Where will you not find the emphasis on our position in Christ?
That emphasis is absent from the Old Testament, the four Gospels, and Acts. Even Paul’s letters to the Romans and Corinthians do not stress our position in Christ; rather, the prison epistles—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon—uniquely direct believers to their position in the Body of Christ.
Les explains that the prison epistles—Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon—were written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome shortly before he was martyred. In these letters there is no single mention of the Old Testament, no reference back to it, and not one single reference to the Jew, because everything has now flowed into the teaching of the Body of Christ, in which there is no distinction, no Jew and no Gentile. These letters are strictly church ground, and no other portion of Scripture is so profoundly directed to the position of the church age believer. Therefore, you will not find this emphasis in the Old Testament, the four Gospels, Acts, or even in Paul’s letters of Romans and Corinthians. In the prison epistles, ninety-some times in just six chapters, phrases such as “in Him,” “in Christ,” and “in Whom” depict our position. Les repeats these things because repetition is the only way it sinks in.