Romans 6:8 “If we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.”
In this third article, we capture 8 insights in part 2 of 2 of Chapter 2 of ‘The Normal Christian Life’ – how we move from being “in Adam” to being “In Jesus Christ.”
CHAPTER 2 Part 2: THE CROSS OF CHRIST – Being “In Christ”
1) Being the “Seed of Abraham”:
a. Abraham, as the head of the family of faith, includes the whole family in himself.
b. When Abraham offered to Melchizedek, the whole family offered in Abraham to Melchizedek.
c. They did not offer separately as individuals, but they were in Abraham, and therefore in making his offering Abraham included with himself all his seed.
2) Our Problem:
a. We were born sinners; how then can we cut off our sinful heredity?
b. Seeing that we were born in Adam, how can we get out of Adam?
c. The Blood cannot take us out of Adam.
3) Our Only Solution: Since we came in by birth we must go out by death.
a. To do away with our sinfulness, we must do away with our life.
b. Bondage to sin came by birth; deliverance from sin comes by death.
c. And it is just this way of escape that God has provided. Death is the secret of emancipation. “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”- Romans 6:2.
d. It is not by trying to kill ourselves, but by recognizing that God has dealt with us in Christ. This is summed up in the apostle’s next statement: “All we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.” – Romans 6:3.
4) God’s Accomplishment on Our Behalf:
a. What we could not do for ourselves, God has done for us. He has put us into Christ.
b. God has planned it; and He has not only planned it, but He has also performed it.
c. We are in; therefore, we need not try to get in. It is a divine act, and it is accomplished.
d. “In Christ” is special: It is God’s inclusion of me in Christ that matters. It is something God has done.
5) Being “In Christ”:
a. What Christ has gone through we have gone through, for to be “in Christ” is to have been identified with Him in both His death and resurrection.
b. When Christ was crucified, we were crucified. His crucifixion is past, therefore ours cannot be future.
c. The Lord did not die only to shed His blood. He died that we might die. He died as our Representative. In His death he included you and me.
6) The Cross of Jesus Christ = The “Last Adam”:
a. Scripture does not refer to Jesus as the second Adam but as the “Last Adam.”
b. When the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, He was crucified as the “Last Adam.”
c. All that was in the “First Adam” was gathered up and done away with in Him. We were included there. As the “Last Adam” He wiped out the old race. We died in Him as the “Last Adam.”
7) The Resurrection of Jesus Christ = The “Second Man”:
a. Scripture does not refer to Jesus as the last Man, but as the “Second Man.”
b. As the “Second Man” He brings in the new race. It is in His resurrection that he stands forth as the “Second Man,” and there too we are included. “For if we have become united with Him by the likeness of His death, we shall be also by the likeness of His resurrection” – Romans 6:5.
8) The Conclusion: We live in Christ as the “Second Man.” The Cross is thus the mighty act of God which translates us from Adam to Christ.
“The Evidence of Faith’s Substance” _ Article #600