Prayer for Divine Guidance

Heavenly Father, I ask that your Holy Spirit bless and enlighten me as I read, reflect and rest in the boundless riches of salvation that Christ Jesus has won! Abba Father, draw me closer into the Divine Dance with You, Your Son, and Holy Spirit to continually transform my life here on earth to taste life with You in Heaven! Amen.

Reflection

In his book, The Hole in Our Holiness, Kevin DeYoung writes, “Union with Christ may be the most important doctrine you’ve never heard of.” How often have you heard sermons or teachings on the believer’s union with Christ? In his historical review of the doctrine of union with Christ, Robert Letham shows that “from the middle of the seventeenth century…this great jewel in the crown of God’s grace has gone into eclipse. Today not much is said about union with Christ from the pulpit.” (Robert Letham, Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology)

The wonder and glory of union with Christ might not be talked about because it deals with supernatural realities beyond our grasp. We’re at a loss. We cannot comprehend it. The Post-Enlightenment Culture’s emphasis on reason and scientism has no capacity for ultimate, spiritual truth. Union with Christ transcends neat, logical boxes. The reality of oneness with Christ in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension to glory is foolishness to the secular temperament.

But our union with Christ is not mere metaphor or something hoped for: it is present reality. It is organic and lifegiving by which we as human beings share in the life of God’s Son (Colossians 3:4; 2 Peter 1:4). “Our union with the living Christ, in other words, is what it means to be saved.” (Marcus Peter Johnson, Union with Christ)

John Calvin liked to highlight the believer’s union with Christ through which we receive all the blessings of our salvation: “Those benefits would not come to us, unless Christ first made himself ours.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3) Calvin added:

“Not only is Jesus with us, He is in us and we are in Him. This is no figure of speech but the actual mystical union of a believer with Christ. We are not just following Jesus, we are bound to Him. This is not just a doctrine to ponder but a miracle to experience.” (John Calvin, Commentary on Ephesians)

Martin Luther also rejoiced in the believer’s union with Christ, saying;

“But faith must be taught correctly, namely that by it you are so cemented to Christ that He and you are one person, which cannot be separated but remains attached to Him forever and declares: ‘I am as Christ.’ And Christ, in turn says, ‘I am as the sinner who is attached to me and I to him. For by faith we are joined together into one flesh and bone.’” (Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians)

This is longing, passionate wording, echoing the Song of Solomon: “My beloved is mine and I am his” (2:16). This is the romance of the Gospel!

The apostle Paul homes in on the union between Christ and believers in his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, writing: “But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Corinthians 6:17). The Greek word translated “united” is kollaō, which comes from a word meaning “to glue, to bind together tightly, to cleave, to adhere”. It is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) for how a husband “clings” to his wife (Genesis 2:24). Paul is saying that the believer is “glued” to Christ in inseparable love!

Paul then explains that a person united to Christ “becomes one spirit with him.” That is an amazing truth! It means that we are not just trying to follow Christ but we are given the new identity of completely belonging to Him. As “one spirit with him” we are not defined by our past, by our sin, or even by our accomplishments, but rather by being united in one spirit with Christ. Christ has not just done things for us but given Himself to us. We are not trying to get close to Jesus: we are already there!