The Nature of Union with Christ

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines pantheism (from pan and theos) as the obliteration of the creator-creature distinction and shows that union with Christ never involves the absorption of the…

Martin playfully imagines the children in the audience going home and dazzling their neighborhood friends by explaining that 'pantheistic' comes from the Greek pan (all) and theos (God), using humor to make etymology memorable and keep the children engaged.

And when you go out in the neighborhood, you just gather the kids around and say, Hey, do you know where the word pantheistic comes from? And when they don't know, then you can say, Well, I just happen to know. All right? Because it comes from two Greek words.

10:29 - 10:43 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines pantheism (from pan and theos) as the obliteration of the creator-creature distinction and shows that union with Christ never involves the absorption of the…

Martin humorously encourages the children a second time, telling them they can now show off with the word 'theanthropic' (theos + anthropos) when they return home — reinforcing the point that Christ is fully God and fully man in one undivided person.

And because he always was and is the creator, that vast distance between creator and creature will always exist. So whatever union with Christ involves, it does not involve some kind of a so-called Christian pantheism. The Lord Jesus Christ maintains the full integrity, the full integrity of his person as the God-man, the theanthropic. Two more Greek words, kids.

11:53 - 12:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade.

Martin cites the Puritan Thomas Watson to illustrate that the doctrine of union with Christ is supra-rational: faith can go where reason must stop, making this doctrine a matter of revelation and trust rather than philosophical deduction.

And nothing revealed by God is a contradiction of reason. But much revealed goes beyond reason. The truths of the gospel are not irrational, but many of them are supra-rational. Thinking of this very thing, Watson said, Faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade.

15:36 - 16:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade.

Martin quotes Spurgeon to further define the relationship between faith and reason: faith does not contradict reason but transcends and completes it, bringing reason to its proper rest in divine revelation.

Faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade. Spurgeon, speaking to this same point, said, Faith is reason at rest in God. Faith is reason at rest in God. When we come to the doctrine of union with Christ, we're dealing with that which Paul called a mega-mystery.

16:04 - 16:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Faith may swim where reason and understanding may only wade.

Martin uses contemporary language (mega-vitamins, megaton bombs) to convey the force of Paul's description of union with Christ as a 'mega-mysterion' — a great, immense mystery far beyond ordinary human conception.

We talk now about mega-vitamins and megaton bombs. And when he said this mystery is great, he said it's a mega-mysterion. It is a great mystery. It is something that the human mind could never conceive of.

16:35 - 16:50 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject any teaching that uses union with Christ as a warrant for spiritual passivity; the passages most emphatic on union's intimacy (Colossians 3, Philippians 2) are precisely those most insistent on vigorous, whole-sou…

Martin traces the historical lineage of quietism through its main figures — Miguel de Molinos (the founder), and two popularizers: Fenelon the Frenchman and Madame Guyon — to establish the source from which the 'deeper life' error springs.

whose name was De Molinos, and aspects of quietism were expressed in two people who were mentioned in Mr. Mack's lecture, Fenelon, the Frenchman, and Madame Guion, if you want to sound French, or Guion, if you want to give it the anglicized version. Now, the main thrust of quietism is this. The height of spiritual attainment is that of complete passivity in the state of perfect rest in God.

18:36 - 19:11 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject any teaching that uses union with Christ as a warrant for spiritual passivity; the passages most emphatic on union's intimacy (Colossians 3, Philippians 2) are precisely those most insistent on vigorous, whole-sou…

Martin identifies the telltale phrase that betrays quietistic error in popular evangelicalism: 'Christ living not in us, but through us,' showing how all forms of higher life, victorious life, and abundant life teaching share this misrepresentation of union.

It abounds, and it is quietism dampened. And this is the idea expressed in such areas of thought. Since union with Christ is the source of spiritual life and vitality, and therefore a victory over sin in the world, we must come to a point, you must come to a point, where we yield so to the indwelling Christ that he lives his life through us. And that's the catchphrase that betrays the quietism of all forms of deeper life teaching.

19:50 - 20:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject any teaching that uses union with Christ as a warrant for spiritual passivity; the passages most emphatic on union's intimacy (Colossians 3, Philippians 2) are precisely those most insistent on vigorous, whole-sou…

Martin uses Colossians 3:1-5 as the primary counter-example to quietism: in the very passage where union's intimacy ('your life is hid with Christ in God') is most fully stated, the active imperatives pile up — 'seek the things above,' 'set your mind,' 'put to death' — demonstrating that intimacy fuels rather than eliminates conscious effort.

Isn't it interesting that in the passages in the New Testament, where the indwelling, the intimacy of our union with Christ is most clearly stated, the necessity of our conscious effort and activity are most forcefully underscored. In the passages where the intimacy of our union with Christ is most clearly stated, the necessity of our conscious effort and whole activity are most clearly stated. forcefully underscored two examples will suffice Colossians chapter 1 verse 1 if then ye were raised together with Christ seek the things that are above where Christ is seated on the right hand of God h...

21:10 - 22:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Reject any teaching that uses union with Christ as a warrant for spiritual passivity; the passages most emphatic on union's intimacy (Colossians 3, Philippians 2) are precisely those most insistent on vigorous, whole-sou…

Martin shows from Philippians 2:12-13 that 'it is God who worketh in you' does not produce passivity but grounds the command 'work out your own salvation with fear and trembling' — divine working and human working running in the same direction, not canceling each other.

be you know no he says put to death put them to death fortification then he follows with the exhortations put off verse 12 put on oh do you see that in a passage where the reality and the intimacy of our union with Christ is most forcefully stated the necessity of conscious effort and whole soul activity is coming to us or comes to us with equal force and clarity Philippians chapter 2 is the second example and the New Testament abounds in these I'm being selective in the interest of time verse 13 of Philippians 2 it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure in ch...

23:55 - 25:18 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Union with Christ is not a merely external relationship like that of a teacher and pupils, a political leader and followers, or a sergeant and recruits; it involves indwelling…

Martin uses the merely external relationships of a teacher with pupils, a political leader with followers, and a platoon sergeant with raw recruits to illustrate what union with Christ is NOT: there is no indwelling, no shared life, and no exchange of legal standing in such relationships.

I mean simply this, that the union with Christ is not merely the union of a teacher with his pupils, a political leader with his followers, the platoon sergeant with the raw recruits. No, no. For in those relationships there is a form of union, but there is no indwelling, there is no shared life, there is no exchange of legal standing. No, the union with Christ goes far beyond that of a disciple with his master, the teacher, and the pupil, the political leader, and the follower. Well, having cleared the deck of these six things that union with Christ is not, what then is the nature of union wi...

26:48 - 27:57 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The Holy Spirit is the bond of our union to Jesus Christ.

Martin identifies the key phrase from the Reformed writers: 'the Holy Spirit is the bond of our union to Jesus Christ,' explaining that the same Spirit that filled Christ without measure now comes to abide in believers, making one Spirit the connective tissue of the union.

And the most helpful phrase I have found, used in the writers, is this. The Holy Spirit is the bond of our union to Jesus Christ. The same Spirit that filled him, given to him without measure, is the Spirit poured out from him into the hearts of his own. And because it is one in the same Spirit that fills him, that now comes to abide in us, the Spirit is the bond of that union.

29:36 - 30:10 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not build your entire understanding of union with Christ on a single biblical analogy; meditate on all five analogies together, allowing each to contribute its distinctive emphasis — objectivity, legal solidarity, org…

Martin illustrates the nature of analogy by observing girls playing ball outside and saying they 'played like she-tigers' — this clearly does not make them identical to tigresses; similarly, each biblical analogy of union illuminates a likeness without exhausting the reality or implying full identity.

An analogy is something that is like, but it doesn't mean it's exactly the same as. Looking out the window at some of you playing ball out there today, some of you gals even, I could say some of you played like she-tigers. Now that did not mean that I saw you running around out there with a big long tail, with yellow and black stripes, and with big long claws pouncing on anything that moved. No, there is a likeness, but when we say you played like she-tigers, we are not making you identical to she-tigers.

39:16 - 39:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The first and lowest analogy: the union of believers to Christ is like the relationship of individual stones in a building to the chief cornerstone. Everything rests on and relates to the cornerstone; this analogy stresses the objectivity of the one in whom we trust.

Well, God says at the lowest level it is like the union of the stones in a building, all of which are related to the chief cornerstone and to each other. This, of course, is the figure of Ephesians chapter 2. You may wish to look at it as I read just a section of that text. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19, So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself, the chief cornerstone in whom each several building fitly framed together groweth into a ...

41:26 - 42:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The highest analogy: Christ himself prays that believers 'may all be one, even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,' meaning some aspect of the believer's union with Christ is analogous to the eternal intra-Trinitarian union. Martin suggests this involves a unity of will, love, and purpose without implying any absorption into deity.

But the highest analogy of our union is this. Our union with Christ is in some way like the union that exists within the persons of the Godhead. That first and primal mystery of being, one God, one person, but one God. And our Lord himself indicates that our union with him, in some respects, takes into its orbit of the union within the Godhead.

43:31 - 44:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The third analogy: as Adam's acts had binding consequences for all in union with him, so Christ's saving acts have saving consequences for all in union with him — stressing the legal solidarity and federal headship dimension of union with Christ.

And I would not dare to say what it means, but I would at least suggest that it has something to do with that union, that unity, that confluence of will, of love, and of purpose. And I will say no more than to say that. Now in between the lowest and the highest, in between the lowest analogy, the union of stones to the cornerstone. The highest analogy, the union that exists within the Godhead, ranged in between, you have these other likenesses, the union of Adam and his posterity, Romans 5, 12 to 21.

45:39 - 46:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The fourth analogy: 'I am the true vine... abide in me, I in you' — emphasizing the organic, life-sharing, mutually-abiding nature of union with Christ; life flows from vine to branches and fruitfulness depends entirely on the connection.

And again of course the other great passage telling us something else, the beginning of this aspect of the union is 1 Corinthians 15, 19 to 49. You have the first Adam and the last Adam showing that there are parallels in these unions. But then in the third place the nature of this union is set before us as a union that is something like that which exists between a vine and its branches. John 15, 1 to 8.

46:54 - 47:27 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The fifth analogy from the body: Christ is the head from whom the whole body is fitly framed and knit together, each part supplying the others — stressing the coordination, mutual nourishment, and shared growth that flows from union with Christ as head.

The fourth analogy is the union of the head and the members of the body. Ephesians 4, verses 15 and 16. Ephesians 4, verses 15 and 16. But speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom all the body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.

47:50 - 48:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin walks through five biblical analogies in ascending order of intimacy: (1) stones and the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2), stressing objectivity; (2) the Trinitarian union…

The sixth analogy: 'this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church' — the marital union of two becoming one flesh is Paul's own analogy for the intimacy of Christ's union with his people, where mind, affection, and purpose become increasingly intertwined.

1 Corinthians chapter 12, from which we read earlier, this same concept is brought before us. And then finally the other union that is something like unto the union we have with Christ is that mysterious union between a husband and a wife. Ephesians chapter 5, the apostle is giving directives to wives, to husbands, and he is speaking of this oneness in verse 30. And he says this is a great mystery.

48:26 - 48:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the inexhaustible depth of union with the infinite God banish any anxiety about eternity; the believer who can only scratch the surface of knowing a fellow mortal in 60 years of marriage will never exhaust the unfold…

Martin uses the homely metaphor of putting all the analogies 'into one pot and boiling them,' letting them stew on the back burner warmed by reverent meditation and brought to focus by prayer — until the fragrance of the compiled concepts yields the full picture of union as real, vital, intimate, and all-inclusive.

Let them stew on the back burner until you begin to smell, as it were, something of the fragrance that comes from the compilation of these concepts warmed by reverent meditation. Brought, as it were, into focus by earnest prayer for the illumination of the Spirit. And you will come, I'm sure, to the conclusion that the nature of our union is that of a real, vital, intimate and all-inclusive union. There is the sharing of legal standing.

49:15 - 49:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the inexhaustible depth of union with the infinite God banish any anxiety about eternity; the believer who can only scratch the surface of knowing a fellow mortal in 60 years of marriage will never exhaust the unfold…

Martin shares that he and his wife will celebrate their 18th anniversary that weekend, and that despite 18 years of the most intimate human union, new aspects of her personality continue to emerge each week — reasoning that if 60-70 years of marriage barely scratches a fellow mortal, eternity with the infinite God will never be exhausted.

They begin to be able to so read each other's minds and the slightest intimation of each other's will and purpose and respond to them as if it were a mystery. That's a great mystery. Meditating upon this doctrine has caused me to reason from the earthly relationship to the higher. And we'll celebrate our 18th anniversary this weekend.

50:20 - 50:43 Read in full sermon

The point: Let the inexhaustible depth of union with the infinite God banish any anxiety about eternity; the believer who can only scratch the surface of knowing a fellow mortal in 60 years of marriage will never exhaust the unfold…

Martin draws a pastoral application from the marriage anecdote: 'if 60 years with a fellow mortal just scratches the surface, what must it be to be in union with the infinite God?' — used to console the believer wondering what there is to do in eternity and to magnify the inexhaustible richness of union with Christ.

Now if 60 years with a fellow mortal just scratches the surface, what must it be to be in union with the infinite God? You wonder what you're going to do for eternity, child of God? God can unfold more and more of the glory of his being and never exhaust that unfolding for he is the infinite God. And you'll be a creature still.

51:14 - 51:39 Read in full sermon

The point: Hearers must come to preaching sufficiently rested and in a spirit of prayer, giving themselves not to the preacher but to the preacher's God; listening to preaching is an act of worship, not passive consumption.

Martin uses the biblical image of Israel's longing for Egyptian leeks and garlics to describe the temptation of believers to abandon substantive gospel preaching for light, entertainment-driven worship — warning them not to despise the gift of faithful, theologically rich preaching.

It's the apostolic gospel. It's the whole counsel of God's counsel, not because we are doctrinaire. It's because we so love the souls of men and desire him of a false not only to my preacher friends, but you dear people who form the backbone of our churches whom God has brought together in a loving relationship of shared vision of Christ and shared concern for his glory and his kingdom in our day. You better prize pure gospel preaching. Oh, it makes you think, doesn't it? And sometimes you get a hankering to go back to the leeks and garlics of guitar strumming gospel dittyism. Sure you do.

61:12 - 62:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Hearers must come to preaching sufficiently rested and in a spirit of prayer, giving themselves not to the preacher but to the preacher's God; listening to preaching is an act of worship, not passive consumption.

Martin explains the preacher's obligation to simplicity by saying he should preach 'on the level where the tortoises can get it, because the giraffes can always bend down and eat too' — a memorable image for accessible preaching that neither condescends to the intelligent nor excludes the simple.

If I had just preachers here, I'd preach to the preachers about trying to be simple, talking where possible on the level where the tortoises can get it because the giraffes can always bend down and eat too. But my dear hearers, assuming that your preachers are laboring at simplicity and clarity of order and structure and form, there is no substitute for your coming to the house of God sufficiently rested and sufficiently praying with a prayerful spirit, coming to give yourself to God in the ministry of His Word. That's what listening to preaching is. Giving yourself not to the preacher but to ...

63:35 - 64:51 Read in full sermon

The point: The sin of unbelief is the mother of all sins — children and young people especially must be warned: leaving service after service without personally embracing Christ is not neutrality but active rejection with eternal c…

Martin uses the pattern of Proverbs — warnings against laziness, lechery, bad debts — to frame his own warning: unbelief is 'the one sin that is the mother of all other sins' and more deadly than any of the specific vices Proverbs catalogs.

Your mummies and daddies warn you about many sins and they ought to. The writer to the Proverbs put his arm around his son and said, my son, when sinners entice thee consent thou not. And he warned him about laziness. If you get tired of mummies and daddy warning you about being lazy, they're just being scriptural kids.

65:25 - 65:45 Read in full sermon