I began this column in the Record last summer with an unapologetic affirmation of the centrality of Jesus Christ for our church’s faith and life, now and in the future. My last word is the same. In Jesus Christ, God is for us and with us, doing what we cannot do for ourselves, guiding us to freedom, giving us life.
In this final column I want to emphasize one more thing about our faith in Jesus Christ. God is not only for us and with us in Christ, but God sends the Holy Spirit so that Christ is in us and we are in Christ. This is perhaps the deepest spiritual truth of the Christian life.
It is also central to our tradition as Presbyterian Christians. Contrary to what most people think, the heart of John Calvin’s theology is not predestination, it is union with Christ.
“We must understand,” says Calvin, “that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.”
That’s what the Holy Spirit does. The Spirit gives us faith. Faith binds us to Christ and makes us one with Christ. Followers of Jesus are in Christ: Christ is in them.
That’s why I love Paul’s language in the New Testament. Hundreds of times he uses the little phrase “in Christ.” Those who are in Christ are new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ in us is the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). Spiritual union with Christ and participation in the life of the triune God is what makes the Christian life a powerful and often mysterious experience of the divine.
St. Patrick’s well-known “Breastplate” prayer emphasizes the same thing: “Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.”
Admittedly, the cause of Christ, or at least the church of Christ, seems to be faltering in Europe and North America. That discourages us. However, churches in Africa, Asia and South America are on the rise. As reported in the January Record, my wife Lynn and I recently visited Ghana and Malawi and experienced the lively work of God going on in the global south. Presbyterian churches in those countries are flourishing numerically and spiritually: they are alive in Christ.
My prayer is that the Presbyterian Church in Canada will be sustained by this wider work of God, and will, whatever the future holds, continue to bear witness to its union with Jesus Christ. Christ is the church’s head, and in Christ is life.
