Union with Christ
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What does it mean to be united with Christ? Why is this doctrine important in all of the tenses of salvation?
What does it mean to be united with Christ? Why is this doctrine important in all of the tenses of salvation?
Dictionary of Bible Themes 6754 union with Christ
union with Christ
The sharing of believers in the life of Jesus Christ by faith, allowing them to share in all the benefits and riches that result from his person and work.
So this definition speaks more to the results of union with Christ rather than explaining exactly what that union is. Also, while it is true that believers share in the life of Christ by faith, I think this definition is also weak on the significance of what it means to share in the life of Christ. Union with Christ does not consist merely of external benefits, but of supernatural, internal relationship that goes beyond our wildest dreams.
So what I want to do is look at some proof texts in Scripture to build more of a picture of union with Christ, rather than a definition...
5 For your husband is your maker, his name is Yahweh of hosts;
and your redeemer is the holy one of Israel, he is called the God of all of the earth.
6 For Yahweh has called you like a wife forsaken and hurt of spirit,
like the wife of childhood when she is rejected, says your God.
7 I abandoned you for a short moment,
but I will gather you with great compassion.
8 I hid my face from you for a moment, in the flowing of anger,
but I will have compassion on you with everlasting faithfulness” says your redeemer, Yahweh.
כִּי
Often in the OT God refers to himself as, or is referred to as Israel’s husband. That is, he is the husband to his chosen people. We see that here and in especially. So then we have to go back and look at the significance of what a husband is.
24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cling to his wife, and they shall be as one flesh.
Which, if you are a student of the Bible, should bring up verses like this...
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for her;
Marriage is a picture of the gospel; a picture of union with Christ. So union with Christ then is not some sort of ethereal union, but it truly is a practical one where two distinct persons come to share equally in all that they have. But like marriage, it is not egalitarian in nature. There is our role, and there is Christ’s role. In the example of marriage, all believers are in the role of the wife, who submits to the husband, Christ. This is made possible because the husband seeks the best for his wife and holds her best interest at hand at all times. So then, all that belongs to the husband, belongs to the wife.
These different roles are good news when it comes to union with Christ. For example, prior to salvation, we are filthy sinners. Wicked, depraved, deserving of hell only for all eternity. If Christ brought any of the same baggage with him, union with him would be no good news for us, for it would only increase our guilt. But he is perfect, spotless, sinless. Therefore to be united with him in that is great news for us. Because, just as in marriage, the two become one. We see this in the following text...
4 Remain in me, and I in you. Just as the branch is not able to bear fruit from itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me.
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him—this one bears much fruit, for apart from me you are not able to do anything.
also
22 And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, in order that they may be one, just as we are one—23 I in them, and you in me, in order that they may be completed in one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.
So the implication of this union, with the illustration of marriage, is What Paul says...
21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin on our behalf, in order that we could become the righteousness of God in him.
He takes our sin, and we get his righteous. Thats the blessing of union with Christ. And the reality is that we could not obtain the blessing if the imputation did not work both ways. He had to fully bear all my sin upon himself in order for me to have his perfect righteousness full accounted to me.
The reality of this gives us great hope and joy in the present. Even when I fail, knowing that Christ is in me and I am in him. And that this status means that my future is secure.
The future implication of this union with Christ is...
5 For if we have become identified with him in the likeness of his death, certainly also we will be identified with him in the likeness of his resurrection,
30 And those whom he predestined, these he also called, and those whom he called, these he also justified, and those whom he justified, these he also glorified.
Romans
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 and we being dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ (by grace you are saved), 6 and raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Ephesians 2:
17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him.
Which means we share in all that is Christ’s. tells us that Jesus is the fulfillment of , the one who exercised perfect dominion who is crowned with glory and honor and has everything subjected beneath his feet. Union with Christ means we share in all of that when God restores all things.
