![Union with Christ Union with Christ](https://cdn.branchsd.org/images/articles/union-with-christ-min.jpg)
May 30, 2024
Union with Christ
We’ve seen it in the movies. People searching the globe for hidden treasures to fill their lives. If only we can find the Holy Grail (the Cup of Christ) will we receive healing and eternal life (Indiana Jones). If only I can find the ancient lost treasure will I secure a legacy (National Treasure). These adventures are entertaining, but they sure miss the mark. The blessings they scour the earth for are only found in one place—in union with Jesus Christ.
Union with Christ is a phrase used to describe the relationships we have with Jesus where every benefit of salvation from God is received.1 Name a salvation benefit of God—forgiveness, regeneration, adoption, the Holy Spirit, sanctification, glorification—these are all found exclusively in union with Christ. God has placed His favor and blessings simply, conveniently, and mercifully in one place. And when we repent of our sin against God and believe upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we enter into union with Him and inherit every blessing God has for us.
Romans 6:3–8 describes this union. Paul says,
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
By faith in Christ God unites us to Him in His death and resurrection. Therefore, the accomplishments of Christ in those areas are now considered ours. It is as if we were transported back in time to experience His death, resurrection, and new life with Him. What an amazing reality! And God did not just give us blessings, as if they were a transaction of strangers, but He gave them to us in a relationship—a union— with Jesus. John Calvin says, “Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts—in short, that mystical union—are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed.”2
Let us hold fast to and celebrate our union with Christ Jesus, the place where God has graciously given us every spiritual blessing. Let us rest there, hope there, and boast there alone.
Here is a hymn that sings of our union with Christ Jesus, written by Henry Harbaugh in 1850.
1 Jesus, I live to Thee,
The Loveliest and Best;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me,
In Thy blest love I
rest.
2 Jesus, I die to Thee,
Whenever death shall come;
To die in Thee is life to me,
With Thee I’m
ever one!
3 Whether to live or die,
I know not which is best;
To live in Thee is bliss to me,
To die is endless
rest.
4 Living or dying, Lord,
I ask but to be Thine;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me,
Makes Thee forever
mine.
1This definition is a summary from Wayne Grudem and Martin H. Manser. Grudem says, “Union with Christ is a phrase used to summarize several different relationships between believers and Christ, through which Christians receive every benefit of salvation. These relationships include the fact that we are in Christ, Christ is in us, we are like Christ, and we are with Christ.” See Grudem, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Zondervan, 1996), 841. Martin H. Manser describes it as, “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.” See Martin H. Manser, Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies (London: Martin Manser, 2009), Logos.
2John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 737, Logos.