Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Progressive Christian
Is Christ Really In All Of Us?

Is Christ Really In All Of Us?

Last updated on: February 8, 2019 at 9:06 pm by Keith Giles

Is Christ Really In All Of Us? 2019-02-08T21:06:12+00:00 Keith Giles

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“If something goes wrong, I’m the first to admit it. The first to admit it, and the last one to know.” – Paul Simon, “Something So Right”

Ok, I need to confess something to everyone: I might be wrong.

You see, I’ve been saying for a long time now that, while we are all in Christ, not everyone has Christ in them.

That was my firm and honest conviction. Until last night. That’s when my friend Chuck McKnight challenged my assumptions about all of this.

So, those blog posts I’ve published here about how we are all inside of God, and how we are all Christlike but not Christ, and how we can’t know Christ apart from Jesus, are all still true for me. But, I might need to add something to the mix, I think.

Or maybe not.

If nothing else, I may need to go ahead and admit that it’s at least possible that, not only are we all in Christ, but Christ is inside all of us.

Why would I say that? Because of these verses of scripture:

“There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” – Ephesians 4:4-6

First of all, the verse in Ephesians says that “God is in all” and that’s pretty significant. So, not only are we all in God, but according to this verse, God is also in all of us.

Wow.

Another verse that rocked me was:

“But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me..” – Galatians 1:15-16

Notice it says that God was pleased to “reveal His Son IN me” and not that God was pleased to reveal His Son TO me. This suggests, at least the possibility, that Christ was already in Paul and God only needed to reveal this Christ in him.

Maybe.

Here’s one other verse that made me go “Hmm…”:

“Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” – Colossians 3:11

The Colossians verse says that “Christ is in all”, and whereas that may be referring to those who are in the Body of Christ, it does beg the question. Is it possible that Christ really IS already in everyone? Or does it only mean that, “here in the Body of Christ” this is true for “all”?

Hold that thought, because I also ran across this other verse which made me think maybe I was right the first time:

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.” – 2 Corinthians 13:5-6

So, this verse seems to suggest that maybe I was right about the idea that Christ is not in everyone, but only in those who are “in the faith” and that we need to test ourselves to see whether or not we are “in Christ.”

Another verse that also supports my original thesis is this one:

“ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.” – Romans 8:9-10

Again, this verse suggests that there is an “if/then” scenario being discussed: If we are in Christ, then we belong to Christ. Or, If Christ is in you, then you have the spirit of life in you. But it’s also possible, according to this verse, that the Spirit of Christ does NOT live in you, and if so, then you do not belong to Christ.

Full disclosure: I went to bed last night thinking that I was totally wrong about this idea and that everyone really was already “in Christ” as Chuck had suggested. Those first three verses had me going. I was already re-thinking everything I thought I knew about this and totally ready to write the “I Was Wrong” blog post.

But, then I sat down and started searching out other scriptures that could support this new way of thinking, and instead of finding more support for it, I instead found a lot of verses that didn’t support it.

So, for now, I’m going to say that, whereas I might be wrong about this idea that only those who follow Christ are in Christ and those who do not aren’t in Christ, chances are looking better that I am NOT wrong about it.

Honestly, I’m still very open to being convinced back the other way. I kind of like the implication that everyone is already in Christ and they just don’t know it yet. But, the problem is, that concept doesn’t quite seem to be supported by scripture.

What I see is this: We are all in God. God is everywhere. We are all in Christ. He is the One in whom we all live and move and have our being. But Christ in not in everyone of us. Christ is only in us if we open ourselves up to Christ and intentionally live our lives in Christ. In other words: If we abide in Christ, then Christ abides in us. And that “abiding” is more than simply breathing, it’s an intentional decision to embrace the life of Christ that is all around us, and to embody Christ in our daily life.

There is still an invitation for each of us to accept or to reject. We can come to Christ to have life, or we can decide not to come to Christ.

Now, I do still believe that everyone will eventually chose to be in Christ, one way or the other. But either way, this is still a choice that must be made.

What do you think?

Keith Giles was formerly a licensed and ordained minister who walked away from organized church 11 years ago, to start a home fellowship that gave away 100% of the offering to the poor in the community. Today, He and his wife live in Meridian, Idaho, awaiting their next adventure.

His new book “Jesus Unbound: Liberating the Word of God from the Bible”, is available now on Amazon and features a Foreword by author Brian Zahnd.

He is also the author of the Amazon best-seller, “Jesus Untangled: Crucifying Our Politics To Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb” with a Foreword by Greg Boyd.

Keith also co-hosts the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast on iTunes and Podbean.

BONUS: Want to unlock exclusive content including blog articles, short stories, music, podcasts, videos and more? Visit my Patreon page.

Previous Post

February 6, 2019

Barna Poll: Millennial Christians Have More Non-Christian Friends

Next Post

February 12, 2019 Jesus: The Goat Shepherd

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Biblicism Christian Politics Cosmic Christ Deconstruction Discipleship Dispensationalism Divine Unity Ekklesia End Time Stuff Eschatology Evergreen Following Jesus Gender General Christian Topics Gnostics God's Love Gospel of Judas Gospel of Mary Gospel of Philip Gospel of the Kingdom Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Truth Hell Historical Jesus Inner Circle Investigative Reporting Islam LGBTQ Issues Marriage Mental/Emotional Health Mystery Non-Duality Philosophy Podcast Poetry Politics Poverty Preemptive Love Prophecy Psychology Quantum Theology Racism Reconstruction Satire Sex Technology Theology Uncategorized Universalism

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Joseph's brothers sold him to traders for thirty pieces of silver.

Select your answer to see how you score.

TRUE FALSE

Books by This Author Books by Keith Giles

See All Titles »