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Together in Christ is a Christian education ministry that, in response to the Spirit of Christ’s leading, and in fidelity to the Spirit of Christ speaking in Scripture, seeks to do God’s will by:

 

• 1) Declaring the truth of our LORD Jesus Christ's creation of this universe:

  • The individual human being is a descendant of Adam, and his wife Eve, whom our LORD Jesus Christ created on Day 6 of creation, about 6000 years ago, according to the Scriptures (e.g. Genesis 1–2, 5, 11; Hebrews 1:2; Colossians 1:15–18).

  • Historical and scientific truth derives from the reality of the biblical Creator God and what He says He did, is doing, and will do, as perfectly recorded and preserved in the Christian Bible (e.g. Genesis 1, 8:22; Isaiah 46:9–10; Jeremiah 14:22, 33:19–26; Acts 7:50).

  • The Scriptures make clear that there was no death, physical or spiritual, before Adam's sin against God, but that through Adam's sin physical and spiritual death for humans and animals entered into God's universe (e.g. Genesis 1:29-30, 2:17, 9:3–4; Ezekiel 18:4; Romans 5:12).

  • The Scriptures also make plain that there is a critical difference between historical and observational science, so that the present is not the key to the past, but that God's infallible eye-witness account of the past, present and future in Scripture is the one reliable basis from which to engage in scientific and historical inquiry (e.g. Job 38:1–7).

• 2) Declaring the truth that our LORD Jesus Christ ordained His Apostle Paul to be the apostle through whom He revealed the mystery of the Body of Christ:

  • The dispensation of the mystery of grace, the Body of Christ, was given directly by Jesus from Heaven to His Apostle Paul (e.g. Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 9:17; Galatians 1; Ephesians 2–3; Colossians 1:25–7).

  • It is in our LORD Jesus' Word to and through His Apostle Paul that is communicated the identity, unity, chronological location, freedom, and positional riches of the Church that is the Body of Christ (e.g. Romans 5:1–2, 6:14, 7:4, 9:23–4, 11:12, 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 2:20, 3:24–5, 5:1; Ephesians 1:7, 1:18, 2:7, 3:8; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 1:27).

  • Our LORD Jesus through His Apostle Paul distinguishes between Jesus' prophesied plan and purpose—spoken since the world began (e.g. Acts 3:21)—for Israel and the nations, and our LORD Jesus' unprophesied plan and purpose for His mystery Body—hidden, kept secret, since the world began (e.g. Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Colossians 1:26)—but now revealed to and through Apostle Paul and his co-workers (e.g. Romans 16:25–6b; Colossians 1:26).

• 3) Declaring the truth of the identity of the mystery Body of Christ, all Christian believers (Ephesians 3:8b–9):

  • Spiritually, we are not Israel/Jews, nor are we nations/Gentiles, but new creations in Christ, members of His Body individually and altogether (e.g. 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 2:11–22).

  • The Christian believer died to the old Adam when he/she first believed, died to the old man he was before he believed, and it is no longer ‘I’ that live, but Christ that lives in me (e.g. Romans 6:2–11; Galatians 2:20).

  • Every Christian is in Christ forever, so sealed by Holy Spirit who indwells every Christian forever (e.g. Romans 8:9–11; 2 Corinthians 1:21–2; Ephesians 1:13, 4:30).

• 4) Declaring the truth of the unity of the mystery Body of Christ, all Christian believers:

  • We are not a man-made community by human effort, striving, or regulations, but a God-made unity by Christ’s finished work at the Cross, participated in by faith in Jesus (e.g. Galatians 6:14; Ephesians 2:10, 2:16, 3:17, 4:24; Philippians 3:9; Colossians 1:13, 1:20, 3:10).

  • Jesus Christ is in every Christian forever, sealed by Jesus' Spirit within every Christian forever (e.g. Romans 8:9–11; 2 Corinthians 13:5).

  • Jesus Christ is the Creator and the Head of His Body, and every Christian believer is a member of Jesus' Body, and belongs to Christ forever (e.g. Ephesians 1:22, 4:15, 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 2:10, 2:19).

  • Christians cannot, and ought not to try, to cast fellow members of Jesus’ Body out of His Body (e.g. Romans 8:33–9, 14:1–4). That is impossible (e.g. Romans 8:3), and is also scapegoating, a behaviour that is unchristian, an ungodly practice (e.g. Romans 14:10–20; Galatians 5:15). Church discipline, if it must occur, is never eternal expulsion, but a temporary pause in fellowship, until a brother is willing to cease resisting the Spirit of Christ speaking in and through Scripture, and to once again yield to the Spirit of God within in thought, word and deed (e.g. 1 Corinthians 5:1–13; 2 Thessalonians 3:14–15; 1 Timothy 1:20).

  • Every Christian is a fellow member of Jesus’ Body (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12:12, 12:14, 12:20).

• 5) Declaring the truth of the chronological location of the mystery Body of Christ, all Christian believers, in God’s unfolding sequence of historical events:

  • Christians are not Israel or under the Law, but are the new creature, Jesus' Body, under grace (e.g. Galatians 3; Romans 6).

  • Christians are not in the previous dispensation of the Law, but in the present dispensation of the mystery, the dispensation of grace (e.g. 1 Corinthians 9:17; Ephesians 3:2; Colossians 1:25).

  • We are situated in the ‘valley between the mountains’ of the first and second comings of Jesus Christ, which is the dispensation of the mystery, of the Body of Christ, of the age of 'grace and peace from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ' (e.g. Romans 9–11; Ephesians 2–3).

• 6) Declaring the truth of the freedom of the mystery Body of Christ, all Christian believers:

  • Christians are not to be legalistic, because Christ has set us free from the yoke of slavery to the Law, and the Christian is dead to the law (e.g. Romans 3:19–21, 3:27–8, 6:14, 7:4–6, 10:4; Galatians 2:16, 2:19, 2:21, 5:1–11).

  • We walk in the Spirit, so that for us there is no law (e.g. Romans 7:6, 8:1–4; Galatians 3:2, 5:18). The Spirit has indwelt the Christian forever. Where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom (e.g. 2 Corinthians 3:17). By walking in the Spirit, the law of God has been fulfilled in us (e.g. Romans 8:4). 

  • The Christian is freed from the lies and darkness in which he/she dwelt before he/she first believed in Jesus. And the Christian is no longer to walk in darkness and lies, but as in the day, in the light, in the truth (e.g. Romans 13:11–14; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Ephesians 5:8–11, 6:11–13; 1 Thessalonians 5:4–8).

  • We are not bullied or intimidated by lawless human governments, if and when they fail to operate by their divine mandate, because our joyful submission to human government under God is always subject to our unyielding ultimate submission to our Creator God Himself, Jesus Christ our LORD, the Head of His Body, of which we are all members by faith (e.g. Isaiah 5:20; Romans 13:1–6; Colossians 2:10; 1 Timothy 2:1–2; 1 Peter 2:17).

  • Should a human government refuse to govern in the manner that God expects, and instead operates by lies, intimidation, and corruption, the Christian's conscience and devotion to God's instructions supersede any ungodly instructions given by a human government (e.g. Acts 5:29; Galatians 1:10; Ephesians 6:6; Colossians 3:22; 1 Thessalonians 2:4).

• 7) Declaring the truth of the riches, the spiritual position, of the mystery Body of Christ, all Christian believers:

  • The individual Christian believer has an eternal spiritual position in Christ, due to being an eternal member of Jesus’ mystery Body, and so is already: forgiven in Jesus, righteous (justified) in Jesus, holy in Jesus, spiritually seated in heavenly places in Jesus, and having already all the riches of God’s grace by virtue of being in Jesus forever (e.g. Romans 3:24–30, 4:5–8, 5:1, 12:1; 1 Corinthians 3:17, 6:19; Ephesians 1:4, 1:7, 2:6, 4:32; Colossians 1:14, 1:22, 2:13, 3:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:27; 1 Timothy 2:8).

  • The individual Christian has 'this treasure in an earthen vessel’ (2 Corinthians 4:7), his/her condition in the flesh until the Rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13–18). His/her condition in the flesh means that his/her spiritual position and physical condition are simultaneous realities (e.g. Romans 7:21–5, 8:2; Galatians 5:16–17), until the glorification of his/her physical body (e.g. Romans 8:17; 1 Corinthians 15:42–58; Philippians 3:21).

  • We have both the law of the Spirit and the law of sin at work in our mortal bodies (e.g. Romans 7:21–5, 8:2; Galatians 5:16–17) until the Rapture. The Spirit is already victorious, but sin continues to afflict us until our glorification (2 Corinthians 5:1–10). 

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