The Christian’s Perfect Piece of Real Estate
You Are in Christ
When I last had any extended time watching daytime TV—I was at home, sick—it became quickly apparent to me that we have a fixation with properties. There were shows about renovating homes, finding homes in the country or in the Caribbean, homes being auctioned, homes on a budget, homes of the super wealthy. Even when we’re not wanting or needing to move to a new home, it can be instinctive to look up property prices. When I’m on vacation, I’ll often find out how much it would cost to live there and wonder about what life would look like if that was where I was based.
It is not hard to see why we’re fixated on things like this. Many of us have a deep sense that once we find the right home, everything else will fall into place. Work will be more meaningful, time off more peaceful, family life more fulfilling. For some it is all about location—the right amount of bustle, the right amount of space. Or maybe it’s the environment—being up in the mountains or down by the coast. Or maybe it’s the house itself—whether its roomy enough, cozy enough, old enough, or modern enough. Whatever it is, once that’s sorted out, life will finally start to flourish.
One with My Lord
Sam Allberry
Brief, compelling devotionals by Sam Allberry help believers understand what it means to be “in Christ” and how unity with Jesus shapes their daily lives.
There is a sense in which this instinct is right. We’re physical creatures. Having a sense of place, of belonging, matters. And the Bible says there is an environment in which we can truly flourish, somewhere we will truly feel we belong, where life will slot into place—somewhere that will feel deeply right.
But it is not a physical location. It doesn’t have a zip code. You won’t find it on your GPS app. And there’s not an economic threshold you need to reach to even think about getting in on it. It’s an entirely different kind of place.
Before I recently moved to the United States, I spent several years living in a British town called Maidenhead, which doesn’t have much to distinguish it other than that its railway bridge has two of the widest brick spans in the world and that the neighboring town is Windsor. Windsor, of course, is the year-round home of the British monarch.
This proximity to Windsor made quite a difference. As local residents, we had free access to the castle any time it was open. You could even see it in the distance from just up the road from my house. But more than that, it meant we lived in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and in the Royal County of Berkshire.
As Christians, we find ourselves in an altogether perfect spiritual location: in Christ himself.
But this is not the only royal place where we can find ourselves. As Christians, we find ourselves in an altogether perfect spiritual location: in Christ himself.
Being in Christ is the heartbeat of the Christian faith. It is a way of understanding our relationship with Jesus that might be unfamiliar to us but that is reflected on virtually every page of any New Testament letter. It reminds us that as well as being our Savior, our Lord, our teacher, and our friend, Jesus is also—in a way—our home, our place, our location. And we, as well as being those who submit to him, worship him, follow him, and imitate him, are those who now find ourselves to be in him.
This, it turns out, is no minor detail. It is what helps us best understand how we relate to Christ, how we can receive all that he has done for us, how we can move forward confidently with him, and how we find ourselves now deeply bound up with others also seeking to do the same. It is what makes the Christian life make the most sense. It is all these things because it is the Bible’s primary way of talking about what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And once we’re clear on that, we can be much clearer on him. It is, simply, the only place to be.
This article is adapted from One with My Lord: The Life-Changing Reality of Being in Christ by Sam Allberry.
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