THE REALITY OF BEING IN CHRIST
                               by  J W LUMAN

The theme I want to deal with is the reality of our being in Christ Jesus. How 
many of you have ever noticed that in most of the epistles Paul starts the 
epistle or at least in the first chapters, he is praying for that church? He 
is telling them that he is praying for them. And Paul gets real specific in 
the area that he's praying for them about also. Now in Ephesians 1:15 he says, 
" Now wherefore, I also after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love 
unto all the saints..." What a tremendous commending here, that someone would 
write you a letter and say I am coming your way because I have heard of your 
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ - it is talked about from coast to coast. And 
furthermore, I have heard of your love toward all the saints. Now you'd think 
that you didn't need too much prayer if that was a label by which you were 
known. And yet Paul says that this Ephesian Church was known as a church that 
was mighty in faith and a church that was manifesting love. So he says, " I 
cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers." And 
here is what I'm praying for.

And in fact, he says, if you were not a church that was grounded in the faith 
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I could not pray this prayer for you. If you were 
still a church that was trying to decide if you loved God or not, he says, I 
could not pray this prayer. If you were a church that was still trying to 
decide whether to serve God of not, I couldn't pray this prayer for you. If 
you were still a bunch of people who were just locked together in church 
membership and not growing in the knowledge of the Lord at all; if you were a 
bunch of people who just met together on Sundays and yet did not have bowels 
of compassion; did not minister to all the saints in the fellowship of love, I 
could not pray this prayer for you. He says you've got to be on your way in 
growing up in Jesus before I can even pray this particular prayer for you. But 
because I have heard of your faith, because I have heard that you love the 
Lord, because I have heard of your manifest love to all the saints, and you 
are growing in faith, then I am praying for you concerning this matter. 

" That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto 
you the spirit of wisdom and revelation..." Not the spirit of revelations. 
We're not talking about revelations. Everything you get from God is a 
revelation. You've got lots of revelations from the Lord. A sinner can't get 
saved until the Holy Spirit dealing with him sovereignly gives him a 
revelation that he's a sinner. He doesn't just wake up one day and say, 'Ho, 
hum, I'm a sinner. I believe I need to be saved.' No, the Holy Spirit has to 
actually convince him out of heaven that he's a sinner, and that's a 
revelation. Many times you'll be reading the Bible and a scripture is 
quickened to you - now you can call it all kind of things, but what it is, is 
a revelation. The scripture is quickened to you as it has never been quickened 
before, you've taken hold of it for any given situation and God has given you 
a revelation concerning that particular thing with that particular scripture. 
That's a revelation. Put them together and you've got revelations - plural. 
But that isn't what Paul is taking about here. 

He's going beyond that. He is saying you are a church who already had 
revelations or you wouldn't be growing in faith. You are a church who already 
has revelations from the Lord or you wouldn't be manifesting love toward all 
the saints. You've already walking in the Spirit; you're already walking in 
the Lord. You're not a church that's bound up by legalism, you're not a church 
that's bound up by the Law, you're not a church that's still arguing with each 
other over circumcision as the Galatians are. But you're a church that's 
beginning to growing in revelations. God is speaking to you by His Spirit, 
He's telling you things and quickening your understanding concerning certain 
wonderful spiritual gifts. Now he says, I want God to give you - who is the 
Father of glory, THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM. 
Now I'll tell you again, Paul is not praying for revelations, but the 
revelation of Him. Now, that you would know Jesus as you have never known Him 
before. Now, that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened and you 
would see the truth as it is in Christ, as you have never seen that truth 
before. And if you weren't growing up in the Lord, then you wouldn't be ready 
to see Him as He is!

So Paul says, I'm praying for you, because I have heard these good reports. 
I'm praying for you that God would give the spirit of wisdom and  revelation 
in the knowledge of Him. If you look in Colossians he says exactly the same 
thing even though the wording is a little different. He urges the Galatians to 
the same thing before he ever gets out of the third chapter. Before he gets 
out of the fourth chapter of both first and second Corinthians he tells the 
church at Corinth the exact same thing. He says in them all, I would that GOD 
WOULD REVEAL HIS SON IN YOU IN A WAY THAT ONLY THE FATHER BY HIS SPIRIT CAN 
DO. I would that you know Him in a way that you've never known Him before. And 
he says that this knowledge is a conforming knowledge, even a knowledge that 
conforms you into His very image and causes you to live as His very Body, a 
manifestation of Him in the midst of the earth. And folks, if the church is 
not designed to be a manifestation of Him, then you tell me what is the design 
of the church? If it's designed to just be a political power in the earth, I 
want out of it now. If it's designed to just be another organization, I want 
out of it now. If it's designed to just come and gather together in different 
congregations across the land on different holy days, I don't want any part of 
that. 

But if it's designed to grow up in the fulness of Him, if it's designed for 
the very glory of God Almighty, if it's designed to be a manifestation of 
Christ in the earth, I am in the right place. I want to be a part of what the 
Church, the Body of Jesus Christ is designed to be. Let us get our mind on 
what we are, not on where we go, but what we are. We go to a building, but WE 
ARE A BUILDING! We go to a place, but there's another place that so many 
believers are ignorant of. And that place is what I want the Spirit of God to 
stir up our understanding about. I want Him to stir up our understanding 
concerning that we don't just go to church, but WE ARE THE CHURCH OF THE LORD 
JESUS CHRIST. And the Church gathers together, yes it does, and so much more 
as we see the day approaching. But it does more than just assemble together. 
The Church is actually being drawn together in the Knowledge of Him. It is 
gathering unto Him for the greatest manifestation of Him the heaven and earth 
has ever seen! This is that unto which the Church is destined. Part of that is 
this knowledge that Paul is talking about. 

I want to talk to you about this truth - the reality of BEING IN CHRIST. These 
are not sermons - four points and then draw to a conclusion. Because the 
conclusion of what I have to say is seeing Jesus. The conclusion is you and I 
seeing Him as we've never seen Him before. The conclusion is you and I coming 
to an understanding by the Spirit of God that we've never had before. And if 
you and I would give our hearts and minds to the Lord, if you'll hear what He 
has to say to us from His Word, your life will never, ever again be the same. 
Once you and I begin to hear what the Spirit is saying, once we begin to grasp 
the reality of life AS IT IS IN CHRIST, we will never be the same again. This 
is a life changing revelation, a life changing reality. It is THE WORD OF THE 
LIVING GOD AS REVEALED IN YOU BY THE SPIRIT OF THE LIVING GOD! And that Word 
is none other than the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the 
glory of God the Father. And the Father desires that His glory be revealed in 
His house. And you are His house, that His glory be revealed in this Body, and 
you are His Body. He desires that this Body be changed into the image of that 
Head, that Son. And this is the ministry that the Spirit would share with you 
and I if we will allow Him to do so. If you will be faithful to the Word, the 
Spirit of God will be faithful to minister to you.

Let's consider this truth - the reality of being in Christ. You and I have 
been by the Spirit of God as believers, placed IN CHRIST. We are not outside 
as those who are attached to Him, we are actually in Him. WE ARE IN CHRIST 
JESUS. Over 230 times the scripture gives an overwhelming evidence of this. We 
say that if something is stated emphatically three times, we make Christian 
doctrine out of it - that is said in theological circles. Over 230 times in 
the New Testament alone, the scripture says that the believer is in Christ 
Jesus. Don't you think you and I ought to begin to search that? Don't you 
think we ought to say, 'Father, waken us to this reality!' When this thing 
begins to get a hold of your spirit, the understanding, knowledge and 
revelation of it, the truth of it - it will be more real to you, it will be 
more literal to you than the fact of where you are sitting right now! You see 
there is a place that eye has not seen, that ear has not heard, neither has it 
entered into the heart of man... You say, oh yes, that's over there in streets 
of gold. No sir, the next verse says "... that the Spirit hath revealed..." 
That's a place now, folks. It's talking about a place where we now dwell. A 
place that the Father hath prepared for them that love Him. And I'm telling 
you that the place that Jesus said I'm going to prepare for you is the same as 
Paul's declaration in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, where he says the Father hath 
prepared a place for you. Eye can't see it, ear can't hear it, hands can't 
touch it, nose can't smell it, senses can't understand it, the natural heart 
can't perceive it, but the Spirit of God will reveal it to those who love God!

There's a place that God has prepared for you and I. He has taken us out from 
sin, He's taken us out from the realm of the devil, the world and the earth, 
He has taken us out from the old creation and He has placed us in His Son! He 
has placed us in the secret place of the Most High God. And he that dwelleth 
in the secret place (and the word 'dwelleth' denotes understanding. In other 
words, he who stands there in knowledge, in faith, he who stands there knowing 
that he is standing there), shall abide under the shadow, under the wings of 
the Almighty. This is the secret place! The secret place is not a geographical 
location, the secret place is a Person, and His name is THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! 
And you and I have been taken out of Adam, taken out of sin, taken out of the 
old, and we have been by the Spirit of the Living God, placed in Christ Jesus. 
And it is more real than this building. It is more real. I stand here now, but 
before I stand here, I stand in Christ Jesus! It doesn't make any difference 
where I walk. If I was in jail, if I was shipwrecked, if I was in Africa, 
China, the Philippines, Texas - I AM IN CHRIST JESUS! This building can pass 
away - I'm still in Christ Jesus! This world can pass away - I'm still in 
Christ Jesus! If this is true then let us understand it and begin to live as 
though we are in Christ Jesus!

This reality becomes so real to you that this world does not have to literally 
pass away, you come to an understanding that you are no longer in it. See, 
we're all waiting to be taken out of the world, and the truth of the matter 
is, we're already taken out of the world. I'm not saying there isn't going to 
be a change in the twinkling of an eye, I'm talking about that we're always 
saying we're going to be taken out of the world one day, we don't have to put 
up with the world. I'm telling you we're already out of the world! We're 
already in Christ Jesus! There is a many-membered Body. Can you imagine what 
are going to be the repercussions, the manifestation, when every one of those 
believers have the eyes of their understanding enlightened by the Holy Ghost 
and begin to understand with an understanding of God that they are in Christ 
Jesus? And begin to live on the earth as they are in Christ Jesus? Not 
motivated by the things of the enemy, not motivated by the things of the 
world, of the things of the earth, not trying to find God with the five 
senses, but rather living in an understanding that is given of God that they 
are now in Christ Jesus! And begin to manifest the reality and begin to speak 
out from here the truth as it is in Christ!

The storm is outside, but we're in Christ! If you still think you are out here 
on your own - "nothing to do better than waiting to go to heaven - meanwhile 
I'm just here on the earth doing the best I can." No wonder we're defeated, no 
wonder we're cast down, we're out here in the middle of a storm trying to 
fight the storm. You can't fight the storm when you're in the storm. You can't 
speak to the storm when you're in the midst of the storm. But there is a place 
of peace, there's a place of rest, and it comes by understanding, it comes by 
faith. It comes when this believer understands God didn't save me and leave me 
out here - GOD BROUGHT ME IN TO HIS SON! I'm in the Sabbath! I am in the day! 
I am in the Lord! I am in the place of rest! And out from here I minister to 
the storm. I can stand up as one in Christ, not in the storm but in the place 
of rest, and to the storm I can say, " Peace be still." But I can say that 
because I'm not in the storm - I AM IN THE SON! Let us awaken to this 
understanding - we're not in the storm, we're in the Son! I'm not telling you 
someplace you ought to be, I'm declaring to you where the Word of God and the 
Spirit of God says you now are! But we need the eyes of our understanding 
enlightened that we may know, and begin to live as those who do know. 

So the scripture is overwhelming in its testimony - they tell us we are in 
Christ - in Him, in Whom, in the Beloved, in Christ - all referring to the 
same truth - IN CHRIST JESUS! Ephesians 1: 1,3,6,7,11,13; Ephesians 2: 6,10,13 
and then Acts 17:28 - we quote that all the time and yet we quote it without 
understanding. That says, " For in him we live, and move and have our being." 
Where? IN HIM! Can we now begin to see that salvation is not just getting out 
of sin, salvation is getting into HIM! We begin to see that salvation brings 
us into a relationship. It doesn't just break a relationship, it brings us 
into a relationship. It doesn't just take us out of something, it brings us in 
to someplace. Jesus said, " I'll come and I'll receive you unto myself." You 
say that's talking about the rapture. No, it isn't talking about the rapture - 
not in John 14 - read the rest of the chapter. He goes on and says the Spirit 
of Truth is going to come, the Comforter will come and in that day you're 
going to know something. John 14:20, " That I'm in my Father, and you are in 
me, and I am in you. You're going to know that I have come and have received 
you unto myself, and that where I am, there ye are also. You're going to know 
that just as surely as I'm in my Father, you're in me. And just as surely as 
you are in me, I'm in you." I'm talking about something that has already 
happened. And yet most believers are absolutely in the dark concerning it. So 
what do we do? We love God, we know we're saved, we know we're indwelt by the 
Spirit - we manifest evidence of it. But we don't know we're IN CHRIST, 
because we also manifest evidence of that. Our prayer life prays as though 
we're outside of Christ, trying to reach up and bring Him down or trying to 
reach down and bring Him up, or trying to get close to someone who in fact we 
dwell in!

Our prayer life betrays us, our daily life betrays us. We have a church life, 
a job life, a home life, and folks, we only have one life - IN HIM WE LIVE AND 
MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING! We don't have a church life - we are the Church. We 
have one life as His Body and that life is Christ! I don't have a secular 
life, and then a church life and then a home life and I rack my brain trying 
to figure out how to give some attention to each of them. Then I get my pencil 
out and I come up with this word - prioritize - I've got to put things in 
priority. I try to prioritize church life verses home life verses job life 
verses a desire to have a vacation life every now and then. And pretty soon 
it's just so hopeless that I say I just don't understand how I can do it. And 
then someone comes along and has the audacity, to a person that's already 
confused, to say you ought to pray at least an hour a day, and you should read 
nothing less than a chapter in your Bible. And all of a sudden the brain just 
explodes and we've got a screaming person on our hands, wondering how in the 
world can I do that? Maybe none of you have ever been in that situation, but 
most of us who have tried to prioritize have been, and I'm going to tell you 
what God's priority is. 

GOD'S PRIORITY IS ELIMINATING EVERYTHING BUT CHRIST! God's priority is just 
eliminating everything, God's priority is showing you - look here I took you 
out of all of this other and I put you in my Son. You don't have but one life 
and that's Christ! You don't have a church life and a home life and a job 
life, you've just got a Christ life. YOU'RE IN MY SON! I don't care whether 
you're in a church building, or whether you're in a bungalow or in a steel 
mill, you just have one life. YOUR LIFE IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! You don't 
quit being His Body when you go out this back door; you don't quit being His 
Church when you leave these doors. You're the Church - I don't care where you 
are. YOU ARE THE BODY OF CHRIST - I don't care where you are. If you're not 
the Body of Christ in the kitchen, you're not the Body of Christ sitting in a 
meeting room. If you're not the Body of Christ working on the job, you're not 
the Body of Christ in the Sunday School class. We don't have all these other 
lives to try to prioritize, juggle them around to see how we're going to put 
God first. No sir, God just has ONE SON. He's not confused about the 
situation. He said, " Thou art my Son, my only begotten Son." The Father's not 
confused at all. He's just got One Son, that's all He's got. 

But He's put you and I in that One Son! He does not know us separately from 
Him. He knows us as being in Him! He knows us as being one with Him! He knows 
us as having no life but Him! He knows us as the Body of His Son! He knows us 
who live by His Son! The Father understands this and He seeks to impart this 
understanding to you and I by the Holy Ghost so that we begin to understand as 
He understands, and quit all of our prioritizing and just let Jesus have the 
preeminence! That's the only word the Father understands - PREEMINENCE. Turn 
with me to Colossians 1:15. " He is the image of the invisible God, the first 
born of all creation." Who is this? This is the Lord Jesus Christ we're 
talking about. Who do we dwell in? We dwell in Him! Oh, mystery of mysteries - 
we dwell in Him! "For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that 
are in earth, visible, invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, 
principalities, powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is 
before all things and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the 
Body, the Church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in 
all things HE MIGHT HAVE THE PREEMINENCE. Not that He might be prioritized and 
put on a long list - but in all things He might have the preeminence. For it 
pleased God that in Him should all fulness dwell." And believer - YOU ARE 
COMPLETE IN HIM! Then if there's any place He should have the preeminence, 
don't you believe it is IN HIM? Well, where are we? IN HIM!  We are in Him and 
He is in us.

Why? That HE may be the whole of it and the sum of every part of it. Where 
does the scripture say that? It says that He may be all and in all. That means 
the whole of it and the sum of every part of it, because if He's in every part 
and you add up every part, the sum of every part equals the whole. And man 
didn't come up with that little theory. God produced that in the beginning 
when He desired to put every son in Christ and the Spirit of Christ in every 
son, so that He might be all and in all - the whole of it and the sum of every 
part of it. We're in Him and He's in us. We have no life but Him, that in all 
things He might have the preeminence. So throw away all your lists of 
priorities and understand that He in all things is preeminent. We have only 
one life and that life is Christ! We are His Body, and we are nothing else but 
His Body!

God doesn't have two houses, He's only got one house, the temple, the church, 
the tabernacle, and ye are the temple of God. Ye are the Church of the Living 
God. And ye are the Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us get a hold of the 
reality of being in Christ! It's a reality. I spend most of my time in prayer 
praying for one thing - that the Church who is His Body - because the Church 
is not a bunch of scattered out individuals, not in God's sight. Maybe in our 
sight, but that's because we're lacking in truth. We may not be lacking in 
doctrine, but we're lacking in truth. We may not be lacking in things that are 
true, but we're lacking in truth. We may not be lacking in things that are 
true, but we're lacking in truth, because when we see the TRUTH AS IT IS IN 
CHRIST, there will be no division in this Body at all, because there is no 
division in Christ. Because in Him there is neither male nor female, Jew nor 
Greek, bond nor free - there is no division. He is all and in all. Now I'm 
telling you we do not see the TRUTH AS IT IS IN CHRIST - we see true things 
about Him. We see true things that He's done - we've received some of those 
things. I'm not telling you you're not saved. I'm telling you on the contrary. 
If you are saved, you are IN HIM. Now we need to know that truth as it is in 
Him. Now we need to be filled with the knowledge of Him. Paul says I'm not 
telling you you're not a Christian - you have faith in Him, you have love for 
all the saints, now you need to be filled up with the knowledge of Him. Now 
you need to see the truth as it is in Him. Now you need to begin to live as 
you are in Him. And in Him you are not divided, because in Him there's nothing 
to be divided!

You take away the male and the female, and where is your division? I'm not 
talking about the flesh, I'm talking about in Christ. I'm not talking about 
bodily differences, I'm talking about the differences in our heart that 
divides the Church. The thing that divides the Church is not because I'm a 
male factor and this lady is a female factor. The thing that divides the 
Church is this inward identity that I have as a male and that she has as a 
female. Or that this one has as a white and this one has as a black, or this 
one has as a Jew and this one has as a Greek, or this one has as a circumcised 
and this one has as an uncircumcised. That's the difference factor - it's not 
here in this body, in the organs of our body - it is in our soul. And I'm 
going to tell you that in Christ there is no such thing. In Christ there's 
only ONE LIFE. He dwells in His Body. His Body is made up of members that are 
male and female so that they will be in the type of the Church, Head and Body 
and all of that. 

But we need to understand what the eye can't see, what the ear can't hear, 
what we need to do is look beyond the flesh and see the Person that we are. 
Not the man that I am and the woman that you are, but the PERSON that we are. 
And the Person that we are is not male or female, HE IS CHRIST! The Person 
that we are is not black or white - He is Christ. The Person that we are is 
not Jew or Greek - He is Christ. And this is the Truth. And when the Church 
sees the Truth as it is in Christ, division will be no more. You can not 
divide one - you have to divide two, but you can't divide one. One is one, is 
one, is one, and always will be one. We see that the Body is one but we will 
only see this when we see the One that the Body is, when we see the One in 
Whom the Body is, and when we see the One who is in every member of this Body. 
And automatically by the Spirit understand that what I do to this brother, I 
am doing to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not a matter of theology, that is a 
matter of Divine Truth. What I do to this brother or sister I am doing to me, 
but you see here in Christ, there really is no me, there's just a HE - and His 
name is Jesus! Father, open our eyes to the reality of being in Christ, in 
Whom we live and move and have our being.

We're not moving in and out of Him, we're moving in Him. We're not living in 
and out of Him, we're living in Him. We don't have our being over here awhile, 
then over here - my life and His life. No - we're just being in Him - just His 
life! Paul came to this understanding. Paul was a believer who had the cross 
planted in his heart. Thank God it came down right off the hill of Golgotha 
and stuck right in the center of his heart - in the here and now - the divine 
truth, the divine principle of the cross. Whereby all that is not Christ dies, 
and all that is Christ comes forth in resurrection. Beloved, He does not give 
resurrection, HE IS THE RESURRECTION! He does not give life, HE IS THE LIFE! 
He doesn't touch you, HE INDWELLS YOU! He doesn't take part of Himself and say 
'here's a little life for you'. No, He Himself in the fulness of Himself, by 
His Eternal Spirit indwells you. The cross was planted in Brother Paul's 
heart, and in Galatians 2:20 he says these words, " I am..." Oh, the 
realization of those words! I AM - not I ought to be, not I should be, not I'm 
trying to be, not I'm praying that God will help me to be - No sir. " I am 
crucifed with Christ." The cross becomes a definite work, a completed work, 
something that Jesus didn't try at and fail - something He succeeded in, 
something He finished. And when He died, the scripture says, all died with 
Him.

When the truth of that death begins to work in me, it's not me trying to die, 
it's me coming to the realization I'm dead! It's not me trying to get my 
theology straight concerning the theologies of the cross. No, it's the truth 
of the cross penetrating to the depths of my soul and saying, "Boy, you're 
crucified. You were crucified 2,000 years ago. When He died, He died as you!" 
Who do you think He died as? The angel Gabriel? No sir, He died as you. He 
died as the Adamic man. He died as the old man. No wonder Paul says in Romans 
6, " Knowing this, that our old man ..." It's not just having this happen, but 
knowing this has happened. It's not a historical fact, it's a present day 
reality. " Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body 
of sin is destroyed..." That means the power of sin, the federal head of sin 
is destroyed. " ... that henceforth we should not serve sin." That goes beyond 
just doing little sins, that means serving the very center of ourself, serving 
our own life, our own fleshly desires, even if we think they're religiously 
motivated. Because you come to a point where the cross does not make deals 
with you. The cross does not sit down at a table of compromise with you. The 
cross says He died, and when He died you died too. 

And this believer says "I am crucified with Christ." And there's the whole 
thing - WITH CHRIST. It is not my idea of death, it is HIS idea of death. And 
the Bible says in Romans 6:9 and 10, " In that He died, He died once unto 
sin." You see we were dead in sin!. Sin didn't die - I died. The devil didn't 
disappear - I disappeared. The devil wasn't crucified - I was crucified. The 
devil is still ranting and raging and roaring, but thank God, where he is, I 
am not! Why? Because I am dead there! I am absent there by the power of the 
cross, and I am now in Christ Jesus! The working of the cross is complete, the 
working of the cross is glorious. Well, what's the problem in my life, in the 
life of believers then? The problem is the truth. " Ye shall know the truth 
and the truth shall make you free." I told you that we know a lot of true 
things, but Paul says now that you be filled with the knowledge of Him who is 
THE TRUTH! Now you've come into a living relationship which comes out of your 
dying and the understanding that He and He alone lives. " I AM CRUCIFIED WITH 
CHRIST, NEVERTHELESS IN LIVE..." You see, I am no longer dead in sin, I am 
dead to sin, wherein I once dwelt, I am dead to that place! That's the way I 
was taken out of there. I didn't divorce the old man, the old man is dead! I'm 
not arguing and fussing with him - no sir - he's dead, thank God! That's the 
power of the cross you see, wherein I was dead in sin, I am now dead to that 
place. I am dead to Adam, I am dead to me, I am dead to the world. We could 
get rid of a lot of 'thou shalts' and 'thou shalt nots' if we were just dead 
to the place. 

If we could just understand "I AM DEAD", you don't have to instruct me on how 
to behave - I'm dead, and my life is hidden with Christ in God. YE ARE DEAD, 
Colossians 3:3 says. As to this place you are dead, and your life is hidden 
where the devil can't find it, hidden where the world can't find it - it is 
hidden with Christ in God! You can't even find it except the Holy Spirit 
enlighten the eyes of your understanding. I can't see this life. I can look 
into a mirror and I can say, 'Yes, that's me.' But that's not me. I can't see 
me. 2 Corinthians 4:18 says, " While we look not at things that are seen..." 
Now the old boy is seen. I'm looking at him, but that's not me. That is not 
the truth as it is in Christ. The truth is not seen. " While we look not at 
things that are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things 
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." 
This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9, " As it is written, eye has 
not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the 
things that God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them 
unto us by His Spirit." And it thrilled my heart to realize that the word 
translated 'things' is actually in the Greek the same word that is translated 
'places' in Ephesians 1:3. That verse says, " Blessed be the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in 
heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Here's the place that the things are talking 
about. The Spirit shows us the place. There is a place that the eye can not 
see. There is a place the ear cannot hear, but the Father hath revealed that 
place unto us by the Spirit. It is the dwelling place of the Most High God! It 
is the secret place of the Most High, and we dwell here in faith, we dwell 
here in understanding, we dwell here in knowledge, having seen the place by 
the Spirit.

So concerning this place, we look not at what is seen, but that which is not 
seen. I'm telling you as to this place, I am not here any longer. I am dead, 
and my life is hidden with Christ in God, and I can only see that life which 
is Christ, when the Holy Spirit reveals Him in me. My prayer, Church, is that 
the Holy Spirit will open the eyes of our understanding, that we'll quit 
trying to understand the things of God with these eyes; that we'll quit trying 
to understand the Church comparing flesh to flesh instead of Spirit to Spirit; 
that we'll quit trying to understand that place where we are based upon the 
circumstances and the surroundings. Paul sat in a Roman jail, and he declared, 
" I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ!" He sat in a Roman catacomb and wrote and 
told the saints of God, we are raised up together, we are made to sit together 
in heaven!. Tell me he was looking at things seen - no sir! THE FATHER 
REVEALED THE SECRET PLACE TO HIM.

You and I are always calling out 'God, deliver me out of this thing, out of 
this place.' And He's already done it, if we only knew the truth. If we only 
knew the truth, the truth would show you that you're not there, but in fact, 
YOU'RE IN HIM, and that situation will pass, but this (being in Christ) will 
never pass. So Paul looks at the passing things, he looks at the temporal 
things, and in Romans 8:18 he declares, " We reckon that the sufferings, the 
situations, the circumstances of this present time, this time that we see and 
hear and touch, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be 
revealed in us." And that "shall" is not a future tense, but a present tense 
which shall, of a surety be revealed in those who allow God to reveal to them 
the place that He has prepared for them in Christ. There's another place - and 
you are there.

You see the shame of it - if you weren't there, if you weren't in Christ, then 
it would be all right, in comparison, to live out here as if you weren't in 
Him. To take the brunt of every problem, to take the brunt of every situation, 
to fight with the elements, to fight with the times, the devil continually 
chasing and battling you around. Continually crying out - 'Is there a God up 
there, somewhere?' And just come out of a prayer meeting! Many times we pray 
prayers of desperation, praying like we are in the pit of despair and trying 
to dig ourselves out. Where is the knowledge of Christ? WE'RE SEATED IN THE 
THRONE ROOM! I'm not trying to hype you up, I'm telling you the truth. I'm 
simply telling you what happened when you and I got saved. We were taken out 
from one place and thank God, put in another one. And the reason that we're 
there is so that throughout the endless ages of eternity, He may reveal the 
glories and splendors of His Son in us! But friend, we're there NOW!

Ephesians 2 verses five through seven says we are raised up together, made to 
sit together in heavenly places. If we pray, then pray there. Certainly I get 
burdened, certainly I cry out to God. Sometimes I moan and groan, but it's not 
trying to get myself out of the pit of despair. I moan and groan most of the 
time for the pit that the Church is in - in ignorance. "My God, let your 
people see the TRUTH!" I'm not trying to bring some new doctrine, I'm trying 
to tell you where you are in Christ! You are there by His precious blood! 
You're there by His death and resurrection! You're there by translating of the 
Holy Ghost who has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us 
into the kingdom of His Dear Son! You're there! You're there! Let the truth of 
that get a hold of us so we begin to live out from there, pray out from there, 
speak out from there, minister out from there. Yes sir, there's a devil, but 
I'M IN CHRIST and he's not here! Yes sir, there's a world, but I'M IN CHRIST 
and it's out from here! Yes sir, there's an earth to contend with, but I'M IN 
CHRIST and it's out from here, and I contend with those factors as one who 
knows he's in Christ. Not one who out here in the pit of despair is trying to 
get God to hear his cry. No sir, " In that day ye shall know that I am in my 
Father, and you are in me and I am in you."

No more this Old Testament mentality, but a new mentality, a new 
understanding, a new relationship - WE ARE IN CHRIST JESUS! Acts 17:28, 2 
Corinthians 5:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21 and so many, many more scriptures declare 
this glorious truth. Don't let it be just writing upon the page. Search the 
scriptures and we'll see revival come in the Church and the earth filled with 
this glorious truth. Look for every place it says IN HIM, IN WHOM, and say, 
'Holy Spirit, help me to see this place. Holy Spirit, help me to enter in by 
faith to the reality of this relationship. I don't want my relationship to 
Christ to be just one of having my sins forgiven, I want to know this 
relationship of being IN HIM, this reality that HE IS IN ME. I don't want to 
spend the rest of my life praying to God as though He's off somewhere, but I 
want to be able to speak to Him as a Son who is in bosom dwelling, who is in 
bosom dwelling with His Father. Crying out, but not in despair - in KNOWLEDGE! 

	CHOSEN IN CHRIST

I am praying that the Lord will bring us into a greater reality of our being 
in Christ than we have ever known before, because it is out of the reality of 
this position that you and I will live as His Body. This is the understanding 
that must fill up the Church, the Body of Christ. We don't just go to church, 
we are the Church! Why? Because we are found in Him and when the knowledge of 
Him is found in us, to the same degree that we are found in Him - then we 
begin to minister as Christ. Then we begin to live as His own Body. This is 
not a fairy tale. This is not a diagram on a blackboard - this is a truth. YOU 
ARE IN CHRIST JESUS! When the reality of that gets in you, and many believers, 
and begins to literally fill up the whole Body of the Lord, then the Body of 
the Lord will begin to live as it is in Christ, will begin to live out from 
the realization we are in Him. We are His Body! It is at that time divisions 
cease, schisms cease. All of our committee meetings won't get it done, but the 
knowledge of the Lord will get it done. 

You are in Christ NOW! How long have I been there? You've been there since the 
day you've been born again! You've been there since the day the Holy Spirit 
baptized you into Jesus Christ and made you a living member of His Body! And 
it is now that the Spirit of the Lord is beginning to move in a precious way 
and bring to these believers who are in Christ, and who are seeking Him into 
this realization. And I keep using the word 'realization' because it is the 
understanding of reality! What you see with your natural eye is not reality, 
it's a facade, it seems to be real but it passes away. If you can touch it, 
see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, it is passing away, it is not in fact 
reality. But there is a place prepared by God for those that love Him. It is 
this place of our being - for in Him we live and move and have our being. And 
it is a reality! It is not a theological statement or theological position, 
not a doctrinal ideology. It is a real union with Christ. 

It is the place where God has put you and I. It is more real than anything 
your eyes can see. So Paul prays that the eyes of your understanding be 
enlightened, that you see the place that the eyes can not see. I'm thinking of 
the old Prophet in the Old Testament who was in a certain city and his servant 
came to him. His servant had natural eyes, and he saw chariots surrounding the 
city, a host greater than was in the city to lay siege of the city. He ran in 
and shook the old Prophet and said "My word, the enemy is upon us, they've got 
the city surrounded. We'd better get out of here quick!" The old prophet got 
up and walked outside, took his servant with him and said, "Lord, open his 
eyes." And all of a sudden, around, behind the lines of the enemy, upon the 
mountains were the chariots of God and the Lord God Jehovah had the place 
surrounded with His army! Now the old Prophet you see, had eyes of 
understanding. That's the only difference in the two. They were both in the 
same place - one knew it and one didn't know it. The servant didn't know it. 
He saw with his eyes and all he saw was the enemy abound. The old Prophet 
looked and he said, "The Lord of Host abounds! The armies of God have 
surrounded us."	

That's the difference of being a son of God with knowledge and a child of God 
who differs nothing from a servant. Both are in Christ - one knows it, the 
other one doesn't know it. One sees with the natural eye and he goes to 
church, the other sees with the eyes of understanding and he is the Church. 
They both come and sit in the same building. One says I'm in a building, the 
other says, I'm in Christ. They're both found in the same world. One of them 
says, I'm seated in heavenly places, the other one says I'm trying to make it 
through another day. The only difference is one has eyes of understanding and 
the other has the eyes of the natural. They are both in Christ. Every believer 
is in Christ - some know it and some don't. Those who don't are just trying to 
make it through another day, trying to learn God by the tasting and the 
hearing, by the seeing, by the senses. The other one is in the same day, in 
the same place, but he understands that he is there in Christ! The victory is 
his. He ministers as out from Christ. They both in the natural see the same 
things, the same problem. But one sees the answer, and the other just sees the 
problem. I am telling you that God desires to enlighten the eyes of our 
understanding that we may understand where we now are, and begin to live, 
speak out from there. And when we do, divisions and strife will cease. 

You see folks, we're in a place of rest. But you see the problem is we don't 
have that peace and rest in us. We're in Christ now, but when we begin to 
understand it, the peace of that place gets in us, the rest of that place gets 
in us. And we cannot war with one another, we cannot strive one with another. 
When we are walking in the understanding of the reality of being in Him, we 
cannot fight our brother! It will change our lives to have our eyes opened, to 
see the truth as it is in Christ. The truth shall make you free. Thank God He 
has set us free from sin, but there is a making free that is connected with 
maturity, with the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. A lot of us 
just don't want to see this place in Christ - because when you see it, it is 
going to cost you your life! Coming to Jesus as Savior cost you your sin, Not 
too many of us cared a whole lot about that - we're willing to give up all 
those things that were about to kill us anyhow. But when the eyes of your 
understanding are enlightened, the things that you count gain begin to be 
piled up in a heap and counted nothing but dung. And a whole lot of us just 
don't want to know Jesus as LIFE - we want to know Him as Savior, we don't 
want to go to hell and we're hoping for heaven as a home, but we don't really 
want our whole life taken over right now. 

So you see that is why a lot of folks just actually don't want to know that 
they are in Christ. No, they just want to be out from sin. But the point of it 
is you're not just out from sin, if you are born again, you are IN CHRIST. And 
whether you know that or not, God holds you accountable for that. Whether you 
know that or not, the Father knows it, the Son knows it, the Spirit knows it, 
and He holds you and I accountable for it. So this isn't just one of those 
things we can say, 'Well, maybe one day I'll get around to drawing closer to 
God.' No sir, our life is in Christ. And the scriptures say if you say you 
live by the Spirit, then you ought to walk in the Spirit. Paul says, if you 
say that you are risen with Christ, seek those things that are above. There is 
a responsibility of this business of being IN HIM.

Now let us look at the scripture to see what God has done, so that tomorrow we 
live differently. I'm not nearly as interested in seeing folks come to the 
church house and 'get a blessing' from God and live the same the next day, as 
I am in seeing the Church filled up with the knowledge of Christ and have 
their lives changed to where they do not live the same the next day. But 
rather they live in a knowledge, an awareness, an understanding that literally 
changes their lives and beings to effect the lives of everybody in their whole 
neighborhood. I'm interested in seeing this Body of Christ not just blessed by 
God as from the outside in, but rather grow up in the knowledge of the Lord 
and begin to express a relationship with Him as from the inside - out! One 
that literally changes your life, and you know when those things that you 
wrestle with begin to just fall away in the knowledge of Him. You know when He 
begins to make you free! You know when you begin to be changed - when you 
begin to walk in the light as He is in the light. You know when He begins to 
be revealed in you and your very thought patterns begin to change, to where 
you begin to say, "I'M A SON OF GOD NOW! GOD IS MY FATHER NOW! WE'RE THE BODY 
OF CHRIST NOW! I'M IN HIM NOW!"

I'm telling you the truth. It makes a difference if you know where you are in 
Christ, and that's the only thing that will do it. We can preach it, but we 
can't do it. We can preach it and tell you this is how it ought to be, this is 
how it should be. But the Spirit of God comes and says, this is how it is! 
This is where you are! And there's an inward renewing that you begin to live 
as you are, not as it ought to be - no, this is how you are! Jesus didn't get 
up every morning trying to be a son of God, He didn't get up every morning 
quoting scriptures to himself, trying to convince himself he ought to be about 
the Father's business. No, every morning when he got up, he got up in the 
knowledge of the Lord, knowing that HE WAS A SON OF GOD, knowing that HE WAS 
IN THE BOSOM OF THE FATHER, and he ministered out from there. I'm telling you 
the Holy Spirit desires to reveal this same Jesus in you, He desires to open 
the eyes of our understanding that we understand we are the Body of this same 
Jesus. All the doctrines in the world won't do that, all the theologies and 
preaching at each other won't do that. But when the Holy Spirit begins to open 
our eyes and brings us into this relationship - of peace and of love and of 
joy and of rest - then we beg to live as the Body of the lord Jesus Christ! 
Then you begin to see lives changed, and you will change your surroundings.

In this study I want us to see that we are in Christ from the viewpoint of the 
Father. From the viewpoint of the Father we are in Christ now because we were 
chosen IN HIM from the beginning. This is not a position of theology, it is a 
place of reality. We are in Christ Jesus now because that's where God chose 
you in the beginning. Let's look at this in Ephesians 1:3 and 4. " Blessed be 
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all 
spiritual blessings..." Now that term means "all spiritual fulness" What is 
actually means is everything you actually need to be a son of God, everything 
you need to please the Father, everything God desires that you be and that you 
grow up into, is already in Christ! The word says 'who hath - h-a-t-h - 
blessed.' It's already there. Now, there are many who shall be in Christ who 
are not yet in Christ. There are people being saved somewhere every night, but 
all the fulness of God is already there. Think about this place. Think about a 
place prepared of God. When we travel amongst the Lord's Body we find that 
there has been a place prepared for us - everything we need - food, a bed, it 
has been prepared for us.

Beloved, we do that just in our natural realm. What do you think God has done 
for you in Christ? And yet we spend 95% of our time saying 'God come down.' 
Beloved, He has prepared a place. It is in Christ. And there He hath blessed. 
The blessing is already there. Maybe some aren't there yet but when I got 
there, the blessing was waiting for me. When I got there, all the fulness of 
God was already there in Christ Jesus. WHO HATH BLESSED US WITH ALL SPIRITUAL 
BLESSINGS. No wonder Jesus says, when you pray, seek ye first the kingdom of 
God. Ask the Lord to show you this place, the prepared place. Don't worry 
about these little things. The Father knows you have need of these things that 
even the Gentiles spend all their time trying to get. He'll give you those 
things that you need. He'll let them abound to you. If you're going to seek 
someplace, seek here. Seek here, where He has prepared a place for you, that 
the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know what He 
has done here, and begin to walk in the richness of it, begin to walk in the 
glories of it. 

I believe what some others say, that sons of God ought to have the best. I 
believe that, I just don't believe you can find the best outside of the Lord 
Jesus Christ! I believe in prosperity. I believe you ought to get it where it 
belongs - right here in Christ Jesus! I'm not ready to see all the world has 
to offer. Satan showed Jesus all the world had to offer, I'm not interested in 
seeing that. I'm interested in seeing what my Father hath prepared, what My 
Father has to offer. Then maybe I can take the things of the world and use 
them for the Lord instead of making idols of them, instead of grabbing a hold 
of them and won't turn loose of them, not even to bless the kingdom of God. 
Oh, that we might begin to live as we are in Christ, knowing that we have all 
things, yet possess nothing; possess all things yet own nothing. They are ours 
to use and not be entangled with, certainly not to lust after, and certainly 
not to make them the sign of godliness because they are not. The sign of 
godliness is IN CHRIST! Let us begin to understand where we are. Because your 
knowledge of where you are will determine what you seek after and what you 
pray after. It will determine how you live, it will determine your 
relationship one with another - the understanding of where you now are!

What I'm talking to you about is just basic salvation. The only difference is 
I'm not emphasizing the place you came out of. I'm emphasizing the place you 
go into. I'm talking to you about SALVATION. " Who hath delivered us out of 
the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." 
That's the working of total salvation! Not just a deliverance out - it's a 
translation in. I'm talking to you about the fulness of your salvation. I 
don't have to preach to you about your deliverance - you know what you've been 
delivered from; you know the evils of sin. But we need to get our eyes opened 
to the place the Father hath prepared for us, to the things of Christ in God 
so we can begin to shine as light in darkness, so we can begin to live as sons 
of God in a perverse generation, so we can begin to live as the Church instead 
of like the rest of the carnal Christian world and just go to church on 
Sunday. No sir, we need to understand the TRUTH AS IT IS IN CHRIST. 

" Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places ..." 
That's not up in the clouds somewhere. It means a new realm. He's taken us out 
of one realm and put us into another realm; taken us out of one world and put 
us in another world; taken us out of one man and put us in a New Man. Those 
are the heavenly places. The Bible tells you where heavenly places are - IN 
CHRIST JESUS! That's where you are. That's where I am, and when the eyes of 
our understanding is enlightened, we'll begin to know that, we'll begin to 
speak and live like that. You talk about revival coming into the earth - wait 
until the Church gets filled with the knowledge of the Lord and begins to live 
as they are in Christ Jesus instead of a bunch of split, divided 
congregations. You want to see revival - you'll see the manifestation of the 
Lord Jesus Christ in His Church! That will fill the earth with the knowledge 
of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. 

He hath blessed us - all the fulness, all the blessing is already there. In 
accordance with something - according - that means in alignment with a purpose 
that was preexisting. According to what hath He put all fulness in Christ? 
What is the purpose, what is the plan, according to what has He done this? " 
According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that 
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now the emphasis here 
is not on the us; the emphasis here is on the HIM. And when we begin to have 
the eyes of our understanding enlightened, the emphasis is not on us, the 
emphasis is on Him in Whom we live. As long as we still think we have a life 
out here somewhere, not much different than before we were even put in Christ 
- we think that maybe God just saved us and left us off somewhere - the whole 
emphasis is on us. God saved me, God delivered me, God help me. But when we 
begin to see that we have been made part of a whole, part of a greater, all of 
a sudden the emphasis is not on me - it's on HIM! All of a sudden salvation 
doesn't revolve around me, it revolves around Him, and I'm in the middle of 
God's plan. The whole picture begins to change. Your Bible begins to speak to 
you about eternal life now - brings it out of the past, brings it out of the 
future, and puts it right NOW. Your Bible comes alive!

Your Bible begins to speak to you of a place, of a Person, of a reality that 
you are in now - that you are part of now. You are not the center of it - He 
is! You're not the whole of it - He is! But thank God, you're there. You're 
not the completion of it - it's the completion of you! The scriptures say, " 
For in Him it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell. And ye are 
complete in Him." You don't make Him complete. He makes you complete. This 
picture is complete with or without me, because all the completeness of God is 
in Christ. And when I come into this picture, I do not add to it anything, 
what I do is, I am added unto. I am made part of that complete. I am made 
complete. The thing that is missing in me is made complete. He is complete! In 
Him is all fulness - I'm the one that is outside. I'm the one that is 
incomplete. But when I am placed in Him, I don't add to Him, He makes me 
complete! I am added to a completed picture; I am added to a completed 
blessing. He begins to be the center.

That's the first way we've got to look at verse 4. We've got to see it centers 
around Him and not us. Now it does not say that before the foundation of the 
world God chose us to be in Christ, as it were that He looked and chose us to 
be in Christ. No, because then you get into the doctrine that says He chose 
some to be in Christ, and He chose some not to be in Christ. And you put the 
doctrine of predestination upon us rather than upon the place where it 
belongs. In the beginning God chose a place, and in that place He chose a 
people, but it does not say that He chose a people to be in that place - He 
chose the place. The verse says - hath chosen us - where? IN HIM! Not to be in 
Him, but chosen us IN HIM. That means that in the beginning here was God's 
viewpoint - God looked into the end, He is looking into the beginning and the 
end. He is the beginning and the end! In the beginning, the Father looked into 
Christ, He looked into His Son, and He desired and declared and purposed that 
I will have all of my sons right here in HIM! And I will have no sons except 
in Him. From the beginning God determined that if you are going to be my son, 
you will be in Him. He determined that I will not save you and leave you out 
from Him, I do not want you aside from Him. In the beginning what the Father 
said is, "What I want is an increase of my Son, who is the express image of 
myself."

So God brought into being the seed principle, of every seed bearing after its 
own kind. So the scripture here says that in the beginning before the 
foundation of the world, God chose you in Christ. There is no where else that 
you are chosen of God except in Christ. Do you want to know who the chosen 
people are? THEY WHO ARE IN CHRIST! Do you want to know where the Holy Land 
is? IN CHRIST! Do you want to know where the temple of God is? IN CHRIST! Do 
you want to know where the seat of God is and the throne of God? IN CHRIST! "I 
will make my sanctuary in the midst of my people. I gave it to them on paper, 
I gave it to them on rocks, but with this new people that I will create in 
Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10), I will be in them. I will write my word in 
them." A new relationship. "I will make my habitation in them. I will 
establish my throne in my house, and I will glorify my house with my own 
glory."

All these things point to this reality that God has chosen us in Christ, and 
that's where you are chosen of God - IN CHRIST! This is a wonderful truth, 
because when we begin to awaken to this truth, what a glorious thing it is. 
Now you say, where was I called of God? You were called of God here - in a 
time - 1986, 1992. We are walking along in a time as sinners, we're in Adam, 
in an old creation, we're not in Christ and we're not chosen either. But the 
Holy Spirit calls us. Jesus says, "Come unto me." That's not choosing, that's 
calling. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give 
you rest. Come unto me." The Spirit of God begins to call, "Come, come, will 
you come?" He begins to tug at hearts. That's a calling. Now when He calls and 
this person answers, and the work of the cross is wrought in them, here's what 
God does. He doesn't leave them outside, He brings them into His Son, and they 
are right where He chose them from the very beginning! He brings them into His 
plan. The place of His calling is not the place of His choosing. He calls 
them. He says "Out of Egypt have I called my Son. But my chosen ones dwell in 
Canaan."

He has called us here. We have come by way of the cross, we have come by way 
of death. He has called us unto Himself, but when we come, we come into the 
place that is prepared for us. We come into the place where we are chosen of 
God! Now this is a glorious realization because we begin to see as God sees. 
We begin to understand that I'm here where God saw me from the beginning - IN 
CHRIST! I have fit into God's picture. I am in the place that He chose from 
the beginning. I AM CHOSEN IN CHRIST! I go from that time - 1986, 1992, 1996 
to N-O-W - NOW! I go from 1986 to the beginning; I go from 1986 to the end. It 
is important that we begin to understand that the day or year we come into 
salvation is no longer important - because there's a new time, a new day, a 
new creation, there's a new place - and it is as from the beginning. It's as 
though I've never been any place else! It's as though time passes away and I 
am found in eternity! I am found where God saw me from the beginning. I'm 
found where He chose me from the beginning! NOW, now are we the sons of God. 
NOW God is my Father. 

But look at how tremendous this is. He has put us in the Son that is His Son 
from the beginning. We fit right in there as from the beginning. Many of the 
saints are under condemnation because they have gotten saved when they are old 
- that they did not live their earlier years for the Lord. We must understand 
that the day we are saved we are taken out of the 1900's and put in the 
beginning!

The danger in not accepting the Lord is that in all those years your heart 
becomes hardened and you never accept Him. There's that danger, but there's a 
tremendous truth here. If you're born again when you are an 8 year old, a 6 
year old child - what are those years in the light of the beginning? A little 
child come into Christ - it is not as though they are saved at 8, it is though 
they have been there from the beginning. Get a hold of this and let it get a 
hold of you! " AS FROM THE BEGINNING". Look at this. " That we should be holy 
and without blame before Him in love." This is how we are seen of God. Satan 
wants to bring up to us the past sins we committed because he wants to condemn 
us over past sins. He wants us to dwell in salvation concerning the things in 
the past because that's where he can bring his condemnation. But all of a 
sudden we see that we are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world 
that we should stand before Him, that we should be holy. What does this means? 
This means it is just as though I never sinned. We've got to see this - it 
effects everything we do. 

When you are here in Christ, it is as though you never have sinned. I remember 
learning in Bible school the definition of "justification" is 'just as though 
you never sinned'. I got a hold of that, and it is so. The Lord is showing us 
not only that we are in Christ now, but that in God's viewpoint, it's just as 
though we've always been there, it's as though we've never been any place 
else! God has brought us into a place that is from the beginning. See how 
great the grace of God is? But God's viewpoint has got to become our 
viewpoint! What does it mean, 'just as though I've never sinned?' How can it 
ever be with me as it is with God? God sees us in Christ as from the 
beginning. Whenever we get there, it's as from the beginning with God because 
we step into a new realm, a new time, a new creation that He has chosen from 
the beginning. But how can this viewpoint get into us? 

There is a pattern to this. The pattern is the wisdom of God, which is the 
cross. There is such a tremendous work done here that when this cross, whereby 
we were called of God, also becomes the instrument of God's choosing, a great 
change takes place, When the cross is not a historical piece of wood or an 
experience at the altar; when the cross becomes a way of life, a consuming 
understanding, a consuming truth, a liberating factor goes into operation. And 
you begin to understand how it is that we are seen of God in Christ just as 
though we never sinned. Look at the type in the Old Testament. " Out of Egypt 
have I called my Son." You and I know that God took Israel out of Egypt with 
the full intent and purpose of having them in Canaan. He showed that to 
Abraham 400 years before it ever took place. Abraham received it in faith. How 
did he do it? 

There was this three fold working of the cross. And when an individual is 
saved, three things take place simultaneously. The power of the cross is not 
just in forgiveness of sins, it goes much farther - it deals with this very 
sinner himself. It deals with the sinner. No wonder Paul who was in Christ - 
saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, during a three year stay in an Arabian 
desert, came to this understanding - " I AM CRUCIFIED". I am - yes, I am in 
Christ, but I am crucified with Christ. He looks back to Christ. "I am 
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but here it is not I, it is Christ 
who lives in me." There hasn't just been a change of sin, there's been a 
change of man. It's not Paul just living and having some sins washed away and 
still being seen as one who used to be a sinner. It's not Paul here at all. 
Paul is seen on the cross. And now, Christ and only Christ is seen! Here it is 
Christ who liveth in me. Not only am I seen in Christ, but Christ is seen in 
me. I HAVE NO LIFE OF MY OWN.

The way it can be with God just as though you have never sinned is because 
with your Father it is just as though you never did live! The cross did not 
just forgive you - the cross did away with you! And now it is not you - it is 
Christ in you, and you in Him. And that's how God saw us from the beginning. 
That's how you stand before Him without blame, holy, in love. Verse 6, 
"...accepted in the beloved." Now that's the reason you and I can't forgive 
each other. We don't see each other that way because we don't see ourselves 
that way. We see ourselves saved, but we see even the old thing we came from. 
We see salvation as some sins forgiven, but we don't see that salvation is the 
elimination of the sinner. We think that Jesus went to the cross for us and 
separate from us. He did not. He went to the cross for us but as one with us. 
When He died, I died. When He said "It is finished", it was me He was talking 
about - the old man. So Paul says in Romans 6, " Knowing this..." Friend, 
standing in the truth of the cross, the truth making you free - knowing 
something. Knowing this - that our old man is crucified with Him. So that the 
power of sin will not have dominion over us, so that in our minds or in our 
heart we serve sin, not even in the remembrance of it. But rather, we will 
understand he that is dead is freed from sin. And that we no longer live, it 
is Christ who now lives in us. The cross begins to work a truth in our hearts 
that more happened here than just forgiveness of sins. You were so forgiven 
that you were done away with! You were so forgiven that the old was done away, 
and you are found in a New Man, and you're found there as though you've never 
been any place but there! As from the beginning.

When we begin to see ourselves in this and other believers in this same light, 
and instead of seeing them as what they were 10 years ago, 10 days ago, we'll 
begin to see them as they are in Christ Jesus. You cannot forgive what is not 
done away with. You cannot forgive what is not dead. And until you and I 
understand we're dead, not dying - dead... And someone will come along and 
say, Paul said 'he died daily', but if we really want to search that out, 
we'll see that what he is saying is this very absolute death of the cross is 
working out in me every single day. Everyday I am seeing I am dead. Not dying 
- I am dead. Every day this truth is working in me. Every day it is working, 
releasing me. Every day it is working understanding in me that I have no life 
of my own now. I have no life of my own and in Christ it is as though I have 
never had a life of my own. BECAUSE I'm not saved and left in the same 
situation. I'm taken out from there, I'm seated in heavenly places. I'm where 
God saw me from the beginning. And it is as though I never sinned because it 
is as though I never lived. 

Now when you get a hold of this and it becomes with you as if you've never 
lived, then you tell me what there is to go back to? Nothing! When I saw that, 
I cried my eyes out. I said, 'There's nothing before the beginning, Father. 
There's no blame, there's no sin.' There's nothing before the beginning. And 
if the beginning is the end, what's after? Nothing! There's no place to return 
to. The old is done away, and I'm put in the beginning. I am seated in Jesus 
Christ where God saw me before He ever created the world, before there ever 
was a man, before there ever was sin. That's where we are. When we come to the 
understanding that not just am I in Christ, but I am no where but in Christ! 
Not just I'm in Him, but I'm no where but in Him! And if I am in Him, I am in 
Him who is the beginning. I am in Him as from the beginning. There is nothing 
to go back to. 

God said 'I've called my son out of Egypt.' How did He do it? The three fold 
death! Did the signs and wonders get them out? No. Were the signs and wonders 
real? Yes! But who did the signs and wonders affect? Egypt. How did God get 
His son out? He got His son out through a door. The door is Jesus Christ! But 
the door had blood on it. He brought them out by crucifixion. How does He 
bring you out of Egypt? By way of the cross. What is the first act of the 
cross? Crucifixion. KNOWING THIS, THAT OUR OLD MAN IS CRUCIFIED WITH HIM. When 
they walked through that blood splattered door, they walked out of Egypt. God 
said 'Go in there and get all of Egypt out of this house. Go in there and 
clear this house out. Put the blood of the lamb on the door. Get in there and 
eat the flesh of the same lamb whose blood is on the door, you and all your 
family. Why? Because I'm killing the first born of Egypt, but I'm saving the 
first born of Israel.' Who are we in today? We are in the first born! We are 
in the first born! God saw all of Israel that day in the first born. He saw 
all of Egypt in the first born. When the first born died, God said 'Egypt is 
dead'. When the first born lives, God said 'Israel lives.' Hallelujah!

What happens when we come to the cross? The first man dies. The first man who 
is after the flesh dies. But the first born of God lives! That means it's not 
me living, it's Him living! The Father is looking at His first born, thank 
God. That's what took place at the cross. He brought them out through the door 
of blood. Then the second fold death, and there's not three deaths, there's a 
three-fold working - one complete deliverance is what we're seeing here, but 
it's also baptism. " Know ye not that as many of us as are baptized into Jesus 
Christ are baptized into His death?" In other words, many go in and ONE COMES 
OUT. Look at it. He brought them up to the Red Sea, here comes Egypt after 
them again. Now God had already said by the blood that Egypt is dead and you 
are alive. He already saw that in the first born. Now He's carrying it out in 
the whole thing, now He's carrying it out in His Body. Folks, judicially, ADAM 
IS DEAD AND CHRIST IS ALIVE. Thank God the old man is dead and the New Man is 
Christ. Now He's going to manifest it in His Body! He brings them up to 
baptism. They were all baptized in the sea. The Bible says, " Know ye not as 
many of us as were baptized into Christ, were baptized into His death, buried 
with Him in death, that like as Christ was raised up..." He said, 'Let's get 
into the sea.'

God could have delivered them by boats, He could have translated them over. No 
- only one way. Why did He have to take them through? Because that's the way 
it is in Christ Jesus! Not only crucifixion, but burial. That's the reason 
Jesus couldn't stay on the cross. They had to get Him down from the cross, had 
to put Him in a grave. God does everything perfectly. The type always speaks 
of the perfect and the fulfillment is always perfect, and that's what baptism 
is all about. You are buried with Him. Here's what went in. They went in as 
many - THEY CAME OUT AS ONE SON, ONE NATION! It was not to the many in Egypt 
that God gave His law, His Word, it was to the One Son! I know it's a type and 
no type is perfect because they continued to sin, but the type is justified of 
God. Not only that, Israel had become intermingled with Egypt, they had 
intermarried, they had become intertwined. So here came Israel and Egypt. 
Israel and Egypt went into the Red Sea - both went in. One came out as the Son 
of God. But that part of them that was of the enemy, of the oppression stayed 
there and never came out. The sea covered them up. All they saw was dead 
Egyptians floating around from the seashore. 

There was not one little Egyptian running around on the other shore hollering, 
'You just wait, I'll get an army and come and get you yet.' No - there was not 
of it left. God help you and I to see ourselves just that dead, and not think 
that flesh is some kind of a joke. So that here is not even one little 
Egyptian running around in us saying 'I'll have my way yet.' No - they saw 
what was not the One Son dead. And that's the way you and I have got to see 
ourselves - dead. Crucified with Him, buried with Him, so that nobody but Him 
comes out. " Like as Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father, we 
should walk in the newness of His life."

You and I understand however that Israel messed around in sin. Just three or 
four days after this tremendous deliverance, they were at the water of Marah 
and they were all griping and moaning, about to stone Moses. And said, 'Why 
did you bring us out here to die?' Every time something happened they were 
ready to go back. Does that sound like some Christians today? Every time a 
crisis comes up they're ready to go back - decision time again - whether to 
serve God or not. If I'm having a good day God is on His throne, if I'm not, I 
don't know, the devil must be after me. This is what was out in the 
wilderness. Why? Because they were out of Egypt but Egypt was still in them, 
crucified, buried, but the law of sin and death - the remembrance of the leeks 
and the garlics was still there. So there's this third thing - the remembrance 
has got to be gone. It has got to be with these Israelites that not only are 
they out of Egypt, it has got to be in their mind in such a reality that Egypt 
does no longer exist. It has got to be with them just like they were never in 
Egypt - that's how real this working of death has got to be. Because it is not 
now just that they are dead - it is that Christ and Christ alone liveth! And 
His life has got to be so preeminent and so predominant as to literally block 
out the existence and the remembrance of any other kind of life style. It's 
got to be God's viewpoint. 

We've got to see ourselves as from the beginning. We've got to see ourselves 
as those who are not just dead, but those who have as their only life, Christ. 
It's got to be just that real in us. So what happened? God said they won't 
forget Egypt, they keep Egypt in their hearts, they continually disobey me. He 
brought them right up to Canaan and they turned around and went back. So He 
said they'll all die in the wilderness. And He was working out the third part 
of this complete deliverance. He said they'll die, but MY SON WON'T DIE! My 
seed will not die. I will bring out from them a seed and that seed will go 
into Canaan. Because that seed you see, had never felt the taskmaster's whip. 
That seed had never eaten leeks and garlic. That seed had never made straw 
bricks. They actually had no remembrance of Egypt in them. They could come up 
to the same river Jordan, they could face the same giants, but they had no 
place to go back to. There was nothing in their remembrance of a homeland, of 
an Egypt. There was nothing of that in their remembrance. Do you know what 
they knew? They only thing they knew was what old Caleb and Joshua, the only 
two men of faith in the whole company kept telling them.

Do you think they described Egypt to them? No sir, they described Canaan! They 
talked to them about the truth as it is in Christ. They said there's a place 
that Abraham saw and we've seen it too. It's prepared of God! We're well able 
to take the land. I'm telling you, they brought a people up there who had only 
one thing in their mind - and that's the truth as it is in Christ. And they 
said we don't want to make the wilderness a better place to stay, we don't 
want to erect any more temples out here to our God. We want to be where God 
intended us to be from the beginning. And God is bringing forth a people who 
are beginning to desire to see the truth as it is in Christ, who are saying we 
are sick and tired of the wilderness, we're sick and tired of wandering 
around. Thank God - a people who can come by way of the cross, a people who 
can understand the old man is crucified, who can understand we are buried and 
CHRIST HAS COME FORTH. But who also can understand that we are raised up 
together, and made to sit together in heavenly places, and it is just as 
though we have never been any where else, seeing ourselves as God has seen us 
from the beginning! Not living in time past, not even relating salvation to a 
date and year, but relating salvation to NOW; relating salvation to the 
beginning.

A people who know they are in Christ and the knowledge of Christ is filling 
them to the point that they are beginning to understand it is just as though 
we have never been any place else. Therefore, let us search out the height and 
the length and the depth and the breadth of this place that God has prepared 
for us. Let us begin to live as where we now are - IN CHRIST JESUS! You are 
there because God chose you there from the beginning!

	BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST

I want to deal now with another truth of our being in Christ. How many of you 
have been and are now baptized into Christ? I'm talking about being born again 
- you're in Christ Jesus. Then the Holy Spirit who put you there, would show 
you a truth concerning your being there. He would awaken us to a truth 
concerning what it means to be here. There is a reality to being here, there 
is an eternity to being here - the realization of now, but we must begin to 
understand what it means to be in Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:14, " For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus 
judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead." This is the judgment of 
love, the judgment of the cross. The love of Christ constrains us to make this 
judgment - to make this discernment. There is a judgment that must come into 
the house of God. Peter says that - there is a judgment that must come into 
the house of God. And if you search this out very carefully, you will see that 
the judgment spoken of here and judgment spoken of by Peter and spoken of by 
Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 are the same as the judgment spoken of here. There 
is a judgment, a discernment, a truth - and the word 'judgment' here does not 
mean some awful, awesome wrath of God being poured out. It means that there is 
a truth or a knowledge that must come into the house of God, and here is that 
judgment. " We thus judge, that if one died for all, then all died with Him." 
That's the correct rendition. And what it means there where it says 'then were 
all dead', it means 'then were all made dead', or 'all died with Him.' In that 
He died for all, all died, all died with Him. That means that you can come by 
no way other than His death, other than His cross. There's not a way for you 
and a way for me. No, there's just one way.

In that He died for all - that's it. Then were all made to be dead. And it 
doesn't mean that all were already dead in sin. This says all were made dead 
to sin. It is saying that when He died for all, all died with Him. So that 
there's no other way you can come to Him. The fact that when Christ died for 
all must fill up the house of God because if it doesn't, you're going to have 
a believer here in Christ, who is going to think that he got here by some 
other way than death, some other way than the cross. And he is not here in 
Christ with a life of his own. What does it mean to be in Christ? It means 
that you absolutely have no life but Christ. It doesn't just mean that you 
have Christ as your life. It means you have no life but Christ. Not just 
Christ is my life also. Christ gave me some life - No. It means more than 
that. It means this judgment must come into the house of God. That we all came 
here through His death and through His resurrection. We came in one way. This 
judgment must fill the house of God - that in this place, nobody lives but 
Jesus. Here there is not a whole bunch of people, each one living their own 
life. No - here there is just One New Man and he has no life but, the Lord 
Jesus Christ Himself. It's not me and Jesus. Here it is just Jesus in me!

I not only have Christ as my life, I have no life but Christ! Because in that 
He died, He took the whole creation to death with Him. When He became Adam, He 
became all of Adam, all that would ever be or ever had been. And He brought 
them unto a death in Himself. And when we come to Him, we come by that death, 
we come by way of His blood, by way of the cross. And that's not just 
something He shed for us as a substitute, like an Old Testament bullock or 
something. No - you see the thing that He became was you and me, the thing 
that He became was Adam. And the thing that He put to death was you and me, 
was Adam. He became the last Adam. And when we come to Him, we come by way of 
that death. We identified with that death. And whose death was that? That's my 
death. Who died there? I died there. In that He died for all, all died with 
Him. Not one escaped. He became the total. So when we begin to see that we're 
in Christ, we understand that in here, no one lives but Christ. Paul 
understood that. "I AM CRUCIFED WITH CHRIST." The cross began to be worked in 
His heart. He understood, in this place no one lives but Christ! In this 
place, I am crucifed with Christ. Nevertheless I live, but it is not I, it is 
Christ who liveth in me. 

Not Christ just giving me some life, not Christ just giving me something of 
this or that. It is actually just Christ living in me, and I have no life but 
Him. In here, only One lives, because this is the Body of One. You can't have 
two living in the Body of One! Only One lives here - it is Christ all and in 
all. When that truth gets a hold of us, it will automatically solve a 
multitude of problems - when we begin to see the truth as it is in Christ and 
begin to come forth in the Lord. The Body of One in Whom One lives - 
manifesting in the earth the life and the ministry of One! What does it mean 
to be in Him? IT MEANS NOBODY LIVES BUT HIM! This judgment must fill up the 
house of God.

" And that He died for all, that they that live (this means they that live in 
Him) should not henceforth live unto themselves." (as though they had a life 
of their own.) Why? Because they don't. "... but unto Him who died for them 
and rose again." You see it is both His death and His resurrection. It is not 
just my death I die - we're not talking about a natural death here. We're 
talking about the death of the cross. The Bible says, 'Let this mind be in you 
which was also in Christ Jesus, who thought it not a thing to be grasped at to 
be equal with God, who willingly laid that down, took upon Him the form of a 
servant, made of Himself no reputation. And being found in fashion like as a 
man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death. Now that's a death 
that we all die. But He went beyond that. You and I can die. People before 
Jesus died. Adam died. Well, He became obedient to that death also, but He 
went beyond that - even the death of the cross. Nobody but Him could do that. 
Because that isn't a natural death. He died more than just the eye saw there. 
More happened than what the eye just saw there. He wasn't just a man hanging 
upon a piece of wood like those other two fellows hanging along side of Him. 
They died too, but they didn't die the same death He died. He died the death 
of the cross. He took the whole Adamic creation with Him!

When we see that death, then we are liberated unto Him. We have to understand 
that it is His death - the death of the cross. And it is His resurrection. 
That means He's the only One who lives. In that He lives, He lives in me and 
in you, in that He is the Resurrection. He doesn't say I come doing 
resurrections, He says, I AM THE RESURRECTION! He that eateth me shall never 
die. He that abideth in me shall never die. He that eateth me I shall raise 
up. He is the Resurrection. It is His life, thank God. And so I am united in 
His death, which is not just a natural death, but a death to the Adamic 
creation. A death to J W Luman in his nature, in his being - the death of the 
cross. And not only that, we come forth in His Resurrection - not a life of 
our own, but His life. He living in me! WE ARE THE BODY OF HIS RESURRECTION! 
We are not a bunch of resurrected bodies, we are the Body of His Resurrection. 
He who says "I am the Resurrection" lives in you, and He's the only one who 
does live. But in the figment of our imagination because of the lack of the 
truth, we think we have a life aside from Him. But the truth begins to come in 
and write the truth of God in our minds and hearts. And the truth of that says 
He didn't give you some life, He is your life! He doesn't live with you - He 
and He alone lives and He lives in you! 	

No wonder Paul says, " FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST." It is a statement of 
faith and understanding that he makes. "AND TO DIE IS GAIN." The less of me, 
the more of Him. As He increases, I decrease. For to me, to live is Christ. 
Paul is full of this truth, and the Spirit of God would have you and I just as 
full of it. That we may minister as out from Him, rather than in our own 
labors and our own sweat, trying to be like Him. And that we would understand 
that we have no life but Christ, and let the Spirit reveal Him in us. And then 
a genuine Christ likeness will come forth, and it's not me trying to be like 
Him, it is Him coming forth in me. And there's a difference. So many believers 
genuinely want to be like Him; they want to be faithful, but it is not in them 
to be that, because God didn't plan it that way. God put you in His Son so 
that He might bring you to the knowledge of the cross and reveal His Son in 
you. So that it is not you trying, but it is HIS BEING! Amen. It is not me 
trying to be a little model of Him, but it is me understanding I have no life 
but Him. It is a genuine Christ likeness coming forth, It is Christ living in 
me! The Father desires to reveal This Son in us, where this knowledge comes 
forth. It is Christ coming forth in me through the understanding working in me 
- I have no life but Him. We are nobody's body but His Body!

" Wherefore, henceforth..." This is how we can quit looking at each other in 
the flesh, how we can stop judging each other after the flesh. We begin to 
judge each other after the cross. You see the problem with the house of God 
now is the wrong judgment is there. We judge after the flesh, after how we 
look or sound, in the area of the senses. How can that be replaced? The 
judgment has to be replaced. You don't learn to love people. You learn to 
tolerate them, and after awhile your tolerance wears thin and you don't 
tolerate any more. It is not learning this judgment. This judgment has to 
replace all other judgment in you.

The cross must be planted in your heart. It is a new judgment coming in and it 
doesn't begin with your neighbor, it begins with you and me. I don't first see 
my neighbor dead. I see me dead. I see that I have no life but Christ, and 
then as a result of that, I understand neither does my neighbor. I begin to 
understand that and I begin to minister as the truth is in Christ. And that's 
how if your neighbor wrongs you, you don't minister back to them in their 
understanding, you minister out of your understanding. Jesus hung on the cross 
and He didn't die according to the understanding of the crowd. He said, 
"Father, you forgive them because they do not know what they are doing. They 
do not understand, but in my understanding I died." They didn't understand - 
they mocked and cursed Him, but Jesus hung there because He knew. And as the 
truth begins to be revealed in you, it is not what your neighbor knows, it is 
what is working in you. You'll begin to wash their feet whether they want them 
washed or not! You'll begin to lay down your life - nobody can keep you from 
doing that. 

If they could have they would have kept Jesus from dying, but nobody could 
keep Him from doing that. They didn't believe Him, but they couldn't keep Him 
from doing it. This is the truth as it is in Christ. We begin to see I have no 
life but Christ, so you begin to minister to your brother that way - not out 
of condemnation that I know something that you don't know. No, because the 
knowledge of Christ doesn't work that way. The knowledge of Christ works in 
you - I have no life. My life is Christ. And you begin to minister out from 
there and live out from there. " Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after 
the flesh..." Why? Because this judgment has come into us - that nobody is in 
Christ who has a life of their own. They may think and act like they do, but 
Paul says, we know better. So we're going to minister the truth to them as it 
is in Christ. We're not going to see them as they appear in the flesh, we're 
going to see them as they are in Christ. We're going to minister the truth - 
as they are in Christ. 

You say that they don't understand. It doesn't make any difference. They are 
never going to understand it until somebody starts speaking the truth as it is 
in Christ. Even in the natural, you can take your little one year old and 
crawl of the floor and talk 'goo-goo' to him. And when he is six years old 
he'll be doing the same thing, because nobody talked to them like an adult. 
With a child you must tell them the truth or they are never going to 
understand the truth. WE MUST BEGIN TO MINISTER THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN CHRIST! 
If you get into the fantasy world and minister to them like they are still an 
old creature, they're never going to understand. They are not an old creature. 
Paul says, "Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh..." We're not 
going to preach to you like you're still in Adam, like you're still in the 
world. We are going to begin to declare to you the truth as it is in Christ. 
We're going to begin to tell you that you are seated in heavenly places. We're 
going to begin to tell you that now you are the Body of Christ, because if 
somebody doesn't begin to speak the truth as it is in Christ, the Church will 
never grow up in the truth and begin to manifest the truth as it is in Christ. 
And Paul was writing to the Corinthian Church here - historically the most 
carnal, rebellious church in the New Testament. And it is to these people he 
is saying, "YOU ARE NEW CREATURES IN CHRIST JESUS!"

Do you think they understood anything he said? His second epistle would show 
you they didn't. They even began to doubt that this man was a apostle of God. 
And he still said the truth as it was in Christ. Why? Because he saw that 
truth, and he could not but declare the truth as it is in Christ Jesus. And 
when we begin to see this and speak this thing, we're going to begin to see 
others grow up. And to that brother that slaps you in the face - minister to 
him as you know him to be in Christ Jesus. And it won't be long until that 
brother will be ministering to somebody else the same grace, the same truth 
and the same knowledge of the Lord. And the reason we don't is, " Though we 
have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more." 
You see, here is the secret. Not that we have seen each other in some glorious 
light, or have a greater appreciation for each other in the flesh, but the 
truth is that we have seen Christ in another dimension. No longer is He a 
figment of our fleshly imagination. We have begun to realize that Christ is a 
realm in which we dwell and that Christ is the very life that is in us. 

Now we see Him as John saw Him - as that which was from the beginning. He said 
we saw Him, we touched Him, we handled Him - but he is saying that the One we 
saw, the One we touched, we did not understand then who we saw, and touched 
and handled. And yet it was this same Jesus. But in declaring Him to the 
Church he declared Him as "THAT WHICH WAS FROM THE BEGINNING." Then he says, 
we declare Him unto you, THAT ETERNAL WORD OF GOD. And the reason we do is 
that you might have fellowship with us - that you might come into this 
glorious realization. At one time we walked with Him and touched His body, but 
now we have come to another understanding - that WE ARE HIS BODY! You see, He 
has moved from the outside to the inside, and we no longer know Him just by 
the touch. It's the same One we touched, but now we know Him in another realm, 
in another relationship. The One we touched is now in us! And we bring you 
this glad tiding, that you may have fellowship with us, because our fellowship 
is now with the Father and the Son. John declares the truth as it is in 
Christ!

So Paul says we do this to each other out from another understanding of 
Christ. We do not know Christ after the flesh, and therefore we do not know 
each other after the flesh. But rather we know this, "If any man be in 
Christ..." That means have his being in Christ. The scripture says in Him we 
live and move and have our being. If any man be in Christ, we know a secret 
about him. And he says this is the judgment that must fill up the whole house 
of God. Every member in the Body of Christ must see this secret, this mystery. 
Paul uses the term 'mystery' over and over - the mystery of God unto our 
glory, the mystery of God that He planned before the foundation of the world, 
that we come to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God in Christ Jesus. 
Paul says every believer must have this judgment, this secret revealed in them 
- that they are no longer the old, that they are no longer that which they 
used to be. Not that they just don't do things they used to do. They are no 
longer the same person, the same creation. " If any man be in Christ, he is a 
new creature, a new creation." He is a new creature - in that Christ now lives 
in him. He is a new creation - in that he is part of the whole Body of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

In Ephesians it says, " Ye are the workmanship of God, created in Christ 
Jesus." A new creation. The first creation was created in the earth, out of 
the earth, out of the dirt. But the new creation that you and I now are - oh, 
we don't see it with our eyes. With our eyes we see the shell of the old 
creation. But that's all it is - just a shell! The new creation that is inside 
of it is groaning, travailing, and One shall be gloriously manifested! But the 
new creation is now, because it is the creation that is groaning. And Paul 
said even the old creation is caught up in that groaning and travailing, 
because the old creation knows that it is not going to get better and better. 
The old creation knows that it's only hope is the very manifestation of Jesus 
Christ in the sons of God - in His Body! And that manifestation will bring the 
whole creation into the liberty of the sons of God. But I tell you, we are a 
New Creation NOW in Christ!

This judgment has got to fill the house of God; the understanding that it is 
not I, but Christ; the understanding that He is not only my life, He is MY 
ONLY LIFE. Let this judgment begin to fill us up. NEW CREATION. How new? " Old 
things are passed away, behold all things are become new." Not are becoming, 
but become. We are coming into the understanding of that, into the truth of 
that, but it is already so. And when that New Creation is filled with the 
truth, my word, that New Creation begins to manifest the truth as it is in 
Christ. It's the truth, it's the judgment that must fill up this house of God. 
But how new is this creation? Let's turn to Galatians 3, and here's where the 
working of the cross, the judgment comes in. It is the cross that makes all 
things new, because at the cross the old stops, and does not go any farther. 
And out from the cross all things are new. How new is new?

Galatians 3: 26, " For ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus." 
Here Paul is not talking about the act of salvation, but rather the life of 
Christ - the growing up into Christ. He is talking about a maturity that is 
taking place. Do you know what must fill up the house of God? FAITH, but not 
just faith in God, the faith of the Son of God must fill up the Body of 
Christ. It is by the faith of the Son of God, by that understanding, by that 
wisdom, by that divinely revealed knowledge that we understand that we are not 
just ones born, we are not just children. We are ones placed, we are sons of 
the Living God. And yet it is not I, but Christs who liveth! How do we know we 
are sons? When the Son is revealed in us! Because it is not the body of sons, 
it is the Body of The Son! The centrality of the truth is not me, the 
centrality of the truth is the Lord Jesus Christ! The centrality of the truth 
of sonship is not me and you, it is Him! So you are all the sons of God by 
faith. Here's the judgment. " For as many of you as have been baptized into 
Christ have put on Christ." HAVE PUT ON CHRIST. Now this doesn't mean like you 
take a coat and put it on. That coat would be a covering. This word 'put on' 
comes from another word that means 'from the inside out.' We have put on 
through and through, from the inside out. That means that the Spirit is 
Christ. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit, and it means that we 
are also the Body of Christ. Ye have put on Christ. Ye have been clothed upon 
with Christ. Not covered up - clothed upon - from the inside out!

How new! AS NEW AS HE IS! It's not an old man putting on a new robe, it's not 
an old man putting on a new garment, not new cloth sewn on an old piece. No 
sir, IT IS NEW FROM THE INSIDE OUT! Not only He lives in me, but we are His 
very Body! Clothed upon from the inside out. That means that there is neither 
Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female, neither black 
nor white. In Christ there isn't all races and all colors and all kinds. There 
is just one kind. It is not a bunch of blacks and whites, and Jews and Greeks 
trying to get along with each other. The truth comes along and says - it is 
not you - IT IS JUST HIM! Everyone of you have been brought to an end at the 
cross, everyone of you have been brought to a death in Him. It is no longer 
you, it is just Him.

That's how new it is. But we tend to the Church as blacks and whites and males 
and females, and we want to come in and teach a seminar on how to get along 
with each other and be like Jesus! Forget it, they're never going to be like 
Jesus. They are not meant to be like Jesus. They are meant to come to the 
cross and understand they're dead. And that only Jesus lives! You are never 
going to teach a Jew and a Greek to get along with each other. You have got to 
bring them to the understanding that there is no longer the Jew, no longer the 
Greek; there is just one - ONE NEW MAN! The scriptures never talk about New 
MEN, but One New Man! We've got to get a hold of this thing. This is the 
judgment of the cross. 

In that one died, all died with Him - all the Jews, all the Greeks, all the 
bonds, all the frees, all the blacks, all the whites - they all died. And now 
there's just ONE who lives. But we see with our natural eyes and we still see 
a Jew and a Greek, and a black and a white. But the eyes of our understanding 
just sees Him. The eyes of my understanding no longer sees me, they see Him! 
If we eliminated everybody but us, we still wouldn't be able to get along 
together. But oh - when we see Him! Then it's not me and it's not you - it's 
just Him! This judgment must fill the house of God and it will by the 
revelation of Jesus Christ. Why? BECAUSE GOD REVEALS ONLY ONE SON IN EACH OF 
US! And when each of us stand in the knowledge of One Son, you have the Body 
of One Son standing in the knowledge of One Son. You say this won't happen, 
but the scriptures tell me that this will happen. " Until we all come in the 
unity of the faith, unto the measure of the stature of the Son of God, unto 
the perfect man..." It is destined of God to take place. It is the ministry of 
the Holy Spirit Himself to reveal Jesus Christ and to bring His Body unto full 
stature and full measure, that His Body will stand in the earth as a full 
manifestation of Him. Not us - HIM!

" For ye are all one in Christ Jesus." Let's turn to Colossians 3 to 
understand who that One is we all are. Let's see who the One is. We're all 
one, but you're not the one and I'm not the one. Verse 9, " Lie not one to 
another..." That means speak the truth to one another. Quit dealing with each 
other as if we were still earthlings. You are not human - YOU ARE A NEW 
CREATION IN CHRIST JESUS! You are not earthlings, you are citizens of heaven. 
Quit lying to each other. Christ is either my life or He isn't. We are either 
a New Creation or we are not. We either are in heavenly places or we're not. 
We need to not criticize each other, there is no criticism that comes from the 
cross, but we need a rightful judgment in dealing with one another. And quit 
lying to each other and begin to minister to each other as the sons of God 
that we are, begin to minister to each other in the truth of the Body of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Quit lying. Why? " ... seeing that you've put off the old man." It is 
connected with this truth. Quit lying to each other seeing that you are no 
longer of the old, seeing that you have put off the old man, seeing that you 
have no life but Christ. Seeing this, knowing this, knowing the truth - then 
quit lying, speak the truth. Ephesians 4:15 says, " Speak the truth to one 
another in love that we may grow up into Him in all things, who is the head, 
even the Lord Jesus Christ."

When is the Church going to grow up? When we begin to speak the truth one to 
another as it is in Christ Jesus. And each member adding truth one to another. 
Then in verse 16 it says that we add and we share, and we minister joint to 
joint the measure that is in us, to the edification of the Body in love. 
That's what we're talking about. You've put on the New Man! You're clothed 
upon with Christ! You stand in Him a New Creation! You've put on the New Man 
that is renewed in knowledge. Now there is a daily renewing in the knowledge 
of Him that must take place in us. We reckon the old man dead, and then we 
begin to be daily renewed in the knowledge of the new. Daily, walking in the 
truth as it is in Christ. Daily, having that New Man renewed in us. It is a 
daily renewing by the very revelation of Jesus Christ. Here's the truth - " 
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, 
barbarian, Scynthian, bond or free." What did the other verse say? That you 
are all ONE. Now look who the One is. " BUT CHRIST IS ALL AND IN ALL!" Who is 
the One? The One is the LORD JESUS CHRIST! Whose Body are we? HIS BODY! Who is 
our life? HE IS OUR LIFE! Who is the One? HE IS THE ONE! HE IS THE BODY AND HE 
IS THE LIFE OF EVERY MEMBER OF THE BODY!

Let this judgment fill up the house of God - that it is not me, and it is not 
we - it is HIM and HIS! HIM LIVING IN HIS BODY! This is not just good sermon 
material. I want you and I to let the Holy Spirit reveal the reality of this 
in us, because this is not a sermon I've made up. I'm telling you of a divine 
work of God. I'm declaring to you what God hath done and what the Holy Spirit 
desires to reveal, that you and I may stand in truth, walk in truth, speak in 
truth, and manifest Him in the fulness of the truth. It isn't a sermon we're 
sharing, but rather the TRUTH AS IT IS IN CHRIST. God help us to allow this 
mind to be formed, this truth to be formed in us. That we, the Body of Christ, 
may be the manifestation of this truth in the earth and unto all of the 
heavens, world without end!

FATHER, we thank you for the truth as it is in Christ. We understand our 
limitations in expressing this most glorious mystery that can only be revealed 
by the Spirit, but express it we must, declare it we must. For there is no 
other truth. And all things that are true must find their place in this truth, 
and must flow out from Christ lest they become a perversion of the flesh. I 
ask that you reveal your Son in us, causing us to understand the reality of 
our being in Him. Understanding not only is He our life, but we have no life 
but Him. Grant it I pray Father, and may we understand the reality of being in 
Christ from the viewpoint of Baptism - that as many as are baptized into Him 
have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, where there is neither, nor, but just One - 
and that One is Christ, who is all and in all. We thank you for it. In Jesus' 
precious name.
AMEN.