Through the incarnation, Jesus humbled himself and emptied himself to become like us. In his resurrection/ascension, he allows us to share in his divinity so we can become like him. Our identity is so in union with his that, in light of Paul’s persecution of the church, Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting me.”Paul championed the primary truth of the gospel, which is being “In Christ,” and here for the first time Paul heard the mystery of the Christian’s identity with Christ being spoken to him by the Lord. Our shared identity in Christ is so strong that when Paul persecuted other Christians, Jesus said that Paul was persecuting Him. Look at how Paul describes his early tutelage as a Christian in the school of Christ.
“For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and I tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through His grace, WAS PLEASED TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.” (Galatians 1:11 – 17)
This was at the heart of everything the apostle Paul taught for the rest of his life. Jesus was revealed IN HIM, not just to him. Paul said in verse eleven that the gospel was preached to him but not according to man, and this revelation of Christ being in him was the gospel that was preached to Paul. If you don’t have a revelation of Christ being in you, then you don’t fully understand the gospel. The good news is much better than you could ever have imagined, and it is this, “Jesus died on the Cross for you, that risen from the dead He might live his life in you, and that raises your quality of life into the heavenly’s.” If a teacher of the word or a preacher doesn’t preach foundationally communicate that the heart of Christianity is our union with the risen/ascended or Jesus, then they are not preaching or teaching the heart of the gospel. I am not saying they are doing that intentionally, but I am saying they are being robbed of, and therefore not offering to their own people the great truth that sets us free, for Jesus is the truth, and Jesus living in us and through us is the freeing truth that glorifies God. If Christ risen from the dead and alive in you is not your personal revelation, then remember that the Father is not a respecter of persons, and ask him to do for you by the Holy Spirit what he did for the apostle Paul. Ask him to reveal His son in you.