Romans 16:10 NASB95
Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus.
To be in Christ is to be placed into union with His life and the life He lives, His lifestyle, plans, and His daily agenda. To be in Him is a total change of identity, ability, purpose, and plans. I love what the Holy Spirit says about Apelles in Romans 16:10. Apelles is referred to as “The approved in Christ.” Paul didn’t say Apelles was approved; he said that Apelles was “the approved,” and Paul said that about him because he was “in Christ.” No matter how much rejection you have experienced by others or how much self-rejection you have afflicted yourself with, if you are “in Christ,” you are accepted and approved of so much that being approved is like a title written over you. You’re in Christ now, and therefore you can’t see yourself through any other grid than who Jesus is and all that Jesus has.
You can’t allow yourself to have any thought about you other than what God thinks about you, and He sees you in union with Christ. Never again see yourself through your eyes. Only see yourself through God’s eyes. Colossians 3:3 says that the old self rejected, wounded, misfit self is dead and that your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is now your life, and therefore He is your self-image. How approved of is Jesus? That is now your identity. You are “The approved in Christ.” This is the gloriously radical truth about who you are in Him.