Message of the Latter Rain - Kelvin M. Duncan

words of Christ, when He says, "Abide in me." All who pick up a Bible and
read those words of Christ may apply them to themselves and choose to
abide in Christ. Yet, there is more than one sense of the expression in Christ.
Everyone will not choose to "abide" in Christ. Therefore, everyone is not "in
Christ," in the most common sense of the New Testament use of the
expression. Nevertheless, everyone is "in Christ," in the sense that He was
the representative of all at the cross. However, only the believer is "in
Christ," in the sense in which the expression is most commonly used in the
New Testament.
Some protest by saying, "The ‘in Christ' concept is never applied to the
entire human race." They argue that it applies only to believers. For example,
Angel Rodriguez, former chairman of the Biblical Research Committee of
the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, says, "In order to be in
Christ we have to make a personal decision. In fact the phrase ‘in Christ' is
often used as an equivalent to the noun Christian."[3] The last half of this
statement is true. The expression in Christ is often used as an equivalent to
the noun Christian. However, it is not always used in that manner. Thus, the
first half of this statement is false. We note that there is considerable biblical
evidence to the contrary. For example, the Bible says:
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one
died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for
them, and rose again (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15).
Notice that verse 14 contains the phrase, if one died for all. This leaves
open the possibility that the "one" did not die for all. Yet the next verse
excludes that conclusion by affirming, "And that he died for all." Now notice
that the word that is italicized in the KJV, indicating that it is not in the
original text. The original text reads as it does in the NKJV, which simply
states, "And he died for all."
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