The Application of
Christ’s Redemption in its Actual Beginning
Excerpted from A. H.
Strong, Systematic Theology,
Valley Forge: Judson
Press, 1907, pp. 793-808.
Under this head we treat
of Union with Christ, Regeneration, Conversion,
(embracing Repentance and Faith), and Justification.
Much confusion and error have arisen from conceiving
these as occurring in chronological order. The order
is logical, not chronological. As it is only "in
Christ" that man is "a new creature" (2 Cor. 5:17)
or is "justified" (Acts 13:39), union with Christ
logically precedes both regeneration and
justification; and yet, chronologically, the moment
of our union with Christ is also the moment when we
are regenerated and justified. So, too,
regeneration and conversion are but the divine and
human sides or aspects of the same fact, although
regeneration has logical precedence, and man turns
only as God turns him.
In general the Holy
Spirit's work presupposes the historical work of
Christ, and prepares the way for Christ's return.
"As the Holy Spirit is the principle of union
between the Father and the Son, so he is the
principle of union between God and man. Only through
the Holy Spirit does Christ secure for himself those
who will love him as distinct and free
personalities." Regeneration and conversion are not
chronologically separate . . . .
The soul that is born
again will show in it faith and hope and love and
holy living. Regeneration will involve repentance,
faith, justification, and sanctification. But the
one life, which makes regeneration and all these
consequent blessings possible, is the life of Christ
who joins himself to us in order that we may join
ourselves to him. . . .
Union with Christ, says
Dr. A. A. Hodge, "is effected by the Holy Ghost in
effectual calling. Of this calling the parts are
two: (a) the offering of Christ to the sinner,
externally by the gospel, and internally by the
illumination of the Holy Ghost; (b) the reception of
Christ, which on our part is both passive and
active. The passive reception is that whereby a
spiritual principle is ingenerated into the human
will, whence issues the active reception, which is
an act of faith with which repentance is always
conjoined. The communion of benefits which results
from this union involves: (a) a change of state or
relation, called justification; and (b) a change of
subjective moral character, commenced in
regeneration and completed through sanctification."
H. B. Smith, however, in
his System of Christian Theology, is clearer in the
putting of Union with Christ before Regeneration. He
begins his treatment of the Application of
Redemption with the title: "The Union between Christ
and the individual believer as effected by the Holy
Spirit. This embraces the subjects of
Justification, Regeneration, and Sanctification,
with the underlying topic, which comes first to be
considered. Election." He therefore treats Union
with Christ before Regeneration. He says Calvin
defines regeneration as coming to us by
participation in Christ, and apparently agrees with
this view.
"This union [with Christ]
is at the ground of regeneration and justification."
"The great difference of theological systems comes
out here. Since Christianity is redemption through
Christ, our mode of conceiving that will determine
the character of our whole theological system."
"The union with Christ is mediated by His Spirit,
whence we are both renewed and justified. The great
fact of objective Christianity is incarnation in
order to atonement; the great fact of objective
Christianity is union with Christ, whereby we
receive the atonement." We may add that this union
with Christ, in view of which God elects and to
which God calls the sinner, is begun in
regeneration, completed in conversion, declared in
justification, and proved in sanctification and
perseverance.
I. Union with Christ.
The Scriptures declare
that, through the operation of God, there is
constituted a union of the soul with Christ
different in kind from God's natural and
providential concursus with all spirits, as well as
from all unions of mere association or sympathy,
moral likeness, or moral influence, a union of life,
in which the human spirit, while then most truly
possessing its own individuality and personal
distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by
the Spirit of Christ, is made inscrutably but
indissolubly one with him, and so becomes a member
and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and
justified humanity of which he is the head.
Union with Christ is not
union with a system of doctrine, nor with external
religious influences, nor with an organized church,
nor with an ideal man––but rather, with a personal,
risen, living, omnipresent Lord (J. W. A. Stewart).
Dr. J. W. Alexander well calls this doctrine of the
Union of the Believer with Christ "the central truth
of all theology and of all religion." Yet, it
receives little of formal recognition, either in
dogmatic treatises or in common religious
experience. . . .
The majority . . . of
Christians much more frequently think of Christ as a
Savior outside of them, than as a Savior who dwells
within. This comparative neglect of the doctrine is
doubtless a reaction from the exaggerations of a
false mysticism. But there is great need of rescuing
the doctrine from neglect. For this we rely wholly
upon Scripture. Doctrines, which reason can neither
discover nor prove, need large support from the
Bible. It is a mark of divine wisdom that the
doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is so inwoven
with the whole fabric of the New Testament, that the
rejection of the former is the virtual rejection of
the latter. The doctrine of Union with Christ, in
like manner, is taught so variously and abundantly,
that to deny it is to deny inspiration itself.
1. Scripture
Representation of this Union
A. Figurative
teaching. It is illustrated:
(a) From
the union of a building and its foundation.
Eph. 2:20–22––"being
built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief
corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly
framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the
lord; in whom ye also are builded together for a
habitation of God in the Spirit"; Col. 2:7 –
"builded up in him" – grounded in Christ as our
foundation; I Pet. 2:4, 5– "unto whom coming, a
living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God
elect, precious, ye also, as living stones, are
built up a spiritual house" – each living stone in
the Christian temple is kept in proper relation to
every other, and is made to do its part in
furnishing a habitation for God, only by being built
upon and permanently connected with Christ, the
chief corner–stone. Cf. Psa. 118 :22 – "The stone
which the builders rejected Is become the head of
the corner"; Isa. 28:16 –"Behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious
cornerstone of sure foundation: he that believeth
shall not be in haste."
(b) From
the union between husband and wife.
Rom. 7:4––"ye also were
made dead to the law through the body of Christ;
that ye should be joined to another, even to him who
was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth
fruit unto God" – here union with Christ is
illustrated by the indissoluble bond that connects
husband and wife, and makes them legally and
organically one; 2 Cor. 11:2–– "I am jealous over
you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one
husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin
to Christ"; Eph. 5:31, 32 – "For this cause shall a
man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to
his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This
mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ
and of the church" ….
Rev. 19:7– "the marriage
of the Iamb is come, and his wife hath made herself
ready"; 22:17– "And the Spirit and the bride say,
Come"; cf. Isa. 54:5–"For thy Maker is thine
husband"; Jer. 3:20–"Surely as a wife treacherously
departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt
treacherous]y with me, 0 house of Israel, saith
Jehovah"; Hos. 2:1–5 "for their mother
hath played the harlot"– departure from God is
adultery; the song of Solomon, as Jewish
interpreters have always maintained, is an
allegorical poem describing, under the figure of
marriage, the union between Jehovah and his people:
Paul only adopts the Old Testament figure, and
applies it more precisely to the union of God with
the church in Jesus Christ.
(c) From
the union between the vine and its branches.
John 15 1–10 – "I am the
vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me,
and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart
from me ye can do nothing" as God's natural life is
in the vine, that it may give life to its natural
branches, so God's spiritual life is in the vine,
Christ, that he may give life to his spiritual
branches. The roots of this new vine are planted in
heaven, not on earth; and into it the half–withered
branches of the old humanity are to be grafted, that
they may have life divine. Yet our Lord does not say
"I am the root." The branch is not something
outside, which has to get nourishment out of the
root, it is rather a part of the vine. Rom. 6:5– "if
we have become united with him. . in the likeness of
his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection"; 11:24–" thou wast cut out of that
which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast
grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree";
Col. 2:6, 7– "As therefore ye received Christ Jesus
the lord, so, walk in him, rooted and builded up in
him" – not only grounded in Christ as our foundation
but thrusting down roots into him as the deep, rich,
all–sustaining soil. This union with Christ is
consistent with individuality: for the graft brings
forth fruit after its kind, though modified by the
tree into which it is grafted.
Bishop H. W. Warren, "The
lessons of the vine are Intimacy, likeness of
nature, continuous impartation of life, fruit.
Between friends, there is intimacy by means of
media, such as food, present care, words, soul
looking from the eyes. The mother gives her liquid
flesh to the babe, but such intimacy soon ceases.
The mother is not rich enough in life continuously
to feed the ever–enlarging nature of the growing
man. Not so with the vine. It continuously feeds.
Its rivers crowd all the banks. They burst out
in leaf, blossom, clinging tendrils, and fruit,
everywhere. In nature a thorn grafted on a pear tree
bears only thorn. There is not pear–life enough to
compel change of its nature. But a wild olive,
typical of depraved nature, grafted on a good olive
tree finds, contrary to nature, that there is force
enough in the growing stock to change the nature of
the wild scion."
(d) From the union
between the members and the head of the body.
1 Cor. 6:15,19 – "Know ye
not that your bodies are members of Christ? ….
know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy
Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?"
12:12 – "For as the body is one, and hath many
members, and all the members of the body, being
many, are one body; so also is Christ" – here Christ
is identified with the church of which he is the
head; Eph. 1:22–23– "he put all things in subjection
under his feet, and gave him to be head over all
things to the church, which is his body, the
fullness of him that filleth all in all" – as the
members of the human body are united to the head,
the source of their activity and the power that
controls their movements, so all believers are
members of an invisible body whose head is Christ.
Shall we tie a string round tile finger to keep for
it its own blood? No, for all the blood of the body
is needed to nourish one finger. So Christ is "head
over all things to [for the benefit of] the church."
"The church is the fullness of Christ; as it was not
good for the first man, Adam, to be alone, no more
was it good for the second man, Christ" (C. H. M.).
Eph. 4:15, 16–"grow up in all things into him, who
is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body
.... maketh the increase of the body unto the
building up of itself in love" ; 5:29, 30 – "for no
man ever hated his own" flesh; but nourisheth and
cherishes it, even as Christ also the church;
because we are members of his body."
(e) From the union
of the race with the source of its life in Adam.
Rom. 5:12, 21 – "as
through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through ... that, as sin reigned in
death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord"; I Cor. 15:22, 45, 49 ––"as in Adam all
die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive..
..The first man Adam became a living soul. The last
Adam became a life–giving Spirit. . . . as we have
born. the image of the earthy, we shall also bear
the image of the heavenly" – as the whole race is
one with the first man Adam, in whom it fell and
from whom it has derived a corrupted and guilty
nature, so the whole race of believers constitutes a
new and restored humanity, whose justified and
purified nature is derived from Christ, the second
Adam. Cf. Gen. 2:23 – "This is now bone of my hones,
and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man" – here C. H. M.
remarks that, as man is first created and then woman
is viewed in and formed out of him, so it is with
Christ and the church. "We are members of Christ's
body, because in Christ we have the principle of
our origin; from him our life arose, just as the
life of Eve was derived from Adam.. .. The church is
Christ's helpmeet, formed out of Christ in his deep
sleep of death, as Eve out of Adam ....The church
will be nearest to Christ, as Eve was to Adam."
Because Christ is the source of all spiritual life
for his people, he is called, in Isa. 9:6,
"Everlasting Father," and it is said, in Isa. 53:1O,
that "he shall see his seed."
B.
Direct statements.
(a) The
believer is said to be in Christ.
Lest we should regard the
figures mentioned above as merely Oriental
metaphors, the fact of the believer's union with
Christ is asserted in the most direct and prosaic
manner. John 14:20–'ye in me"; Rom. 6:11–"alive unto
God in Christ Jesus"; 8:1–"no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus"; 2 Cor. 5:17–"if any man
is in Christ, he is a new creature"; Eph. 1:4
–"chose us in him before the foundation of the
world" ; 2:13 – "now in Christ Jesus ye that once
were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ."
Thus the believer is said to be "in Christ," as the
element or atmosphere which surrounds him with its
perpetual presence and which constitutes his vital
breath: In fact, this phrase "in Christ," always
meaning "In union with Christ," is the very key to
Paul's epistles, and to the whole New Testament. The
fact that the believer is in Christ is symbolized in
baptism: we are "baptized into Christ" (Gal. 3:27).
(b)
Christ is said to be in the believer.
John 14:20–"In you"; Rom.
8:9–"ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if
so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if
any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
his" – that this Spirit of Christ is Christ Himself,
is shown from verse 10 – "And if Christ is in you,
the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is
life because of righteousness" Gal. 2 20 – "I have
been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I
that live, but Christ liveth in me." Here Christ is
said to be in the believer, and so to live his life
within the believer, that the latter can point to
this as the dominating fact of his experience, – it
is not so much he that lives, as it is Christ that
lives in him. The fact that Christ is in the
believer is symbolized in the Lord's Supper: "The
bread which we break, is it not a participation in
the body of Christ?" (1 Cor. 10:16).
(c) The
Father and the Son dwell in the believer.
John 14:23– "If a man
love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him"; cf. 10 – "Believest thou not that I
am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words
that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the
Father abiding in me doeth his works" – the Father
and the Son dwell in the believer; for where the Son
is, there always the Father must be also. If the
union between the believer and Christ in John 14:23
is to be interpreted as one of mere moral influence,
then the union of Christ and the Father in John
14:10 must also be interpreted as a union of mere
moral influence. Eph. 3:17– "that Christ may dwell
in your hearts through faith"; I John 4:18 – "he
that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth
in him."
(d) The believer
has life by partaking of Christ, as Christ has life
by partaking of the Father.
John 6:53, 56, 57 –
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink
his blood, ye have not life in yourselves .... He
that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth
in me, and I in him, As the living Father sent me
and I live because of the Father, so be that eateth
me, he also shall live because of me" – the believer
has life by partaking of Christ in a way that may
not inappropriately be compared with Christ's having
life by partaking of the Father. 1 Cor. 10:16, 17 –
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we
break, is it not a communion of the holy Christ?"
––here it is intimated what the Lord's Supper sets
forth, in the language of symbol, the soul's actual
participation in the life of Christ; and the margin
properly translates the word koinonia, not
"communion," but "participation" Cf. I John I :3–"
our fellowship (koinonia) is with the Father, and
with his Son Jesus Christ." Foster, Christian Life
and Theology, "In John 6, the phrases call to mind
the ancient form of sacrifice, and the participation
therein by the offerer at the sacrificial meal, – as
at the Passover."
(e) From
the union of the race with the source of its life in
Adam.
Rom. 5:12, 21 – "as
through one man sin entered into the world, and
death through ... that, as sin reigned in
death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord"; I Cor. 15:22, 45, 49 ––"as in Adam all
die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive..
..The first man Adam became a living soul. The last
Adam became a life–giving Spirit.... as we have born
the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the
image of the heavenly" – as the whole race is one
with the first man Adam, in whom it fell and from
whom it has derived a corrupted and guilty nature,
so the whole race of believers constitutes a new and
restored humanity, whose justified and purified
nature is derived from Christ, the second Adam. Cf.
Gen. 2:23 – "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh
of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she
was taken out of Man" – here C. H. M. remarks that,
as man is first created and then woman is viewed in
and formed out of him, so it is with Christ and the
church. "We are members of Christ's body, because in
Christ we have the principle of our origin; from
him our life arose, just as the life of Eve was
derived from Adam.. .. The church is Christ's
helpmeet, formed out of Christ in his deep sleep of
death, as Eve out of Adam ....The church will be
nearest to Christ, as Eve was to Adam." Because
Christ is the source of all spiritual life for his
people, he is called, in Isa. 9:6, "Everlasting
Father," and it is said, in Isa. 53:1O, that "he
shall see his seed."
2. Nature of this
Union.
We have here to do not
only with a fact of life, but with a unique relation
between the finite and the infinite. Our
descriptions must therefore be inadequate. Yet in
many respects we know what this union is not; in
certain respects we can positively characterize it.
. . .
A.
Negatively. – It is not:
(a) A merely
natural union, like that of God with all human
spirits, –as held by rationalists.
. . . Paul urges us to
work out our salvation, upon the very ground that
"it is God that worketh" in us, "both to will and to
work, for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13). This
life of God in the soul is the life of Christ.
. . . We need a spiritual
Christ to explain the spiritual activity of the
Christian. Christ is invisible. Faith comes to
believe where it cannot see. It joins itself to this
invisible Christ, and knows him as its very life.
(b) A
merely moral union, or union of love and sympathy,
like that between teacher and scholar, friend and
friend, – as held by Socinians and Arminians.
There is a moral union
between different souls. . . But in John 17:21, 26,
Christ's union with his people is distinguished from
any mere union of love and sympathy: "that they may
all be one; even is Thou, Father, art in me, and I
in thee, that they also may he in us; . . . that the
love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, and I
in them." Jesus' aim, in the whole of his last
discourse, is to show that no mere union of love and
sympathy will be sufficient: "apart from me," he
says, "ye can do nothing" (John 15:5). That His
disciples may be vitally joined to Himself, is
therefore the subject of his last prayer.
. . . The living Christ
is the present spiritual life of the believer. "This
union to his person, as to its contents, is nothing
else than adherence to the message of the kingdom of
God brought by him." It is not enough for me to be
merely in touch with Christ. He must come to be "not
so far as even to be near."
( c) A union of
essence, which destroys the distinct personality and
subsistence of either Christ or the human spirit,
––as held by many of the mystics.
Many of the mystics . . .
held to an essential union between Christ and the
believer. One of Welgel's followers, therefore,
could say to another: "I am Christ Jesus, the living
Word of God; I have redeemed thee by my sinless
sufferings." We are ever to remember that the
indwelling of Christ only puts the believer more
completely in possession of himself, and makes him
more conscious of his own personality and power.
Union with Christ must be taken in connection with
the other truth of the personality and activity of
the Christian; otherwise it tends to pantheism.
. . . The union of the
believer with Christ as a vital union, surpassing in
its intimacy any union of souls that we know. The
union of a child with father, or of wife with
husband, is only a pointer which hints very
imperfectly at the interpenetrating and energizing
of the human spirit by the divine.
(d) A union mediated
and conditioned by participation of the sacraments
of the church, ––as held by Romanists, Lutherans,
and High–Church, Episcopalians.
Perhaps the most
pernicious misinterpretation of the nature of this
union is that which conceives of it as a physical
and material one, and which rears upon this basis
the fabric of a sacramental and external
Christianity. It is sufficient here to say that this
union cannot be mediated by sacraments, since
sacraments presuppose it as already existing; both
Baptism and the Lord's Supper are designed only for
believers. Only faith receives and retains Christ;
and faith is the act of the soul grasping what is
purely invisible and supersensible: not the act of
the body, submitting to Baptism or partaking of the
Supper.
William Lincoln: "The
only way for the believer, if he wants to go
rightly, is to remember that truth is always
two–sided. If there is any truth that the Holy
Spirit has specially pressed upon your heart, If you
do not want to push it to the extreme, ask what is
the counter–truth, and lean a little of your weight
upon that; otherwise, if you bear so very much on
one side of the truth, there is a danger of pushing
it into a heresy. Heresy means selected truth; it
does not mean error: heresy and error are very
different things. Heresy is truth, but truth pushed
into undue importance, to the disparagement of the
truth upon the other side." Heresy is an act of
choice, the picking and choosing of a part, instead
of comprehensively embracing the whole of truth.
Sacramentarians substitute the symbol for the thing
symbolized.
B. Positively.––It
is:
(a) An organic union,––
in which we become members of Christ and partakers
of his humanity.
. . . The body is
an organism; since the limbs exist for the heart,
and the heart for the limbs. So each member of
Christ's body lives for Him who is the head; and
Christ the head equally lives for His members. Eph.
5:29, 30 – "no man ever hated his own flesh; but
nourisheth and cherisheth as Christ also the church;
because we are members of His body. . .
(b) A vital union,–in
which Christ's life becomes the dominating
principle within us.
This union is a vital
one, in distinction from any union of mere
Juxtaposition or external influence. Christ does not
work upon us from without, as one separated from us,
but from within, as the very heart from which the
life–blood of our spirits flows. See Gal. 2:20 ––
"it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in
me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I
live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself up for me;" Col. 3:3,
4 –– "For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ
in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be
manifested, then shall ye also with Him be
manifested in glory." Christ’s life is not corrupted
by the corruption of his members, any more than the
ray of light is deified by the filth with which it
comes in contact, We may be unconscious of this
union with Christ, as we often are of the
circulation of the blood, yet it may be the very
source and condition of our life.
(c) A spiritual
union, ––that is, a union whose source and author is
the Holy Spirit.
By a spiritual union we
mean a union not of body but of spirit, –– a union,
therefore, which only the Holy Spirit originates and
maintains. Rom. 8:9, 10 – "ye are not in the flesh
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in
you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit
is life because of righteousness." The indwelling of
Christ involves a continual exercise of efficient
power. In Eph. 3:16, 17, "strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inward man" is immediately
followed by "that Christ may dwell in jour hearts
through faith."
(d) An indissoluble
union, –– that is, a union which, consistently with
Christ's promise and grace, can never be dissolved.
Matt. 28:20 – "lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world" ;
John 10:28– "they shall never perish, and no one
shall snatch them out of my hand" ; Rom. 8: 35, 39–
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . .
. nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"; I Thess. 4:14,
17 – "them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will
God bring with him. . then we that are alive, that
are left, shall together with them be caught up in
the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord."
Christ's omnipresence
makes it possible for him no be united to, and to be
present in, each believer, as perfectly and fully as
if that believer were the only one to receive
Christ's fullness. As Christ's omnipresence makes
the whole Christ present in every place, each
believer has the whole Christ with him, as his
source of strength, purity, life; so that each may
say: Christ gives all His time and wisdom and care
to me. Such a union as this lacks every element of
instability. Once formed, the union is
indissoluble. Many of the ties of earth are
rudely broken,–– not so with our union with
Christ,–– that endures forever.
Since there is now an
unchangeable and divine element in us, our salvation
depends no longer upon our unstable wills, but upon
Christ's purpose and power. By temporary declension
from duty, or by our causeless unbelief, we may
banish Christ to the barest and most remote room of
the soul's house; but He does not suffer us wholly
to exclude Him; and when we are willing to unbar the
doors, He is still there, ready to fill the whole
mansion with his light and love.
(e) An
inscrutable union,– mystical, however, only in the
sense of surpassing in its intimacy and value any
other union of souls which we know.
This union is
inscrutable, in the intimacy of its communion and in
the transforming power of its influence, it
surpasses any other union of souls that we know, and
so cannot be fully described or understood by
earthly analogies. Eph. 5:32 – "This mystery is
great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the
church"; Col. 1:27 –"the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you,
the hope of glory."
. . . . Christ's life is
not something sporadic and individual, having its
source in the personal conviction of each disciple;
it implies a real connection with Christ, the head.
Behind all nature there is one force; behind all
varieties of Christian life and character there is
one spiritual power. All nature is not inert
matter,–– it is pervaded by a living presence. So
all the body of believers live by virtue of the
all–working Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost."
Such is the nature of
union with Christ,–– such I mean, is the nature of
every believer's union with Christ. For, whether he
knows it or not every Christian has entered into
just such a partnership as this. It is this and this
only which constitutes him a Christian, and which
makes possible a Christian church. We may, indeed,
be thus united to Christ, without being fully
conscious of the real nature of our relation to him.
We may actually possess the kernel, while as yet we
have regard only to the shell; we may seem to
ourselves to be united to Christ only by an external
bond, while after all it is an inward and spiritual
bond that makes us His. God often reveals to the
Christian the mystery of the gospel, which is Christ
in him the hope of glory, at the very time that he
is seeking only some nearer access to a Redeemer
outside of him. Trying to find a union of
cooperation or of sympathy, he is amazed to learn
that there is already established a union with
Christ more glorious and blessed, namely, a union of
life . . . Christ and the believer have the same
life. They are not separate persons linked together
by some temporary bond of friendship,–– they are
united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the
same blood ran in their veins. Yet the Christian may
never have suspected how intimate a union he has
with his Savior; and the first understanding of this
truth may be the gateway through which he passes
into a holier and happier stage of the Christian
life.
So the Way leads, through
the Truth, to the Life (John 14:6). Apprehension of
an external Savior prepares for the reception and
experience of the internal Savior. Christ is first
the Door of the sheep, but in him, after they have
once entered in, they find pasture (John 10:7–9).
3. Consequences of
this Union as respects the Believer.
We have seen that
Christ's union with humanity, at the incarnation,
involved him in all the legal liabilities of the
race to which he united himself, and enabled him so
to assume the penalty of its sin as to make for all
men a full satisfaction to the divine justice, and
to remove all external obstacles to man's return to
God. An internal obstacle, however, still
remains – the evil affections and will, and the
consequent guilt, of the individual soul. This last
obstacle also Christ removes, in the case of all his
people, by uniting himself to them in a closer and
more perfect manner than that in which He is united
to humanity at large. As Christ's union with
the race secures the objective reconciliation of the
race to God, so Christ's union with believers
secures the subjective reconciliation of believers
to God.
. . . . Humanity in
Christ is justified, and every member of the race
who joins himself to Christ by faith participates in
Christ's justification. . . Justification in Christ
is the birthright of humanity; but, in order to
possess and enjoy it,' each of us must claim and
appropriate it by faith.
R. W. Dale wrote, " . . .
His fellowship with us is the foundation of our
fellowship with him. . . . When I have discovered
that by the very constitution of my nature I am to
achieve perfection in the power of the life of
Another who is yet not Another, -- but the very
ground of my being—it ceases to be incredible to me
that Another—who is yet not Another—should be the
Atonement for my sin, and that His relation to God
should determine mine."
The Seven Togethers
"The Seven Togethers"
sums up the Scripture testimony with regard to the
Consequences of the believer’s Union with Christ: 1.
Crucified together with Christ – Gal. 2:20. 2. Died
together with Christ – Col. 2;20. 3. Buried
together with Christ – Rom. 6:4. 4. Quickened
together with Christ – Eph. 2:5. 5. Raised
together with Christ – Col. 3:1. 6. Suffers
together with Christ – Rom. 8:17. 7. Glorified
together with Christ – Rom. 8:17. Union with Christ
results in common sonship, relation to God,
character, influence and destiny.
Imperfect apprehension of
the believer’s union with Christ works to the great
injury of Christian doctrine. An experience of union
with Christ first enables us to understand the death
of sin and separation from God which has befallen
the race sprung from the first Adam. The life and
liberty of the children of God in Christ Jesus shows
us by contrast how far astray we had gone. The vital
and organic unity of the new race spring from the
second Adam reveals the depravity and disintegration
which we had inherited form our first father. We see
that as there is one source of spiritual life in
Christ, so there was one source of corrupt life in
Adam; and that as we are justified by reason of our
oneness with the justified Christ, so we are
condemned by reason of our oneness with the
condemned Adam.
(a) Union with Christ
involves a change in the dominant affection of the
soul. Christ's entrance into the
soul makes it a new creature, in the sense that the
ruling disposition, which before was sinful, now
becomes holy. This change we call Regeneration.
Rom. 8:2– "For the law of
the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from
the law of sin and of death" ; 2 Cor, 5:17 – "if any
man is in Christ, he is a new creature" (marg. –
"there is a new creation" ); Gal 1:15, 16–– "it was
the good pleasure of Cod . . . to reveal his Son in
me"; Eph. 2:10––"For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works." As we derive our
old nature from the first man Adam, by birth, so we
derive a new nature from the second man Christ, by
the new birth. Union with Christ is the true
"transfusion of blood." "The death–struck sinner,
like the anemic, dying invalid, is saved by having
poured into his veins the healthier blood of Christ"
(Drummond). God regenerates the soul by uniting it
to Jesus Christ. . . . Our baptism into Christ is
the outward picture of an inward immersion of the
soul not only into His love and fellowship, but into
his very life, so that in Him we become new
creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). . . .
(b) Union
with Christ involves a new exercise of the soul's
powers in repentance and faith; faith, indeed, is
the act of the soul by which, under the operation of
God, Christ is received. This new exercise of the
soul's powers we call Conversion (Repentance and
Faith). It is the obverse or human side of
Regeneration.
Eph. 3:17–"that Christ
may dwell in your hearts through faith"; 2 Tim.
3:15–"the sacred writings which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in
Christ Jesus." Faith is the soul's laying hold of
Christ as its only source of life, pardon, and
salvation. And so we see what true religion is. It
is not a moral life; It is not a determination to be
religious; it is not faith, if by faith we mean an
external trust that somehow Christ will save us; It
is nothing less than the life of the soul in God
through Christ His Son. To Christ then we are to
look for the origin, continuance and increase of our
faith (Luke 17:5– "said unto the Lord, Increase our
faith"). Our faith is but a part of "his fullness"
of which "we all received, and grace for grace"
(John 1:16).
Christianity is summed up
in the two facts: Christ for us, and Christ in us –
Christ for us upon the Cross, revealing the eternal
opposition of holiness to sin, and yet, through
God's eternal suffering for sin making objective
atonement for us; and Christ in us by his Spirit
renewing in us the lost image of God, and abiding in
us as the all sufficient source of purity and power.
Here are the two foci of the Christian ellipse:
Christ for us, who redeemed us from the curse of the
law by being made a curse for us, and Christ in us,
the hope of glory, whom the apostle calls the
mystery of the gospel.
"We need Christ in us as
well as Christ for us. How shall I, how shall
society, find healing and purification within? . . .
. No human soul can purge itself of its sin; and
what the individual cannot do, humanity at large is
powerless to accomplish. Sin has dominion over us,
and we are foul to the very depths of our being,
until with the help of God we break through the
barrier of our self–will, and let the floods of
Christ's purifying life flow into us. Then, in an
hour, more is done to renew, than all our efforts
for years had effected. Thus humanity is saved,
individual by individual, not by philosophy, or
philanthropy, or self–development, or
self–reformation, but simply by joining itself to
Jesus Christ, and by being filled in Him with all
the fullness of God."
(c) Union
with Christ gives to the believer the legal standing
and rights of Christ. As Christ's
union with the race involves atonement, so the
believer's union with Christ involves Justification.
The believer is entitled to take for his own all
that Christ is, and all that Christ has done; and
this because he has within him that new life of
humanity which suffered in Christ's death and rose
from the grave in Christ's resurrection, –in other
words, because he is virtually one person with the
Redeemer. In Christ the believer is prophet, priest,
and king.
Acts 13:39–"by him [lit.:
'in him' = in union with him) every one that
believeth is justified"; Rom. 6:7–8, "he that hath
died is justified from sin . . . . we died with
Christ"; 7:4–"dead to the law through the body of
Christ"; 8:1 ––"no condemnation to them that are in
Christ Jesus" ; 17–" heirs of God, and joint–heirs
with Christ"; I Cor. 1:30–"But of him ye are in
Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God,
and righteousness [justification]"; 3:21, 23 ––"all
things are yours . . . . and ye are Christ's"; 6:11
–"ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and in the Spirit of our God"; 2 Cor. 5:14–"
we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all
died"; 21 – "Him who knew no sin He made to be sin
on our behalf; that we might become the
righteousness [justification] of God in Him" = God's
justified persons, in union with Christ.
Gal. 2:20–– "I have been
crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that
live, but Christ liveth in me"; Eph. 1:4 "chosen in
Him.. . . to the praise of the glory of his grace,
which He freely bestowed on "us in the Beloved";
2:5, 6 – "even when we were dead through our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . .
. made us to sit with him in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus"; Phil. 3:8, 9–– "that I may gain
Christ, and be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the
law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God by faith"; 2 Tim.
2:11 –– "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with
Him, we shall also live with Him," Prophet: Luke
12:12–" the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very
hour what ye ought to say"; 1 John 2:20–"ye have an
anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all
things." Priest: I Pet. 2:5––"a holy priesthood, to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ"; Rev. 20 :8–" they shall be
priests of God and of Christ"; I Pet. 2:9–" a
royal priesthood." King: Rev. 3:21 – "He that
overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me
in my throne"; 5:10––"madest them to be unto our God
a kingdom and priest." The connection of
justification and union with Christ delivers the
former from the charge of being a mechanical and
arbitrary procedure. As Jonathan Edwards has said:
"The justification of the believer is no other than
his being admitted to communion in, or
participation of, this head and surety of all
believers."
(d) Union
with Christ secures to the believer the continuously
transforming, assimilating power of Christ's life,
–– first, for the soul; secondly, for the body, ––
consecrating it in the present, and in the future
raising it up in the likeness of Christ's glorified
body. This continuous influence, so
far as it is exerted in the present life, we call
Sanctification, the human side or aspect of which is
Perseverance.
For the soul: John
1:16–"of his fullness we all received, and grace for
grace"––successive and increasing measures of grace,
corresponding to the soul's successive and
increasing needs; Rom, 8:10 – "if Christ is in you,
the body is death because of sin; but the spirit is
life because of righteousness. 1 Cor. 15:45––"The
last Adam became a life–giving spirit"; Phil.
2:5––"Have this mind in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus"; 1 John 3:2––"if He shall be
manifested, we shall be like Him." "Can Christ
let the believer fall out of his hands? No, for the
believer is his hands."
For the body: I Cor. 6
:17–20 – "he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit . . . . know ye not that your body is a
temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you . . . .
glorify God therefore in your body"; 1 Thess. 5:23 –
"And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly;
and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ"; Rom. 8:11 –– "shall give life also to
your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth
in you"; I Cor. 15: 49–"as we have borne the image
of the earthy [man], we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly [man]"; Phil. 3 :20, 21 – "For our
citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we wait
for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall
fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it
may be conformed to the body of His glory, according
to the working whereby He is able even to subject
all things unto himself."
. . . . "Christ in the
soul fashions the germinal man into his own
likeness,––this is the embryology of the new life.
The cardinal error in religious life is the attempt
to live without proper environment." Human life
from Adam does not stand the test, –– only
divine–human life in Christ can secure us from
falling. This is the work of Christ, now that He has
ascended and taken to Himself his power, namely, to
give His life more and more fully to the church,
until it shall grow up in all things into him, the
Head, and shall fitly express His glory to the
world.
As the accomplished
organist discloses unsuspected capabilities of his
instrument, so Christ brings into activity all the
latent powers of the human soul. "I was five years
in the ministry," said an American preacher, "before
I realized that my Savior is alive." Dr. R. W. Dale
has left on record the almost unutterable feelings
that stirred his soul when be first realized this
truth. Many have struggled in vain against sin until
they have admitted Christ to their hearts, –– then
they could say: "this is the victory that hath
overcome the world, even our faith" (1 John 5:4).
Only in Christ can we find our pardon, peace,
purity, and power. He is "made unto us wisdom from
God, and justification and sanctification, and
redemption" (1 Cor. 1: 30). There is no safety in
simply expelling sin; we need also to bring in
Christ; in fact only He can enable us to expel not
only actual sin but the love of it.
Alexander Mclaren: "If we
are 'in Christ,' we are like a diver in his crystal
bell, and have a solid though invisible wall around
us, which keeps all sea monsters off us, and
communicates with the upper air, whence we draw the
breath of calm life and can work in security though
in the ocean depths." . . . How do we know that
Christ has not departed from the world? Because he
imparts to the soul that trusts him a power, a
purity, a peace, which are beyond all that nature
can give."
(e) Union
with Christ brings about a fellowship of Christ with
the believer,–– Christ takes part in all the
labors, temptations, and sufferings of his people; a
fellowship of the believer with Christ,–– so that
Christ’s whole experience on earth is in some
measure reproduced in Him; a fellowship of the
believers with one another,–– furnishing a basis for
the spiritual unity of Christ's people on earth, and
for the eternal communion of heaven. The doctrine of
Union with Christ is therefore the indispensable
preparation for Ecclesiology, and for Eschatology.
Fellowship of Christ with
the believer: Phil. 4:13––" I can do all things in
Him that strengtheneth me"; Heb. 4 :15 –– "For we
have not a high priest that cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities"; cf. Isa. 63:9––"In
all their affliction he was afflicted." Heb.
2:18––"in that He himself hath suffered being
tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted"
= are being tempted, are under temptation.
Wordsworth: "By his passion He acquired compassion"
2 Cor. 2 :14 –" thanks be unto God, who always
leadeth us in triumph in Christ" = Christ leads us
in triumph, but His triumph is ours, even if it be a
triumph over us. One with Him, we participate in His
joy and in His sovereignty. Rev. 3:21–"He that
overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me
in my throne." W. F. Taylor on Rom. 8:9 –– "The
Spirit of God dwelleth in you . . . . if any man
hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of
His"—"Christ dwells in us, says the apostle. But do
we accept Him as a resident, or as a ruler? . . .
Christ does not consent to be represented by a mere
resident. He must Himself dwell within the soul, and
He must reign." . . .
Of the believer with
Christ: Phil. 3 :10 –– "that I may know Him, and the
power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of his
sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death"; Col.
1:24 –– "fill up on my part that which is lacking of
the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's
sake, which is the church"; 1 Pet. 4 :13
––"partakers of Christ's sufferings." The Christian
reproduces Christ's life in miniature, and, in a
true sense, lives it over again. Only upon the
principle of union with Christ can we explain how
the Christian instinctively applies to himself the
prophecies and promises which originally and
primarily were uttered with reference to Christ:
"thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol; neither wilt
thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption" (Ps.
16:10). This fellowship is the ground of the
promises made to believing prayer: John 14:13
––"whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I
do"; Wescott: "The meaning of the phrase ['in my
name'] is 'as being one with me even as I am
revealed to you.' Its two correlatives are 'in
me' and the Pauline 'in Christ.’" "All things are
yours." (1 Cor. 3 : 21), because Christ is universal
King, and all believers are exalted to fellowship
with him. Phil. 1: 21––"For to me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain." Paul indeed uses the words
'Christ' and 'church' as interchangeable terms: 1
Cor 12: 12––"as the body is one, and hath many
members, so also is Christ." Denney, "There is not
in the N. T. from beginning to end, in the record of
the original and genuine Christian life, a single
word of despondency or gloom. It is the most
buoyant, exhilarating and joyful book in the world."
This is due to the fact that the writers believe in
a living and exalted Christ, and know themselves to
be one with Him. They descend crowned into the
arena. In the Sudan, every morning for half an hour
before General Gordon's tent there lay a white
handkerchief. The most pressing message, even on
matters of life and death, waited till that
handkerchief was withdrawn. It was the signal that
Christ and Gordon were in communion with each other.
Of all believers with one
another: John 17:21 –– "that they may all be one"; 1
Cor. 10:17–" we, who are many, are one bread, one
body: for we all partake of the one bread"; Eph.
2:15––"create in himself of the two one new man, so
making peace"; I John 1:3––" that ye also may have
fellowship with us: yea, and our fellowship is with
the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ" –– here
the word koinonia is used. Fellowship with each
other is the effect and result of the fellowship of
each with God in Christ. Compare John 10:16––"they
shall become one flock, one shepherd"; Westcott:
"The bond of fellowship is shown to lie in the
common relation to one Lord. Nothing is said of one
'fold' under the new dispensation." Here is a unity,
not of external organization, but of common life. Of
this the visible church is the consequence and
expression. But this communion is not limited to
earth,–– it is perpetuated beyond death: 1 Thess.
4:17––"so shall we ever be with the Lord"; Heb.
12:23 –"to the general assembly and church of the
firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the
Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect"; Rev. 21 and 22––the city of God, the new
Jerusalem, is the image of perfect society, as well
as of intensity and fullness of life in Christ. The
ordinances express the essence of Ecclesiology
––union with Christ –– for Baptism symbolizes the
incorporation of the believer in Christ, while the
Lord's Supper symbolizes the incorporation of Christ
in the believer. Christianity is a social matter,
and the true Christian feels the need of being with
and among his brethren. The Romans could not
understand why "this new sect" must be holding
meetings all the time––even daily meetings. Why
could they not go singly, or in families, to the
temples, and make offerings to their God, and then
come away, as the pagans did? It was this meeting
together which exposed them to persecution and
martyrdom. It was the natural and inevitable
expression of their union with Christ, and so of
their union with one another.
The consciousness of
union with Christ gives assurance of salvation. It
is a great stimulus to believing prayer and to
patient labor. It is a duty to "know what is the
hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of
His inheritance in the saints, and what the
exceeding greatness of His power to us–ward who
believe" (Eph. 1:18, 19). Christ's command, "Abide
in me and I in you" (John 15: 4), implies that we
are both to realize and to confirm this union, by
active exertion of our own wills. We are to abide in
him by an entire consecration, and to let him abide
in us by an appropriating faith. We are to give
ourselves to Christ, and to take in return the
Christ who gives himself to us,––in other words, we
are to believe Christ's promises and to act upon
them. All sin consists in the sundering of man's
life from God, and most systems of falsehood in
religion are attempts to save man without merging
his life in God's once more. The only religion that
can save mankind is the religion that fills the
whole heart and the whole life with God, and that
aims to interpenetrate universal humanity with that
same living Christ who has already made Himself one
with the believer. This consciousness of union with
Christ gives "boldness" (Acts 4:13; I John 5:14)
toward men and toward God. The word belongs to the
Greek democracies. Freemen are bold. Demosthenes
boasts of his frankness. Christ frees us from the
hide–bound, introspective, self–conscious spirit. In
Him we become free, demonstrative, outspoken. So we
find, in John's epistles, that boldness in prayer is
spoken of as a virtue, and the author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews urges us to "draw near with boldness
unto the throne of grace" (Heb. 4:16). An engagement
of marriage is not the same as marriage. The parties
may be still distant from each other. Many
Christians get just near enough to Christ to be
engaged to him. This seems to be the experience of
Christian in the Pilgrim’s Progress. But our
privilege is to have a present Christ, and to do our
work not only for Him, but in Him. "Since Christ and
we are one, Why should we doubt or fear?" "We two
are so joined, He'll not be in heaven, And leave me
behind."
We append a few
statements with regard to this union and its
consequences, from noted names in theology and the
church. Luther: "By faith thou art so glued to
Christ that of thee and him there becomes as it were
one person, so that with confidence thou canst say:
'I am Christ,–– that is, Christ's righteousness,
victory, etc., are mine; and Christ in turn can say:
'I am that sinner,–– that is, his sins, his death,
etc., are mine, because he clings to me and I to
him, for we have been joined through faith into one
flesh and bone.'" Calvin: "I attribute the highest
importance to the connection between the head and
the members; to the inhabitation of Christ in our
hearts; in a word, to the mystical union by which we
enjoy Him, so that, being made ours, He makes us
partakers of the blessings with which He is
furnished." John Bunyan: "The Lord led me into the
knowledge of the mystery of union with Christ, that
I was joined to him, that I was bone of His bone and
flesh of his flesh. By this also my faith in Him as
my righteousness was the more confirmed; for if He
and I were one, then His righteousness was mine, His
merits mine, His victory also mine. Now could I see
myself in heaven and on earth at once –– in heaven
by my Christ, my risen head, my righteousness and
life, though on earth by my body or person."
Jonathan Edwards: "Faith is the soul's active
uniting with Christ. God sees fit that, in order to
a union's being established between two intelligent
active beings, there should be the mutual act of
both, that each should receive the other, as
entirely joining themselves to one another." Andrew
Fuller: "I have no doubt that the imputation of
Christ's righteousness presupposes a union with Him;
since there is no perceivable fitness in bestowing
benefits on one for another's sake, where there is
no union or relation between."
Here are some more
studies on justification by faith in Christ:
Series on Our Vital Union with Christ
Union of Believers in
Christ by A. A. Hodge
Title: Our Vital
Union with Christ: The Application of Christ’s
Redemption in its Actual Beginning
Excerpted from A. H.
Strong, Systematic Theology, Valley Forge: Judson
Press, 1907, pp. 793-808.
Series: Our Vital Union
with Christ
