The expression "in Christ" is used a great deal in the New Testament, especially in the writings of the Apostle Paul, to mean the new nature the believer has in spiritual union with God through Jesus Christ from the time we confess our sins and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life. The expression in Christ for the believer is for the most part interchangeable with the expression being born of and indwelt by the Holy Spirit except the expression in Christ talks about the role of the Lord Jesus Christ to give us power or sufficiency in our Christian lives while the expression the the Holy Spirit in us focuses on the role of the Holy Spirit. There are many applications in the New Testament to the believer's postion in Christ in enabling us to effectively live the Christian life. These applications include but are not limited to redemption, that we have the Holy Spirit, having God's love, saying the truth, being part of the one body of the church, helping other believers, being approved of God, being sanctified, having the priviledge of begetting new Christians through the gospel, having godly ways, the promise of going to heaven on death (our body sleeping) etc. These and other advantages we have in our position and relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ help us as true or born again Christians to especially in a spiritual way have sufficiency to live a dynamic and effective live for God and Jesus and be used of Him for His purposes for us in this life and for eternity.
This scripture says that if any man (person) is in Christ or in fellowship or come to partake spiritually of God's life in the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ he or she is a new creature or creation. This means that the person "in Christ" has become a new creation and a member of the new creation that Jesus started when he rose from the dead with a new heavenly and eteranal or incorruptible body. God gives the believer in Jesus Christ and in God through Him first a new spiritual or heart nature that is living in partaking of and united to God spiritually to start the believer in experiencing and enjoying becoming part of the new creation from the time we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour that he died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead to give us new life. The scripture here also says for those in Christ old things have passed away or the things of the old selfish and sinful nature have passed away at least when we live in the new nature in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and all things have become new including a new desire and allegiance to God and Jesus and heavenly and eternal and spiritual godly things by the leading and teaching of the Holy Spirit. The scripture reference from 2 Corinthians 5 of the new nature in Christ in which old things pass away and all things become new (directed to God, Jesus and the things of Himself instead of towards self, sin and this world) is as follows:
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
A favourite passage of the prosperity movement to back up their idea that God enables Christians to be little gods to tell God to do to give health or wealth to them is in John 10. In this scripture the Lord Jesus responds to the Jewish religious leaders that challenge his claims to divinity. Jesus uses a reference to Psalm 82 where God called the earthly judges gods. Jesus was saying in effect to the Jewish religious leaders in a sarcastic or ironic way that since they act or claim to be gods why would it bother them if he is just one more person who is claiming to be a god. However later in this passage the Lord Jesus made it clear that his miracles were evidence that he unlike the Pharisees or Jewish religious leaders really was divine. In Psalm 82 from which the statement in Gospel of John 10 ye are gods is quoted the Jewish earthly judges are criticized for having undue favour to the wicked, judging unjustly and descriminating against the poor. In the next verse after verse 6 in Psalm 82 where the scripture says of the Jewish earthly judges ye are gods and all of you are children of the most High God makes it clear that that statement was meant to be taken in a sarcastic or ironic sense. In verse 7 this is made clear when God says to these judges that thought they were as gods and executing judgment however they wanted including to get favour and probably material benefits from the rich or powerful God says they shall die like men. This means that in the death of these judges their true nature will be shown as mortal men and that they are aren't gods. It is quite definite that the Pharisees would be familiar with this scripture in Psalm 82 and would understand that Jesus' reference to them as gods from Psalm 82 was meant to be in a sarcastic sense that they were no better than the judges in Old Testament times that thought they were gods but God said he would show they were just mere men when he caused them to die as mortal men. The last verse of Psalm 82 emphasizes God's sovereignity and right to justly judge the earth including the human judges that think they can execute justice in a warped or distorted way that favors the rich and powerful and attempts to put these judges as gods above God's righteous standards. Many of the leaders etc. of the prosperity movement have also practiced or promoted focus on getting rich etc. instead of God's will for Christians of taking up our cross and following Jesus and living for God and Jesus as our Saviour and Lord. The statement by Jesus to the Jewish religous leaders or judges by the law that they are as gods can easily be and is being used by both leaders and followers of some movements to move some followers of the prosperity gospel to even more unbiblical and non-Christian movements such as the emerging church or the fully non-Christian New Age Movement that each advocate people becoming gods instead of yielding ourselves to the one true God through His Son the Lord Jesus Christ who died for our sins on the cross and rose again from the dead so we can have a relationship with God as His people or children not as his replacement or equals. The scripture references from the Gospel of John 10 and Psalm 82 of Jesus' and the Psalmists references to earthly judges as gods being meant in a sarcastic sense and not as support for the idea that believers in God or Jesus become gods ourselves is as follows:
The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand. Gospel of John 10:33-39
God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods. How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah. Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked. They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course. I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High. But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes. Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations. Psalm 82:1-8
When a person admits he or she is a sinner before the true God the God of the Bible who is holy as well as loving he or she can then have God's mercy to forgiveness by God of all our sins and an established relationship and fellowship with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. This gives us God's and true life with our sins that blocked us from having God's life before being removed by Jesus' blood and faith in Him as our personal Lord and Saviour. However there is more than this for the believer who walks with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. When a person becomes a true Christian our new nature in relationship with God through Jesus Christ also gives us the position of being one of his heavenly people. However we can only go in this heavenly realm in this life when we are not only God's people through the Lord Jesus Christ and initial faith in Him but are currently living or abiding in Him and can then in our spirits come into the heavenly realm either in Jesus' name to conduct spiritual warfare against evil spiritual forces (demons and the devil) or to come to God and the Lord Jesus Christ and His throne in the highest heaven so he will more assuredly and strongly hear our prayers and give us fellowship with him. This is what is meant to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus or you could say it is also while we are walking with God or led by the Holy Spirit in faithfulness to God and His Word - the Holy Bible and have the peace of God's fellowship as well as His relationship. The scripture in Ephesians 2 that mentions the believer's priviledge of being able to sit in heavenly places in Christ during faithful living for God and Jesus after salvation is as follows:
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened (made alive) 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: Ephesians 2:4-6
The apostle Paul here wishes for some of the fellow Christians that they would have rejoicing in him when he comes to see them again. He says this is in Christ Jesus which means that this is a characteristic quality of people that mutually are born again and have spiritual fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ and a spiritual relationship with him. In other words if we each as believers have a relationship and fellowship spiritually with the Lord Jesus Christ we will also have a spiritual bond with other believers or true Christians even those we have never met before. This will or should cause us to rejoice to see or talk with other believers initially or again or to see them and spend time with them. The scripture reference from Philippians 2 of the apostle Paul wishing their rejoicing at their seeing him again is as follows:
That your rejoicing may be more abundant in Jesus Christ for me by my coming to you again. Philippians 2:26
For the true or born again or born of the Holy Spirit christian there is no condemnation. This is because we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Saviour and have stopped trusting in ourselves or our own good works for salvation or eternal life. As a result of this God will have given us a spiritual relationship with His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and come to enable us to be partakers of His life in His Son Jesus Christ. As a result of this when God looks at the true Christian he sees us in Himself and His life through spiritual relationship with His Son the Lord Jesus Christ and His life so that God can see us as acceptable and without condemnation. In this way God also sees us in our new nature in Christ as our essential nature rather than in our old sinful nature in Adam that he sees those who haven't trusted in Him through His Son Jesus Christ. The devil or demons also have to admit that we have no cause for condemnation in our new nature but will try to point our or get a hold of the Christian through old sinful nature especially when we fall back and yield to the sinful or selfish desires and characteristics of the old sinful or selfish nature. Even when the true believer commits a sin through living or walking in the flesh or old nature when we confess our sins and seek to turn from it by God's strength in the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus as our high priest in heaven before God the Father (the LORD) defends us before the Heavenly Father, including from any accusations by the devil, by saying that He (Jesus) died for all the sins of the believer and that all our sins are covered by His blood shed for us through Jesus' sacrifice on the cross and that we are now essentially in a new nature and position in Christ or on His foundation and in His life. Those who have this new nature should be led to at least in practice live in this new nature which includes living in a godly or righteous and unselfish manner and not in the old sinful and selfish nature in Adam. Although God still has his covenants with Abraham, David and Moses in effect for the Jewish people and still has the greatest blessing to them in store soon in the Millennium or Messianic Age including their part of the New Covenant or New Testament, God still wants Jewish people now to be complete in their (your) faith by trusting in the Lord Jesus (Y'Shua) as your personal Lord and Messiah and Redeemer that died for forgiveness of all your sins and so you might have a relationship with God in full. Of course God also wants all people or other nations (Gentiles) to trust in the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Saviour too if you haven't already. For the remainder of this age believing Jews and Gentiles in the Lord Jesus Christ (Messiah) are one people as part of the Church although promises such as the land of Israel still apply to Jewish people including the Jewish part of the Church. However soon the rapture of the Church will occur and the true Church will be caught up to heaven ( and brought back with Jesus from Heaven 7 years later at the second coming) but God's focus on earth will then shift from the Church to the Jewish people as His main witness and vehicle for sharing His message of salvation to the world although it will continue to be through faith in Jesus as the Messiah. The scripture reference from Romans 8 of God's freedom from condemmnation to those who become His people through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and receiving God's new nature in the life of His Son Jesus Christ is as follows:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1
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