Added to the Lord

I am sitting down to write tonight after having ridden home in my car from an event I attended out in Ada. I was really glad to be in my car, for if I was outside of my car I wouldn't be home yet. Additionally, if for instance I had been simply following my car, it would have left me in the dust. Or if I had been merely inspired by the slick engineering of my car and began to think that one day I too could roll down the road like that, I would, likewise, still be in Ada. In, that little preposition, means everything.*

Many of you probably know that being "in Christ", or "in the Lord" is one of the most common ways to describe a person who has a saving relationship with Jesus in the New Testament. Whereas we probably most often use the title "Christian", i.e. little Christs, the NT only uses that nomenclature 3 times. Paul, on the other hand, uses the language of being "in Christ" over 160 times on his own in the NT, following in the footsteps of Jesus himself (cf. Jn 15), along with the other apostles.

Luke also pushes us in this direction as he describes those who were coming to faith, "And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women (Acts 5:14 )." Notice he doesn't say that they were added to the church or that they became followers of Jesus, nor does he describe them as Christians. No, what Luke says is that they were added to the Lord, directly. They were outside, but now they were in him.

This, of course, goes hand in hand with the notion that believers were filled with the Spirit. This makes sense, for to be in him is to be filled with his Spirit. Doctrinally we call this phenomena "union with Christ" and it is the key that unlocks the door to understanding so much of the Christian life. For, how do we live with joy, how do we go through suffering, how do we do anything, if we do not have the mind of Christ, which is ours in Christ Jesus (cf. Philippians 2:5)?