our lives. One of the most important aspects of this meaning-making function is our grappling with the question of who we are. Somehow, someway we are always assigning to ourselves some kind of identity.

Who am I? The way you answer this profound question will shape the way you live your life. So it is vital for you to know that you have not just been forgiven by God and accepted into his family, but by grace you have been united to Christ. Your “in Christ” identity changes everything about your understanding of who you are and what your hope and potential are as a child of God. Understanding your union with Christ will change the way you think about and live in your marriage. It will alter your thoughts about your capability as a parent. It will change the way you approach your friendships, your life at your university, the way you think about your money and your sexuality, and a host of other things.

When it comes to the magnitude of the truth of our union with Christ, I think it is impossible for us to be taught about it too much, to be reminded of it too often, to sing about it too repeatedly, or to mediate upon it too deeply. The heart of the gathering of God’s people should never be about what we are called to do for God, but it must always be about what He has done in his Son for us. The focus of this worship gathering is first on being and then on doing. And the center thought of what we are now as the children of God is our union with Christ. All of the gorgeous blessings of God’s grace, which we examine and celebrate when we gather, flow out of the fact that by the power of God’s grace, lost and foolish rebels have been united to Christ.

Whether you understand it or not, your union with Christ changes everything for you. You have not just been forgiven; you have not just been accepted; you have not just been guaranteed a future. You are now living in the context of something that changes everything for your past, present, and future. You, believer, have been united to Christ. This reality and identity is more important than any other identity you could ever assign to yourself. Let me explain. There is no better place to go to understand this union than Ephesians 1. Paul’s passion for people to understand who they are and what they have been given in Christ is evident in verse after verse. As you read, pray that God would open your heart to the wonder of what we are about to consider:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.“ (Eph. 1:3–14)

You could spend months meditating on the magnitude of what this passages says about who you are and what you have been given as a child of God. For now, let’s focus on what Paul wants you to understand about what it means to be “in Christ.”

Every spiritual blessing. Everything you need in order to live as God has called you to live, in every situation and relationship of your daily life, with every grace you need to do so, along with the guarantee of a glorious future without sin or suffering, are yours because you are in Christ.

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Before the world began God set his love on you and chose you to be the recipient of his justifying, sanctifying, and glorifying grace, so that you can stand before him holy and blameless. Because you are in Christ, you are not alone in your battle with sin. God’s inexhaustible grace will keep doing its work until that work is complete.

In him we have the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. We no longer have to be paralyzed by sin’s regret or defeated by sin’s shame, because, in Christ, all of our sins—past, present, and future—have been forgiven, by means of his shed blood on the cross.

In him God has made known to us the mystery of his will. Our eyes were once blind and our hearts closed to the life-giving, life-changing wisdom of God’s truth, but in Christ these mysteries have been opened and illumined to us. This is why our hearts respond to God’s word.

In him we have obtained an inheritance. Peter says that this inheritance is being kept in heaven for us (1 Pet. 1:4). There is glory beyond our ability to conceive that awaits us, which we could have never earned or deserved, but which is ours in Christ. In him we might live for the praise of his glory. In Christ we are blessed to live for a glory greater than our own, for a kingdom way better than our own, and for the praise of a King who is not us.

In him we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This means that because you are in Christ, your relationship with God is never at risk, never at stake. Your relationship with God and your place in his eternal family have been sealed forever. Your continued obedience doesn’t guarantee your standing with God; being in Christ does.

We often enter the public gathering of God’s people having lived during the week in a state of “in Christ” amnesia. Sadly, our emotions, words, and actions have been negatively affected, because we have forgotten who we are and what has been lavished on us in Christ. So we need to hear again and again the amazing grace that is ours because we were chosen before the world began to be in Christ. This grace is not just a future reality; it provides everything we need to be what God has chosen us to be and to do what He has called us to do right here, right now. We simply can’t gather enough, hear too often, or reflect too deeply on the warehouse of blessings that are ours in Christ.

Reflections:

From the above passage, reflect once more on how much you as a believer have to celebrate because you are in Christ