Surrounded

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

What does it mean to be “in Christ?”  That phrase (in Christ) is used around 180 times in the New Testament, depending on the translation you use.  The dictionary definition of the word “in” is “…the situation of something that is enclosed or surrounded by something else.”   

If we are in Christ, then, he is surrounding us – people should see Him before they even take notice of us.  Jesus says of himself that he is meek and lowly of heart.  Do our lives reflect that?  Do we want people to see Him and his character first, or are we more concerned with people noticing our physical characteristics, or our position, or whatever it is we think gives us value and uniqueness?

If we are surrounded by, or enclosed in something, it also gives us protection.  If we are in Christ, we are protected by Him.  That doesn’t mean anything bad will never happen to us, but it means we have security, whatever may come in our lives.  We can trust in his provision, his protection, and his working things together for our good (Romans 8:28), for the here and now, and ultimately for eternity.

If we are “in Christ,” we are allowing him and his character to overtake our own personal desires or ideas.  He becomes more, we become less, but in becoming less, we paradoxically become more ourselves. 

CS Lewis put it this way, “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because He made us.  He invented us.  He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be…. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.” 

Perhaps most importantly, if we are “in Christ,” when God looks at us, he doesn’t see us, but the righteousness of Christ.  We don’t stand before him dressed in our own righteousness but clothed in His. 

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that “in him” we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Surround us Lord Jesus, we want to be found in you.