THE BIBLICAL FOUNDATIONS OF MARRIAGE

STUDY TEN: IN CHRIST – A WHOLE NEW SET-UP

Copyright © Rosemary Bardsley 2004

In this study we dig into the very heart meaning of the Redemption, Regeneration, Reconciliation factor. We have already seen the cost of our Redemption in Study 9: that God redeemed us, that is, set us free, liberated us, by the payment of a price: the death of his Son.

Both the Old and New Testaments teach the concept of substitionary atonement. Both the Old and New Testaments teach the concept of a representative, mediatorial priesthood. In the Old these concepts are seen in animal sacrifices and the OT priesthood: in the New both have their final, absolute and ultimate reality in Jesus Christ.

When the Bible says that Jesus Christ died 'for us' it means that he died in our place, in our stead, as our substitute. Because he was our substitute God considers his death as ours. For this reason he tells us:

• We died to sin [Romans 6:2]
• We were baptized into Christ's death [Romans 6:3, compare 1 Corinthians 12:13]
• We have been united with him in his death [Romans 6:5]
• We are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ [Romans 6:11]
• We died to the law through the body of Christ [Romans 7:4]
• If one died for all, then all died [2 Corinthians 5:14]
• We have been crucified with Christ [Galatians 2:20]
• We died with Christ [Colossians 2:20]
• We died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God [Colossians 3;3]

Because of this substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for us, and because Jesus Christ is our representative, our mediator, in his presence, God no longer relates to us as we are in ourselves. He relates to us always, ever and only in Christ.

 A. IN CHRIST – AN AMAZING, INCREDIBLE REVERSAL

Here we see a radical reversal of the results of the Sin Factor. Here we see that what we are in ourselves, 'in Adam', has no more relevance to God, and to our relationship with God.

For those who genuinely believe in Christ, who have been reunited to God by receiving his Son Jesus Christ as Lord, and who by that faith have been given eternal life in Christ on the basis of his atoning death, many of the effects of the Sin Factor:

• Have been completely reversed, or
• Are in the process of being reversed, a process that will be complete with Christ's return, or
• Are potentially reversed, waiting only for us to embrace them, and live with them.

Look at the facts you circled in your list above. These are the changes that God has made in the way he relates to you and your marriage partner because he now sees you only 'in Christ' and never again relates to you as you are in yourself. Discussion points:

B. IN CHRIST – THE ONLY WAY TO SEE A CHRISTIAN

In 2 Corinthians 5:16, having stated in verse 14 that if one died for all then all have died, Paul states:

'So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.'

The 'from a worldly point of view' inadequately translates the Greek kata sarka, which, literally, is 'according to flesh'. Paul is saying that because we have died in the death of Christ our substitute we no longer regard [the Greek is actually 'know'] other Christians as they are in themselves. He used to know Christ that way, before the Damascus road conversion; before that time he viewed Jesus as a blasphemous man, and condemned him and his followers, but from that point forward Paul knew that this viewing people 'according to flesh' could no longer apply, that Jesus was not just a man, he was the Lord God. In the same way, Paul says, he has stopped looking at people as they are in themselves; he now regards them as they are 'in Christ'.

It is in this context that we find the oft quoted 2 Corinthians 5:17:

'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!'

The Greek reads literally: 'if anyone is in Christ – new creation'. It is not just that this person is a new creature in Christ, but, importantly, that there's a whole new set up, a whole new ball game, a whole new world – a whole new way of relating to each other.

On the basis of this truth Paul spends the next five verses stressing the Reconciliation Factor. We need to remember here that Paul is not writing to unbelievers. He is writing to Christians, people who are 'in Christ', and exhorting them to live in the brand new reality of that reconciliation.

These truths open up a whole new world – a radical, life-changing paradigm shift of massive proportions. If we embrace this paradigm shift, if we cease, as Paul ceased, to regard people as they are in themselves, and begin to relate to them only as God sees them in Christ, we and our marriages, indeed all our relationships, will literally never be the same again. It is this mindset shift that will enable us to love and forgive one another as Christ commands.

C. THE RADICAL AND LIBERATING IMPLICATIONS FOR MARRIAGE

This 'in Christ' factor is very poorly understood by many Christians. Because it is poorly understood its radical and liberating implications are lost. We continue to relate to ourselves, to each other and to God, as if the Sin Factor and its devastating results were still in place, instead of relating to God, each other and ourselves from the perspective of the Reconciliation Factor. We think and live as though Reconciliation was not now in place. We think and live as though each of us still have to bear the burden of our sin and guilt, despising and counting of no-effect the sin-bearing, substitutionary death of Christ. We have received it, but we have received it in an empty, meaningless, powerless way.

Let us repent of this practical rejection of the death of Christ. Let us cease to disbelieve his promises. He has born the guilt, gaining for us total freedom from condemnation. He has paid the penalty for all our sins, gaining for us complete and permanent forgiveness for all our sins. He has reconciled us to God, gaining for us uninhibited and eternal access into the very presence of God. And he has done all of this for our Christian partner.

The attitudes in the left column express the mindset of the Sin Factor. Discuss: How are these mindsets out of sync with the Reconciliation/in Christ Factor? What would be the new, 'in Christ' mindset, to replace these old 'as-we-are-in-ourselves' 'in Adam' mindset?