Our Place in Christ
Every aspect of God’s relationship to believers is in some way connected to our relationship with Christ. From God’s counsels in eternity past before the world was created, to our fellowship with God in heaven in eternity future, and including every aspect of our relationship with God in this life – all has occurred in union with Christ.
God sees all Christians in His Son. This truth was central in Paul’s thinking.
In my earlier years as a Christian I divided scriptures that spoke of my relationship in Christ into two categories. The first I called “positional.” This meant the New Testament spoke of my standing in Christ in a way I didn’t see happening in my experience. But rather than concluding the scripture was fanciful or wrong, I saw it as a truth based on my theoretical “position” in Christ. The second group I called “actual” because I was experiencing what the scripture said.
In more recent times I’ve found these divisions inadequate. A major problem came when it dawned on me that virtually every scripture I put into the “actual” column was only there because I had first come to believe another related truth that was “positional.”
For instance I put the scriptures that spoke about my having every sin forgiven into the “actual” column because I “felt” forgiven. But why did I “feel’ forgiven? I “felt” forgiven because I believed that when Jesus went to the cross, He was carrying my sin (past, present and future). Because He bore the full penalty for my sin, I knew I was forgiven. I interpreted this “positional” forgiveness as “actual” because I felt it.
Our standing in Christ is both positional and actual. It is real to us because God says it’s real to Him. That’s where we start.
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