The phrase ‘in Christ Jesus’, and similar ones like ‘in Him’, ‘in Jesus’ and ‘in Christ’ are splashed all over the pages of the letters to the New Testament church. They give us an understanding that our Lord Jesus is both a Person and a Place in which you should be.
Jesus Himself said for us to abide or reside in Him – Jn. 15:7. It is because humanity first lived in Jesus Christ. So, before we were put into the loins of our father Adam in Eden, we were in Christ Jesus – Eph. 1:4a,
“…just as He (God) chose us in Him (Jesus) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love”.
Where did you come from?
It is important to know your true source because the origin of an entity determines its strength. For example, if a piece of wooden furniture is made of mahogany, then it is as strong its source, the mahogany.
Thus, if you know that you came from Jesus, then you know that you can have strength to live like Jesus on earth i.e. holy, without blame before God, and in love; as in our immediate quote. Hallelujah!
Where are you going?
Now, because all mankind started in Jesus, God’s plan is that we should likewise end up willingly in Jesus. Now, this will only occur when we reside in Jesus now – 2 Cor. 5:17,
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold all things have become new”. You see from this verse that not everyone is in Christ now, but God wants it so.
Beloved, this is the whole idea behind Jesus coming to us in the Virgin birth over two thousand years ago, and taking the place of all mankind on the Cross. It is so that all humans can get back into Him, not by force, but as an act of their will.
An Upper-room understanding
In other words, those who are Jesus’ believers, (no matter how out of place they find themselves) can have back their former place in Him. And the Lord Jesus used the falling out of place of the Apostle Peter to illustrate this – Jn. 13:37-14:3.
Let us read: “Peter said to Him, Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake. Jesus answered him, will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times.
Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also.”
This incident took place in the Upper-room, the night that Jesus exposed His remaining eleven apostles to some higher truths about the Kingdom of God. There are a total of twelve main Upper-room or Kingdom truths that Jesus taught His believers, from the Book of John Chapters 13-17.
The power of Jesus’ Performance on the Cross
Among these was the fact that Jesus was the residence of God and would be the residence of all who believe Him, even if they earlier deny Him, like apostle Peter was going to do by cockcrow.
So all mankind, including such people like apostle Peter, (who verbally denied Him thrice, even after He had walked close to Jesus, and He had exposed him to His glory on the mount of transfiguration), should not be troubled.
Rather, they should only believe in the fact that, Jesus went (to the Cross) to prepare them a place in Him, so that He could receive them again to Himself.
Beloved, you need to understand that on the Cross, our dearest Jesus took away all the sins of mankind (past, present and future) on Himself. It was so that anyone who has lost his place in Him because of sin can get it back.
And this included Apostle Peter’s sin of verbally denying Jesus thrice with a curse and swearing – Matt. 26:74, “Then he began to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.”
Gracious Jesus
You know, the Apostle Peter knew the implications of denying Jesus. Our dearest Jesus had earlier on clearly taught them that ‘anyone who denied Him before men was going to be denied by Him before His Father and the holy angels’ – See Matt. 10:32; Lk. 12:8.
So, the apostle Peter knew that he was going to lose his place in Jesus’ heart, since he had just been “most assuredly” by Jesus that, he would deny Him thrice by dawn-time. Therefore naturally, Apostle Peter was troubled in his heart, since to him, there was no hope for him in Jesus again.
It was therefore partly to reassure Apostle Peter, that Jesus immediately said “let not your heart be troubled”. Our Lord was by this saying that, such people like Apostle Peter should believe in Him that, He was going to prepare a place in Himself for all mankind including them. Hallelujah! How gracious our adorable Jesus is!
