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God. Knocking is someone wanting to come in. Every time God
speaks, he wants to come in. His voice is an invitation and He
wants to come and have us respond to His word.
Heavenly Father, we ask You to speak to us and enable
us to open the door so that you can come in. We know how
much we need You. Show us the Lord Jesus in a fresh and
living way. Deliver us from cold academics and show us the
Living Word. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen
We are looking at these great foundations of our faith.
The foundation I’d like to look at now is called “Union with
Jesus”, “Union with Christ”. That truth is all over the Bible and
especially in the New Testament. It’s so comprehensive. We’re
to abide in Christ as a branch abides in the vine. We’re to relate
to Christ as a bride relates to a husband, and like children relate
to their parents. What the head is to the body, that’s union.
What the sun is to the earth, that’s union. What the soil is to the
plant is a picture of union. When you read the epistles of the
New Testament, the expression “in Christ” is used over and
over and over.
The Bible says that we are found in Christ, preserved in
Christ, sanctified in Christ Jesus and we are rooted in Christ
Jesus and we’re made perfect in the Lord. We’re called to think
in the Lord, walk in the Lord, speak in the Lord, labor in the
Lord, suffer in the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord. Everything is
in Christ Jesus. We conquer in the Lord. We get married only
in the Lord. Children obey their parents in the Lord. We
receive one another in Christ Jesus. We reign in life in Christ
Jesus. We submit to one another in the Lord. We die in the
Lord. We are asleep in Jesus. When He returns we return with
Him. All of that pictures union in Christ.
I have a problem. I want union with Christ. Where do I
begin? There is so much in the Bible that pictures union with
Christ, like eating and drinking. I think the greatest picture of
union with Christ is John 17:21, “…that they may all be one;
even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also