“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).
The passage comes from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, in which he speaks to Gentile believers in Christ and encourages a sense of Christian unity, the Rev. Jeremiah Johnston told Fox News Digital.
Johnston is pastor of apologetics at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas and president of the Society of Christian Thinkers.
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He said two recent experiences, one at the ruins of Ephesus and one at his home in Texas, have helped the message of unity in Ephesians seem even more meaningful to him.
“A few weeks ago, while teaching undergraduate students at the incredible ancient site of Ephesus, my focus was on how St. Paul’s powerful opening hymn to the Christians in Ephesus was summed up in two powerful words: ‘In Christ,'” Johnston told Fox News Digital in an email.
Johnston was visiting Ephesus, in what is now Turkey, with university students as part of the Impact 360 Institute, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to equipping young people with a biblical worldview and leadership skills so they can impact their communities and the world,” he said.
The Rev. Jeremiah Johnston, pictured here teaching college students at the ruins of Ephesus, spoke to Fox News Digital about the importance of the letter’s message of unity in a time of division. (Nathan Lewis/iStock)
The overall theme of the opening verses of Ephesians is emphasizing the need for union with Christ, and the phrase “in Christ” appears “at least 11 times,” Johnston said.
According to Johnston, in Paul’s time, the city of Ephesus had a population of 250,000 and was home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
“Paul spent more time preaching in Ephesus than anywhere else,” making it his “home base” for three years, Johnston said.
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But while Ephesus was a major early Christian city, it also had an “abhorrent side” linked to its slave market, Johnston said.
“For 200 years (100 B.C. to 100 A.D.), Ephesus was the centre of the Roman slave trade and the largest slave market in the empire,” he said.
“People were separated by race, whether they were free or slave, and sex.”
“Slaves were judged on their appearance, their age, their size, their education, their skills and, of course, the condition of their teeth” — something that would be “horrifying” to anyone in the modern world, Johnston said.
Paul’s time was a time of division, he says: “People were divided along lines of race, free or slave, and sex.”
Therefore, he said, the message of unity “in Christ” was one that was desperately needed for the Christians in Ephesus and for Christians today.
According to Johnston, by Paul’s time Ephesus was a large city with a population of 250,000, a huge temple and a slave market. (Nathan Lewis)
“But what does it mean to be ‘in Christ’? Believers share in all of Christ’s vital merits, so what is true about Christ’s resurrection is also true for those who believe in Christ,” Johnston said.
Christians, or followers of Jesus, “share all that Christ is and has,” he added.
“The truth we understand in this passage is that if you believe in Christ, you are joined with him in an unbreakable bond. You become one with him, in fact, one with Christ.”
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Johnston said Paul’s message that Christians are united in their identity “in Christ” would not have been well received by most people in the area.
“Paul’s idea would have been laughable to many, which is why he uses the phrase ‘in Christ’ 73 times in his letters,” Mr Johnston said.
“When you believe in Christ, you are inextricably linked to him,” Johnston said. “You become one with him, you become one with Christ.” (iStock)
But Johnston said, “No truth is more important than a Christian’s identity as ‘in Christ,’ and no truth is more forgotten by modern believers.”
“Paul taught the Ephesians not only that all human beings are created in the image of God, but also that they are powerfully spiritually united to Christ by grace through faith,” he said.
Last week, Johnston baptized his triplet sons on their eighth birthdays, a “very sacred” experience that he said provided a deeper insight into the importance and meaning of truly being one “in Christ.”
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“When we think about baptism, some of the most important things we want to express cannot be expressed in even the best words,” he said, “which is why the Church has rituals that are powerful symbols.”
Johnston said baptism “reveals what the finest human expressions can merely hint at: the profound reality of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Jesus and God’s redeemed family.”
Johnston recently baptized her three triplet sons on their eighth birthdays, she told Fox News Digital. (Jeremiah Johnston)
He continued, “The overwhelming truth of the gospel is that we exist eternally forgiven ‘in Christ,’ and my sons’ baptism symbolizes the deeper truth that my children exist there.” [wife] “Audrey and I.”
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“So, in terms of our new identity, if we have trusted in Christ, we belong to God’s royal family,” he said. “My identity is ‘in Christ’ above all else.”
Reminding ourselves of this truth is vital at a time when people are “rushing to escape reality,” Johnston said.
“We need to be fundamentally reminded that our worth and identity are based on God’s unchanging grace and love in Christ,” he said.
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“So, as Christians, we should first understand ourselves as people ‘in Christ,'” Johnston said, which means we are “accepted, forgiven, eternally loved and connected to our Creator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
