Have you ever heard someone say “Jesus lives in my heart”? While this common expression captures one aspect of our relationship with Christ, it might actually miss a more profound biblical truth. The Apostle Paul, especially in his letter to the Ephesians, emphasizes something different – that we live in Christ. Just as Paul addresses people who are “in Ephesus,” he writes to believers who are “in Christ,” pointing to a specific position or location in the spiritual realm.
This seemingly small distinction carries enormous implications for how we understand our Christian identity and relationship with God. Throughout Ephesians, Paul repeatedly uses the phrase “in Christ” or “in Him.” These aren’t just casual references or mere prepositions – they represent a fundamental theological concept about where we stand in relation to God. If we fail to notice this phrase or fail to understand it, we cannot really understand Ephesians.
What does it mean to be “in Christ”?
Biblical scholar Klyne Snodgrass explains it this way: “Christ is the ‘place’ where believers reside, the source in which they find God’s salvation and blessings, and the framework in which they live and work. It is as if Christ were a vast repository holding the gifts of God, but, of course, without losing any sense of Christ as person.”1
Think of it like this: When you’re “in” a building, that building surrounds you completely. You’re within its walls, under its roof, protected by its structure. Similarly, to be “in Christ” means He completely encompasses us. He’s not just a part of our world; we are positioned within His. As Snodgrass notes, “Paul is not merely saying these people believed in Christ; rather, they were in Christ positionally.”2
The rich meaning behind the position
When Paul uses the phrase, he’s describing our spiritual location with several key implications:
First, it speaks of our complete union with Jesus. This isn’t just a casual relationship or occasional connection – it’s a profound position of being merged into His identity. When God looks at us, He sees us through Christ because that’s literally where we are – in Him (Col 3:3; Acts 17:28).
Second, from this position in Christ, we participate in His death and resurrection. Our old self has died with Him, and we now live in the power of His resurrection. This isn’t just theological theory – our position in Him provides the foundation for how we live our daily lives (Rom 6:3-5; Col 2:12-13).
Third, our position in Christ connects us to every other believer. Being “in Him” means we share the same spiritual location with all believers, making us part of His body, the church (1 Cor 12:12-13; Eph 2:19-22).
In fact, throughout Ephesians, whenever we see the phrases “in Christ” or “in Him,” we can often understand them as referring to “those who are in Christ” or “we who are in Him.” This parallels exactly how Paul addresses those “who are in Ephesus” in the letter’s opening verse. This reading helps us better grasp both the positional nature of the phrase and its implications for Christian identity.
Rethinking our perspective
Snodgrass points out a crucial insight about our modern tendency to reverse this biblical emphasis: “Without ignoring the importance of Christ’s being in us, the neglected idea of our being in Christ is much more significant. If we emphasize only that Christ is in us, we define reality, and Christ is about one inch tall. If we realize we are in Him, he determines reality and encompasses all we are.”3
This understanding transforms how we approach evangelism too. As Snodgrass notes, “Paul’s ‘in Christ’ theology will inevitably change the way we do evangelism. The standard line of ‘asking Jesus into your heart so you can go to heaven’ is weak in comparison to what Paul describes, and there is little evidence this was his procedure.”4
Why this position matters today
Understanding our position in Him revolutionizes how we view our Christian life. It’s not about trying to fit Jesus into our existing world – it’s about recognizing that we’ve been transferred to a new position within His world, His kingdom, His reality (Col 1:13).
This positional truth affects everything: how we face challenges (we face them from our position in Christ), how we view ourselves (our identity comes from our positioned – in Him), and how we relate to others (we’re all positioned together in Christ).
When Paul writes about being “in Christ,” he’s describing our actual spiritual location. All our spiritual blessings, our very identity, and our future hope flow from this profound positional truth: we are in Him (Eph 1:3; 2 Tim 2:10). Like a fish in water or a bird in air, we live and move and have our being in Him.
This perspective doesn’t diminish the reality that Christ dwells in us through His Spirit. Rather, it completes the picture, showing us that our relationship with Jesus is far more encompassing than we often imagine. We don’t just have Christ in our lives – He positioned our lives in Him.
References
- Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians (The NIV Application Commentary Book 10) (pp. 47-48). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.
- Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians (The NIV Application Commentary Book 10) (p. 38). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.
- Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians (The NIV Application Commentary Book 10) (p. 63). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.
- Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians (The NIV Application Commentary Book 10) (p. 64). Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.