When you move into a new place it takes a while to get used to things and decide if you really like it. When you came to Christ you begin to live in a new place: "in Christ Jesus." It is a place where you can experience peace and joy and contentment. It is not a physical location but a "position" or standing before God. It is where God says you are in His reckoning. It is your spiritual location. It was pictured in the Old Testament in the Mercy Seat. The place of propitiation or satisfaction. That is, God's satisfaction not yours or mine. But when you are in the place where God is satisfied with sinners you are in a good place and you too will experience satisfaction at the deepest level of who you are. The Greek word is hilasterion (e.g. Exodus 25:17 LXX) - the place of propitiation or the place of satisfaction. But it speaks specifically of God being completely satisfied with us who in our previous place were condemned! Now we hear the words: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom 8:1). What a great place to be. I believe this is probably the place that Jesus was referring to when He said He was going to prepare for His disciples. This place is where we can be with Him and with the Father and in the Spirit. It is a place where the Holy God is delightfully satisfied with those who have rested their faith in His Son. We are welcome here and with a God who is never grumpy or peeved. He is delighted with those who are in Christ Jesus. They have all come here by faith in His Son and whoever is delighted in the Son is delighted in by the Father. "... for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father" says Jesus. He even uses a word that speaks of love as delight and enjoyment (phileo). Love that flows from the heart as an expression of enjoyment or pleasure in the object loved. But He also speaks of this same dynamic in regards to love brought out of the heart because of value placed in the object (agape). In John 14:23 "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him...'"

In this place called "in Christ" we are blessed, secure and free. The problem with most of us is that we are unaware of the wonderful "amenities" here in this place even though the New Testament speaks so clearly of them. Just go through the New Testament and start paying attention to all the benefits of being "in Christ" (see also "in Him," "in the Beloved", etc.). You will be amazed at what is true of you now and what is certainly yours in the future. In fact Paul says that in Christ Jesus we have been "blessed with every spiritual blessing" (Eph 1:3). Too often we are like travelers who crash in a hotel or motel for the night and do not take advantage of the "amenities" that are freely offered to them. The difference of course is that "in Christ" we get more than a "Continental Breakfast" or even the free use of an exercise room. We get everything! Are you enjoying the amenities of being in Christ?

Look and see how many you can find in Ephesians or Colossians (letters Paul wrote to believers who, like you and me, needed to learn more about these amenities). See if you are surprised at how much you are failing to take advantage of in your new place.

Frank G.