INTRODUCTION
There
are many in the world who claim to know God. Many of these claim to
know God apart from Christ. In our post-modern culture, the concept
of God has been reduced to a free-for-all. Sin doesn’t exist and
God is a mere genie in the sky. The general attitude is something
like “whatever works for you is great, just don’t try to force it
on me”. Since sin is a concept that isn’t addressed, God can be
whatever we want him to be at the moment. In what is probably an
unprecedented time in human history, millions of people think they
can come to God on their own terms, rather than His terms.
There
are even those who lay claim to Christ without really being
associated with him in anyway. In the culture we live in, everyone
from talk show hosts to money-seeking prosperity evangelists to
presidents and would-be presidents claim to own or be affiliated with
Christ in some way – most to fulfill their own agendas. Even some
followers of Eastern religions and human philosophies claim Christ as
a sort of “spiritual guru” or alternate path to “God” – a
god of their own making. This isn’t too surprising since this is
what the world has tried to do from the beginning. By “world” I
mean those whose only allegiance is to a system of wisdom that is
contrary to biblical God-centered, God derived wisdom; wisdom that is
really no wisdom at all, but folly. These kinds of ideas are the
height of the earthly wisdom that we see spoken of in 1 Corinthians
chapters 1 through 3 and the entire book of Colossians, among other
places.
Having
only about a month ago celebrated Christmas, or our Lord’s breaking
into human history in the form of man, we saw many Americans who
probably wouldn’t even consider themselves Christians celebrate the
holiday in some form or fashion. Many claim Jesus only for the
benefits the holiday affords; many celebrate Christmas merely because
that’s just what you do. Many claim that Christ was a good
teacher, one whose moral commands are good for us to follow. Yet
these same people, when confronted with the truth that Jesus is the
Son of the Living God, God in the flesh- who died for sins he didn’t
commit will categorically deny that He is just that. They will stop
short of allegiance to Christ on God’s terms because they refuse to
submit to His Sovereign lordship. They will not have a man to tell
them how to live their lives.
It
seems that there are almost as many different belief systems in some
kind of “god” as there are people. There are those who freely
say things like “I don’t believe in God, but if there is a God, I
am good enough to get to heaven” – or at least their lives
reflect that belief.
In
today’s American culture, there are professing evangelical
Christians who hold to similar ideas. There are those in the
churches that see Jesus as one of among possibly many ways to get to
“God” or “heaven”. Of course as I said, in this culture,
there is no such thing as sin. Or if there is, it is not generally
regarded as the bible regards sin. It is reduced to “missing the
mark” or “making a mistake”. They don’t see sin as the bible
sees sin: a transgression against the character and being of God
deserving of God’s wrath and death – or as Grudem puts it “ Sin
is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude or
nature.”1
….All
this is not to denigrate or disparage any group of people in America
or anywhere else. It is only to say that there is great confusion
and ignorance in the culture about who God is, who Christ is, what
the significance of Christ’s life, death and resurrection are, and
who we are before a holy God. Let this not be said about us. We look
to the bible to see what the way to God is.
We
see throughout the bible in both the Old and New Testaments that God
is indeed a holy God. God indeed pours out wrath on those who sin
against him. And He is just and right to do so. His righteousness
is a pure righteousness; His holiness is pure. To give a big
picture understanding we need to look no further than the book of
Romans.
THE
TEXT
The
book of Romans in the New Testament is widely regarded to be one of
the most grand and sweeping biblical texts exposing the deep rich
truths of God’s Gospel of Grace. It is a lengthy discourse on the
terrible lost, hell bound state of mankind without Christ and the new
eternally blessed state of being for those who belong to Christ.
Really, the letter is an in depth declaration of the glory and love
of God and how He saves sinners. We are going to key in on one verse
that kind of sums up what the way, the only way to God is: Romans
8:1. Before we go there, let’s get a bigger picture biblically God
centered overview of redemptive history:
Adam
sinned in the garden by disregarding God’s word and eating of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Gen. 3:3-6) Thus God placed
Adam, all mankind, even all creation under a curse. (Romans
3:10-18). This curse is death and humanity is linked to Adam in such
a way that Adam is its representative (Rom 5:12 and Rom 6:23). This
linking of all humanity to Adam is very important – keep this in
mind as we move on. Death, biblically defined is
“eternal
destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of
His power.” (2 Thes 1:9)- this would be hell. And although humans
from Adam onward have been trying to make things right before God by
being righteous enough by doing good works, this is impossible (Isa
64:6 ; Rom 3:20; Gal 2:16). God’s perfection requires infinitely
more than fallen sinners can provide. Hebrews 9:22 also tells us
that there is no forgiveness of sin by God without the shedding of
blood.
This
is a lot of bad news. Man is in a pitiable state and without hope in
the world. But, there is good news. In fact, there is tremendously
great news that is beyond our wildest imagination. God has provided
a way to repair and reverse the curse that mankind is under and even
make better the position of a certain group of people. It can be
summed up in one verse: Romans 8:1:
Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom
8:1 NASB)
The
Apostle Paul has just described in chapter 7 how by attempting to
keep the Old Testament Law and by doing good works man cannot be
saved from the curse. In fact, mankind under Adam – its natural
state- is cursed, or like it refers to in our verse (Romans 8:1) -
under condemnation.
As
sons of Adam, we are subject and slaves to sin. Romans 7:5 puts it
this way: For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which
were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to
bear fruit for death. We see already that just this far into our
study, things don’t line up with these aforementioned views of how
to get to heaven or how to get to God. In fact, we can look a little
further and see that man apart from God’s grace cannot even
understand the things of God as revealed in the Word through the Holy
Spirit. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (1Co 2:14 NASB)
So
without God’s initiative mankind does not nor cannot accept
heavenly things. Again, this is a pitiable and sad state to be in.
Such were we all.
Condemnation,
as defined in Webster’s New World Dictionary is as follows:
to
pronounce guilty :a: to declare to be guilty of wrongdoing; convict
b: to pass judicial sentence on; inflict a penalty upon c: to
doom
<condemn a prisoner to die>
Biblically
all of these apply to mankind. In the bible, to be condemned is to
be under God’s wrath and in fact, in our natural state, already
dead. Consider with me Ephesians 2:1-3:
And
you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the
sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. (Eph
2:1-3 NASB)
Here
Paul tells us that before, we were dead in sins, objects of God’s
wrath. And notice the “even as the rest” in verse 3. Before, we
were just like the rest of the world. So all, apart from Christ are
already condemned. We are, along with Adam guilty before God. But
in this passage Paul uses the past tense “were dead”, “formerly
walked”, “formerly lived”; and “were children of wrath”.
So before what, were we children of wrath and why aren’t we
anymore? If we go a little farther in this passage we see just what
it is that makes all these things past tense and not applicable
anymore to those God saves.
But
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He
loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up
with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, (Eph 2:4-6 NASB)
It
is God who fixes the problem. It is God who makes it right. God
made us alive together with Christ. And going back to our verse
Romans 8:1, we see it put another way:
Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom
8:1 NASB)
If
we are “in” Christ Jesus, we are no longer condemned. If we are
in Christ, we have been made alive as Ephesians 2:5 puts it. The New
Testament is full of this language: “to be in Christ”.
Christians often use such language in our everyday talk. We
generally have a level of understanding of what it means to be in
Christ. But what does this mean at a deeper level and what are some
of the implications and benefits of being “in Christ”? How do
those who are in Christ differ from those who are not? How does
being in Christ, which is sometimes called being in union with Christ
or the believer’s union with Christ, necessarily affect whether we
know the true God or not? Let me just say at this point that there’s
no way I can do full justice to the biblical presentation of what it
means to be united to Christ. One could preach a whole series of
sermons on this. So I’m going to barely be scratching the surface;
but hopefully when I’m done I will have shown enough from Scripture
to see at least part of the glory of the believer’s union with
Christ and why it matters. Let’s look at this more closely.
THE
NATURE OF OUR UNION WITH CHRIST
We
have already seen that in our original state, or in Adam we are
condemned. Furthermore, we are separated from God. We are alienated
from him. To put it even more plainly: we are enemies of God. So
the first thing we can say just from examining Romans 8:1 is that
sinners cannot share in the saving benefits of Christ’s redemptive
or saving work on the cross unless they are in union with Him. Let’s
look at the nature of the believer’s union with Christ. Keep in
mind that we cannot deal with all of these issues exhaustively or
comprehensively. I want to go quickly through a few aspects of this
great doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ and concentrate
on a few aspects more deeply.
INITIATED
and KEPT by GOD
How
are we united to Christ? By what means does this take place? We can
see very clearly from a passage we have already looked at how we are
united to our Lord Jesus. In fact, we can even expand on the passage
and look at it more closely. Please turn to Ephesians 1. Beginning
in verse 4 and going through verse 11:
just
as He [that is, God] chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He
predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself,
according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the
glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In
Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our
trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on
us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His
will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a
view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that
is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and
things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance,
having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things
after the counsel of His will, (Eph 1:4-11 NASB)
We
can see that this is a very rich passage that sheds much light on
many aspects of our union with Christ and we will look at some of
them in more detail later. But to begin with we are shown very
clearly and beautifully that if we are in union with Christ it is by
the will of God the Father. This is absolutely crystal clear that we
are “chosen” in Christ before the foundation of the world – not
by some good he saw in us, but because of the good in Christ! He
“predestined” us to be His children in Christ. He redeemed us in
Christ according to the riches of his grace that He lavished on us.
In Christ we have obtained a heavenly inheritance. And on it goes.
The great puritan pastor John Owen said of this “This is that
fellowship to which all saints are called, and in which, by the
faithfulness of God, they shall be kept. We are called by God the
Father, who loves us, to this fellowship with his Son our Lord.”2
To be in Christ is to be blessed beyond any earthly comprehension.
In fact, it is so incomprehensible, especially by those who are not
united to Christ, but even to a degree those who are in union with
him that this doctrine is sometimes called by theologians “The
Mystical Union.” We, not being divine and not being infinite
cannot fully understand the inner workings of the relationships
within the council of God and can at some point only worship in awe.
Dr. Charles Hodge says about the Mystical Union:
“The
technical designation of this union in theological language is
“mystical” because it so far transcends all the analogies of
earthly relationships, in the intimacy of its connection, in the
transforming power of its influence, and in the excellencies of its
consequences.”
It
is these that I would like to now look at:
THE
FACT THAT IT’S A PERSONAL UNION
HUMAN
ANALOGIES FOUND IN THE BIBLE
AND
THE FACT THAT THIS UNION IS A TRANSFORMING UNION
Personal
Union
Let’s
begin by exploring how our union with Christ is a personal union.
Indeed, it is more than just a title. We will see that those who are
truly united to Christ are so inextricably tied to him and he to us
that all our human words eventually fall short. It is indeed
incomprehensible. We have seen clearly that it is God the Father who
chooses the sinner to be “in Christ” from all eternity. So how
does this work? Although objectively, we are in Christ from all
eternity, subjectively to us in space and time it does not seem that
way. In space and time God the Holy Spirit applies to us the
redemption (see John 3:3-8 and Eph 2:8-10) and all its benefits that
Christ purchased through his death on the cross by granting us faith
and thereby uniting us to Christ by the preaching of the Word of God
(see Romans 10:17). So, although the elect are in union with Christ
before the foundation of the world, it is only when they, as sinners
are brought to faith in him as their Lord and Savior that they become
partakers of Christ and all the saving blessings of his death upon
the cross. The faith that we receive and then place in and on Christ
is the outworking or the way God in his providence brings this union
to pass that has been from before the foundation of the world.
This
is such a union that the union with Adam that we had before we were
believers (whether we knew it or not) has now been replaced by our
new union with Christ. This union is irrevocable. Ephesians 1:13
says this: in Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth,
the gospel of your salvation--having also believed, you were sealed
in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
(Eph
1:13 NASB)
18th
century biblical commentator, Adam Clarke says about this sealing
with the Holy Spirit:
"The
Holy Spirit, which is promised to them who believe on Christ Jesus,
was given to you, and thus you were ascertained to be the children of
God, for God has no child who is not a partaker of the Holy Ghost,
and he who has this Spirit has God’s seal that he belongs to the
heavenly family."3
Our
passage in Romans puts it this way: Romans 8:9 - However, you are not
in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in
you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to Him.
(Rom
8:9 NASB) The Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit. So if we are
children of God, we have the seal of the Holy Spirit that keeps us
until the end. Notice also that through this union, we are also in
union with the Holy Spirit and indeed the entire Trinity.
The
Believer’s union with Christ is central to the Gospel and the
entire Christian life. Some have said that it is the hub and all of
the other doctrines are spokes radiating from it. In fact, some
aspects of salvation only really make sense in light of the
centrality of this union. Let’s now look more closely at some of
the different ways we are personally united to Christ and him to us.
We can begin by looking at some of the benefits and their nature that
we as partakers of Christ obtain in this union.
By
this union Christ saves sinners. Here we get to some of the inner
workings of salvation. We have already seen glimpses of who Christ
is. And of course we know that Christ is God in the flesh or
incarnate. Christ’s union with us is perhaps most clearly seen in
his condescension – leaving the glory of heaven, being born as a
man, taking human form, walking among men – this is something that
God had not expressed before in such a way. This is a very clear way
Christ has united himself to us, by becoming like us! Philippians
2:6-7 puts this succinctly and profoundly: …although He existed
in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be
grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men. (Php 2:6-7 NASB)
Our
union with Christ goes deeper than just the fact of our shared
humanity. Because of this stooping down into history, uniting the
divine with the human in one person, Christ and Christ alone is able
to save sinners destined for eternal hell. John Owen says this about
the fitness of Christ's ability to save definitely and finally:
"The
uniting of the nature of God and the nature of man in one person made
Christ fit to be a savior to the utmost. He lays his hand upon God
by partaking of his nature (Zech 13:7). And he lays his hand upon
us, partaking of our nature (Heb 2:14, 16). And so he becomes an
umpire or referee [Mediator] between God and man…By this means,
Christ brings God and man together who were driven apart by sin…For
this very reason, he had room enough in his heart to receive us and
strength enough in his spirit to bear all the wrath that was prepared
for us. Sin brought infinite punishment because it was committed
against an infinite God. Christ, being the infinite God in human
nature, could suffer the infinite punishment the sinner deserved.
And so, by this personal union we are saved."4
The
way God saves sinners is entwined in this union. My intention isn’t
necessarily to describe all the aspects of salvation – I’ll leave
that to Pastor Shaan in his Sunday School class (he’s much more
competent and prepared for that than I am). But what I would like to
touch on are a few aspects of the salvific process that are very
dependent upon the believer’s union with Christ:
We
have seen that the believer’s union with Christ has been planned
before God created anything. This plan of redemption has existed in
the mind of God before all eternity. We know that God is a Trinity-
the three persons being the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Christ’s appearing at the right time to save sinners was planned
among the members of the Trinity throughout eternity past. What I’m
saying is that Christ became a man exactly for the reason to unite
Himself to sinners that he might save them. This is exactly what
Matthew 1:21 says of Jesus’ impending birth: "She will bear a
Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people
from their sins." (Mat 1:21 NASB) and we can see that Christ
came to redeem us that we might be adopted as sons of God in
Galatians 4:4-5: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent
forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might
redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons. (Gal 4:4-5 NASB)
We
know that we are regenerated, or born again by the Holy Spirit –
(see John 3). However, it is by Christ’s life, death and
resurrection that we are united to him and thus experiencing the
further aspects of salvation. Justification, adoption,
sanctification and glorification, among others would not be possible
without this union.
At
the heart of salvation is righteousness. We have none; Christ has
perfect infinite righteousness. We need it, Christ has it to give.
This righteousness needs to be somehow given to us. Well through
regeneration and the faith that follows, this is exactly what
happens. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to us. Paul tells us
this in Philippians 3:9
“[I] may be found
in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law,
but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which
comes from God on the basis of faith” (Php 3:9 NASB). Furthermore,
Paul writes to the Phiilippian saints as “having been filled with
the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the
glory and praise of God. “ (Php 1:11 NASB) We can see perhaps most
clearly this receiving of Christ’s righteousness in 1 Cor 1:30: But
by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from
God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption (1Co 1:30
NASB). This is wondrous! This is the heart of Christian life. This
is where our hope lies; not in us, but in Christ! The righteous that
God sees when he looks at us is not our own, but Christ’s. This is
because we are in union with us. He is our representative before the
Father.
Furthermore,
we can see from Scripture that as Christ’s righteousness is given
to us, our sins are given to him and he bears the wrath of God that
is due those sins on the cross. Hebrews 9:28 says: so Christ also,
having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a
second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who
eagerly await Him. (NASB) Christ has taken the sins of those who are
his and paid the punishment for them; he has satisfied the justice of
God. Moreover, he has reconciled us to God through this work on the
cross. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now
been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God
through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God
through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we
shall be saved by His life.”(Rom 5:8-10 NASB) These verses tell us
that God in his love, when we were His enemies, through and by Christ
justified us (Grudem’s definition of justification: an
instantaneous legal act of God in which he (1) thinks of our sins as
forgiven, and Christ’s righteousness belonging to us, and (2)
declares us to be righteous in His sight.)5
Through
and by Christ He reconciled us to Himself; and through and by Christ
he has saved us. We could go on, but as I said this isn’t a
comprehensive study of salvation. I merely wanted to show that the
entirety of God’s plan of redemption has everything to do with the
redeemed believer being united to the Lord Jesus in such a way that
it would be impossible to try to even think about any aspect of
salvation apart from this union. I’ll close this section with the
very concise words of John Murray: "Union with Christ is a very
inclusive subject. It embraces the wide span of salvation from its
ultimate source in the eternal election of God to its final fruition
in the glorification of the elect. It is not simply a phase of the
application of redemption; it underlies every aspect of redemption
both in its accomplishment and in its application. Union with Christ
binds all together and insures that to all for whom Christ has
purchased redemption He effectively applies and communicates the
same."6
As
we have caught glimpses of this in our study so far, it will not be
surprising to learn that this deep personal union believers have with
Christ affords many benefits above and beyond just being saved from
sin and its consequences. As those in union with and represented by
Christ, we are partakers of all that Christ bought for us! All the
promises of God are fulfilled in Christ. The bible uses language
such as “obtaining an inheritance” Eph 1:11; “fellow heirs with
Christ” Rom 8:17; Galatians 3:29 says that if we belong to Christ,
we are heirs according to promise. This inheritance is undefiled,
pure, eternal. It is the Kingdom of God and Christ himself. (1 Pet
1:4) We share in all that Christ has inherited. Revelation 3:21
says of this: 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down
with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father
on His throne. (Rev 3:21 NASB) If we are in Christ, we will reign
with him in Heaven for all eternity. Christ himself is our
inheritance. We will deal more fully with this in a minute. These
eternal promises lead to a couple practical outworkings of all that
this union affords. Here are just a couple thoughts on this:
The
soul united to Christ finds safety, protection, strength and comfort.
What greater security could one have than to be eternally united to
Christ! Because God is faithful, believers will be kept by his
power. This is a very real union believers enjoy with Christ. No
doubt, it is a union of spiritual nature; nevertheless it is real and
tangible. It is what our faith is all about. God has granted us
through Christ the ability to lay hold of divine power and wisdom.
Indeed Christ is our wisdom (1 Cor 2:2-10). If we are in Christ, He
belongs to us and we belong to Him. According to John 10:27, Jesus’
sheep hear his voice, and follow him and He knows them. Finally, it
is in Christ that his people will be resurrected and glorified. It is
in Christ they will be made alive when the last trumpet will sound
and the dead will be raised incorruptible (1
Cor. 15:22). It is with Christ they will be glorified (Rom.
8:17).
Again, John Murray: "Union
with Christ is the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation.
...There is no truth, therefore, more suited to impart confidence and
strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than this one of union with
Christ."7
This aspect of the believer’s union with Christ leads inevitably
into the last aspect I want to look at: the transforming power of
this union. But first I would like to look at a couple of analogies
that the bible uses to explain this union.
HUMAN
ANALOGIES FOUND IN THE BIBLE
There
are many analogies of this union between Christ and his saints in the
bible. Of course this union is so deep, so all encompassing, so
incomprehensible that even these biblical metaphors at some point
fall short of the real and ultimate union that believers have with
Christ. Nevertheless they are all helpful and glorious to meditate
on. We will now look at three of them.
It
is a union like a vine and its branches (John 15:5). Jesus is the
vine, those that are united to Him are the branches. We know that a
vine is the part of the plant that carries the nutrients to the
branches. The branches produce the fruit. Without the Vine, the
branches can do nothing. Jesus says in verse 6 that the branch does
not bear fruit is thrown into the fire. The one who does not produce
fruit keeping with the repentant humble nature shows himself to be
not truly united to Christ. Jesus says that he who abides in Him and
Christ in that one will bear much fruit (verse 5). Of this true
union Jesus also says in verse 8 that one of the reasons for this is
that the vinedresser, who is the Father, is glorified. So among
other things we see our union with Christ as one of total dependence
upon Him.
It
is a union like a foundation and the building that sits on it (1 Pet
2:4-5). In this passage Jesus is the “Living Stone”. This has
reference in the Old Testament. The living stone was and is God who
is the sustainer and upholder of all things. Peter is saying that
Christ is the most important part of the building – the cornerstone
or initial foundation stone, and those united to Him, are the
spiritual house built on and around Him. Being in construction, I
know the great importance of the foundation being sure and solid. If
it is, the rest of the building will not fail. If the foundation
fails, there’s nothing that’s going to keep the building from
crumbling to the ground. If we are united to Christ, we know that
the building will not fail, because Christ the foundation cannot
fail! This metaphor shows both the believer’s vital dependence on
Christ and also their resemblance to Him.
It
is a union like a marriage between a husband and a wife (Eph
4:22-31). This is the analogy in Scripture that is probably for me
the most amazing and profound. We are probably all familiar with
this passage of Scripture. It tells husbands and wives how are they
to treat each other, comparing the Husband to Christ, and the wife to
His Church. What is remarkable to me is that in verse 32, the
Apostle Paul flips the metaphor on its head. He reveals a mystery:
not only is Christ and the Church a model for marriage, but on a
deeper level marriage is a model of Christ and his Church. This is
to say that marriage exists to demonstrate in some faint way the
profound unity of Christ and those that belong to Him! We see that
way back in the creation account of Genesis 2:24, God describes the
union between a husband and a wife. It says that the husband and
wife shall become one flesh. The believer’s union with Christ is
so deep, so profound, so incomprehensible that when God the Father
looks at us, He sees Christ – and Christ is preparing us, His bride
to be holy and without blemish (verse 27). This leads us naturally
to the last aspect I want to look at that is a characteristic of this
wonderful, mysterious union.
THE FACT THAT IT’S A
TRANSFORMING UNION
It
is important to realize that Christ does not redeem us to improve the
old self, to guide and redirect it to a better life; he comes to put
to death the old self, and to raise us to newness of life. He is not
the friend of the old self, happy to cater to the whims and desires
of the flesh. He is the enemy of the old self, set on replacing it
with a new self. We saw earlier that through this union, we are born
again. This being born again is just that, if we are in Christ, we
are a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). As we are regenerated, justified
and adopted, by virtue of this union we are transformed. God doesn’t
give us new life and make us right before him so we can continue
living in our fleshly sinful condition. We are not united to Adam
anymore, but to Christ the Son of the Living God! We have been
redeemed from our Adamic nature. We are so united to Christ that we
will become like him. This is called sanctification. Christ saved
us to be his pure, spotless, sinless bride (Eph 5:27).
As
we have seen, Christ’s righteousness has been imputed to us, and
all our sin and the guilt and wrath due that sin has been imputed to
him.
One aspect of this will result in our increasing holiness. Our
increasing depth of love to Christ will enable us to be obedient.
Again, God saved us in Christ to be set apart from the things of the
world. 1 Peter 2:9 puts it this way: But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A
royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION,
so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you
out of darkness into His marvelous light; (NASB) If we are in
Christ, we are priests, a holy nation, a people for God’s own
possession. God will surely change us from sinners who can do no
good, to saints worthy to be in His presence. We are not saved to
keep living like the world! The apostle John puts it like this: We
know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God
keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. (1Jn 5:18 NASB) If
we are born of God, our lives do not follow a pattern of sin. In
fact, if we do sin, and we will struggle with sin as we are still
battling the old sinful nature, we will hate our sin and this will
drive us even closer to Christ. So we are transformed from following
the old pattern of sin and death and are now hungering and thirsting
after righteousness (Matt 5:6; 6:33). Back in our Romans 8 passage
only 8 verses after Paul declares in verse one that those who are in
Christ are no longer under condemnation, he also tells us in verse 9:
“ you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit
of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Him.” (NASB) Jesus himself minces no
words when he tells us "He who does not love Me does not keep My
words”(Joh 14:24 NASB). Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed
to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
Colossians 3:1-3 tells us that since we are united to Christ we will
set our minds on the things of Christ. We could go on, but we see
from just this very small sampling, and the Old and New Testaments
are full with dozens of examples that if indeed we are in Christ, we
will be transformed in holiness.
Not
only are we transformed in holiness, but we are transformed in our
affections. The soul united to Christ will increasingly delight in
Christ above all things. We will grow in love to Christ. As we grow
in grace, we will understand with a sharpening focus just who Christ
is and what he has done for us. He will become our treasure. One
picture of this that illustrates this well is Matthew 26:6-11: Now
when Jesus was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the leper, a woman
came to Him with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume, and she
poured it on His head as He reclined at the table. But the disciples
were indignant when they saw this, and said, "Why this waste?
For this perfume might have been sold for a high price and the money
given to the poor." But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why
do you bother the woman? For she has done a good deed to Me. "For
you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
(NASB) This woman is remarkable for the fact that before his
crucifixion and resurrection, she had been given profound revelation
of who Christ was, and what she did was done in faith and it sprung
from real and sincere love to him, and was designed for his honor and
glory. She loved Christ with a pure love that would give Him all she
had. It would be a huge understatement to say Paul’s loved Christ
deeply: But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have
counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all
things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and
count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ (Php 3:7-8 NASB).
In fact, our lives aren’t even ours anymore: Colossians 3:3-4 say
that we are “hidden with Christ” and that Christ is our life. We
show our love to Christ by obeying his commandments (John 14:5 NASB).
Christ and his Gospel are treasure to us (2 Cor 4:7). We follow His
commandments and they are not burdensome (1 John 5:3 NASB). To
borrow from Pastor Shaan, if we love Christ: 1. Christ will be the
most engrossing subject of thought to us. 2. Christ will be the
attractive theme of conversation. 3. Christ will be the source of
delight to us. 4. We will become like him. 5. We will love his
cause. And 6. We will love his people.
