Union With Christ, #5

Review of Union With Christ in the Plan of Salvation and Introduction to its Nature

0:01 Since there are no doubt some with us this morning who were not with us last night and perhaps who were not with us for any of the previous lectures, I do want to take just about three minutes briefly to review the main areas of biblical material that we have considered under this vast subject of union with Christ. We began the series with the assertion that nothing is more basic to the whole biblical doctrine of salvation than is union with Christ. And when we understand that the New Testament terminology in Christ, Christ in us, with Christ, the mutual indwelling and abiding passages, all are subsumed under the terminology of union with Christ, Christ in us, with Christ, the mutual indwelling and abiding passages, all are subsumed under the terminology of union with Christ, then I believe it becomes apparent that the assertion is a valid one, that nothing is more basic, nothing is more central to the entire doctrine of salvation than is union with Christ.

1:11 Then our first major area of consideration was to set forth in a broad and panoramic way the doctrine of union with Christ in the plan of salvation. And as we sought to open up the Bible, we found that the doctrine of union with Christ in the plan of salvation, and as we sought to open up this subject together, we discovered that union with Christ in its most elementary aspect takes us back into the depths of eternity when the people of God were made the objects of sovereign and selective grace. And when we trace out the doctrine of salvation to its consummation at the return of Christ, we find again that the doctrine of union with Christ is central so that, the entire complex of saving activity, from the mysterious depths of electing grace to the glorious realization of full salvation at the return of Christ, every part of it comes to us within the orbit of union with Christ. And then last night we began to open up the second major area of concern, namely the nature of union with Christ. And I underscored by way of introduction two very fundamental issues.

2:32 In considering the nature of this union, we cannot be wholly positive because this glorious truth has suffered tragically at the hands of the unstable and the ignorant, and we need to be immunized against these errors. And then secondly, I underscored that in dealing with the nature of this union, we are thinking about the nature of the union with Christ. We are thinking about the nature of the union not in its full spectrum as we considered it under the plan of salvation, but we are limiting our analysis of the nature of this union to the saving union, that union that comes in the bilateral arrangement in which the Lord seizes the sinner in grace and the sinner responds in faith. And what we did last night was to look at the negatives, the negatives, the nature of this union is not pantheistic, it is not quietistic, it is not external, nor is it materialistic, but it is, and we just got as far as the first positive, it is a spiritual union. That is, a union effected by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And the key text which demonstrates this, of course, is Romans chapter 8,

The Spiritual Nature of Union With Christ: Never Non-Transforming

3:54 and I want us to pick up right at that point, I want to say a few more things about the nature of this union as spiritual, and then we shall move on to consider two further points with reference to the nature of this union, and then consider the passages which set forth analogies with respect to this union. In Romans 8, and in verse 9 we read, But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be, that the Spirit of God, of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. And so we have the progression, Spirit of God, Spirit of Christ, Christ in you. And when we assert that the nature of this union is to be understood as a spiritual union, we do not mean spiritual as opposed to real or substantial. We mean spiritual as that which is involved in the personal indwelling of the person, the Holy Spirit himself, the third person in the triune Godhead. Now it's at this point that we need to draw

5:19 out a very fundamental question. What is the fundamental question? What is the fundamental area of application? And I did not have time to do it last night or it didn't occur to me on the occasion. This is why saving union with Christ is never a purely positional reality.

5:38 There are some who glory in the doctrine of union with Christ, but they conceive of that union as purely positional or legal. We are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. We are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. That is our position, external to us, and are therefore the rightful heirs of all the blessings of grace and salvation. But the Romans 8 treatment of this concept makes it very evident that because the union is spiritual, it is never non-transforming, non-ethical. It always must be life-transforming. It always must be life-transforming. It always must be life-transforming. And ethical in its fruits. For if you look at the context, the apostle is dealing with these

6:28 two realms, the realm of the flesh and the realm of the spirit. And he says that the realm of the flesh is a realm which has profound and pervasive ethical implications. Verse 5, they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. Their lifestyle reflects a preoccupation with their fleshiness. But he says, they that are after the spirit do mind the things of the spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the spirit is life and peace. The mind of the flesh is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law of God. You see the ethical implications. Carnality is a practice of the mind of the

7:21 flesh. It is a predominantly ethical reality. They that are in the realm of the flesh, they manifest it in their non-subjection to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be so than they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now see how it bristles with ethical and practical implications. Now notice the contrast. But ye are not in the flesh. You have experienced the transformation that is ethical and moral and practical through the process of the study of the flesh, in this very Baptisterical Hour of the Last Those who live live in the sense of God. In other words, these are the confesses who have come home from town, the new confesses, who live on earth and who are coming to the. And that information comes into your attention, Through and through, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, that is, if any man is yet in the realm of the flesh, dominated by the flesh, possessing the carnal mind that is enmity against God and not subject to the law of God, any man who has not experienced the ethical and moral transformation attendant upon union with Christ is not in union with the Son of God.

8:30 And I say this, this morning particularly for you men who will be called upon to take that awesome responsibility of speaking the truth of God in the name of your Savior. Hammer this truth out to your people, that there is no such thing as a non-human, non-ethical union with Jesus Christ. Wherever the Spirit is present, He is active. Wherever the Spirit is present, He is present as life-giving, transforming Spirit.

Refuting 'Carnal Christianity' and 'Second Work of Grace' Teachings

9:03 This is essentially the emphasis of the Apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and I direct your attention to that portion for just a moment.

9:17 Speaking of the glory of the ministry of the new covenant in contrast with the old covenant, the Apostle says in verse 17, Now the Lord is the Spirit. Notice the close conjunction between the Lord and the Spirit. Now the Lord is the Spirit.

9:39 And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed, formed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. You see, the ethical, the moral implications, progressive conformity to Christ, is the inseparable and inevitable attendant of the presence of the Spirit within the privileges and blessings of the new covenant. Now you see, this has great implications for much teaching that is popular in our day.

10:21 The whole idea that a person can be, in Christ, by faith and yet dominated by the flesh. We just call him a carnal Christian. That's like talking about a loyal American patriot who's a communist.

10:38 The two things are mutually exclusive. To be dominated by the flesh means that we've never entered the realm of the Spirit. There is no saving union with Christ. All of the teaching floating about that the problem of the church is that people have had a very weak and elementary, first work of grace, but what they really need is a powerful, transforming, second work of grace.

11:02 They're only saved, but if we can somehow get them baptized in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, total surrender, and all this other terminology, it all is utterly shattered when we come to grips with this principle that union with Christ is a spiritual union. That is, a union with Christ. A union effected by the Spirit Himself, who is the bond of that union. And it is impossible for a sinner to be united to Jesus Christ and to share in the very dynamism of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Spirit that He has received without measure.

11:46 For any sinner to receive that Spirit in any measure demands ethical and moral and practical transformation of character, of perspective, of motive, of the entirety of life. If any in Christ, new creation, the old is past, behold, they have become new. Unless some of you think, well, you're just parroting a theological position you've inherited, let me say, by way of biography, and you'll get very little biography in my preaching, because God doesn't call us to give biography, but to expound the Scriptures, and I shall never forget when I was in an itinerant ministry for some five years, traveling here in Canada, particularly Western Canada, down in the States, and I'd go to church after church, evangelical churches, all of them Bible-believing fundamental churches, and as I saw the state of those churches, I came to this conviction, I said, either God no longer saves people the way He said He saves them in the Bible, or most of these people have never been saved by God's salvation, I was forced to that conclusion. And I said, the former cannot be true, because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, the latter must be true. And dear friends,

13:12 the latter is true. If any, in the first century, second, third, nineteenth, twentieth century, if any, in Christ, new creation. It is a spiritual union, and therefore, it is moral, it is ethical, it is life-transforming. Now granted, the degrees to which it is manifested, the rate at which there is conformity to Christ, the biblical doctrine of arrested growth, all of that rounds out the teaching.

13:47 I'm fully aware of that. I have to live with myself, and any man who lives with himself knows all too well that there are vicissitudes, ups and downs, and periods of dryness, and periods of dullness. I am not negating any of that biblical teaching, but I am asserting that if the nature of our union with Christ is spiritual, it is always ethical and life-transforming. All right?

The Mystical Nature of Union With Christ: A Revealed Mystery

14:15 Having appended that bit of exhortation, we now move to the second division of the nature of this union. It is not only a spiritual union, it is a mystical union. Now when I use this term, taking my clue from Professor Murray's treatment of this, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I don't want anyone else to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm using it as a word which has its roots in the biblical concept of mystery, the musterion. And the biblical concept of a mystery is set before us in almost all of its major biblical categories in one passage.

14:56 We might call this the classic passage on the biblical concept of mystery. It's Romans chapter 16. If you will please turn there for a moment. Romans, Romans chapter 16.

15:06 chapter 16, and verse 25. Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery,

15:29 the unveiling, the apocalypsis of the mystery, according to the revelation of the mystery, which hath been kept in silence through times eternal, but now is manifested, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, is made known unto all the nations unto obedience of faith, to the only wise God through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever. Amen. Now do you see the main lines of thought with respect to a gospel mystery? A gospel mystery is a spiritual reality which originates, in the mind and heart of God, but which God veils for a time. Notice it is called here, the mystery that was kept in silence through times eternal. The mystery, the reality was there in the mind and thought and heart of God, but it was not revealed. And you see, we know only as much of God as God is pleased to reveal.

16:40 Who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of a man which is in him. Even so, no man knoweth the things of God, save the spirit of God. So a mystery is a reality that is locked up, as it were, in the mind and purpose of God. But then secondly, it is revealed and deposited in time unto him that is able to establish you, according to my gospel, this gospel, he says, which is in accord with the revelation, the unfolding of the mystery.

17:16 So it is a reality hidden in the mind of God, revealed in time, and then proclaimed in preaching and deposited in scripture, or perhaps I should reverse those two, deposited in scripture and proclaimed in preaching, now is manifest and by the scriptures of the prophets, and the next dimension, or element of the mystery is, it is to be the object of believing response. This mystery is made known unto obedience of faith. And so those are the major lines of truth with respect to a gospel mystery. Now when we turn to Colossians, we learn from the apostle Paul that the doctrine of union with Christ is the central mystery of the gospel dispensation. And so, and I use the word dispensation, not in a dispensational manner.

18:23 In the book of Colossians, we read in chapter 1, beginning with verse 24, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church, whereof I was made a minister, according to the dispensation, or the stewardship of God, which was given me to you, to fulfill the word of God, even, now see, he's going to describe what is that gospel stewardship entrusted to him as an apostle. Well, he says it is this, even the mystery, now notice the lines of thought, which hath been hid. You see, the mystery is a reality that exists long before it's unveiled. We must never think of the mystery as something that comes to pass at its unveiling. No, no, it exists long before. It hath been hid for ages and generations, but now it hath been manifested to his saints.

19:28 Now what is the heart of that mystery? To whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The Holy Spirit. The hope of glory.

19:47 Whom we proclaim, the mystery is now the subject of proclamation, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man what? Perfect in Christ. Christ in you. You in Christ.

20:07 Whereunto I labor also, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily, and I cannot, resist the little aside. You see this? God's working and Paul's working. He works in me mightily.

20:22 So what do I do? Just rely and relax? No. I labor striving, and he uses that vigorous word, agonizomai.

20:31 I labor agonizing, but God all the while is working in me mightily. To do what? To proclaim this glorious mystery that in the gospel there is this mutual union between Christ, Christ, and Christ in you, or Christ among you, and he made perfect in union with Jesus Christ. And so we must look upon the nature of this union as being a gospel mystery.

21:02 It is a mystical union, and that emphasis comes through in one more passage that touches on our union with Christ, Ephesians chapter 5. The apostle begins, by giving this exhortation to husbands and wives and their mutual privileges and responsibilities, but all the way through he takes the clue for these mutual privileges and responsibilities from the reality of the union that exists between Christ and his church. So when he's drawing near to his exhortation to husbands and wives, he says, verse 31, for this cause shall a man leave his cause, father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. He started speaking directly and explicitly to wives and to husbands, but as his mind is so engaged with the substantial pattern, the great reality, from which the husband-wife relationship is to be the shadow and the figure, from which it is to take its leading lines of duty and responsibility, he gets so caught up with that reality

22:30 that he ends up saying, I speak concerning Christ and the church. Well, I thought you were speaking concerning husbands and wives and how to get along and how to treat one another. Well, he said, I started there, but I ended up over here. You see, the glorious redemptive reality so filled his mind that he says, this is a mega-musterion, this is a great mystery.

22:55 But I speak in reference to Christ and his church. The union that exists is a great mystery, but thank God it is not a mystery in terms of being something spooky or scary or something that cannot be expressed in human terminology. No, it is a glorious mystery. It is a glorious reality that was hidden in the mind and heart of God from times eternal, the language of Romans 16.

23:24 But now in these days, these last days of gospel privilege and light, this mystery has been announced and expounded and is to be made the object of the obedience of faith. And so it is right for us then to call the nature of this union one that is mystical. But then in the third place, it is not only a spiritual, a mystical union, it is an indissoluble union. An indissoluble union.

The Indissoluble Nature of Union With Christ: Eternal Security

24:01 Now this aspect of the nature of the union has been assumed and strongly suggested in much that has preceded, but it is so important as to warrant isolation, isolation into a separate heading. Please turn back to Romans chapter 8. The very familiar verse with which we begin this aspect of our study is verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.

24:42 In the state of union with Christ there is no condemnation. Now, or in the future. John 5.24 is a parallel passage to this.

24:55 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me is passed from death into life and shall not, shall not under any circumstances come into judgment. He is passed from death, which is the realm of sin and condemnation, to life, which is the realm of no condemnation. And as the apostle opens up some of the various dimensions of that glorious position and the realities that flow from it, experimental, inward as well as objective and external to us, he comes to that climactic statement in verse 38 of this chapter. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. As it was divine love that drew the scheme or the plan of salvation, as it was divine love that made the provisions, as it was that same love that sent the Son and the same love

26:22 that sent the Spirit, as it was that love that incorporated us into Christ by the ministry of the Spirit, the apostle says, nothing shall separate us from that saving union with Jesus Christ. You see, if there could be any severance of that union, then there would be dismemberment of the body of Christ. For once the bond is established, the Scripture says, we are constituted members of His body. Now, if there is ever any severance, we then have a dismembered body of Jesus Christ. Or if we think in terms of Ephesians chapter 5, where Christ loves the church, and we read that in that relationship of regarding the church as His bride, sharing in His very life, He says that husbands are to love their wives expressed in this way, to nourish and to cherish them even as the Lord, the church. Now, is it conceivable that Jesus Christ would allow that which is the object

27:48 of His nourishment, His cherishing and His cherishing, ever to fall outside the orbit of His powerful influence and to be cut off from Him, once again to be the object of wrath and of divine judgment? It's unthinkable. Or if we think of the analogy of John 10, of His relationship to His sheep, and there the imagery is different, but the indissolubility of the union is underscored. They shall never perish.

28:22 Now, when we trace back as we've done, this vital saving union to that union which finds its roots in the counsels of God in eternity, the union that was constituted when we were given to the Lamb before the world began, when we were chosen in Him, is it thinkable that there should be forged links between believers in Christ which go back into eternity, only to have some of them snapped in time? No, the apostle categorically denies that. And in that classic passage, again in Romans 8, verses 29 and 30, we have the unequivocal statement, the undeniable statement of the indissolubility of this bond. Romans 8, in verse 29, For whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He foreordained, them He also called. And when we are called, remember according to 1 Corinthians 1, 9, we are called into the koinonia, into the fellowship, the joint participation of His Son, whom He called them He also justified.

29:50 No condemnation in Christ. Their effectual calling has brought them into union with Christ. Now the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them. They stand in that righteousness.

30:04 And whom He justified, them He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things if God is for us? For us when? Not just in time, when He saved us.

30:17 Not just in time, when He called us into the fellowship of His Son. Not just in time, when He placed His Spirit within us. If God before us, for us, out of the very womb of eternity, when He chose us in Christ, gave us to the Lamb, when in time He took upon Him the seed of Abraham, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, in time when He lived that life of perfect obedience, not as a private person, but as the surety of His people, in time when He went into the agonies of Gethsemane and into the horrors and the abyss of abandonment of Golgotha, into the tomb, out of the tomb, back to the right hand of the Father, bring into that all that we studied yesterday. We died with Him, we buried with Him, raised with Him, seated with Him. If God before us, if God's commitment, if God's commitment to our salvation is of such a nature, who is against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?

31:33 Cadillacs? Ten-room houses? No. All things necessary to land us safe in glory, reflecting the divine purpose wholly conformed to the image of His Son.

31:48 When He chose us in Him, commensurate with that choice was the determination when He's done with us to make us into the very moral image of His Son. And now God is committed to accomplish that. And if God before us, who, who shall be against us? And I say again to you, brethren, preparing for the ministry, though I trust you share the grief and pain that I feel and tried to express in my opening exhortation concerning the nature of this union as spiritual, and the fact that we must continually insist that if people are in Christ, there must be ethical and moral indications of that union.

32:31 In our concern for that, and as we see people abusing the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, and cheapening it into the common eternal security doctrine, which says, once saved, always saved, no matter what you do. And what they really mean is, once you've made your decision, you're safe no matter how you live and what you do. That doctrine is from the pit of hell. That doctrine is from the pit of hell.

32:58 It's nothing but sheer rank antinomianism. Once you've made your decision, you can't get out no matter what you do. A well-known preacher in my area said to a woman who came to him a few weeks after she'd been conned into walking the aisle going into an inquiry room and was programmed into the little syllogistic gibberish of saying the sinner's prayer and being given Protestant absolution and told she was forgiven. When she woke up to everything that happened, she came to the preacher and said, hey, wait a minute, I've been thinking about this business.

33:30 I want out. He says, too late, ma'am, you're already in. I don't say that to be humorous. That's the truth.

33:38 Too late, ma'am, you're already in. I say that's heresy. Soul-destructive heresy. And my brethren, I hope you will speak to that heresy with biblical authority and with a broken heart and with tears.

33:53 But oh, at the same time, because people abuse the glorious truth that we're articulating now, don't keep it back from God's people. Because the true saint who longs to be holy, who's fighting with sin and at times feels that he's just a hair's breadth from being utterly sucked in by his own lust or the world or the flesh, and he wonders, shall I ever make it? How he needs to know that the very union with Christ that is causing him those problems, the very indwelling of the Spirit that has stamped him for perfection, has put within him the longings for what he shall be. That's why the Christian has such problems. God has stamped him for perfection. He's given him the earnest of the Spirit yearning for perfection. God has not decreed that he shall yet attain it.

34:52 That's the thing that causes his pain, the disparity between what he knows he shall be and what he is. And oh, to such struggling saints, how we need to tell them the bond is indissoluble. It is indissoluble. And you see, it is that that nerves the Christian.

35:12 If it's possible that I can wrestle, fight and pray and buffet my body and mortify the flesh and at the end have it all peter out and come to naught, why bother? Let's eat, drink and be merry and have our heaven now. You see, the man who's out in the battlefield and knows before he ever picks up his sword he's beaten and the army is to be defeated, he doesn't fight with nerves and with vigor, but it's the man who has a promise that he shall be the victor who can stand up against a thousand odds. Bunyan had it, you remember, when he talked about Great Heart whose valiant for truth, whose sword claved to his hand until it became a very extension of his hand, a right Jerusalem sword. Well, he fought like that because he knew the victory was sure. And thank God that our union with Christ is indissoluble. Its initial link goes back into eternity.

36:16 Its last link issues in eternity. And every link in between is as certain, is as strong as the unchanging God who forged the first and the last. What a wonderful thing to be held in the bonds of such gracious chains of divine purpose, divine provision. And here you see the interaction of divine truth is not only an encouraging and faith-strengthening thing, but a beautiful thing.

36:49 And I want to just allude to it, particularly for you, young theologues and budding preachers. It's at this point that you bring in the whole doctrine of the intercession of Christ. You see, if the union is life-transforming and moral and ethical and at the same time indissoluble, what secures the continuous supplies of the Spirit so that we are overcome? So that we are overcomers.

37:15 All the promises in the book of the Revelation are to the overcomers. Well, here you see is the whole doctrine of the intercession of Christ. Christ, by His intercession, secures all the supplies of the grace and Spirit needed to land us safely to glory. Isn't that the teaching of Hebrews 7, 25?

37:37 He is able to save not from the uttermost. He is able to save to the uttermost, to the consummation. Why? Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession.

37:50 Is anyone going to be saved ultimately who does not manifest the ethical and moral transformation of union with Christ? No. It's the perseverance of the saints as well as the preservation of believers. But ultimately, even our perseverance rests upon the divine activity of our great intercessor with the right hand of the Father.

Caution on Analogies: Not Identities, Not Isolated

38:14 So you see, we are never divorced from this living communion with Jesus Christ whose grace is continually operative because He is continually active. I hope sometime before you leave this place if I may be bold enough to make a suggestion you get someone capable of handling that vast theme of the intercession of Christ and open up that theme. It's a glorious theme with respect to the matters we're dealing with. Well, I must hurry on now very quickly having looked at the nature of this union spiritual, mystical, indissoluble and just direct your attention to that which I'm calling the pictures or the analogies of this union as given to us in the word of God. Fully aware of our limitations God has condescended to give us understanding of the number of analogies or likenesses of this union. Now as we come to consider in a very surface manner six of these likenesses receive this word of caution please. Analogy is not identity or equation.

39:37 When God says your union is something like this we are not to take that likeness and then to break it down into minute and wooden categories and then impose those categories upon our union with Christ. Analogies are not identities. And the second thing we need to say is this. Never hold one analogy in isolation from the other analogies.

40:09 More foolish teaching has been given on the Christian life when people take one analogy of our union with Christ and build a whole doctrine upon it. For instance one of the analogies we'll look at subsequently is the John 15 analogy of the vine and the branches. I can remember a very earnest godly man teaching on the Christian life saying now how many of you ever saw a branch struggling to produce fruit? Any of you ever see a branch in a vine flexing its knotty little vine-like muscles and saying I've got to bring forth grapes.

40:45 I've got to bring forth... Well we all sat there and said of course not.

40:49 He says no. All it does is yield to the life that flows from the vine. And I sat there and said oh that sounds so wonderful. I never have to flex my knotty little spiritual muscles and say no to this and no to that and push myself to pray when I don't feel like it and say no to some lust that cries out from without and from within.

41:14 All I need to do is just yield and it will all work oh boy do I want that so bad. Well he proved it from the Bible. I am the vine here the branches abide me. Now you see there's a problem when you turn to 1 Corinthians 12 and realize another analogy is the analogy of the body.

41:37 Well wait a minute now we run into trouble. Because with the body the only proof of life is activity. How do I know that hand is sharing the life of the body because it's working for me. And it's only when it's cut off from the life either the nerve life or the blood life that I know it's not vitally joined.

42:06 Now what happens to your whole teaching on the Christian life that non-activity is the essence of the outworking of your union. You take another analogy and it puts you in the other end of the spectrum. Now take the warning carefully brethren. Never take one analogy and press it into the essence of the teaching of union with Christ in its practical implications.

Analogies of Union With Christ: Building, Adam, Vine, Body

42:30 Alright very quickly then what are the analogies by which God has condescended to picture to us the nature of our union with Christ. Well we'll start at the lowest level and then we'll move to the highest. Alright. At the lowest level he likens it to the union that exists in the stones of a great building.

42:51 All of which bear a structural relationship to the cornerstone. And you have this likeness given of course in two primary passages in the New Testament. First Peter 2, 4 and 5 and then in Ephesians 2, 19 through 22. But you see even in using this analogy Peter talks about something that you never saw existing in your whole life.

43:16 And it underscores the fact that it is analogy and not identity. For he says unto whom coming that is you coming unto Christ a living stone. Now whoever saw a living stone? A stone is lifeless and dead.

43:33 And in the Bible that lifelessness and deadness is picked up in the theme of the natural heart. I will take out the heart of stone but the stone in this temple is a living stone. Rejected indeed of men but with God elect precious ye also as living stones when you touch him you derive life from him. No dead stones in his temple.

43:59 Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. Here our union to Christ is likened as the union that exists between the stones in a building which together constitute a sanctuary. Now Ephesians 2, verse 19 gives us even an additional concept. Not only are they living stones forming this temple of God but the temple itself even grows.

44:32 Now whoever heard of growing stones? I heard of rolling stones but not growing stones. But that's what we have here. Ephesians chapter 2 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 being the chief cornerstone in whom?

45:00 In union with whom? Each several building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple of the Lord in whom? In union with whom? Ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

45:18 Now it appears to me that God has used this analogy to emphasize in a very special way the objectivity of our relationship to Christ even in the context of our intimate union with Christ. There is an objective relationship between the cornerstone and all the stones built upon it and related to it. The cornerstone never becomes the superstructure stone. The superstructure stone never becomes the cornerstone.

45:50 And it seems to me that that is one of the primary points of emphasis in this analogy. In our union with Christ He is always objective to us. He is the object of our faith. We feed upon Him.

46:04 We hold fellowship with Him. We never hold fellowship with ourselves. See, the minute you start turning inward to commune with the indwelling Christ you are out of the realm of Biblical norms. Set your mind on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

46:23 And then it seems to me the second thing that is emphasized in this cornerstone building block analogy of our union the objectivity of the relationship we sustain to Christ and then the pivotal place given to Christ in His work. This great temple grows only because there was this elect stone who in the uniqueness of His person and the sufficiency of His work forms the foundation of the church. Thou art Peter and upon this rock the rock of this confession as to my identity of person my identity of mission Thou art the Christ mission, anointed one Son of God, person upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So that aspect of our union with Christ seems to me to be the point of emphasis in this first analogy. Then we move to the second analogy. There is that union which exists between Adam and his posterity which is analogous to the union that Christ sustains with His people.

47:45 And of course that is taught in two key passages in the New Testament Romans 5, 12 through 21 and then several passages in 1 Corinthians and verse 15 in particular verse 22 not exclusively but in particular. Now there is a union between Adam and his posterity that in some way illustrates the union that exists between Christ and His people. Now this of course if we stretched it out into its full dimensions would take us back into our pre-temporal union with Christ but I am not concerned with that I believe it is true I believe the theology of federalism is the teaching of the Bible but also again as Professor Murray I believe has pointed out so carefully and so ably in his treatise on the imputation of Adam's sin there is also the element of the realistic union as the theologians call it. We were not only in Adam representatively we were in Adam as the head of the human race and all of us as it were come from the loins of Adam and so this relationship representatively so that Adam's sin becomes our sin our sin is the sin of that

49:13 first transgression in which our father Adam disobeyed and we disobeyed in him so that Paul can say in verse 12 for that all sinned now I am not intending to open up this subject at all only so far as to point in the direction of the analogy as in Adam so in Christ and what is the element that seems to predominate in this analogy of the union well obviously it is the analogy of the legal standing as we stood as we fell in Adam so we stand in Jesus Christ and it is a wonderful thing that according to Ephesians 1 in verse 6 we are accepted in the beloved one whenever God spoke about his son what did he say at his baptism this is my son my beloved in whom I am well pleased upon the mount of transfiguration this is my son my beloved in whom I am well pleased if I can only somehow get into him you know what the father is going to say to me this is my son in whom I am well pleased I know a few things dear fellow Christians

50:41 that overwhelm my own soul with a greater sense of unworthiness and yet glory to know that God actually says to this depraved hell deserving sinner with enough remaining corruption this very moment as I preach forever to ban me from his presence this is my son in whom I am well pleased why? because I am in the beloved one and I stand in my living head and all of his righteousness is imputed to me and it seems to me that that's the primary point of emphasis when our union is likened to the union that exists between Adam and his posterity then there is a third analogy and we must step on the accelerator we have more time pressure on us this morning it's the union of the vine and the branches John 15 1-8 I won't take time to read the passage let me just give you the material you can look it up on your own I am the vine, you are the branches what seems to be the primary point of emphasis there it's this matter of community of life what is a branch if broken off from the vine it's a dead stick fit for nothing but to be thrown into a fire you can do nothing unless you abide in me the point of emphasis in the analogy here

52:07 is community of shared life Christ who is our life we are to feed upon him in the language of John 6 we are to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood if we are to have eternal life abiding in us the life imparted by the believing reception of Christ is the life sustained by continual actings of faith upon Christ and I am ashamed to say I was a Christian many years before that truth dawned upon me let me run it by again as surely as the life begins in the actings of faith upon Christ so the life given in that context is sustained in the same context that's why our Lord instituted the supper of remembrance you don't move away from the cross you don't grow from the cross you grow in the cross you grow as more and more you feed upon Christ revealed as crucified for sinners such as you such as I am then the next analogy is the analogy of the union of the head with the members of the body and two pivotal passages here Ephesians 4 15 and 16 Christ is the head from whom

53:36 all the body fitly framed together and then large sections of first Corinthians chapter 12 by one spirit we are all baptized into one body and then the apostle draws out the analogy of the body the union of the head and the members of the body what's the strong point of emphasis here it is the organic oneness head and body are an organism they are not separate entities that are hung together in an artificial or mechanical way there is organic unity and though I cannot plumb the mystery of this and when I was preaching through Ephesians I had to tell my people I could not preach on the text the church which is his body the fullness of him who filleth all in all I said what the Greek language forces upon me as its meaning I can't preach Christ is incomplete without his body we are the fullness of him filled with his fullness we are his fullness as the trunk and legs and arm constitute the fullness of my body of which this is the head so the church is his fullness there is organic unity and then we

Analogies of Union With Christ: Husband/Wife and the Trinity

55:05 move a step higher and we see the analogy of the union between a husband and wife picturing the union of Christ in his church the key passage of course Ephesians 5 22 and 3 and what is the point of emphasis here will those of us who are married we are trying to understand what it is what a mysterious thing I sit and look at my wife's picture there in my motel room and the pictures of my children the fruit of our union and she is external to me I hold mental communion with her as I look at her picture when I pick up the phone and call her I hold verbal communion of thought and yet after 22 years of marriage it is almost spooky at times you can read each other's thoughts as it were when you are in different rooms you can sit in the same room with 12 or 13 people and your eyes will catch hers and hers yours and you know what the other one is thinking there is such affinity there are two yet the two increasingly become so much one in identity of perspective in shared love in communion of spirit it seems to me that it is that element of what we would call true biblical mysticism that is emphasized in the husband wife analogy there is that whole sold

56:33 communion of two people this mystery is great and then and here if scripture were not plain it would be bordering on blasphemy to say it but our union with Christ find some at least remote analogy and this is the pinnacle in the union that exists between the persons of the Godhead John chapter 14 and here I will read the passages because as I say if they were not before my eyes in scripture I would say God this cannot be such things are too high for us we cannot attain to them John 14 and verse 23 Jesus answered and said if a man loved me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him the father and the son coming to take up their abode with us there is union now what is the nature of that union chapter 17 verses 21 to 23 starting with verse 20 neither for these only do I pray but for them also that believe on me through their word that they may all be one even as even as even as even as that they may be one

57:59 even as even as thou father art in me and I in thee that they also may be in us I can't comment I can only read the passage and let it stand they in us as I that's why I had to guard the doctrine last night by saying it is never pantheism we are never absorbed into God God is never diffused as to his essence into us and yet there is something in the mystery of inter-trinitarian communion and life that is analogous to the union of the believer with his Lord no wonder Paul prayed for this cause I bow my knees that God would grant you to be strengthened with might by the spirit to know to know these realities only the Holy Ghost can even get us to think about them let alone with trembling hand to make an effort believingly to embrace them oh how glorious it is to be united

59:26 to the Son of God put all these analogies together and what do you have and I hope the cook will forgive me as I give this last paragraph we have the picture of a union that is real that is vital that is intimate and all inclusive in its implications there is the sharing of legal standing the communication of life the interchange of mind and affection the flow of sympathy and sustaining power oh what confidence the child of God has both with respect to his standing before God in time and in the light of that awful day you young people life seems stretched out a long way before you but you hit that fortieth birthday and you'll find something happens time that perhaps was jogging begins to sprint like it's determined to break the world's record in the hundred yard dash and the thought that you will stand before God your maker becomes more and more real with each passing day and to think of that day apart from the doctrine of union with Christ is enough to drive a man to distraction but in the language of count von Zinzendorf quoted by Wesley bold shall I stand in that great day for who ought to my charge shall lay fully absolved from these I am from sin and

60:54 fear and death and shame why Jesus thy blood and righteousness my glorious dress that's it that's it oh I trust if you're just playing with Christ and with the gospel and that's perfectly possible I never assumed that theological students are all converted I have no basis in the word of God to assume it my friend if you're playing games you better take this seriously because you face that day in non union with Christ and it would be better for you that you'd never been born may God write upon our hearts these blessed truths of his own word amen