 I'm going to share with you some thoughts about our union with Christ. I, in our study of the law and gospel over the past several months, became interested in this topic and at one point it was just sort of devouring everything I could find about it because it's so amazing. And I've got a three-hour sermon that I've narrowed down to 30 minutes, I hope. But I referred to this in the Lord's Supper this morning. Our communion with Christ is possible only because of our union with Christ. And in the Bible we see verses about union with Christ that address different aspects of this union. Some speak of the mutual indwelling or what some call a vital union. One of those, for example, is 2nd Corinthians 517. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. And in Galatians 2.20 we read, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Just a couple of examples. The other verses speak about our union involving a judicial representation. As in this passage about justification, Philippians 3.8 and 9, where we read, yet indeed I also count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. And another aspect of our union with Christ is understood in election. In Ephesians 1.3.6 we see blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. So union is spoken of in different ways. The focus tonight will be this vital union. And as I mentioned this morning Paul's use of the phrase in Christ or variations of this idea in just Ephesians by one count is 34 times and throughout the New Testament 150 to 200 times depending on who's counting, but the vast majority of the uses are by Paul. And so the centrality of union with Christ to our Christian faith can't be overstated. But we don't often delve into the quality or characteristics of this union in my own life. It hasn't been something that I have meditated a lot about. And apparently it wasn't much of a focus for anyone at least notably until until the Reformation. Their theories about that one is simply that Christians were fighting bigger battles until then. But David Martin Lloyd Jones preacher who died in 1981 after serving his pastor of Westminster Chapel in London and writing about Ephesians said this of union with Christ. This is the most wonderful and the most amazing thing of all. And to me it is always a matter of great surprise that this blessed doctrine should receive so little attention for some reason or other Christian people seem to be afraid of it. Yet according to this teaching in Ephesians 2 and elsewhere you are not a Christian at all unless you are joined to Christ and in him. So as we look at this doctrine I hope and pray for you the prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians near the end of chapter one starting in verse 17 where we read that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his calling what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the saints and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe. I believe that if you meditate on your union with Christ and think about this as you pray in your daily devotions that God will answer this prayer you will be enlightened you will know and understand more clearly the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the exceeding greatness of his power. I know it's changed the way that I pray and the way that I think about my life as a Christian. Let's consider what union with Christ actually means our focus will be on this vital union and many of the theologians speak of it as being mystical and partly that's because it's not something we can entirely understand but we're not talking about mysticism and we're not talking about a union in which we lose our individuality nor are we speaking about a union in which we become little gods as some of the prosperity quacks would say nor are we becoming somehow divine in and of ourselves. False teachers have over the centuries posited these sorts of things to mislead and exploit unsuspecting people. What we're speaking about is what Peter described as being a partaker in the divine nature. This morning and when we talked about the Lord's Supper and in thinking about this vital union we read a section of John 14 and John 17 and I want to go there again. The repetition will be good for you. So turn with me if you would to John 14 and let's read how Christ described this vital union or this indwelling when he was speaking to the disciples John 14 19 to 23. A little while longer in the world will see me no more but you will see me because I live you will live also at that day you will know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you he who has my commandments and keeps them it is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. I want to stop there just to go on a little aside this verse 21 I will manifest myself to him you know sometimes when you're reading scripture and for some reason something will just get your attention in a way that it hasn't before even though you've read those things in the past but this happened with me in that particular expression I will manifest myself to him. Matthew Henry helped understand that when he said this is powerful influences of divine graces and comforts upon the souls of those that love Christ in sincerity powerful influences of divine graces and comforts we have that when we have vital union with Christ and it's it is deeply experiential I know that can be a dangerous word we don't base our faith on our experiences but for the the Christian who is vitally united to Christ it produces in you a love for God that causes you to delight in obedience to God and it manifests itself in fruits of the spirit that are evident in our own lives not only to ourselves as we see the grace of God working in us but to others but I came to this passage because it speaks of this indwelling the indwelling of not only of the spirit but of the son and the father if you continue in verse 23 you see that it says Jesus answered and said to him if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him so there's this indwelling of the Godhead in the believer look at John 17 and verses 20 to 23 where Christ is praying to God the father he says I do not pray for these alone but also for those who will believe in me through their word that they all may be one as you father are in me and I in you that they may also that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that you sent me and the glory which you gave me I have given them that they may be one just as we are one I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me it's just amazing within the Godhead we know that this union is perfect and it is revealed in these passages and there's a connection between the mutual indwelling of Christ and believers you in me and I and you from John 14 to the disciples and in John 17 I and them and you in me to God the father there's this one union of the Godhead presented next to and immediately beside Christ in us and us in Christ and this speaks to the our creation how we were created we were we were created in the image of God and in part that means with this capacity to be indwelt by God this this one the legend Scott Horrell put it this way when reconciled with God man and woman are infused with his personal presence in some sense the capacity of each person of the Godhead to be indwelt by the other while remaining fully an individual is reflected in man as created in the image of God similar to how the father indwells the son and the son indwells the father and to how the Holy Spirit is also literally the spirit of Christ and the spirit of the father so God has structured the human being so that he or she can be indwelt by God himself notably the Holy Spirit I when I think about union with Christ in this way and and the that are the way that we are constituted and the the capacity that we have as having been created in the image of God it just informs our relationship with God our union with God I mean how much closer can I get then to be indwelt John Owen the 17th century Puritan who fought among other things against the Roman Catholic Church for a right understanding of justification also helps us to understand this union he spoke of union with Christ and in volume five of his works and this way he wrote the foundation of the imputation asserted is union whereby the Lord Christ and believers do actually coalesce into one mystical person we understand the word coalesce to mean to come together to form one whole its usage when Owen first wrote these words was more specifically to grow together as in becoming one and so we cannot say that the union of the Godhead is the same or equal to the union of Christ and the believer they're not the same but there is a similitude there is a shared quality between these two unions John Owen died in 18 and 1683 about a century earlier John Calvin wrote about our union with Christ and from what I can tell his approach to understanding and describing the union of believers to Christ had more to do with the hypostatic union God Christ as fully God and fully man we certainly know that this is the teaching of Scripture any who deny it are condemned but the union of God and man in Christ informs in many ways our understanding but believers union with Christ Calvin said it was necessary for the son of God to become for us Emmanuel in such a way that his divinity and our human nature might by mutual connection grow together in other words no human connection to God no union vital or representative would have been possible if God in Christ had not taken on the nature of man by becoming a man Christ made possible a union that underlies all of salvation regeneration justification sanctification and glorification the mystery of this union Christ being fully God and fully man in one person helps us understand our own union as men in the flesh with God in Christ they're comparable they're not the same but they help us to understand and in an essay that AWP pink wrote about this subject he died in 1952 he pointed also to the hypostatic union as grounds for understanding the believers union with Christ he said there are three principle unions revealed in the scriptures that are the chief mysteries and form the foundation of our most holy faith first the union of three divine persons in one Godhead having distinct personalities being being co-eternal and co-glorious yet constituting one Jehovah second the union of the divine and human natures in one person Jesus Christ Emmanuel being God and man third the union of the church to Christ he being the head they being the members constituting one mystical body though we cannot form an exact idea of any of these unions in our imaginations because the depth of such mysteries is beyond our comprehension yet it is our bound and duty to believe them all because they are clearly revealed in scripture and are the necessary foundation for other points of Christian doctrine how wonderful beyond words that sinful wretches should be made one with him before whom the seraphim veil their faces and cry holy holy holy and so it is a marvelous reality understanding it is I think a lifelong pursuit some other great thinkers who have gone before us have written beautifully about this John Murray wrote in a marvelous little book redemption accomplished and applied a chapter on our union with Christ and he like others references other kinds of union to which our union with Christ is compared the union of marriage for example but he says something like what pink said the greatest mystery this is Murray the greatest mystery of being is the mystery of the Trinity three persons in one God the great mystery of godliness is the mystery of the incarnation that the son of man that the son of God became man and was manifest in the flesh but the greatest mystery of creaturely relations is the union of the people of God with Christ and the mystery of it is attested by nothing more than this it is compared to the union that exists between the father and the son in the unity of the Godhead another writer spoke about our union with Christ as being in a sense a shared being sharing in the life who he said and the con it's the context of this essay was regeneration he said though in ourselves by nature we were spiritually dead in sin at a certain point in time God caused us to share the life of Christ I thought that was a really helpful phrase to give us another way of understanding what this union means that we share the life of Christ and thus to become he said spiritually alive in other words regeneration occurs when we are for the first time savingly united with Christ there's another aspect of our union with Christ that will help you understand the marvel of this reality and it's not something that I had fought a lot about frankly until I began studying this subject and it is this Christ ascended into heaven in bodily form he is still a man there is a human being in heaven he has connected humanity to the Godhead one writer put it this way Christ has forever taken into the Godhead the form of manhood a permanent physical body that sits quite literally at the right hand of God the father remember acts one starting in verse nine now when he had spoken these things while they watched he was taken up and the cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel who also said men of Galilee why do you stand gazing up into heaven this same Jesus who has taken up from you into heaven will so come in like manner as you saw him go into heaven so he ascended bodily we know that he will return and that same glorified body we know that he's there now and we know that in Colossians 3 1 we read if then you were raised with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God pastor Garrett Dawson wrote a book about the ascension which helps us understand the importance of this reality and how it ties into our union with Christ he said if he dropped the hypostatic union with humanity then he dropped us and we are left forsaken on this side of the great divide thankfully an orthodox view of the ascension safeguards our understanding of Christ's continuing incarnation the incarnation continues and so we are included in the life of God that is the essential meaning of the ascension we are not left alone he has gone before us in a way we may follow through the Holy Spirit because the way is in his flesh in his humanity Jesus is himself that new and living way the fully human one has gone within the veil in our name and even in our skin united to him by the Spirit to the one who remains united to us we may follow where he has gone Dawson concludes moreover the ascension asserts the continuing incarnation of Christ which is the very basis for his union with us the only way in which we can be saved from our sins resurrected in body and taken to live with him in blessed communion eternally so the ascension so how is it that we are brought into this union we are initially we initially experience this union with Christ in regeneration look at Ephesians 2 4 and 5 but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved he made us alive this means we were dead and how did he do it together with Christ or in union with Christ regeneration or being born again takes place when we are savingly united to Christ Sinclair Ferguson preaches and teaches often on this subject of union with Christ he was the longtime pastor at First Presbyterian in Columbia South Carolina you are probably familiar with him he has a wonderful ability to communicate biblical truths clearly and at a conference in 2010 speaking of regeneration and specifically of 2nd Corinthians 5 17 Ferguson said this being united to Jesus is the doorway of a whole different order of existence altogether which is why in Paul's language he bends the Greek language in order to communicate this to us and uses a form of speech used nowhere else outside of the New Testament when he explains to Christian believers that when we become Christians and we believe Christ we believe into Christ into Christ we are united to him by the spirit and through faith and in Jesus Christ there is a whole world we might say the world of Christ opens to us because Christ is in a sense a whole world of grace and mercy and blessing so we initially experience this union and regeneration but we appropriate it and continue to live out this union through faith look with me again at Galatians 220 I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Christ dwells in him has regenerated him and has caused him to repent and believe the gospel in this regeneration he has caused any who have been blessed in this way to see themselves the way that God sees them to see their sin to see their need for Savior to see the amazing grace of Christ William Cunningham wrote stirringly of the place of faith he was a Scottish theologian who died in 1861 and he said now when a man believes in Christ he is according to God's appointment united to him there is a union formed between them God regards him as if he were Christ and treats him as if he had suffered the punishment for his sins that Christ endured in his room as if he had in his own person performed that full and perfect obedience to the divine law that our Savior's conduct exhibited it is this imputation of Christ's sufferings and of his righteousness it is this communion of suffering and of merit in which the union of believers with Christ mainly consists this union and communion with him is the foundation of their salvation in all its parts and in all its aspects when they believe him God regards them as one with him as if they had offered what he has suffered as if they had done what he has done as if they had paid the penalty for their sins and had gained a title to his his favor so it's just amazing and so we are justified we are sanctified we persevere in union with Christ what does this tell us about how we should live I think partly it's understanding where you are in the process of this union you're in this little window of time in which if you are converted you possess an ability to obey by the Spirit as well as an ability to disobey God Thomas Boston in his classic work human nature in its fourfold state states describes this life of the Christian as the third of four states I want to just review with you what those are and how he explains them the first state the state of innocence in that state we are work well Adam was able to sin and able not to sin before the fall he was created in the image of God with a constitution that reflected the holiness of God he was created with an innate ability to obey but not created in such a way that he was immutably so he was able to send and he and he eventually did the second state Boston calls the state of nature and in that state we are not able not to sin we're born this way spiritually dead in sin slaves to sin totally depraved even in this state however the remnants of our original nature remain that dimly in our conscience we know that lying stealing adultery and murder for example are wrong our consciences naturally convict us of these things as we see in Romans 2 14 and 15 the third state is the one the in which the Christian lives the state of grace able not to sin regenerated and brought into this mystical union with Christ but ultimately we shall be unable to sin what Boston calls the eternal state when we are brought into a more perfect union with Christ even than that of Adam before the fall the Christian is marked by a desire and longing to be in that state no longer locked in a struggle against our old nature and so there will be no place for you in the eternal state if your life isn't marked by a desire for holiness in this life Jonathan Edwards put it this way the beginnings of future things are in this world the seed must be sown here the foundation must be laid in this world if it is not begun here it will never be begun the light must dawn in this world or the sun will never rise in the next therefore all who hope for heaven must seek a heavenly life here on earth I pray that you are doing that let's pray father in heaven we are just amazed at the glory of your salvation the wisdom and power and might that we see in all of it from eternity past to eternity future and are overwhelmed and amazed that you would love us even when we were your enemies we thank you and praise you for for this amazing grace in Jesus name amen