Location, Location, Location!

 April 18, 2022

“Location, Location, Location!” any real estate agent will tell you it’s the most important factor in buying or selling property. A cottage located in the middle of a tract of land a developer has eyed could be worth more than a mansion in a run down section of a city. Our last house suited us perfectly; it had a mother-in-law apartment on one side, plenty of storage, four bedrooms and three baths, hardwood floors and remodeled throughout. I loved that house, but there was one problem. The local fire department was almost in our backyard. When the siren went off, it was ear-splitting! If outside, we had to cover our ears. When it went off in the middle of the night, we swore it could wake the dead. No matter how much I loved that house, its location determined its value.

The first two chapters of Ephesians, and scattered through the firs three chapters of Colossians, is the phrase, “in Christ,” or “in him.” Too often, we read these words experientially instead of positionally. We want to feel “in Christ,” whatever that means. By doing this, “in Christ” is reduced from an eternal fact to a temporal feeling, robbing it of its significance and power. That little word “in” is not a description of emotion, but of position, and according to Paul, it is an eternal fact. Upon which we can and must lean, especially when feelings fail and circumstances lie to us. How I feel is unimportant; where I am is what counts.

“In Christ” is not only the best; it’s the only place to be, for only there are we clothed in righteousness, filled with his Spirit, living in grace and holiness, bathed in his beauty, and sealed for eternity.