Print Friendly, PDF & Email

We are all accustomed to entering our PIN code at the ATM or “hole in the wall” when we want to withdraw money. You may not know that it was first conceived in 1967 as a 6-digit numeric code by John Shepherd-Barron as a security code for a bank vending machine. He chose 6 digits because that was how many he could remember. However, when he talked to his wife about it, she preferred 4 digits, which became an accepted norm.

Our credit card issuers tell us never to write down our PIN, to cover the keypad with our other hand when we are entering it at a machine, and to generally treat it like a deep, family secret. But I want to share a PIN code you can talk about to every Christian you meet.

Imagine my surprise when our designer told me the acronym “PIN” was used in Romans 8:1 of the developing Mirror Translation by South African Francois du Toit. Now known as the Mirror Bible, some key New Testament epistles have been paraphrased from the Greek and I have used some of those texts before in my writing that I found online and they have now been published in a paperback book ( available at Amazon.com). The format is to give his paraphrase first in bold type, and then to add his comments and explanations in italic type.

“Now the decisive conclusion is this: in Christ, every bit of condemning evidence against us is cancelled” (Romans 8:1 Mirror). And then after commenting on his agreement with most translators to omit the last phrase of the verse, he adds this exciting comment: “The “in Christ” revelation is key to God’s dealing with man. It is the PIN-code of the Bible.

[See I Cor 1:30 and Eph 1:4].)” Wow! I find that comment to be exciting, powerful, and pregnant with meaning, and the essence of what I teach.

Let me repeat that again: “The ‘in Christ’ revelation is key to God’s dealing with man. It is the PIN-code of the Bible.” This is not something that he or I claim any exclusive right to, but rather echoes what the giants of the faith have stated for centuries. In my small booklet In Christ Classics, and the larger expanded work In Christ Treasures, and again recently in my book In Christ, Christ In, I have quoted from the written works of men of God such as Andrew Murray, J. Hudson Taylor, A.J. Gordon, F.B. Meyer, A.T. Pierson, A.B. Simpson, and E. Stanley Jones, to name a few. “This thing was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26), for God scattered 164 references to “in Christ” throughout Paul’s 14 epistles in the New Testament.

The two references du Toit gives in his comment are well-known to most of us. “Of God’s doing are we in Christ. He is both the genesis and genius of our wisdom; a wisdom that reveals how righteous, sanctified and redeemed we are in him” (I Corinthians 1:30 Mirror). “He associated us in Christ before the fall of the world! Jesus is God’s mind made up about mankind! He always knew in his love that he would present us again face-to-face before him in blameless innocence” (Ephesians 1:4).

Now that you know the PIN code, you should remind yourself of how much is in the bank. “Let’s celebrate God! He lavished every blessing heaven has upon us in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3 Mirror). No wonder that’s my favorite verse. “You can be sure that God will take care of everything you need, his generosity exceeding even yours in the glory that pours from Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 Message).

“I desire for you to realize what the Father has given you from his own limitless resource, so that you may be dynamically reinforced in your inner being by the Spirit of God” (Ephesians 3:16 Mirror).

This is truth worth sharing openly. You too can be completely satisfied with Him!