JESUS CHRIST-UNION
Because of
our union with Christ, we are not hated. Weakness, wrongdoing, and failings
cling to us, yes. But they do not establish who we are. We are the beloved of
God. Though sin still exists in our lives, we have the status of the One who
gave his life for us and to us – God’s own Son. And because of the love of that
Child who now indwells us, we have the ability to change and progress in our Christian
walk. Yes, there is still work to do, but as we seek to obey our God we must
remember that we can obey him because of who we are. We are God’s beloved
children for whom he gave his Son, and to whom he has given his Spirit. As the
Bible says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on
us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (I John 3:1).
Holiness by Grace, Crossway Books, p. 65.
We are not
God's children because we imitate God, rather we
imitate God because we are His children. We do not "walk in love" so
that God will love us. Rather, we walk in love because God has loved us. We do
not "let our light shine" (upon the deeds of darkness) so that we'll
be made "children of light". Rather, we let our light shine because
we are children of light. There are ramifications of being united to Christ (if
we are united to Him!) and they cannot be avoided.
Author Unknown
Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die;
another’s life, another’s death, I stake my whole
eternity.
Christ lives
in us to manifest His life through us. Christ in us accomplishes His own
purposes. Part of His purpose is intimacy with us, but His plan encompasses
more than that. He is working toward His own ends, and we are the vessels
through which He works. We are the visible manifestation of what God is doing,
with Himself as the ultimate goal, "that God may be all in all" (I
Corinthians 15:28).
Dan Stone
The Rest of the Gospel, One Press, 2000,
Preface.
Jesus is the
Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. In the seen
and temporal, He was the lamb slain 2000 years ago. In the unseen and eternal,
He has always been the slain Lamb. In the seen and
temporal realm, you and I live physically right now. In the unseen and eternal
realm, you and I were crucified on the cross with Christ. Our old man,
inherited from Adam, dead to and separated from God, died with Him.
Dan Stone
The Rest of the Gospel, One Press, 2000, p.
42.
“Christ in
you, the hope of glory.” I’m not afraid of the devil. The devil can handle me –
he’s got judo I never heard of. But he
can’t handle the One to whom I’m joined; he can’t handle the One to whom I’m
united; he can’t handle the One whose nature dwells in my nature.
A.W. Tozer
Jesus has
many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many
who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his
feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing
to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to
the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire the miracles but few follow
him to the humiliation of his cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship
touches them… They who love Jesus for His own sake, and not for the sake of the
comfort for themselves, bless Him in every trial and anguish of heart, no less
than in the greatest joy. And were He never willing to bestow comfort on them, they would
still always praise Him and give Him thanks.
Thomas a Kempis
Of the Imitations of Christ.
The subject
of spiritual union is the most important, the most profound, and yet the most
blessed of any that is set forth in the sacred Scriptures; and yet, sad to say,
there is hardly any which is now more generally neglected. The very expression
“spiritual union” is unknown in most professing Christian circles, and even
where it is employed it is given such a protracted meaning as to take in only a
fragment of this precious truth.
A.W. Pink
Spiritual Union and Communion, Baker, 1971,
p. 7.
We can distinguish [the] two aspects
of our union with Christ this way: Our legal union with Christ entitles us to all
that Christ did for us as He acted in
our place, as our substitute. Our vital union with Christ is the means by which
He works in us by His Holy Spirit.
The legal union refers to His objective
work outside of us that is credited to us through faith. The vital union refers
to His subjective work in us, which
is also realized through faith as we rely on His Spirit to work in and through
us. Though our union with Christ has two aspects, it is one union. We cannot have legal union without also having vital
union. If through faith we lay hold of what Christ did for us, we will also
begin to experience His workings in us.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges, © 2002, p. 39. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
Because we are united by faith to
[Jesus Christ] who is perfectly righteous, God accepts us as perfectly
righteous. God does not resort to some kind of legal fiction, calling something
righteous that is not. Rather, He declares us righteous on the basis of the
real accomplished righteousness of Christ, imputed to us because of our union
with Him.
Jerry Bridges
Copied
from The Gospel for Real Life by Jerry Bridges, © 2002, p. 103. Used by
permission of NavPress – www.navpress.com.
All rights reserved.
A believer
may pass through much affliction, and yet secure very little blessing from it
all. Abiding in Christ is the secret of securing all that the Father meant the
chastisement to bring us.
Andrew Murray
Once a man is
united to God, how could he not live forever?
C.S. Lewis
Union with
Christ is the central doctrine of how God dwells with us. That union is the work
of the Holy Spirit, sent from Christ’s throne in glory. We are not only united
to Christ as our representative, living, dying and rising for us; we are also
united to Christ vitally by the presence of His Spirit. He has not left us as orphans. He comes to
us, and He dwells among us in our hearts and in our gatherings as His church.
Edmund Clowney
Tabletalk, p. 10, June 2004, Ligonier
Ministries, Used by Permission.
Union with
Christ is really the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation not only
in its application but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished
work of Christ. Indeed the whole process of salvation has its origin in one
phase of union with Christ and salvation has in view the realization of other
phases of union with Christ.
John Murray
When Jesus
died, He died as my representative, and I died in Him; when He arose, He rose
as my representative, and I arose in Him; when He ascended up on high and took
His place at the right hand of the Father in the glory, He ascended as my
representative and I ascended in Him, and today I am seated in Christ with God
in the heavenlies. I look at the cross of Christ, and
I know that atonement has been made for my sins; I look at the open sepulcher
and the risen and ascended Lord, and I know the atonement has been accepted.
There no longer remains a single sin on me, no matter how many or how great my
sins may have been.
R.A. Torrey
The Bible and Its Christ, Revell,
n.d., p. 107-108.
Immanuel, God with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in
our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we
with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and Second Advent splendor.
There is a
great difference between realizing, “On that Cross He was crucified for me,”
and “On that Cross I am crucified with Him.” The one aspect brings us
deliverance from sin’s condemnation, the other from sin’s power.
John
Gregory Mantle
Abide in Me says Jesus. Cling to Me. Stick fast to Me. Live the life
of close and intimate communion with Me. Get nearer to Me. Roll every burden on
Me. Cast your whole weight on Me. Never let go your
hold on Me for a moment. e, as it were,
rooted and planted in Me. Do this and I will never fail you. I will ever abide
in you.
J.C. Ryle
The union of
believers is grounded in the mystical union of Christ and His Church. The Bible
speaks of a two-way transaction that occurs when a person is regenerated. Every
converted person becomes “in Christ” at the same time Christ enters into the
believer. If I am in Christ and you are in Christ, and if He is in us, then we
experience a profound unity in Christ.
R.C. Sproul
Tabletalk, p. 7, June 2004, Ligonier
Ministries, Used by Permission.