Union with Christ: The Fount of Every Blessing
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Our Scripture lesson this morning is from 1 Corinthians 15:12-28:
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For “God has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “all things are put in subjection,” it is plain that he is excepted who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.
May God bless this the reading of his holy and infallible word.
Imagine purchasing a new vehicle that is loaded to the gills. Power everything! All the conveniences imaginable: heated seats and steering wheel, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, GPS and on demand video for the passengers. You name it this vehicle has it! Everything, that is except the engine! Consequently, this vehicle is nothing more than an oversized paperweight! Worthless! All those expensive add-on are useless!
This is what the doctrine of salvation would be like without our Union with Christ. “Union with Christ” or “The Mystical Union” as some theologian like to refer to it as is one of the most important doctrines taught in Scripture, but most modern day Christians are totally ignorant of it. In our Scripture text today, Paul argues for the indispensability of the resurrection by linking our resurrection to Christ’s: if Christ is raised, we will be raised, and if we will not be raised, Christ is not raised.
We read these words, but often fail to understand their true significance because we are ignorant of our Union with Christ. We are going to take care of that this morning by looking at the doctrine of our Union with Christ.
Let us begin with a definition:
A Basic Definition
A Basic Definition
Union with Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, by which He unites the elect to Christ, so that they share in His life, death, resurrection and glorification.
Everything a believer receives from God is received “in Christ.” Apart from being united to Christ, we nothing. This is why Jesus urges us to abide in him:
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Jesus took on human flesh, lived the perfect life, fulfill the Law, died on the cross, was buried, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty so that all those we are united to Him by the Holy Spirit through faith would share in all that Christ accomplished!
Earlier in our service, we sang the hymn, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Jesus is that “fount” and the way we drink from that fount is by being united to Christ by the Holy Spirit through faith. Before we get back to our text in 1 Corinthians, I want to walk you through Ephesians 1:3-14 in order that you might see the significance of our Union with Christ:
Union With Christ is the Fount of Every Blessing
Union With Christ is the Fount of Every Blessing
Verse 3 is a summary statement of the whole book of Ephesians:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
Paul does not waste any time, are bless with EVERY spiritual blessing in the heavenly places “in Christ”! Any good gift, that is any blessing, you can image receiving from God is given to you because you are “in Christ”. When you see such phrases as “in Him” or “with Him” in Scripture, the author is more than likely speaking of our Union with Christ.
Having made this summary statement, Paul begins to list some of this blessings one by one:
even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
The blessings that come to use through being united to Christ begin with our election and predestination “before the foundation of the world”. Before God made anything or anyone, the elect were “in Christ” and God predestined them for salvation! There are several things in these three verses that I want highlight:
The first is that this verse shows us that our Union with Christ transcends both time and space. The phrase in our English bibles “before the foundations of the world” is literally, “before the foundations of the cosmos”. You are probably familiar with Carl Sagan’s famous TV series Cosmos. That series was about the universe. Paul is saying that we were “chosen” and “predestined in him” before the physical universe was created! This is both incredible and reassuring.
It is reassuring, because it shows us how sure a foundation our salvation is laid upon. It is laid upon Christ Jesus. He is an eternal foundation. This physical universe did not exist at one time; someday it will be destroyed by fire and recreated into the New Heaven and New Earth. In contrast, Christ Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!
If that were not good enough, it gets better:
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
Only by being “in him” do we have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses”. In his famous work, Why God Had to Be Man, the medieval theologian Anselm of Canterbury argued correctly that Christ had to take on human flesh because only a man could pay for man’s sin, but only God could pay the great price owed by our sin. He is correct in this, but he did not go far enough, this verse teaches us that Jesus did not simply take on human flesh, but that he became “one flesh” with his elect bride the church. In fact, this is exactly what we find Paul teaching later in the book of Ephesians:
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
Notice that Paul uses the word “mystery”. A biblical mystery is a truth that is revealed to us that goes beyond our ability to fully comprehend. This is why the doctrine of the believer’s union with Christ is called by some, “The Mystical Union”.
Getting back to Ephesians 1, in vs. 9, Paul uses the word “mystery”:
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
God has made know to us the mystery of his will, that is that God’s plan of salvation does not just include our redemption, but the redemption of all of creation; but listen to this:
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.
Christ is redeeming the cosmos, so that those who are “in him” might inherit it with Him, and all of this is to “the praise of God’s glory”! Everyone longs to have a purpose and to be a part of something bigger than themselves. “In Christ” we can be a part of the greatest of all movements—the restoration of all things and the establishment of the Kingdom of God!
How can you be a part of this movement? The next two verses tell us:
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Notice that our hearing of the gospel and believing in it are “in him”. Our union with Christ is what made our calling effectual. Why is it that some people believed when they hear the gospel and others do not? The answer is found in whether or not they are “in Christ”!
This is just a small sample of what the Bible teaches about our Union with Christ, but I hope I have shown you how important this doctrine is and with this knowledge, I want to take us back to 1 Corinthians 15:
Union with Christ and the Resurrection
Union with Christ and the Resurrection
I hope you can now see why Paul was so alarmed by the teaching that there is no resurrection. By disconnecting the resurrection of Christ from the resurrection of believers, they unwittingly destroyed our Union with Christ and by doing this they destroyed every blessing we have in Christ.
Think of it like this: Remember the block towers you built as a child. If you built it carefully enough, it could go over your head! However, all it took to destroy this tower is the removal of just one block. Pull just one block our and the whole tower would fall down. Each of the blessings that come to us from our union with Christ are interconnected. Pull just one of these blessing our, such as the resurrection, and the whole thing fall apart!
The most alarming example of this is found in vs. 17-18:
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.
When Paul is speaking here of the dead “perishing”, he does not simply mean they have physically died, but rather that they are being destroyed in hell!
Praise God, these false teachers were not correct, in verse 20, Paul writes:
But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
I love this imagery of the firstfruits. Perhaps you are not familiar with what Paul means by “firstfruits”. Let me explain it to you. The Israelites were commanded to give the firstfruits of their crops and herds in anticipation that God would bless them with an abundant harvest. As a “firstfruit”, Jesus’ resurrection is a preview of a great harvest in the future—the final resurrection, when all those who are in Christ will be resurrected as well! Do you understand what this means? If you are in Christ, your resurrection is guaranteed! Christ’s resurrection is a “firstfruit” guaranteeing our resurrection.
Remember how in Ephesians 1:9-10, we learned that because we are “in him”, God had made “known to us the mystery of his will...to unite all things in Christ”? Paul speaks of that great plan in our text:
But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
Even now, Christ is laboring to bring the fullness of your salvation to fruition. His work as a “suffering servant” is over, now He has taken up a different work, taking up His septet and sword, He as the King of kings and Lord of lords, is waging war upon His enemies and ours. He will not put his sword down until the last enemy has been defeated!
Again, do you not see how our Union with Christ makes our salvation secure. Jesus is the beginning and the end of our salvation. It is His work, from beginning to end. “In Him”, your salvation is secure!