Ephesians 1:6
to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One He loves.
Just as sin entered the world through the one man Adam and consequently affected us all, so also grace has entered the world through the Holy One Jesus, that has the potential to affect us all as well. The love of the Father is so great for His Son that it overflows to lavish us all who are found to be in Christ. So what does it mean to be “in Christ”? In spiritual terms it is a position we are freely given at the moment of our salvation called justification. It is done for us, with nothing we can do to add to or detract from as it is an exclusive work of God. In practical terms it is our responsibility to continually test ourselves to make sure we are indeed “in the faith” as Paul urges us in:
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
So the way to know that we are in Christ is for us to continually open our hearts to allow Christ to be in us.
application
I need to cultivate the Holy Spirit of Christ to abide in me today, beginning with my thoughts, my attitude, my motivations, and then my emotions, as I do this it will work out to control, temper and guide my words and then finally my deeds.
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