State of the Union

TWIN CITIES GRACE FELLOWSHIP

Union in Christ · Lesson 1 of 10

Every person is in one of two unions — in Adam, or in Christ

Galatians 3:26-28

OPENING PRAYER

Father, before we open Your Word, we ask that You would open our eyes. We acknowledge that we so easily borrow our sense of who we are from anywhere but You — from performance, from comparison, from the world's fading categories. Quiet those voices now, and let Your Spirit witness with our spirit as we search out what You have already declared to be true. Whatever we find ourselves to be this hour — in Adam or in Christ — let us not walk out unchanged. In Jesus' name, Amen.

THESIS

Scripture reduces every person to one of two unions — in Adam, or in Christ. Not a spectrum, not a matter of degree — a definite position, traced back to two men. Once in Christ, spiritual growth is real and progressive; but the union itself is fixed, not something you grow into.

INTRODUCTION

Most people walk around with a vague, borrowed sense of who they are before God — some picked up from performance, some from feeling, some from whatever the culture around them is currently offering as identity. Scripture will not leave it that vague. It names a definite position, and everything about how we understand grace, security, and even our own good works depends on getting this right.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Our identity in Christ is not a peripheral doctrine. It tightens our eternal security, it confirms that the gospel really is by grace and not by our own contribution, it is how God Himself identifies us, and it is the ground beneath every good work we do — without it, works are just our own works.

THESIS

Scripture reduces every person to one of two unions: in Adam, or in Christ. Not a spectrum, not a matter of degree — a definite position, traced back to two men.

This is distinct from spiritual growth. Once a person is in Christ, growth in that union is real and progressive — sanctification is a lifelong walk. But the union itself doesn't come in degrees. You don't grow more or less into it; you simply are or are not in it.

ROADMAP

Over this ten-lesson series we'll examine what it means to be in Adam, the operation of God that moves a person out of that union, what it means to be in Christ, and how that identity works itself out — inwardly and bodily.

I. A Doctrine Worth Knowing

STATE

Identity in Christ is not a side issue. It is foundational — to our security, to the simplicity of grace, and to the nature of our good works.

Identity in Christ resolves the identity crisis within our culture as it secures the identity that is essential - the one before God, then places each other identity second and in their proper place.

ANCHOR

Ephesians 2:8–10 KJV 1900

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

grace, not works, as the ground of salvation; good works as what flows from that identity, not what produces it.

DEVELOP

1. It secures our eternal security — and stands secure against every accusation.

Assurance doesn't rise and fall with performance or accusation, because the union isn't built on either.

Ephesians 1:13–14

“In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth... in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance...”

Romans 8:33–34

“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again...”

2. It confirms the simplicity of the gospel — by grace.

Identity in Christ is not earned or assembled. It is given. That's what keeps the gospel simple.

Ephesians 2:8–9

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Titus 3:5

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

3. It is not vague in Paul's letters — it is how God identifies us.

Paul doesn't describe believers by mood or performance. He names them by position.

2 Timothy 2:19

“The Lord knoweth them that are his.”

1 Corinthians 6:11

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

4. It is foundational to good works being good works.

Apart from union with Christ, works are self-produced — however sincere. In Christ, they are Spirit-produced.

Ephesians 2:10

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Galatians 2:20

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Rightly understood, this also guards against two opposite errors — earning acceptance through rule-keeping, or presuming on grace as license to sin (Romans 6:1–2, 15). We'll return to this directly in Lessons 9 and 10.

5. It breaks sin's dominion, not just its penalty.

Union with Christ doesn't just forgive sin — it changes our relationship to sin's power.

Romans 6:6

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”

Romans 6:14

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”

6. It is the ground of unity in the church.

Since identity in Christ isn't earned by works or background, it removes every basis for partiality.

Galatians 3:28

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Ephesians 2:14–16

“For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us... to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.”

7. It anchors us in suffering.

A position not built on circumstances can't be shaken by circumstances.

Romans 8:38–39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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.”

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.”

2 Corinthians 4:9 “Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;”

LAND: Before Scripture ever tells you what to do, it insists you first know who you are — and it will not let that knowledge stay small.

TRANSITION

If identity carries this much weight, we have to ask the next question honestly — how does Scripture tell us to actually recognize which union a person is in?

II. Marks of a Union: How Identity Is Known

STATE

Scripture doesn't just declare two unions exist — it names specific markers that identify which one a person is in, on both sides.

ANCHOR

Ephesians 5:8 KJV 1900

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

DEVELOP

1. Known by God, or not known at all.

2 Timothy 2:19 “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Galatians 4:9 “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”

2. A new creature, or still in the old.

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

3. Children of God, or servants of sin.

Romans 8:15–16 “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”

Romans 6:20 “For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.”

4. Light in the Lord, or still in darkness — put off, put on.

Ephesians 4:22–24 “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Colossians 3:9–10 “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:”

LAND: Every one of these marks names a person — the question isn't whether markers exist, it's which set describes you.

TRANSITION

These marks all trace back to something deeper than a list of traits — Scripture roots every one of them in one of two men.

III. State of the Union

STATE

Every marker we just named traces back to one of two heads — and the union each of us is in reaches the whole person, not merely a part of us.

ANCHOR

Romans 5:12–21 — the two “one man” heads, Adam and Christ, each constituting an entire class of humanity in themselves.

DEVELOP

1. Defining identity and union — and where culture goes wrong.

Theologically, identity is who a person is understood to be in relation to God — grounded in being made in His image, and for the believer, in union with Christ. Socially, identity is who a person is understood to be in relation to others — nationality, role, group, achievement, reputation. Culture hands us the second and calls it the first. Scripture insists we go to the first.

Union with Christ, specifically, means the believer is joined to Christ — spiritually identified with His death, resurrection, and life — such that His standing becomes the believer's standing, while the believer remains a distinct person, never absorbed into God.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

Romans 6:5 “For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”

2. Only two identities exist — traced to two men.

All of humanity is summed up in one of two heads. There is no third category.

Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”

1 Corinthians 15:22 “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

3. Examining which union is yours.

Scripture doesn't let this stay theoretical — it puts the question directly to every hearer.

Ephesians 2:1–3 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

4. The gospel is the hinge — believed, it changes the union.

Movement from one union to the other doesn't happen by self-improvement. It happens by believing the gospel.

Galatians 3:26–27 “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”

Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

5. This union touches the whole person — spirit, soul, and body.

Being “in Christ” is not partial. It names our justification, our sanctification, and our glorification in a single breath — reaching the inner man now and the outer man not yet.

1 Corinthians 1:30 “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:”

1 Thessalonians 5:23 “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Righteousness is our justification — settled, positional, already ours. Sanctification is our present walk — inward, progressive, the spirit and soul being renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16). Redemption is our glorification — outward, future, the body itself still waiting to be raised (Romans 8:23). One union. One person. Justified, being sanctified, and one day glorified — spirit, soul, and body.

LAND: There are only two unions — and Scripture is asking you which one is yours, and how much of you it has already claimed.

TRANSITION

That question is exactly what these ten lessons are built to answer in full. Over the coming weeks we'll trace what it means to be in Adam — abomination, condemnation, alienation — the operation of God that moves a person out of that union, what it means to be in Christ — justification, sanctification, glorification — and finally how that new identity works itself out, inwardly and in the body.

CONCLUSION

Spine: You are in one of two unions — in Adam or in Christ — and Scripture will not let that stay vague, or let it stay partial.

Conviction: Have you actually examined which union is yours? Have you believed the gospel that alone can move you from one to the other?

Application: Commit to walking through all ten lessons of this series. Come prepared to let Scripture, not culture or feeling, define who you are.

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, thank You that You have not left us to guess who we are. Thank You that in Christ our standing is settled — sealed, secure, and not our own doing. For any among us still in Adam, we pray this is the day the gospel takes hold and moves you from death into life. For those already in Christ, root this truth deep enough that it shapes not just what we believe, but how we walk — good works flowing from who we already are in You, not efforts to become something we're not. Carry us into the next nine lessons with hunger to know ourselves as You have named us. In Jesus' name, Amen.