How do you say "In Christ" in HTML?

Yes I had some inspiration before I decided to “quickly” attempt to add a comment box (again!) to my blog. “Just put this line of code wherever you want you your comment box to appear.” What the hell is that supposed to mean when this is what I’m looking at?!

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Ugh.

Unlike the endless purgatory that is HTML code, Jesus is… unpurgatoryish… or something. Like that transition? “A” for effort?

John 14. I could spend a year in this chapter. I’ve been coming back here since August. It’s a healing salve on my spirit. “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in me.” Phsshhhhhhhh…. Exhale. Okay.

Remember how I was reading Ezekiel a while back and I was saying how everything God says through Ezekel is followed by “then they will know that I am the LORD.” Wipe out this city… then they will know. Bring back the exiles… then they will know. Pour out wrath, pour out mercy…. Then they will know. Knowing, a holistic cognition that impacts a persons choices disposition… that was the big “SO THAT” of Ezekiel’s ministry.

Jesus has a different “SO THAT”… a new tactic, a better way to achieve his goal of whole-disciples that glorify the Father. He ups the ante from holistic knowledge to relational proximity. “I’m going to prepare a place for you SO THAT where I am you may also be.” Closeness, togetherness, community. That’s the SO THAT of Jesus’ ministry. That’s the big deal.

I’ll take it a step further. Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” There is a community within the Trinity, an eternity-past love relationship within the Godhead. That relational dependence and intimacy worked its way into the blueprint of creation so that “Imago Dei” means “relational like God.” God is totally self-sufficient in the unity of heart and purpose he shares within the Trinity. But AMAZINGLY, Jesus is saying, “You can join our club, our intimate group, our triune love community.” Jesus extends a hospitable welcome for people to be “IN” him (“In Christ” is a thematic phrase throughout the New Testament).

He’s not saying that we will BE God, but that the increasing level of love and trust within our relationship with God will create such a deep intimacy (into-me-see… I couldn’t resist) that “If you ask for ANYTHING in my name, I will do it for you.” And when someone believes in the truthfulness of Jesus’ person and mission, the Trinity comes and sets up its home INSIDE the heart of the individual.

If anyone is in Christ (en christou) he is a new creation, a different sort of bloke. The newness is the intimacy of closeness with God. Not just knowledge, but closeness. In that closeness, free will and election bleed together like paint on a canvass and both yield to joy. Law and spirit, grace and truth, already not yet… all the content of our present dialectic tensions fade. The tension eases within the intimacy of the “in” because of the relationship. Responding to Thomas’ question (how can we know where you are going) Jesus says, “don’t you know me, Thomas? Even after I have been among you for such a long time?” Jesus knows that his relational proximity to Thomas could be described only as “among” but He know that one day soon, Thomas would be “in”. Jesus exhorts his disciples in the next chapter to remain “in” Him, not just “among” or “around” him.

The way, the truth, the life. It’s not law or judgment or reason now. It’s a person. A relationship. Not just with the historic hero of bible-thumping evangelicalism (lest you think that such cultural baggage is a prerequisite)… but the true Logos, the majestic creator come incarnate lover, rescuer, and friend with a simple mission: That where He is we may also be.