Read Better, Preach Better

The theme of Union with Christ is conveyed by a series of phrases that employ different prepositions: ‘in Christ’ (ἐν Χριστῷ); ‘into Christ’ (εἰς Χριστόν); ‘with Christ’ (σὺν Χριστῷ); and ‘through Christ’ (διὰ Χριστοῦ). An important question to ask is: what do the prepositions mean within these phrases? Take ‘in’ (ἐν) for example. This is the most common preposition in the Greek New Testament (by far), and is enormously flexible in its usage. It’s difficult to know how best to read it within the ‘in Christ’ phrase. Is the ‘in’ like ‘in New York’, or ‘in command’, or ‘in an hour’, or ‘in jeans’? In fact, the word is even more flexible in Greek than it is in English. It could also be translated as ‘with’, ‘by’, ‘into’, ‘on account of’, or ‘while’. And that’s a shame, because this is the key phrase related to union with Christ. I’m sure that one of the reasons union with Christ is such a puzzling theme is that the key phrase, ‘in Christ’, includes this ambiguous preposition.

Con Campbell