In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. 

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. ~ Ephesians 1

On Sunday I shared an object lesson called the “Tupperware Gospel.”  I first saw this from Louie Giglio, a pastor and leader who started the Passion Movement.  The “Tupperware Gospel” shows how we are first objectively placed in Christ.  When we are saved or regenerated, we are justified in Christ.  We are a small piece of Tupperware placed into the larger Tupperware of Jesus.  His life, his obedience to the law, both the moral law and all its demands, as well as the law that called him to walk the path of death to the cross is now our life by way of faith. And this faith is a gift of God’s grace.  Because of the work of the Trinity in our salvation, we are placed in Christ, and Christ is placed in God, in union with the Father and His Spirit.  We receive the benefits Jesus won for us in His life.  We also receive the benefits won for us in His death.  Jesus death accomplished our forgiveness and by it the powers of Death and Sin are conquered in this upside-down backwards way.  God raised Jesus from the dead and vindicated His life and sacrifice.  He is now ascended as a reigning King, seated in the heavenlies with God.  He offers intercessions for us at God’s right hand.  These benefits are ours objectively, permanently.  We are sealed in Christ by His Spirit and Christ is in the Father.  When we look at our little piece of Tupperware placed in the largess of Jesus and God, this is what Paul says our life looks like. This is our deepest reality and our truest identity.  And it is a glorious reality.  We must get into Christ.  This is what salvation looks like.  God rescuing us by the Son, and putting us in Christ.  This is what Paul describes above from Ephesians 1.  And what theologian and pastor John Calvin writes when he says:  “we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us.”  

All of our goodness and blessings are outside of us in Jesus.  And yet through faith, they become our own.  This is the glory of the Gospel.  

But this isn’t all of it.  Not only is our small Tupperware placed into Jesus and hidden in God, but the hope of glory according to Paul is “Christ in you.”  By the Spirit, a smaller (not smaller really, but for the sake of illustration) piece of Tupperware is sealed in you.  You are in Christ, and Christ is in you.  This too is an objective work.  It is done to us in salvation.  This is the “Tupperware Gospel,” you are sealed in Jesus and Jesus is sealed in you, and you are now seated in the heavenlies where Christ is, and yet you walk this world of desires and loves and formative practices. Here Christ is in you, as your help and guide.  But Sin and Death still have a foothold here in this life where you walk, with Christ in you, even as you are objectively placed in the heavenlies with Jesus.  It’s a crazy thing.  Sin, Death and the Devil have not yet been fully put away, so we still struggle under their weight and harassment.  And even as you struggle, Christ is with you.  Paul talks about the reality of Christ in us, so much so that Jesus is with us even as we go to sin, even as we participate in that power, Christ is with us.  Our union with Jesus is that strong, that resistant to even our sin.  Where we go He goes.  

So, in light of this, how do then live.  We have been talking about the need to practice our faith, to have habits that shape and form Jesus and His Kingdom in us.  This is vital in world where Sin and Death continue to terrorize.  Living our our union with Jesus involves practice.  John gives us a picture.  He calls us branches engrafted into Jesus the vine.  He tells us that as a branch is dead apart form the vine, so are we unless we are connected to Him.  Our call is to abide in the vine.  This is both objective and subjective.  Objective in our justification and both objective and subjective in our sanctification.  In other words, we are in Christ, in the vine.  But we also must abide in the vine.  This is where our habits and practices come.  We participate in abiding.  Jesus says to the disciples who are branches to be a branch by abiding, to be a branch by remaining in Him, by abiding in His love and keeping His commandments, by practicing faith.  This isn’t just a thought experiment, but involves things we do.  We don’t try to be the vine or the gardener, and just be a branch, and branches abide.  Jesus the vine and Jesus the Gardener do the work of keeping us, even as we do the work of abiding.  Again, a crazy and mystical thing.  So, let me wrap this up by pointing us to 3 abiding practices.  

In Christian worship, we practice union with Christ in the sacraments.  Baptism is a sign of our attachment in the vine.  When we remember our baptism, we are remembering by watching in our bodies with our eyes that this is what was done to us in our baptisms.  We were engrafted into the vine, born anew, washed and forgiven, placed into mystical union with Jesus and His church.  

Secongly, The Supper is then a sign and seal according to theologian Michael Horton of our “perpetual nourishment from the vine.”  In Communion we are nourished by Jesus, encouraged and exhorted to continue to abide in Him by practicing this sacrament. So practicing our union with Christ involves practicing these sacraments in Christian worship.  We live out the “Tupperware Gospel” in our being plunged beneath the waters of baptism and in taking bread and cup in communion.  Going with Christ through death into new life and eating with Christ around a table with all who are in Him.  This is how we are lifted up to the Lord.  This is how our hearts are re-calibrated and aimed at Christ and His Kingdom.  We practice our union with Christ in this way.  

Thirdly, in Christ we are united not just to Him, but to other believers.  They are one with Him as we are one with Him. When we practice reconciliation, we are practicing our union with Christ.  I think reconciliation is one of the most disregarded practices of our faith.  We think reconciliation is accomplished by just not dealing with it on one hand or “talking” with someone else about it on the other hand.  We don’t practice union with Christ, because we are afraid to speak, afraid to cause a scene or enter into conflict with our brothers and sisters.  We would rather just bury it or work it out by talking about it with someone else.  But reconciliation has already been achieved in the body of Jesus.  This is ours.  There are stern words then for not practicing what is already ours.  It comes with warnings about the table of communion.  Drinking in an unworthy manner and opening ourselves up to judgement happens when we eat and are not reconciled to our brothers and sisters in Christ.  When we don’t consider the body, the other hands and feet united to Jesus our head.  When we don’t practice reconciliation that is already ours. You see, you are placed in the Tupperware and so is that brother or sister you just objectified with your words.  You are placed in the Tupperware with that brother or sister that you won’t work things out with, because then they might know something is wrong or that you aren’t the great person they think you are or when you are embittered because you haven’t shared your offense with them.  Practicing reconciliation is practicing the benefits of our union with Christ.  We are so secure in Jesus, and so is our brother and sister that we can share without threat of loss, without threat of our identity being shaken or removed.  Making it a habit to share your offenses and own your stuff is a way to re-calibrate our hearts towards Jesus, our union with Him and our participation in the Kingdom.  It is a way to protest our world and the ways of alienation that are so prevalent in it. 

May we cherish our union with Christ and practice it in baptism, communion and reconciliation.  And remember Paul’s words from Galatians:  I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.