What does it really mean to be “in Christ”? And how would your Christian life change if you stopped trying to get somewhere God says He has already placed you?

In this message from The Gathering in Colorado Springs, Leah Ramirez explores the gospel of union with Christ and the finished work of Jesus—asking a question that reaches to the foundation of Christian identity:

Do you know where you are located?

Much of Christianity can become an endless attempt to get closer to God, receive more from God, become acceptable to God, or finally arrive at the spiritual life we believe is somewhere ahead of us.

But the New Testament announces something radically different.

The Gospel does not begin with what we must accomplish.

It begins with what God has already accomplished in Jesus Christ.

“For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” — 1 Corinthians 2:2

Paul’s apostolic foundation was not a method, a ministry gift, or a spiritual hierarchy. It was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The Gospel must remain the foundation beneath everything else we build.

Union With Christ Begins With What God Has Done

One of the central distinctions in this message is the difference between a contract and a covenant.

Contract Christianity says:

If I do the right thing toward God, God will do the right thing toward me.

It can appear in subtle forms:

Honor correctly so you can receive.
Position yourself correctly so you can receive an impartation.
Get under the right covering.
Give enough. Pray enough. Fast enough. Climb high enough.

Honor, generosity, spiritual leadership, prayer, fasting, and obedience all have a place in Christian life. The problem begins when they become mechanisms for gaining access to something we believe God has withheld from us.

The Gospel announces something far more beautiful:

Christ is not the reward at the end of the correct spiritual transaction. Christ Himself is our covenant, our inheritance, and the One in whom every spiritual blessing has already been given.

The Gospel Is Covenant, Not Contract

Genesis 15 gives us a remarkable picture of this.

God makes a covenant with Abram. Animals are divided, as was customary in covenant-making, and the pieces are placed opposite one another.

But Abram never walks between them.

Instead, Abram is put into a deep sleep.

Then:

“Behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.”

God walks through alone.

Abram does not stand beside God and offer an equal contribution. God takes the covenant upon Himself.

And that covenantal pattern ultimately leads us to Jesus.

At the cross, no disciple contributes blood. No one supplies additional righteousness. No one helps Jesus finish redemption.

He goes alone.

What humanity could not accomplish, Christ accomplishes.

“It is finished.”

What Does “In Christ” Actually Mean?

This brings us to one of the most important questions in the Christian life:

Where do you believe you are located?

Paul describes two locations:

“For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.” — 1 Corinthians 15:22

In Adam.

In Christ.

Many believers confess faith in Jesus while continuing to locate themselves spiritually in Adam:

Still fundamentally separated from God.
Still trying to cross the distance.
Still trying to die enough to self.
Still trying to receive enough anointing.
Still trying to become spiritual enough.
Still climbing.

But the Gospel announces another location.

Paul says in Romans 6:

“Our old self was crucified with Him.”

And then he does something extraordinary.

He does not tell believers to accomplish their own crucifixion.

He tells them to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Reckon it.

Count it true.

Believe according to what God says has already happened.

You Were Made Alive, Raised and Seated With Christ

Paul carries the same reality even further in Ephesians 2.

God:

made us alive with Christ,
raised us with Christ,
and seated us with Christ.

With Him.

With Him.

With Him.

This is the language of union with Christ.

You are not standing at the bottom of a spiritual ladder trying to ascend to where Jesus is.

You have been seated with Him.

You are not trying to accomplish a death that Jesus failed to accomplish.

You died with Him.

You are not trying to manufacture resurrection life.

You were made alive with Him.

And you are not trying to work your way into union with God.

You are in Christ.

This is more than believing historical facts about Jesus.

It is believing the Gospel concerning what God has done with humanity in Jesus Christ.

Christian Rest Is Not Christian Laziness

This understanding of the finished work of Christ can make people nervous.

If everything begins with what God has already accomplished, won’t Christians become passive?

Hebrews answers that concern in a surprising way:

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest…”

The effort is not an attempt to persuade God to complete something He has not completed.

It is the earnestness of faith that enters what God has already finished.

Grace does not eliminate participation.

Grace finally makes genuine participation possible.

Paul could say:

“By the grace of God I am what I am… I worked harder than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.”

The end of striving is not inactivity.

It is the end of laboring for identity, approval, significance, or access to God.

We are finally free to participate in the life of Christ because we are no longer working to obtain that life.

The Finished Work of Christ Changes Where You Live From

Hebrews describes a shaking in which everything that can be shaken is removed so that what cannot be shaken remains.

And what remains is not another religious structure.

What remains is Christ.

We are not asking God to someday give us something unshakable.

He already has.

His name is Jesus.

This is why understanding our location matters so deeply.

You will struggle to rest while believing you are somewhere God says you are not.

If you believe you remain fundamentally separated from God, your Christian life will become an attempt to overcome that distance.

But if the Gospel is true—if you died with Christ, were raised with Christ, were made alive with Christ, and were seated with Christ—then the Christian life begins somewhere completely different.

It begins in Him.

And perhaps the invitation of the Holy Spirit is not:

Try harder to get there.

Perhaps it is:

Open your eyes and see where Christ has already brought you.

---

Watch the Full Message

Getting Set In | Finding Your True Location in Christ — Leah Ramirez

This teaching was shared at The Gathering, a Christian church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, exploring the Gospel, union with Christ, the finished work of Jesus, covenant theology, Christian rest, and what Scripture means when it says believers are “in Christ.”

Watch the message on YouTube