Excursus I - Ephesians 1:7-14: What does it mean to be “In Christ?”

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            “In Christ” and related expressions “vividly bring out the deep spiritual experience of the Christian.”  We have died to our old sinful selves and have been raised in Christ to a new life - a life in which Christ is truly everything (Phil 1: 21, I Thess. 5:10 ).  We live by the power of God (2Cor 13:4) and have been given all spiritual blessings in Christ (Eph 1:3).

            “ ‘He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?’  The Cross is eloquent evidence of God’s love and care for his people.  And if God has done all that already, it is inconceivable to Paul that he is going to quit now.  We may be absolutely sure that the God who has done so much will see the work of salvation through to its end.”

                                                            - Leon Morris

In what is our identity “in Christ” found?

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The mark of this is Baptism.

            A.  Baptism Kills  - Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  

            “Sinners must die.  Death is what they have earned and deserve.  They will die one way or another.  They will die forever in hell, or they will die with Christ in their Baptism. (Rom. 6:5-6).”

            [Romans 6:5 “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,”] 

            B. Baptism Makes Alive - Romans 6:6-9  “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.”

            “Because he has joined the believer to himself through Baptism, death no longer has mastery over the believer.” 

            It is God who buries and raises the baptized.

            C.  Baptism is a New Birth - John 3:1-21 (Story of Nicodemus and Jesus)

            “This new birth was a change of the heart, a change of the fundamental orientation of life, a change of [the] object of ultimate trust.”

            [I John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -- our faith. 5 Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?]

            D.  Baptism Cleanses - Ezekiel 35:25-27 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

            “The basis of daily Christian living rests upon this change of identity which was effected by this cleansing.” 

            [ I Corinthians 6:9 “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.”]

            D.  Baptism Incorporates us into God’s Family - Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

            “There is, therefore, only one body.  It does not consist of the beginners and the mature, the neophyte and the practiced, the believers and the disciples.  All are one in Christ on the basis of the one and only Baptism.”

            Ephesians 5:4 “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”

“One Lord, one faith, one baptism.”  AMEN