Theology of the Church, Mentor's Guide, MG03

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T H E O L O G Y O F T H E C H U R C H

Finally, it is important for students to grasp that, like the children of Israel during the Exodus who had been saved (freed from slavery in Egypt), were being saved (traveling to the Promised Land), and who would be saved (participate in the restoration of all things when the Lord’s temple was raised as chief among the mountains), our salvation is also an accomplished fact, an ongoing reality, and a future hope. Therefore the Scriptures can refer to us as those who “are being saved” (1 Cor. 1.18; 2 Cor. 2.15); can speak about the “hope of salvation” (1 Thess. 5.8), of our salvation being “nearer now than when we first believed” (Rom. 13.11); of salvation as something that will be “inherited” (Heb. 1.14) and as something that Christ will bring to us when he returns (Heb. 9.28). Although the Scriptures clearly refer to salvation as both a “past” event secured by Christ on the cross (Eph. 2.5, Titus 3.4-5), and as a “present reality being worked out in those who believe” (1 Cor. 1.18; 2 Cor. 6.2), it always looks forward to the ultimate meaning of salvation as coming to us with the return of Christ to earth. This new relationship of being “in Christ” was first announced by the Lord to his disciples in the upper room in the statement, “Ye in me [ en emoi ], and I in you” (John 14.20). The new relationship of the believer in Christ is defined as a new position, “in Christ,” resulting from a work of God. That it is more than merely a position created by divine reckoning is revealed by the companion revelation, “I in you.” The resultant doctrine is embraced in the word union, which is commonly taken as a synonym for identification. Various figures are employed in Scripture to illustrate this union and identification. The fine and the branches is employed by Christ himself in John 15.1-6. . . . Another figure is that of the head and the body (cf. Eph. 1.22-23; 4.12-16; 5.23-30. . . . Various expressions are used to signify this identification. Most frequent is the terminology “in Christ” ( en Christo ), but others also are used such as “in” or “into Christ” ( eis Christon ), and “in the Lord” ( en kyrio ).

12 Page 26 Outline Point III-A

~ J. F. Walvoord. “Identification with Christ.” Evangelical Dictionary of Theology . Grand Rapids: Baker, 1984. p. 542