So if anyone is in union with Christ, he is a new being; the old state of things has passed away; there is a new state of things (2 Cor. 5:17, Goodspeed).
In this message, worthy of note for simplicity and charm, a life situation leads up to a practical discussion of what it means today to be “in Christ,” in union with Christ. The object lessons come from life, with one person at a time.
I. A new Relationship to God. Where Christ’s atoning death writes the message of God’s forgiving, healing love in letters of holy blood, the rebel becomes a citizen, the slave is free, and earth’s wanderer sets out for the celestial city, all through reconciliation, “in Christ.”
II. A New Regard for Others. “From henceforth we appraise no man by human standards.” If you look at human beings through the eyes of sinful, selfish men, you get one view. If you look at them through the eyes of Jesus, you get a Christian view. The most important thing about people is that they are people for whom Christ died. That gives them, one and all, a claim to distinction, “in Christ.”
III. A New Reason for Living. “The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ.” Almost anyone can tell you his reason for making a livelihood, but few can tell you their reason for living. The Christian has an answer to that basic question. The greatest Christian of the centuries has expressed it in these priceless words: “The love of Christ controls us.” To be the channel through which the love of Christ flows is the supreme reasons for living, “in Christ.”
IV. A New Restfulness about the Life Beyond. The man who has been spiritually reborn by being united to Christ through faith does not try to prove immortality. He experiences it. He knows that what he has in Christ, this new life that possesses and controls him, gives him the “feel” of eternity. “We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” These are some of the revolutionary novelties that one finds “out where the new begins.” Have you found it so? If not, there is a new life waiting for you now. You will find it, not in a sermon, a church, nor a book, but “in Christ.” Take him. Open your being to him. Trust him. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”
Notable Sermons from Protestant Pulpits, ed. by Charles L. Wallis. Copyright 1958 by Abingdon Press.
SERMONS ABRIDGED BY DR. ANDREW W. BLACKWOOD
PAUL S. REES,Out Where the New Begins, W. E. SANGSTER,How To Be Saved, and abridgments of two of Dr. Blackwood’s own sermons, The Communion of Saints, and A Bible Picture of a Good Mother.
