6: Remember the Titans- God's People as One Team

The movie “Remember the Titans” is arguably one of the best sports movies ever made. It tells the true story of an Alexandria, Virginia football team in 1971 that came together as one to win the championship with a perfect record despite great obstacles. Their greatest obstacle was internal: they struggled to unite as a team over racial differences given the recently integrated T.C. Williams high school to include both black and white students.

In the movie, Coach Boone, the head black coach of the Titans, warns his team that if they do not come together as one, they will be defeated. He has the team run to Gettysburg and says the following in response to the racism on the team: “This is where they fought the battle of Gettysburg. Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fighting the same fight that we are still fighting among ourselves today. This green field right here, painted red, bubblin' with the blood of young boys. Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies. Listen to their souls, men. I killed my brother with malice in my heart. Hatred destroyed my family. You listen, and you take a lesson from the dead. If we don't come together right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other. And maybe... I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men.”

The Church can learn from Coach Boone’s words given her current state. The global Church is currently very divided. Some call Sunday morning the most “segregated hours” of a week in America. The Church is often not only divided on racial lines but also economic. The Church is certainly divided over theology and often judges other denominations based on what they believe. Yet this is far from what God intended. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” According to Paul, oneness in Christ is a spiritual reality. It is not about race (Jew or Gentile), economic status (slave or free), or gender (male or female). The Church is one in Christ. So why doesn’t it look like the Church is one?

John 17 reveals the high value Jesus places on unity in the Church. In John 17:20-23, Jesus prays for all Christians. He prays to God, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

The primary prayer request Jesus has for Christians in this passage, which chronologically takes place right before Jesus dies, is for future Christians to be one. Clearly, Jesus highly prioritizes this. The unity he prays for is remarkable: that the Church would be one as the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. He adds an amazing promise to this prayer: if Christians are one in this way, the world will believe that God sent Jesus. This is another way of saying that if the Church is one, the entire world will be saved, believing in Jesus and the gospel message. Jesus adds another promise to this, stating that he has given the glory he has to Christians, so that they may be one as Jesus and the Father are one. Specifically, this means, according to Jesus, that he will be in the Church, and God in him, and when this happens they will be brought to complete unity at some point. Jesus repeats his first promise again: “Then the world will know you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

What an incredible promise from Jesus regarding the unity of the Church: once we unite, the whole world will believe in Jesus. Another way to say this: once Christians love each other like Christ, then the whole world will believe in Jesus. In the movie “Remember the Titans”, Coach Boone was all about winning. He says: “I’m a winner. I’m going to win.” How do Christians win? I think by the whole world coming to know Christ. And Jesus says that goal is attainable if the Church unites like Jesus and the Father are one: which means, per my post on John's gospel in section 1, “Is Jesus God?”, that they are united in purpose (not the same essence). And what is the purpose of Jesus and the Father? Love. The Church uniting in true love for God, other Christians, and non-Christians, will result, then, in the salvation of the entire world.

Coach Boone encourages his Titan team with the following words: “According to Greek mythology, the Titans were greater even than the gods. They ruled their universe with absolute power! Well that football field out there tonight, that’s our universe. Let’s rule it like Titans!” Now, much of the parallel between “Remember the Titans” fails here as both Christ and Christians, God's team, are submitted to God, not greater than God. Further, for Christ and Christians, God's team, winning is not about power, but about love. But the spirit behind this quote is helpful. Coach Boone is trying to empower his team to fight and win the game as they have the ability to do so as Titans. Similarly, Christ, and subsequently, Christ's followers, have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to win the world back to God. As I explain in section 3 of my blog, “Universal Salvation”, we are on the winning side. God fully intends to save every person: and He plans and desires to use Jesus and His church to do it. To repeat what I say in section 3 of my blog: “This [the promise of universal salvation] does not change the means by which God plans to save the world, this simply provides confidence that the Great Commission will be fully accomplished. Matthew 28:18-20 states the Great Commission, 18 “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The Bible is clear He plans to save the world through His people, Christ and the Church. Jesus and his followers are God's team. God's Plan A is to use His people to make disciples of all nations, and the Bible gives no Plan B.”

Jesus’ prayer for the Church in John 17 reveals the key to achieving the Great Commission: unity in the Church. Once the Church is one and moves as a unit, the world will believe in Jesus and be saved. Jesus makes this promise twice in John 17. Christianity is a team sport, just like football. Sheryl, the daughter of the assistant coach, Coach Yoast in “Remember the Titans” says at the end of the movie, “People say that it can’t work, black and white; well here we make it work, everyday. We have our disagreements, of course, but before we reach for hate, always, always, we remember the Titans.” What if the Church made more of an effort to “make it work”? The multiple Protestant denominations, Catholics, Orthodox Christians? Biblical unitarians? What if we focused more on what unites us than on what divides us: namely, 1) loving God and loving others around us, and 2) faith and belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ? If we did, wouldn’t the Church be more attractive to the world?

But unity takes effort and often discomfort. Naturally, people do not want to try to be on a “team” with those that are different. But God’s standard is for His people to be perfect in love. It is easy to love those we like. It takes perfection to love all people, including the ones we do not like – including, even, our enemies. Coach Boone yells at his team during training camp: “You look like a bunch of fifth grade sissies after a cat fight! You got anger, that's good you're gonna need it, you got aggression that's even better you're gonna need that, too. But any little two year old child can throw a fit! Football is about controlling that anger, harnessing that aggression into a team effort to achieve perfection!” Anyone can love their friends, but perfect love demands love for all people. Coach Boone also says, “We will be perfect in every aspect of the game. You drop a pass, you run a mile. You miss a blocking assignment, you run a mile. You fumble the football, and I will break my foot off in your John Brown hind parts and then you will run a mile. Perfection. Let's go to work.” God is in the business of making His sons and daughters, His team, perfect. Philippians 1:6 says, “…being confident of this, that he (God) who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Who is Paul talking to? He is talking to, according to Philippians 1:1, all the church in Philippi. This “you” represents the whole Church. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16 to the church in Corinth, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” Again, the “you” refers to a group of people: Jesus, who is God's temple, and by extension all his followers, the whole Church. James, who writes to the 12 tribes across the Roman Empire (James 1:2-4), says, “Count it all joy, my brothers [and sisters], when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” God's people become perfect and complete together. We miss a lot of what the Bible is saying when we take “you” to just mean us individually. Again, Christianity is a team sport. It is about Jesus and his followers coming together as one temple of God and loving each other and the world together. We need each other to “win” – to complete Jesus’ Great Commission. 

What is more, Christianity is not a democracy. Coach Boone says regarding him coaching the football team, “This is no democracy. It is a dictatorship. I am the law.” Christ and Christians are bound by God’s law: His law of love, to love God and neighbor. Part of love is pursuing unity, even when it is uncomfortable and hard.

Jesus makes clear in John 17:22 that Christians have all they need to be one. Jesus prayed, ^“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” So why don’t we see this unity as a reality in the world today?

I wonder if part of the reason is that Christians don’t fully believe that Jesus has given his Church the glory God gave him. Christians don’t fully believe they can actually be like Christ in the world. 1 John 2:5-6 says, “By this we know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” God is not commanding the unattainable here, particularly given that Jesus is not God. God fully expects for each Christian to walk like Jesus walked, and God is working in each person’s life and heart to fully sanctify us and make us like Christ. But most Christians believe Jesus is God, and if he is, we will never be able to walk in the same way he did, because Christians are not God. We will never fully believe that we have received the same glory from God that God gave Jesus if we believe Jesus is God. This is because we know we will never be as glorious as God, who many Christians believe Jesus to be. If Christians truly believed it was actually possible to be just like Christ, and that is God’s goal in sanctification, perhaps Christians would be more empowered to live like Christ. Christians may say they believe they will be like Christ, but those who worship Jesus as God practically deny it, as Christians can only be so much like someone they believe is "God in the flesh".

In “Remember the Titans”, the Titans are in a middle of a big game, and they are losing. Coach Boone says, “It's all right. We're in a fight. You boys are doing all that you can do. Anybody can see that. Win or lose... We gonna walk out of this stadium tonight with our heads held high. Do your best. That's all anybody can ask for.” One of the players, Julius, replies, “No, it ain't Coach. With all due respect, uh, you demanded more of us. You demanded perfection. Now, I ain't saying that I'm perfect, 'cause I'm not. And I ain't gonna never be. None of us are. But we have won every single game we have played till now. So this team is perfect. We stepped out on that field that way tonight. And, uh, if it's all the same to you, Coach Boone, that's how we want to leave it.”

Similarly, God’s expectation is 1 John 2:5-6, which says, “By this we know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” Jesus has given us the same glory the Father gave him (John 17:22) as children of God. God is calling us to do more than our best: He is calling us to be perfect (Philippians 1:6, James 1:2-4). But not perfect individually: perfect as a team, as a body of believers in Christ. As a body that includes Christ: again, God's team is made up of Christ and his followers. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 illustrates this:

^12 “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” 

This passage is incredibly profound. Every person who becomes a child of God is now part of the body of Christ – part of Christ. Each person’s role is indispensable. Each person has the Holy Spirit and belongs to the body as a whole. The Church needs each other. This means that Protestants need Catholics, Catholics need the Orthodox Church, and biblical unitarians are indispensable to the body of Christ. There is to be no division in the body. All parts should have equal concern for each other. Consider: Christ is the head of the body. The person of Jesus is the head, not the whole body. 1 Corinthians 12 is revealing that Christ’s role is no more important than any other member of the body in God’s eyes. Christ needs his hands, his feet, his legs, etc. to fully function in their roles. If the body was just a head, it would not be alive. Jesus is giving the church the glory God gave him (John 17:20-23) so that each member of the Body can live like Jesus did in their God-given role. Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and sisters (Roman 8:29) who he is giving his God-given glory to. Jesus is part of a team, and he needs the other members of the team to fill their role too. God does not see Jesus’ role, though it was very significant, perhaps just as the head is the most significant part of a person, as more important than any other member of the body. Every Christian is being conformed to Christ’s image (Romans 8:29). Every Christian will become, like Christ, an image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). Completing the Great Commission is a huge task – and it is a task for a united Church that is day by day being conformed to the image of Christ. For when the Church unites in love, the world will be saved per Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-23).

At the beginning of one of the Titans’ games, they warm up using dance moves and a song. The song goes like this: “Everywhere we go/ Everywhere we go/ People wanna know/ People wanna know/ Who we are/ Who we are/ So we tell them/ We are the Titans! We are the Titans! The Mighty Mighty Titans! The Mighty Mighty Titans!” They sing the song in unison as a team.

One of the most important parts of coming together as a Church is for the body of Christ to be singing the same song. The head of the Church, Christ, is currently singing a different song than the majority Church, because Jesus knows he is not God. It is time for the Church to unite, in song and in every way, not over the unbiblical and extrabiblical Nicene Creed, but over the Greatest Commandment and the gospel of Jesus Christ, which are recorded explicitly in the Bible. It is time for the Church to worship only God as God, which is the example Jesus set for us. Finally, it is time for the Church to have equal concern for every member of the body, (1 Corinthians 12:25), which includes the head. Christ does not want to be worshipped as God because he is not God, and this must be very hard for him. He certainly cannot join in singing the hundreds of Christian songs centered on him and his deity. Let’s think of Christ and worship God alone.

Spoiler alert: the Titans win the state championship with a perfect record, 13-0. This could never have happened if they had not come together as 1 team. Similarly, the Church, according to Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23, coming together will result in victory in a game that actually matters. Once again, the salvation of the world is directly related to the Church being one. How does this happen? The answer is simple, but acting it out is hard: loving God above all else and loving all people.

Thankfully, God has given us everything we need through Christ to love Him and love others, which leads to a natural, not forced, unity. Considering John 17:20-23 again is helpful. Jesus prays, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” The unity Christ is referring to involves the Church being “in us [Jesus and the Father]” (verse 21) and “I [Jesus] in them and you [the Father] in me” (verse 23).  The Church has all they need for this unity to be finally realized and the whole world to believe because both God and in Christ are in them. With God and Jesus in the Church, Jesus and the Church are unstoppable as God's winning team. As Jesus says in Matthew 16:18, “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Unlike the Titans, Jesus and the Church knows the end result of the game going in: Jesus and the Church win.

So, what does it mean for the Church to be in God and in Jesus?

A.    God in the Church

God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, resides in Christ and all Christians. God is omnipresent – always with us, always in us. We need God to truly love the people around us. In other words, we need God to be in us in order to be unified, as unity cannot exist without love.

1 John 4:7-21 speaks to these spiritual realities and gives more clarity:

^“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

God being in us is directly related to Christ and Christians loving other people. God abides in us to the extent that we love the people around us. John continues in verse 13:

^13 “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. ²¹ And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

We abide in God and God in us because of the Spirit given to us by God. This is why Jesus says in John 17:21 that he is in God and God is in him. Like all Christians, this is possible for Jesus because of the Holy Spirit – and Jesus made a way for all Christians to live in this reality. Abiding in God and living in Love are one and the same because God is love (verse 16). Christians live out “God in us” to the extent that they love the people around them.

B.    Christ in the Church

What does “Christ in us” mean? How can Christ be “in us” if he is not God and is fully man, what could this possibly mean?

1.     This is a spiritual reality. Jesus is physically seated at the right hand of God until he returns. Spiritually, however, he is with his Church. Jesus says in Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Jesus says in Matthew 28:20, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus is with his Church in spirit. This does not mean Jesus is God. Paul is also spiritually present (though, notably, this is on a smaller scale than Jesus being present with the Church) with the Corinthian Church. 1 Corinthians 5:3 says, “For my part, even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this.” This spiritual reality is real enough to involve judgment from Paul. So, Jesus is present spiritually with his Church and this is not evidence of deity.

2.     1 Corinthians 15:22 says, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

Paul also contrasts being “in Christ” to being “in Adam”. In Adam, all die and inherit the sinful nature. In Christ, the opposite happens: all shall be made alive and inherit the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

3.      “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

Being in Christ means a person is a new creation

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4.     “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1

Being in Christ means no condemnation or judgment from God for sin.

5.     “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” 1 John 1:12

“For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:26-27

Being in Christ means becoming a child of God.

6.     “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Being in Christ means a person has been crucified with Christ such that Christ lives in them. What does Paul mean by this? Does he mean Jesus, the literal man, lives in each Christian? This cannot be what he means as the physical, non-omnipresent Jesus is seated at the right hand of God till he returns. Paul must, then, be referring to a spiritual, not a physical reality. Jesus cannot physically live in his Church. Spiritually, though, he can. The goal for each Christian is to live like Christ – to imitate him in everything we do, loving God and loving our neighbor. In living in this way, Christ spiritually lives in Christians, as Christians, part of Christ’s body, live their lives like Christ would. Christ is alive spiritually in Christians to the extent they live like he did. This spiritual reality is a mystery (Colossians 1:27).

7.     “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10

Christians “created in Christ Jesus” are God’s workmanship. In Christ, God has prepared good works for all Christians.

8.      “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24

In Christ, Christians put of their old selves, are renewed in the spirit of their minds, and put on their new self, created after the likeness of God in true holiness.

9.     “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.” Romans 6:1-7

Being in Christ means being baptized into Christ’s death so that we might live a new life and be united to him one day in a resurrection like his.

10.  “For as many of you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” Galatians 3:27

 “And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:24

Being in Christ means we “put on Christ”. Again, this is a spiritual reality: Christians “put on” Christ in living lives like he did. Obviously, we are not “putting on” a literal man – we are putting on our “new self”: a self like Christ.

11.  “And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Ephesians 2:6

Being in Christ means we are seated with him in the heavenly places.

12.  “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

Paul calls Christ being in Christians both a mystery and hope. It makes sense that he would call this spiritual reality a mystery: how can a man live in Christians? Again, this speaks to being “in Christ” as a spiritual, not physical reality. Christ is not spirit, he is flesh. He says so himself in Luke 24:39 after his resurrection, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Jesus is not spirit, but he is nevertheless in Christians spiritually as they imitate him.

13.  “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

In Christ, Christians are the righteousness of God.

14.  “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:11-14

 “So that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:14

In Christ Christians obtain an inheritance as well as the promised Holy Spirit, the guarantee of inheritance until we take possession of it.

15.   “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2

In Christ, Christians are freed from the law of sin and death.

16.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6

In Christ, Christians are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

17.  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Ephesians 1:7-10

In Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness.

18.  “So you almost must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11

In Christ, Christians are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Conclusion

Christians have all they need in God and in Christ to live the Christian life victoriously. God dwells in Jesus and his Church by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' body, which includes him and his followers, is literally the new temple of God. As 1 Corinthians 3:16 says, "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?" Further, Christ lives in Christians spiritually as they live like Christ in the world. As 1 John 4:17 says, "as he is so also are we in this world." To the extent that is true for a Christian, they are truly living in Christ.

One of the other songs sung in “Remember the Titans” is “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Blue Stanton, one of the Titan football players, sings this. He belts out, “Cause baby there ain’t no mountain high enough, ain’t no valley low enough.” Jesus also talks about mountains in Matthew 17:20, saying, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” What if one of the Church’s new songs was one of both unity in the Church and universal salvation being possible because Jesus says nothing is impossible with faith, even as small as a mustard seed? What if the Church’s new song was the Great Commission being fully accomplished and every soul saved because the Church came together as one? May the Church’s common mission in the Great Commission and their love for every member in the Church fully unite the Church. May love for God, others, and the hope of the gospel of Jesus unite the Church so the world will believe in Christ. May Christians realize that Christ is part of their team, not their Coach. Christ and his followers have the same Coach: God, and all players on God's team, both Christ and the "weakest" Christian, are indispensable to winning the game (1 Corinthians 12:12-26).