THE BELIEVER’S UNION WITH CHRIST
Ephesians
1:6
A FEDERAL UNION
Our
everlasting union with Christ is a federal, or representative union. As Adam
was the federal head of all men, so Christ is the federal head of all the elect
(Rom. 5:12-19; I Cor. 15:21-22). Everything that Adam did in the Garden he did
as the federal representative of all the human race. All his acts were
representative acts. Had Adam been obedient to God, all the descendants of that
original man would have been partakers of all the benefits of obedience to God.
But Adam was not obedient. He sinned. He fell. He died. And we all sinned,
fell, and died in him representatively. In exactly the same way, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the Federal Head and Representative of God’s elect. He was our Federal
Head from eternity. He is our Federal Head now. And he shall be our Federal
Head forever. Christ was our Federal Head and Representative in the covenant of
grace before the world began. He was given for a covenant to the people. He is
the Mediator, Messenger, and Surety of that covenant. It was made with him, not
as a single or private Person, but as the Head and Representative of God’s
elect, who were given to him as a people to save. What he promised in the
covenant, he promised for us. What he received in the covenant, he received for
us. Thus, we were blessed in him and saved in him before the world was made
(Eph. 1:3; II Tim. 1:9). When the Lord Jesus Christ obeyed the law of God and
made it honorable, we were in him, obeying the law and making it honorable.
When he suffered and died under the wrath of God, we suffered and died in him. “Crucified with Christ.” C. H. Spurgeon
said, “Justice looks upon the chosen as though they themselves had suffered all
that Christ suffered, as though they had drunk the wormwood and the gall and
had descended into the lowest depths.“ When Christ was buried in the earth, we
were buried with him. When the Son of God arose from the dead, we arose with
him, triumphant and victorious. When he ascended into heaven and took his place
at the right hand of the Majesty on high, we ascended with him, and sat down
with him in his Father’s throne, as the rightful possessors of heaven and glory
with him, our Federal Head and Representative.
A MYSTICAL UNION
Our everlasting union with
Christ is a mystical union. I do not know a better way to express this aspect
of our union with our Savior than by using the word “mystical.” We are one with
him in the sense that we are members of his body, not in a physical way, but in
a spiritual sense (Eph. 4:30; Heb. 2:11-14). God’s elect have a greater union
with Christ than the members of our physical bodies have with our heads. We are
one with Christ as the head is one with the body, as the Father and the Son are
one in the holy trinity (John 17:21), in his glory as the God-man (John 17:22),
and as the objects of the Father’s love from eternity (John 17:23-24).
A VITAL UNION
Our
everlasting union with Christ is a vital union. Our union with the Lord Jesus
Christ is so essential and vital that without it we could never be saved and
Christ could never be complete as our Mediator and Head (John 15:5-6; Eph.
1:23). God’s elect are the fullness and completion of him who is the fullness
and completion of all things!
Grace Baptist Church of Danville - Grace For
Today Radio Message #658
2734 Old Stanford Road -
Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor -Telephone 606-236-8235 - Email grace@mis.net