The word 'Christ' is not English...It's a word that the translators never translated...Its a Greek word. It means "The anointed One and His anointing...The Word say we are anointed with the same anointing that he is anointed with.
But....But if we do not walk in that anointing, how can one say they are in Christ? We walk in Christ or we do not. How many scriptures, how many promises come with "If we are IN Christ"? We have to walk in the anointing to be in Christ, we have to walk in the anointing in order to receive many promises. Do you see what I'm driving at?
Yes, I absolutely do! I know what the scriptures teach on this, and I believe the scriptures. But, what I see is this. If we walk according to the flesh, we will die in our sins. If we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap corruption, but if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life. But, we may still sin. And, scripture also teaches that daily we die to sin and self, and that by the Spirit if we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh, then we have eternal life.
So, what I see at work here is that walking in the anointing, or walking in or by the Spirit or according to the Spirit doesn't necessarily mean we never sin, but that we don't walk in sin, it no longer has control over our lives, but we now live by the Spirit of God and we conduct our lives according to the Spirit, by the Spirit, and empowered by the Spirit. If we sin, we repent and we keep on walking in the Spirit. But, this does not mean we can sin, confess, sin, confess and on and on with the same sins over and over again, for that is not true repentance. That is more like walking according to the flesh if we continue in sinful practices and we never truly change.
But, yet I also see that scripture indicates that the church, i.e. believers in Jesus, can, at some point, fall from their purity of heart and devotion to the Lord in some areas and that they may need to be revived and brought back to a right fellowship with the Lord. I don't think they go out of being "in Christ" at that point in time, but it is also possible that they never were "in Christ" to begin with. But, if they are "in Christ," then I believe God will bring them back. Yet, I also know that we should never ever take God's grace for granted or think that since we are "in Christ," IF we are truly "In Christ," that we can live however we want and God's grace covers it all. Scripture is real clear on that subject. If we walk in sin, we will die in sin. And, yes, scripture speaks much of what it means to be "in Christ," and it has everything to do with walking in lifestyle (in practice) according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh.
I think what you are hitting on here, if I understand correctly, is that we can't just make a profession of faith in Jesus Christ and yet continue living in sin, engaged in sinful practices. Being "in Christ" means death to sin and living to righteousness. It means we walk according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. If we say we have fellowship with God but we walk in darkness, we are liars who do not live by the truth. We are not saved from our sins by a mere profession of faith. And, faith is not an intellectual assent or a one-time emotional decision made at an altar. True faith in Jesus Christ results in a transformation of heart and mind of the Spirit of God wherein one dies to sin so that one can now live to righteousness. If we say we are saved but we are still walking according to the flesh, then scripture teaches we are not really saved; we are not really born again.
