I'll bite. I think we are in Christ when we are born again, and receive Him as Savior. We are also in Christ, in eternity past when we were elected or chosen before the foundation of the world. I do not believe in eternal justification however. We do, in time, hear the Gospel, and choose to believe. I do believe faith is a gift, given us to be born again. I do not believe we have to believe first to be born again, as a matter of fact we can not.
John 1:13 says who were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. It is not by our will or exercise of faith that we are born again. We are born again first.
My friend Dr. Pete Pettingill puts it nicely about 1 John 2:24;
2.24 ‘As for you, let that abide (remain) in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abide (remain) in you, you also will abide in the Son, and in the Father.’
The way of knowing the truth is to allow to continue to remain in them what they first heard when they responded to Christ for salvation. Then the Holy Spirit came to them and applied the word in their hearts, and if they keep hold of that there will be no danger that they cease to remain in the Father and the Son. This latter idea may mean doctrinally or in spiritual experience. In fact the two go together. As earlier, the secret is to go back to their foundations (2.7).
2.25 ‘And this is the promise which he promised us, even the life eternal.’ It is worth making sure that they do so, for ‘He’ has promised eternal life to those who truly know Him. Eternal life consists in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ Whom He had sent (John 17.3). It is therefore bound up in both the only true God and in Jesus Christ as the ambassador of the only true God. This does not necessarily separate the only true God and Jesus Christ. Just as an ambassador may be sent by a government of which he is a part, as its representative, so that he is both an essential part of the government and its representative, so Jesus was sent by the only true God, the Godhead of which He is a part, as the representative of the Godhead.
Here is his commentary on 1 John 2:7;
2.7 ‘Beloved, no new commandment do I write to you, but an old commandment which you (plural) had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard.’
Having described them as his ‘little children’ John now addresses them as his ‘beloved ones’. He exemplifies in himself the truth he is exhorting them to. And he wants it immediately clear that he is not bringing to them something new, but something that they had ‘from the beginning’, from when they first responded to Christ. Others may come with innovations but he will bring to them only the true word which was spoken by Jesus and which they received when they were first converted and which has been responsible for all their blessing.
And what is that old commandment? It is what God commanded. Jesus said, ‘for I did not speak from Myself, but the Father Who sent me, He has given me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak, and I know that His commandment is life eternal. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to Me, thus I speak’ (John 12.49-50). So it is what He told them. It is ‘the word that they heard’. And what is that word? It is the commandment of eternal life (John 12.50). It is concerning the Word of Life (1.1). It is His word through Jesus. It includes the wide scope of the teaching of Jesus seen as included in one commandment, the commandment of eternal life. It is that they must look to Christ as the light of the world, the light of life (John 8.12). It is the word of the cross, that Christ crucified is the power of God to salvation through His work on the cross and through His resurrection (1 Corinthians 1.18 compare 1.7; 2.2; John 6.52-59; Mark 10.45). It is that sin must be abhorred (1.7-10). It is that they must keep His word and His commandments, His teaching (John 14.10, 23 with 14.15, 21; 15.7 with 15.10) as those who enjoy eternal life. It may be seen as including that they must love one another, although that is the emphasis of a new commandment (John 13.34; 15.12, 17). Thus they are to look back to the old foundations that they first received in the traditions about Jesus. Compare here 3.10 where doing righteousness (which includes loving God and one’s neighbour) and loving one’s brother are two major aspects of the Christian life.
Dr. Pete Pettingill
http://uk.geocities.com/jonpartin/1john.html
