The angel said to them, "Don't be afraid, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all the people.
Christ as man was a representative man. There were only two thoroughly representative men; the first is Adam: Adam was disobedient and the whole race fell. “In Adam all die.” Now, the man Jesus is the second great representative man. He does not represent the whole human race, He represents as many as His Father gave him; He represents a chosen company. Now, whatever Christ did, if you belong to those who are in Him He did for you. So that Christ circumcised or Christ crucified, Christ dead or Christ living, Christ buried or Christ risen, you are a partaker of all that He did and all that He is, for you are considered to be one with Him. See then, the joy and comfort of the incarnation of Christ. Does Jesus, as man, take manhood up to heaven? He has taken me up there. Our earthly father Adam fell, and I fell too, for I was in him. The Lord Jesus Christ rises, and I rise if I am in Him. See, beloved, when Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross all His elect children were nailed there too, and they suffered and died in Him. When He was put into the grave the whole of His people lay slumbering there in Him, for they were in the loins of Jesus as Levi was in the loins of Abraham; and when He rose they rose and received the foretaste of their own future resurrection, because He lives they will also live; and now that He has gone up to heaven to claim the throne, He has claimed the throne for every soul that is in Him. Oh, this is joy indeed! Then how can I be afraid of God, for this day, by faith, I, a poor undeserving sinner, having put my trust in Jesus, can be bold and say that I sit upon the very throne of God. Don’t think that we have said too much, for in the person of Christ every believer is raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Because as Jesus is there, representatively, each one of us is there in Him. 