INCLUDED ? WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

WE ARE ADOPTED AND INCLUDED. WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT ?

The true Gospel message of Jesus Christ is that of Adoption into the very life of the Father through Jesus by the Spirit. In conjunction with this understanding we use the term " included " -- that we are Adopted by the Father and Included. We even hear the wording that, "We are Included." What does included actually mean?

Jesus has indeed included us in His life. He IS our life.( John 14:20; 17:20-26;Colossians 3:1-4). Does this mean that now we have been added to His life and given eternal life since He has the power to grant eternal life to us? In other words is it a going forward thing for us?

Paul says in Galatians 2:20 that he/we are crucified with Christ. And tht we are buried with Christ.( Romans 6:1-4). In Colossians 3:1 Paul says that we have been raised with Christ. Ephesians 2:6 tells us that we ascended with Jesus to the Father's right hand and are seated there with Jesus. Other verses tell us that Jesus became sin for us,(Heb.10:10; II Cor.5:21). Jesus "tasted" death for us (Hebrews 2:9), and that we are resurrected in Him in New Birth, (I Peter 1:3).

There is an intimate interaction between humanity, the Cosmos, and Jesus. So intimate in fact that Jesus literally enters into our life and gives us life, but we all also Enter into His very life by His choice to PLACE OR INCLUDE US IN HIS LIFE and thereby we are involved personally in everything that happened to Jesus. So we say thta what happened to Jesus happened to us. The word we use to describe this theological principle is INCLUSION. It means that we all are included IN the events of of His earthly life and also we are included in His eternal life as well. We now are included in the life that Jesus shares with the Father and the Spirit by our Adoption and our Inclusion in Jesus' life. He IS our life now and forever. When Jesus said in John 14:6, " I am the way, the Truth, and the life," He was making a profound statement few understood at the time. They would at a later time. Jn.14:20.
Whe John 10:10 refers to Jesus coming to bring life and that we might have it more abundantly He is referring to His life that we are included in.

God's purpose from the "very beginning" was to adopt us as His children and to include us in the life of Jesus who became Incarnate for that very purpose. ( see
Ephesians 1:3-14).

We humans are not just "included" generically in the plan of God somewhere in the lostness of eternity somehow. NO, we are Included IN the life of Jesus, " the only begotten son of God." The relationship Jesus has with the Father and the Spirit is the relationship we share with the Father and the Spirit through Jesus. Jesus shares it with us. We EXIST IN Jesus. He is our life. It is what Triune God desired from the very beginning--to share His divine nature and life with us through Adoption and Inclusion all made possible through Jesus.

For information on this topic go to my web site at www.newlifewcg.org which lists other web sites expressing these same understandings.

Pastor Paul