The Benefits of Union with Christ
From our earliest days as a Christian, we understand that the blessings we have from God come to us because of Jesus Christ. Without Christ’s death and resurrection, there would be no salvation for us. As we start the Christian walk rarely do we understand how deep and profound this truth is: that I am united to Jesus Christ so that all the benefits of His work flow to me because of a mystical union.
The doctrine of union with Christ is called a “mystical union” because between Christ and the believer there it is a spiritual union that is a profound mystery. It is not a physical union. My physical body does not connect to Christ’s physical body yet Christ does make a covenant with me so that I am united in Him. It is binding like a marriage covenant where the interests of two parties become one. As the apostle Paul writes concerning marriage and our union with Christ:
Ephesians 5:29-32 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.
We are connected to Christ like your body is connected to your own head. We become one in a manner analogous to the oneness a husband and wife share in their covenant together. All that Christ has accomplished for me flows to me because I have been united to Jesus Christ.
This union begins before the foundations of the world and is planned and purposed by God the Father.
Eph. 1:3-4, “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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
Some would like to think that these verses teach that God chooses a general category of people, those who will be “in Christ,” and then people determine based upon profession of faith if they want to be “in Christ”. This verse could not be more opposed to such teaching. The object of God’s choice is individuals. God determines before the foundations of the world to bless us—not because we are a blessing or because he foresees our response. His choosing in the doctrine of election is based upon nothing in us and nothing we might do for Him (Rom. 9:11, 15-16).
However, God in His gracious election determined that we should receive salvation in Jesus Christ. He determined, in His predestining plan that we should come to Christ because Christ would come and die for us. He gave a people to Christ and then sent Christ for us to win us so that we might not be lost (John 6:36-40; 17:18-24). Because of this we experience the fruits and freedoms of Jesus Christ. We are given in Christ the rights and privileges of sonship. His achievements and interests become ours.
This union brings with it all the benefits that Jesus Christ has won on the cross. Benefits of salvation, redemption, forgiveness, righteousness, wisdom flow to us through Jesus and by our being placed in mystical union to Jesus Christ.
1Cor. 1:30, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
I am in union with Christ because God the Father chose it to happen and chose me to this destiny (1 Cor. 1:27-29). Now, because of Christ’s death and resurrection, Jesus is to us the source of wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption (see also Col. 1:14).
Our union with Christ is so strong that we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection whereby the gifts won come to use (Rom. 6:3-5). We are united into His death and resurrection. The reality upon the believer is so powerful that Paul can speak of himself as no longer living but Christ is actually living in him “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Jesus Christ is being formed in us, the goal that we might bear the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29). The outcome of Christ being formed in us is that we become mature “in Christ” (Col. 1:27-28). The outcome of my union with Christ is so certain that if I truly belong to Him I cannot be lost. Christ can no more cut me off from His blessings than He could cut off His own arm.
This union is consummated at the marriage supper of the Lamb. While this life entails the believer experiencing suffering like Christ’s own earthly life, there remains beauty and glory for us in our union with Christ because we share in Christ. We will come into the presence of God, clothed with white robs (Rev. 19:6-8). The glory of our resurrection will be because Christ was resurrected in His body and we share in this new creation. The glory that waits is our wedding day. The union that Christ had with us before the foundations of the world finally comes to consummation as His blood has washed us and cleansed us, it has given us in Him all the righteousness we needed (Phil. 3:9) and this salvation bore fruit in our lives (Rev. 19:6).
Union with Christ is a most precious doctrine. In your salvation, Christ gives you himself and all the benefits come from Him and through Him as we are “in Him” in our great union. It leaves us to say before Him: “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,” (Rev. 19:6-7).
Tim Bertolet is a graduate of Lancaster Bible College and Westminster Theological Seminary. He is an ordained pastor in the Bible Fellowship Church, currently serving as Interim Pastor of Faith Bible Fellowship Church in York, Pa. He is a husband and father of four daughters. You can follow him on Twitter @tim_bertolet.
