What Does Belonging to Christ Mean for Us?
According to Ephesians, we as believers have access to the same power that raised Christ from the dead, and that same power at work in us is able to do abundantly above all that we can ask or think!
My wife is South African by birthright. Before meeting me, she had told me she never even had a desire to visit America. It wasn’t on her radar. A few years after getting married, due to some changes in our lives and living situation, we decided to move to the US from South Africa, and eventually, to make sure she had US citizenship.
Many years later, after completing all the requisite paperwork and testing, we gathered in a tight, soulless government room with many others from a long list of countries, all for the same goal. They were there to pledge allegiance to the US and to obtain full citizenship.
My wife was not born in the US. When we first moved back and bought a house, she could not be listed on the documents. She had no credit history in the US and therefore no standing in the system. She was here, but she was considered an outsider. Now, the US government sees no difference between me (born in Arizona to midwestern American parents) and my wife. We are recognized as the exact same.
Status and belonging
Anthropologists will tell you that status and belonging are fundamental human needs that have shaped human existence through the millennia. That need has shaped nomadic and tribal culture and still lies semi-dormant (or perhaps not so semi-dormant) in the back of our modern minds. The need to be known and accepted shapes friend groups, work environments, and cultural trends. It drives everything from AA meetings to “mean girl” culture in schools, housewives, fraternities, and unions.
We were created with a fundamental need to belong and to be known. A need that can only be met in Christ.
Paul summed this up for his Gentile audience in Ephesians 3. Paul, a Jew and a Pharisee, the ultimate insider on God’s plan for the world, was writing to an audience of outcasts and outsiders on why they were no different than him when it came to standing with God.
Standing in Christ
At the literal crux of the matter? The cross of Christ. We are justified because of Christ, and it no longer has anything to do with physical birthright. It is a supernatural standing in Christ and his sacrifice, and it is available to all. Paul spends the chapter writing about how the same power that raised Christ from the dead and gave us standing through His sacrifice is available to all. All. Jews and Gentiles, regardless of earthly birth, status, or social standing.
Then he does a mic drop and gives us the summation with a doxology to the One who deserves the credit for this power. Ephesians 3:20-21:
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
My wife has full standing as an American citizen, but unlike the Gentile and the Jew in Christ, she doesn’t have the full power and wealth of the US government available to her. Even with full citizen rights, there are still haves and have-nots. Paul’s final statements of Chapter 3 make it clear that in Christ, the full power of Christ that is able to do beyond what our small minds can imagine, is fully available to us.
This week:
This week, I want you to approach each day and decision with this knowledge in mind. When you pray, ask God to grant you what you can’t even imagine. And when He does, be sure to give Him the glory.
