The Believer’s Position in Christ

Last Updated on April 7, 2011

The following are some verses that I have gathered together, as well as some of my own comments, which all pertain to the believer’s position in Christ. There is a great need to reckon this position if we truly want God to be glorified in our lives. If we do not have this position, and if we do not reckon this position, it may result in legalism, and we may only turn others away from Christ. I encourage people to take the time to carefully ponder these verses, and I hope they will be a blessing to you…

Created In Christ Jesus Unto Good Works

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

“It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others”.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:1-10).

Note: If we truly are “created in created in Christ Jesus unto good works” as Ephesians 2:10 clearly states, then we can not get saved or even keep our salvation by doing good works, but our good works will be the result of being “created in Christ Jesus”. So the one who truly does have His faith in Christ will have good works, not in order to keep himself saved, but as the result of his salvation. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19), and that is why we obey His commandments, which “are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

This gratitude for Him gives us a much higher motive to obey Him rather than trying to obey Him out of fear that we might lose our salvation. This gratitude also takes the focus off our self and our performance as we are “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

The New Man

“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things have passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

“When one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:16-18)

“For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain” (Galatians 2:19-21).

“For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ” (Colossians 3:3).

Victory Over Sin

“For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord".

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:5-14).

“Whoever is born of God does not [practice] sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin because he has been born of God”. (1 John 3:9)

“We know that whoever is born of God does not [practice] sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him” (1 John 5:18)

“Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8:1-11)

Present Possession of Eternal Life

Note: Many of the following verses clearly indicate that the believer already has present possession of eternal life. Simple logic tells us that this could not be called eternal life if we had it today and lost it later. That would not be eternal life at all, but it would be temporal life.

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (John 3:36).

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” (John 5:24)

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37)

“This is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise Him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never parish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one [including Satan - See 1 John 5:18] is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29)

“You have given Him [Jesus] authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:2-3)

“These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know [that’s present knowledge] that you have [that’s present possession] eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

“He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

Victory Over the World

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5)

“As it is written:

‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:36-39).

Redeemed by the Finished Work of Christ

“With His own blood He entered the most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14).

“Not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another – He then would have to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself…so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:26, 28).

Note: The rest of this article is Hebrews 10:1-18, with some of my own comments on verse 14....

“For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

‘Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, But a body You have prepared for Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the volume of the book it is written of Me— To do Your will, O God.’

Previously saying, ‘Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them’ (which are offered according to the law), then He said, ‘Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’ He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

[Note: Obviously, someone who has been "perfected forever" (Hebrews 10:14) can not be unperfected, which means that we can not lose our salvation. This is why 1 John 3:9 says that God's seed remains in those who have been born of God. Anything born of corruptible seed can perish, but those who have been born of the incorruptable seed mentioned in 1 Peter 1:23 "shall never perish" - John 10:28! Those who teach that we can lose our salvation are simply not understanding the new covenant that came through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. But sadly, there are people on both sides of the argument who are not understanding this.]

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,' then He adds, 'Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more'. Now were there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin." (Hebrews 10:1-18).



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