"Made Unto Us"
I Corinthians 1:30
"Of him are ye in Christ Jesus."
To be saved, to be born again, is to be "in Christ." If you are a
believer, you are "in Christ" - "In Christ," as sheep in
the hands of the shepherd - "In Christ," as a bride is in the heart
of her husband - "In Christ," as the branches are in the vine -
"In Christ," as the members of the body are in the head. You are
"in Christ!" And the only way any sinner can ever come to be "in
Christ" is to be put "in Christ" by the work of God's almighty
grace. "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus!" This is the place of
blessedness (Eph. 1:3). And this is the place of security! "Once
in Christ in Christ forever! None from Him our souls can sever!"
If we are "in Christ," he is
made of God unto us "wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption." In other words, Christ has been made to us all that God
requires of us. With regard to the everlasting salvation of our souls,
"Christ is all!"
Christ is our Wisdom! Representatively, he
acts wisely for us before God. Efficiently, he gives us wisdom from God.
Objectively, he who finds Christ finds wisdom and he who walks in Christ walks
in wisdom.
Christ is our Righteousness! As our sin
was imputed to him, making him to be sin for us, even so his righteousness has
been imputed to us in justification, making us the righteousness of God in him.
He is "THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!"
Christ is our Sanctification!
Sanctification is holiness. And all holiness is "in Christ." In him
we were set apart for holy purposes in eternal election (Jude 1), declared to
be holy through his blood in justification (Heb. 10:10, 14), and made holy in
regeneration by having his righteous nature imparted to us through the washing
of regeneration by t he Word (I Cor. 6:11; Eph. 5:26; Tit. 3:5). Sanctification
is not a process of works by which we become progressively more holy. It is a
state of being! Believers grow in grace. But we do not improve upon God's works
of grace by our own works. Christ is our Sanctification!
And Christ is our Redemption. He has
redeemed us from the curse of the law by blood atonement and from the dominion
of sin by the power of his grace. And he shall soon redeem us from all the
consequences of sin in the resurrection (Rom.
Don Fortner