Last week, in a sermon on Colossians 2:6-7, I made a point that we have received Jesus, not just benefits from Jesus, but Jesus himself. Jesus doesn’t just dispense grace, hand out forgiveness, or distribute keys to rooms in his Father’s heavenly home. He gives us himself, and by faith we receive Christ – Christ and all his benefits (as the Heidelberg Catechism so wonderfully puts it, i.e. Q65 “we are made partakers of Christ and all His benefits by faith only”). In receiving him, we are united to him and participate in his life. By virtue of our mystical union with Christ, we have been crucified with him and have been raised with him. So, we walk “in Him”, in union with our Lord Jesus.

I encouraged the church to read a gospel this week, and as we do, to consciously think, “This Jesus, He is Mine!” And more, “this power/love/holiness is now in me because I’m in Christ and Christ is in me.”

Here’s a bit of what that look like in Mark 1.

“A voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” The beloved Son is mine! When God looks at me, he sees his beloved Son for I am in Christ and Christ is in me. His fatherly pleasure rests on me ‘in Christ’!

“[the evil spirit said] ‘I know who you are – the Holy One of God”. This Holy One of God, who makes demons shriek, is mine! The holiness of Christ is now a part of me, so that I am truthfully called a saint-a holy one!

“Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.” This compassionate healer is mine! His heart of compassion for the hurting, the sick, the oppressed, the poor is beating in me because we are united, and “for me to live is Christ!”

That’s just a sampling. But there’s plenty there to bolster a discouraged spirit, to make a sad heart sing!!!

To quote the hymn, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”