Christ Is Made Unto Us...

I Corinthians 1:30-31

"OF HIM ARE YE IN CHRIST JESUS." To be saved is to be in Christ. And if we are in Christ, we are in him because God put us in him by grace. We are in Christ as sheep in the hands of their shepherd, as children in the loins of their father, as men at law are in their representative, and as a bride is in the heart of her husband. We were in Christ from eternity by God's purpose of grace in election, in him representatively when he lived, died and rose again as our covenant Head, Surety and Substitute, and in him when he ascended into heaven to claim our inheritance as our Forerunner and High Priest. And we are in Christ by the Spirit's regenerating grace and gift of faith.

"WHO OF GOD IS MADE UNTO US WISDOM." Christ is our wisdom efficiently, because he is the revelation of God. He is our wisdom objectively, because he is the Object of our faith. And he is our wisdom representatively, because he is our Counsellor. "AND RIGHTEOUSNESS" - God has made Christ to be our righteousness in justification by imputing his righteous obedience to us, and in regeneration by imparting his righteous nature to us. We have no righteousness of our own. Christ alone is our righteousness. "AND SANCTIFICATION" - Sanctification is no more the work of man than redemption, justification and regeneration. "Salvation is of the Lord!" Christ is our sanctification in a threefold sense: (1.) We were set apart for God's holy purpose in our election in Christ. (2.) We were declared to be holy when Christ redeemed us by his blood. And (3.) we were given a holy nature when Christ was formed in us in regeneration. "AND REDEMPTION" - Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by the price of his precious blood. He redeemed us from the dominion of sin by the power of his almighty grace. And he shall redeem us, body, soul and spirit, from all the consequences of the fall in the resurrection of the just at his glorious second advent.

In other words, salvation is by grace alone, in Christ alone, through faith alone. There is nothing God requires of men but that which Christ is made to his elect. And there is good reason for God's method of saving sinners. It is "THAT ACCORDING AS IT IS WRITTEN, HE THAT GLORIETH, LET HIM GLORY IN THE LORD."

Don Fortner