Can you see yourself as “crucified with Christ”? (Galatians 2:20) Not physically, as was the thief who asked Jesus: “Remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and was assured: “This day you shall be with me in Paradise.” One thief died believing in Jesus, the other died without doing so. None of us can go back 2,000 years in time bodily, but we can all do so by faith, when we believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
What then? While still in that faith zone, we can be baptised in water, and so “buried with him [Jesus] in baptism” — identifying ourselves with Jesus in his burial and thus ending our old lives of sinning against God’s Law, and the guilt, self-recrimination, and condemnation that follows as sure as night follows day.
But wait! Three days later, Jesus came alive in the tomb and walked out in what proved to be the first-ever Resurrection! The great news is that we who believe walked out in him! Not with him but in him — “in Christ” — a term frequently used by the inspired writers of the New Testament. We walked out in him and into a new life of sin-free, guilt-free, condemnation-free life!
But that’s not all! Soon after, Jesus ascended into heaven, and we too did so “in him”! How? By faith in him, by burial with him, and by rising with him into new life. Not the dead and buried old life that we had lived but a new, risen, ascended life! How did we do that?
We didn’t. All this took place 2,000 years ago. We are there “in Jesus” through our faith in his death, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension! We see ourselves “in him” and “with him” where he is now and has been for 2,000 years. Location! Position! Identification!
Estate Agents know that if they ask, “Can you see yourself seated in this lounge room?” and your response is “Yes, I can!” then you will likely buy the house. Why? Because you identified yourself with it! If you can do this, then you can easily respond to my question, “Can you see yourself “in Christ” at the right hand of God with “Oh yes!”
We were born in Time and grew up knowing little or nothing of all that God did for us “in Jesus” so long ago. By the grace of God, at a point in time we did come to see this and we surrendered our lives to the Lord Jesus. We asked God to forgive us, and were baptised by immersion in water.
Having read all of the above, you know what Identification is all about. So, what you need to do from now on is apply the Bible Truth of Identification to the problems you will encounter in life.
Oh, wait! I haven’t yet mentioned that having identified ourselves with Jesus in his death, burial, rise and ascension, we are still “in him” where he is seated, which is in Heaven at the right hand of God! Yes, we live down here in a sinful, dirty, rebellious world, but we no longer identify with it because as citizens of Heaven we are above it all. Not with a “holier than thou” attitude but as being in this world but no longer belonging here anymore, and waiting for our Lord to return and through his rule put right Planet Earth!
So, you see us and you think you know us, but you don’t. We’re not from another world but “in Jesus” we belong to one. Meantime, we want to tell one and all in this increasingly Darth Vader-style world that the forgiveness and acceptance offered by God is for all who believe in Jesus and accept him as their Lord and Saviour.
John 3:16 is well-known, even by those who haven’t yet claimed it as an ironclad promise by God to all who are willing to bow their head and ask God to save them — make them safe. Not only in this life but beyond it in Eternity. Is this too much for the loving God of Heaven to ask the “whosoever” for whom Jesus bled and died. Is it?