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Preacher: Jerry Cisar

Paul’s opening praise of God for what he has done in the glorious gospel in Ephesians (1:3-14) is amazing. It speaks of our adoption and says much about how it came about. It all revolves around our being “in Christ,” our union with Christ. Yet Paul assumes we understand what this phrase means.

What does it mean to be in Christ? Whenever I see new books on the topic of our union with Christ (our being “in Christ”), I buy them and set out to read them. The authors identify something I also recognize: this is a very important theme for Paul; it appears to be central in His thinking.

However, I find myself somewhat disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, they are usually well written and discuss so many relevant aspects of the topic. They always point out why it is so important but often come up short when explaining what it means. I’ve begun to discover why.

This Sunday as we continue our exploration of the theme of adoption in Ephesians, we are going to take a bit of a deep dive into the inner workings of our union with Christ. It calls us to develop a sanctified imagination of the Kingdom in order to live as God’s children.

Handout: https://gccc-recordings.s3.amazonaws.com/handouts/20230625.pdf