"In Christ" is one of the most used phrases in the churches, and one of the least explained. It has a source, and the source is the Messiah himself.
Where the phrase comes from
From him. He says it in the upper room on the last night, and the picture he chooses is a vine and its branches.
Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
Remaining is not a feeling. He says what it is: if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, as he kept the Lord God's commandments and remains in His love (John 15:10). And to those who had believed him he said that remaining in his word is what makes someone truly a disciple (John 8:31).
What was promised to Abraham
Being counted with him is older than any phrase for it. The Lord God took Abraham outside and showed him the sky.
Look now toward the sky, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.
He says it again on the mountain, and this time the reason is attached to it: the seed multiplied like the stars, all the nations of the earth blessed by that seed, because you have obeyed my voice (Genesis 22:17-18). A people beyond counting, and a condition in the same sentence.
A nation, and nobody's possession
Nobody is the Messiah's. Everything there is belongs to One, and all three books say so.
To Him belongs what is in the heavens and what is on the earth and what is between them and what is under the soil.
The Torah has it: to the Lord God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is in it (Deuteronomy 10:14). The Psalms open a psalm with it: the earth is the Lord God's, with its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it (Psalm 24:1).
So to be in Christ is not to be his. It is to be in the nation he is in. When he asked who would stand with him, his disciples did not answer that they were his.
But when Jesus felt disbelief from them, he said, "Who are my supporters for The God?" The disciples said, "We are supporters for The God."
They named whose side they were on, and it was not his. He draws the same thing as one flock: there are other sheep, not of this fold, and they will become one flock with one shepherd (John 10:16).
Who is in it he says plainly. Whoever confesses him before men, and not whoever denies him (Matthew 10:32-33). Whoever keeps his commandments (John 15:10). Whoever does what the Lord God revealed through him.
Anointed for what
Christos renders the Hebrew mashiach, and English puts both as "anointed". That is true, and it answers nothing. Oil was poured on priests and on kings. The question the word leaves standing is the only one worth asking: anointed for what.
That was answered before he was conceived. The angels come to Mary with a word from the Lord God, and the word has a name already.
When the angels said, "O Mary, indeed The God gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary - distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near.
He will speak to the people in the cradle (The Recitation 3:46). And he does, as a newborn: "Indeed, I am the servant of The God. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet" (The Recitation 19:30). Later the Lord God recounts it to him: I taught you writing and wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel (The Recitation 5:110).
In the Gospel the word never arrives as a description anybody earned. A woman at a well says she knows Messiah comes, and that when he comes he will declare all things. He answers, "I am he, the one who speaks to you" (John 4:25-26). Andrew brings it to his brother as news: we have found the Messiah (John 1:41).
Others were anointed, for other things. Not one of them was anointed for this. When he stands up in the synagogue at Nazareth he reads Isaiah over himself: the Spirit of the Lord is on him, because He anointed him to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18).
What it was asking of people
So "in Christ", read in his own words, is a nation and a task rather than a claim on anyone. The branch is not asked how it feels about the vine. It is asked to bear fruit.
What he said about himself and the Lord God
This is where care is needed, and where the words in red do the work. A man runs up and calls him good teacher. He does not accept it.
Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except one—God.
In his prayer he calls Him "the only true God" (John 17:3). To Mary he sends word that he is ascending to "my God and your God" (John 20:17). The Recitation records him saying the same sentence twice: The God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him (The Recitation 3:51, 43:64).
Those lines do not empty the phrase of meaning. They tell us who the vine is rooted in. The one people are asked to remain in was himself remaining in the Lord God and pointing there.
Read kindly, and read whole
Many brothers hear "in Christ" and hear a home, safety and being counted. That is a good thing to hear, and it is in the vine. Some hold that the phrase makes a person a new creature outright. Others read John 15:10 and hold that it describes a life kept up by obedience. Both have verses; we do not rule between them.
What we would ask is only that the phrase be read with the Messiah's own words beside it. He called the Lord God his God. He said no one is good except one. If being in him means anything, it perhaps means standing where he stood and facing where he faced.
Questions people might ask
What does "Christ" actually mean?
It renders "Messiah". English says "anointed", which names the oil and not the errand. Ask what for: the name was given before he was conceived, and what he was sent with was the Scripture and the prophethood (The Recitation 3:45, 19:30).
Is "in Christ" in the Gospel?
Yes. "Remain in me, and I in you" is his own sentence, and he explains it in the next breath: keep my commandments and you remain in my love (John 15:4-10).
Does it mean I am his?
No. What is in the heavens and on the earth and between them and under the soil is the Lord God's (The Recitation 20:6). To be in Christ is to be in the nation he is in: those who do not deny him and who keep what he said (Matthew 10:33, John 15:10).
Is there more than one Messiah?
No. Others were anointed, for other things. One was foretold, named before he was conceived, and he said so plainly when a woman at a well asked him (The Recitation 3:45, John 4:25-26).
