Reality of Union with Christ

In this part of the sermon: Martin reintroduces Ephesians 2, focusing on God's method of saving spiritually dead sinners through quickening, raising, and seating them 'together with Christ Jesus.'

The words 'quickened together, raised and seated together with Christ' are like the tip of an iceberg, representing vast, sweeping biblical concepts beneath the surface that must be understood.

in Christ Jesus. And for several weeks we have been attempting to grasp the meaning of the Apostle as his thought is expressed in those words, quickened together, raised and seated together with Christ. Let me remind you of the illustration that we've used as a point of reference. These words of the Apostle are like the tip of an iceberg.

1:30 - 1:59 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not mistake any individual part of salvation for the whole; recognize the many dimensions of your relationship to God in grace.

The work of God in grace is compared to a beautifully cut and polished diamond with many facets, emphasizing that no single facet (like union with Christ) is the whole of salvation.

When you see the words, quickened together with Christ, raised and seated with Christ, you are seeing, you are confronting only the tip of some great and sweeping concepts of biblical truth which lay behind the Apostle's use of these words. And without his understanding of that which is beneath the surface, the Apostle never would have said that the divine method in the salvation of the world would have been the same as the divine method in the salvation of the world. The salvation of sinners was to be understood as a co-quickening, co-raising and co-seating with Jesus Christ. Now at this poin...

2:00 - 3:00 Read in full sermon

The point: Shake yourselves loose from the spiritual infantile mentality that says, 'I want it to slip down nice and easy like milk.' We've got to chew if we would derive benefit from it.

Drawing from Hebrews 5, spiritual truths are likened to solid food that requires 'chewing' or 'gumming' to derive benefit, contrasting with 'milk' that slides down easily, to emphasize the effort needed for spiritual maturity.

And as I was preparing again this week, I thought of the Hebrews 5 passage in which the writer to the Hebrews says, I have many things that I'd like to convey to you, but he says, I cannot because you are become dull of hearing. For when by reason of the time he ought to be teachers, you have need again that someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of solid food. For everyone that partakes of milk is without experience in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is for full grown men. Now, ...

6:30 - 7:44 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He poses the central problem: how could Christ act for us when we didn't exist, and how can our quickening, raising, and seating be 'with Christ' when 2,000 years separate us?

The example of a substitute teacher is used to highlight the difficulty of understanding how Christ could be a substitute for someone who didn't yet exist, posing the problem of representation.

on my behalf. You say, I can see that. At least I'm beginning to. When God lays hold of me, he applies to me some dimension of that which Christ has done. But how could he act for me and as me when as yet I was unborn? Question occurred to you? How could Christ be my representative when I didn't exist to be represented? How could it be my substitute when I wasn't around to be substituted for? I can understand how the teacher needs a substitute. It's a real teacher in the real classroom who gets sick and can't show up on Tuesday morning. And because she's not there, the Board of Education sends...

13:48 - 14:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You know what the third great mystery is? The third great mystery is the reality and nature of the union that exists between Christ and his people. And it's in the same ballpark with those first two mysteries. Mysteries …

The union with Christ is presented as the third great mystery of scripture, alongside the Trinity and the God-man, to convey its profound, divinely revealed nature that transcends human understanding.

And he was able seated with Christ. And the only thing that makes this language permissible is the reality of the union that exists between Jesus Christ and his people. Now that's what I mean then by the axiom. The only way you'll get together Christ's work and the sinner's experience is to understand the union that exists between the two of them. Now let me demonstrate its scriptural basis. As we do remember what the old theologians constantly remind us of, there are three great mysteries revealed in the scripture. Now by mystery, kids, the Bible doesn't mean something that's spooky. It means...

21:24 - 22:16 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not make your rational faculties the measure of your loving trust; recognize that we are in the realm of faith when dealing with profound biblical truths.

Christians do not 'dabble in fantasies or mirages' but deal with substantial, real spiritual issues, contrasting faith with illusions.

God. Here would I touch and handle things unseen. You see, we Christians do not dabble in faith. We don't dabble in faith. We don't dabble in faith. We don't dabble in faith.

29:01 - 29:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not make your rational faculties the measure of your loving trust; recognize that we are in the realm of faith when dealing with profound biblical truths.

The image of a desert traveler seeing a mirage of water is used to explain that faith is not about comforting illusions but about real, substantial truths, even if unseen by natural faculties.

fantasies or mirages. You know what a mirage is, don't you? You know, the picture of the poor desert traveler, his tongue's hanging out, and he's dry, and he sees on the horizon what he thinks is a pool of water, but it's a pool of nothing. It's only the heat waves rising off the sand, and when he gets to his so-called pool of water, what's he find?

29:13 - 29:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Address instability in assurance by understanding what you are in Christ, allowing this truth to bleed the sinful elements of unbelief from your grief over sin.

The gurgling and cooing of a newborn child are used to represent the initial, inarticulate expressions of new life in Christ, which are precious but should not remain the extent of spiritual expression as one grows.

Though I fall, I will rise again. Dear child of God, your instability in the area of assurance is rooted in your ignorance of what you are in Christ. And also the richness of our experience is affected by what we know. Thank God that just as a parent brings home that little child and all it can do is gurgle and wail and holler and snort and make funny sounds that sound great on the ears of the parents...

48:09 - 48:41 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not remain in a state of arrested spiritual growth, content with rudimentary concepts; seek to articulate your praise and communion with God with concepts commensurate with your age in grace.

Unstable saints are likened to 'silly rabbits' running after 'carrots' of charismatic experiences or other scintillating offers, due to their defective knowledge, illustrating the instability caused by ignorance.

The time you ought to be instructing others, you're still back cooing and gurgling. That is the second great curse of the Evangelical Church in our day. Running after carrots? Those that aren't running after carrots have a perpetual gooing session. So that as someone told me this week, they got so, they dreaded to go to church because they could always predict the moment the preacher stood up, they could tell you what was going to come for the next week, they could tell you what was going to come for the next day. Nothing new in the book! Nothing fresh! Nothing new! Nothing with new glory brea...

50:53 - 52:00 Read in full sermon