“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every heavenly blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).
This excerpt is taken from the letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians. In the letter, Paul addresses non-Jewish believers in Christ and encourages a spirit of Christian unity, Rev. Jeremiah Johnson told Fox News Digital.
Johnston is the pastor of apologetics at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. He is also president of the Christian Thinkers Society.
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He said two recent experiences — one in the ruins of the city of Ephesus and the other at home in Texas — have helped make the message of unity in Ephesus even more meaningful.
“A few weeks ago, when I was teaching university students in the amazing ancient ruins of the city of Ephesus, my attention was drawn to how St. Paul’s powerful opening hymn to the Christians in Ephesus is best summarized in two powerful words: ‘In Christ,’” Johnston told Fox News Digital in an email.
Johnson was in Ephesus, which is in modern-day Turkey, with college students as part of the Impact 360 Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “preparing young adults to lead fulfilling, accomplished and fulfilling lives.” Biblical Worldview “They must have leadership skills and abilities that will allow them to make an impact on their communities and the world,” he said.
The Rev. Jeremiah Johnston, teaching college students here at the ruins of Ephesus, told Fox News Digital about the importance of a message of unity in a time of division. (Nathan Lewis/iStock)
The overarching theme of the opening verses of Ephesians is to emphasize that Unity with ChristAnd the phrase “in Christ” is found “at least 11 times,” Johnson said.
Johnston points out that the city of Ephesus in Paul’s time had a population of 250,000 and was home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Johnston said “Paul spent more time ministering in the city of Ephesus than any other place” and spent three years making the city his “base.”
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Although Ephesus was a major city of early Christianity, the city also had a “sorrowful side,” Johnston said, referring to the slave market.
“For 200 years (from 100 B.C. to 100 A.D.) Ephesus was the headquarters of the Roman slave trade and, as such, the largest slave market in the empire,” he said.
“People were divided by race, free or slave status, and gender.”
“Slaves were evaluated based on their looks, age, physique, education, skills and, yes, the state of their teeth,” Johnston said — something that would be “horrifying” to anyone in the modern world.
Paul said his time was a time of division. He said, “People were divided by race, by being free or slave, and by gender.”
He said the message of unity “in Christ” was a message that was much needed by both the Christians in Ephesus and Christians today.
Johnston said Ephesus was a major city in Paul’s time, with a population of 250,000, a massive temple and a slave market. (Nathan Lewis)
“But what does it mean to be ‘in Christ’? Believers share in all of Christ’s important accomplishments, which means that what is true of Christ’s resurrection is true of all who believe in him,” Johnston said.
He said that a Christian, a follower of Jesus, “shares everything that Christ is and that Christ has.”
“The truth we hold in this passage is that when you believe in Christ, you are bound to Him in an unbreakable bond. You become one with Him; in fact, you become one with Christ.”
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Johnston said Paul’s message that Christians are united by their identity “in Christ” would not have been accepted by most people in the region.
“Many people might have thought Paul’s Views It’s funny, that’s why Paul uses the words ‘in Christ’ 73 times throughout his letters,” Johnston said.
“When you believe in Christ, you are bound to Him in an unbreakable bond,” Johnston said. “You become one with Him; in fact, you become one with Christ.” (iStock)
But, Johnston said, “There is no truth more important than the identity of being a Christian ‘in Christ,’ and no truth has been more forgotten by modern believers.”
He said, “Paul taught the Ephesians that all people are not only created in the image of God, but that they can be powerfully united spiritually with Christ by grace through faith.”
Last week, Baptism of Johnston greeted his three sons on their 8th birthday. It was an experience he described as “very sacred” and made even more clear the significance and importance of what it means to be truly united “in Christ.”
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“When thinking about baptism, the most important things we want to say don’t come out even in our best words,” he said. “That’s why powerful symbols — ordinances — exist in the church.”
Baptism, Johnston said, “makes clear what the best human expressions can only hint at: the profound eternal reality of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Jesus and the redeemed family of God.”
Johnston recently baptized her three sons on their 8th birthday, she told Fox News Digital. (Jeremiah Johnston)
He added, “The greatest truth of the Gospel is that we are eternally forgiven ‘in Christ,’ and the baptism of my sons symbolizes this profound truth that my children will be there with (wife) Audrey and me.”
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“So, for our new identity, if we have trusted in Christ, we are members of God’s royal family,” he said. “My identity, more than anything else, is ‘in Christ.’”
In modern times, when people “run away to escape reality,” Johnston said, reminders of this truth are vital.
“We need to be reminded that our worth and identity are based on the unchanging grace and love of God in Christ,” he said.
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“That is, when we think about who we are as Christians,” Johnston said, “we should primarily understand ourselves as people who are ‘in Christ’” — meaning we are “accepted, forgiven, eternally loved and united to our Creator and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
