The apostle Paul was wont to address greetings to various beloved members of the churches to which he wrote. They shared a common faith, a common Spirit, a common love, and a common hatred of the ungodly world and apostate church world of their day. Here he calls the church of Rome to salute Andronicus and Junia, a man and a woman, perhaps husband and wife. They were his kinsmen, whether closely related by blood—brothers and sisters—or more distantly as fellow Jews, we are not told.

Were they among the five hundred brethren who saw the risen Lord that the apostle mentions in 1 Corinthians 15:6? “After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.” Then they were early Christians who were “in Christ” not only before Paul but almost from the beginning. Christ was seen of Paul too: “And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time. For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (vv. 8–9). While Paul was gripped by his unrighteous zeal for the law and opposed Christ and persecuted Christ’s church, these two saints were “in Christ” and bearing witness to his name and suffering for that name. They did not despise the apostle on account of his late coming to the Lord and even that he had persecuted the church, but they were fellow prisoners, which means they were also fellow laborers.

Perhaps this explains why the apostle Paul calls them apostles too, and not merely apostles but those who were eminent among all those who were called apostles. He does not mean that they were numbered among the thirteen apostles that Christ had chosen; but when Paul calls them apostles, he means those who were specifically charged with bearing witness to the truth of Christ. Barnabas was called an apostle as were Timothy and Silas. Not because they held that office but because they too were helps to the apostles and witnesses to the truth of Christ in the world. And you say, “Was a woman an apostle?” More than likely they were husband and wife, and she labored with him as all women do who are married to men who preach the gospel and serve the churches and without whom these men cannot labor.

But whether they were early in Christ or whether, like Paul, they were late in Christ as one born out of due time, Andronicus and Junia were in Christ. To be in Christ is salvation. To be in Christ is to possess him and all his riches and gifts. To be in Christ is to have his Spirit and to know him and to love him. To be in Christ is to be justified from all your sins and to have the righteousness of Christ and to be an heir of eternal life. That is the greatest thing that you can say about another person: “He or she is in Christ.”

And no man is in Christ of himself. No man by virtue of his superior intellect, understanding, and knowledge is in Christ before another, but all in their time, God’s time. Whether one is in Christ early, as were Andronicus and Junia, or whether one is in Christ like Paul, who was as one born out of due time, all are in Christ for the same reason: God’s eternal, unchanging, and unmerited grace.

And being in Christ by grace, they along with the apostle Paul labored abundantly for the gospel and were privileged to suffer reproach for Christ’s sake, even unto bonds. Such salute.