Q & R: Is Christ IN all people or only IN Christians? Brad Jersak
Question:
Is Christ in all people or is Christ only in Christians or only in some Christians?
Response:
Full disclosure: my response comes with a two-fold agenda.
- To say that we can find a good number of verses that make “in-ness” exclusive (e.g. believers are in Christ), but those passages do not negate the truth of the inclusion texts (i.e. humanity is in Christ). Both Scripture sets are true. They are simply referring to different truths.
- To say that neither inclusion-focused believers (“Trinitarians” for example) nor exclusion-focused believers (Evangelicals for example) need to force all the Bible’s in/out language into their own theological system. Let the authors say what they say and don’t force them to say what they didn’t intend. Some Scriptures define our Being (all are in Christ through the Incarnation) and others describe our Relationship (not all relate to Christ by faith).
THE CONVERSATIONS
This question has been floating around for a while now in a few different conversations. For example, people who minister at the margins frequently speak about seeing Christ in the poor and the outcast and in everyone, as you see in Mother Theresaโs meditations. For example, she famously said,
โI see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.โ
Mother Theresa
She based this on her experience and rooted that experience in Gospel texts such as Matthew 25 where Christ says,
ย โThen the righteous will answer him, โMaster, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?ย When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?ย 3When did we see you sick or in prison and come to see you?โ
Matthew 25:37-40
ย ย โThen the king will answer them, โIโm telling you the truth: when you did it to one of the least significant of my brothers and sisters here, you did it to me.โ
That passage may be variously interpreted, but in Kissing the Leper: Seeing Jesus in the Least of These, I wrote,
ย โYou do not see Christ in unbelievers because they become Christians. You see Christ in them and in everyone because he became human with a capital H.โย
Brad Jersak, Kissing the Leper
This segues to a theological discussion among the Trinitarian crowd harking back to the early church Fathers, such as Athanasius of Alexandria. They believed that in the Incarnation, Christ did not just take on a human nature (his own individual humanity) but assumed human nature collectively, uniting himself to all humanity and the whole of the human condition.
The question then becomes, if Christ united himself to all humanity, is he IN ALL, or is Christ only IN SOME: those who reciprocate by uniting themselves to him through faith? Asked another way, are ALL โsavedโ but just donโt know it yet? Or are we only โsavedโ when we respond to Christ? And there the debate rages (sometimes with actual rage!). As far as I can tell, both โsidesโ agree that what Christ did, he did for all and that a response to what Christ has accomplished is nevertheless necessary in order to experience what he has accomplished. And yet weโve come to an impasse on the โIN-nessโ of Christ.
SPATIAL METAPHORS
I believe the impasse boils down to our age-old propensity for literalizing metaphors, then stumbling over them. It reminds me of the โ80s obsession with whether a demon could beย IN a Christian or not. It was a useless argument because we kept imagining spirits as personal entities and human bodies or souls as containers. I recall people panicking about whether there was a demonย INย them and looking for a religious method to getting itย OUT. The solutionย de jour was to distinguish between obsession, oppression and possession. I wonโt even go there nowโitโs just an illustration of how we think that โinโ and โoutโ are literal locations because they are spacial.ย
Itโs a METAPHOR, my friends! Or rather, a whole set of metaphors used in various ways in the Bibleโandย not uniformly! It appears to me that having โChrist in youโ or being โin Christโ may mean different things in different contexts. Thus, you could have Christ IN ALL in one passage and Christ IN Christians in another.ย
Expanding on that would take more space than I have, but I can at least create some categories and leave you to explore each type of โIN-nessโ and discern which Scriptures match best.
UNION / INCLUSION:
This refers to the union of the Triune God to the human race in the Person of Jesus Christ. Passages such as Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15 and Colossians 1 overtly describe how the Incarnation of Christ includes all humanity in his work of forgiveness and reconciliation (esp.). โAs in Adam ALL die, so in Christ, ALL are made alive.โ These Scriptures describe how Christโs universal saving act effects the human race, overcoming and exceeding the curse of Adam. โINโ in these cases speaks to being within the intentions and effects of Godโs saving loveโso high, wide, long and deep that it encompasses all. This needs special renewed attention today.
That said, alongside the all-inclusive embrace of Christโs cosmic union, we have many other categories of โin-nessโ in the New Testament. While Christ is in all by virtue of Christโs saving work, we have at least four other related senses of the spatial “IN/OUT” metaphor that are contingent on us and thus narrower in scope than universal inclusion. Remember, friends, these are metaphors!
IDENTIFICATION / FELLOWSHIP:
Just as Christโs identification with us takes us โinto himโ (that is, an open door to relationship), so our identification with Christ welcomes him โinto usโ (into our lives, our mess, our business). Identification treats โINโnot as a โplaceโ such as my โheartโ (another metaphor) but as a description ofย how we relate to Christ.ย
Example:ย Paul, addressing Christians, says:โI pray that out of his glorious richesย Abba may strengthen you with powerย through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell IN your heartsย through faith.โ
Ephesians 3:16-17
What? Isnโt Christ in every heart? Yes, by the Incarnation. Or at least every believerโs heart? Yes. By identification. But Paul is suggesting a more specific type of indwellingโฆ something requiring the Grace of the Holy Spirit through a greater revelation of Abbaโs great love.
To what is Paul referring? I am guessing the focus on Love and the Trinity in Ephesians 3 describes a kind of โindwellingโ ofย ever-deepening fellowship. We come to experience the presence ofย Abbaโs constant habitation rather than perceiving him as a fleeting Visitor. The revelation of Godโs love in Christ by the Spirit changes our perspectiveโthat God is not โout thereโ but โin hereโโin us.ย ย ย ย
AFFECTION / INTIMACY:
โAsking Jesus into my heartโ has become an increasingly scorned phrase. If Christ is in us, asking him in is redundant. But hang onโitโs also a very biblical phrase describing our affections. Just as you donโt want an opponent to โget into your head,โ you definitely want to allow loved ones โinto your heart.โ I.e. into your affections through intimacy. Paul assures the Philippians that even in chains, he has them in his heart. That is, he remembers them with affection.
The same can hold true of Christ. We invite Christย IN for intimate fellowship (as above). Remember, Rev. 3:20, addressed to a church! โIf anyone invites meย IN, I will comeย IN, and dine with them and they with me.โย INย here has to do with our experience of active intimacy with the One whoโs alreadyย INย us.ย
ATTENTION / PRAYER & WORSHIP:
Similarly, we carry someoneย IN our hearts by remembering them and in the case of Christ, beholding Christ on the throne of our hearts. There, we come to the throne of Graceย INย us toย pray to him orย worship him.ย
News flash: there isnโt an actual throne in your actual heart. Itโs aย metaphor for eternal life as theย โinternal life.โThe throne is not a literal chair upon which Christ sits. It represents Christโs reignย IN us and our internal loving gaze on him.ย ย
FULLNESS / MATURITY:
Beingย filled is a related spatial / container metaphor. You have talk in Paul of being โfilled with the Spiritโ or attaining the fullness of Christ.
Paul describes the goal of the church’s 5-fold ministry:
โ…to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christย may be built upย until we all reach unityย in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of Godย and become mature,ย attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:12-13
Here, fullness of Christโs indwelling presence is not measured with a dipstick or expressed in terms of quantity. Itโs a spatial metaphor for maturity and completenessโwhere we are recognizable as the children ofย Abbaย by the image of his Son manifestย IN our lives.
SUMMARY:
All that to say, letโs not get so hung up on spatial metaphors such as “in vs. out” or “far vs. near” as if God is not omnipresent (in all places), the One “in whom we live and move and have our being.” But also, letโs not miss the truth of these metaphors:ย
- As Creator, God is Father of us all and in us all.ย
- As Savior, Christ has included ALL in his saving work.ย
- Let us ALL therefore come to recognizeย Abbaโsย love, that we might ALL receive Christโs salvation and ALL be filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit.
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