Wayne Grudem correctly declares that “every aspect of God’s relationship to believers is in some way connected to our relationship with Christ” (Systematic Theology, 1031). Although this may sound like an overstatement, an exaggeration that exceeds reality, the testimony of Scripture affirms it. From our election in eternity past (Eph. 1:4, 11-12; 2 Tim. 1:9) to our glorification in eternity future, there is no experience of the Christian or blessing we receive that is not in some way tied to our union with Jesus.

To put it bluntly, the saving work of Jesus Christ is of no benefit to us unless and until we are in union with him through the powerful work of the Holy Spirit. If this is true (and it is), why has there been so little said of our union with Christ, at least in comparison with our focus on other themes such as atonement, justification, regeneration, redemption, glorification, etc.? Given the number of times our union with Christ is mentioned in the NT, one would think it would be more of a central theme in our preaching and daily walk with the Savior. The phrase, en Christō, “in Christ”, occurs 83 times in the writings of Paul alone. The broader terminology of “union with Christ” (such as “in him,” “in whom,” etc.) occurs more than 200 times, again, in the writings of Paul alone.

Why, then, is our union with Christ not the central focus that it should be? Among the many reasons we could cite, perhaps the most influential is that evangelical Protestants are more at home in conceiving of salvation in purely legal or forensic terms. The latter is certainly important: justification by faith being the prime example. But even justification is inconceivable apart from our union with Jesus. Packer explains:

"God declares [believers] to be righteous, because he reckons them to be righteous; and he reckons righteousness to them, not because he accounts them to have kept the law personally (which would be a false judgment), but because he accounts them to be united to the one who kept it representatively (and that is a true judgment). For Paul union with Christ is not fancy but fact – the basic fact, indeed, in Christianity; and the doctrine of imputed righteousness is simply Paul’s exposition of the forensic aspect of it” (“Justification,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, ed. Walter A. Elwell [Baker], 596).

Related to this is the evangelical aversion to what is experiential, mystical, and subjective. Marcus Johnson explains:

“[T]he relative absence of a robust understanding of our participation in Christ may be explained by a particularly modern reticence to embrace mystery at the heart of our faith confession. This hesitation is evidence of Protestant theology’s dangerous liaison with rationalism. To many evangelical ears, ‘union with Christ’ terminology and imagery sound ‘mystical,’ and we prefer to cede mystical concepts and categories to Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologies. . . [M]odern evangelicals often seem more prepared to embrace doctrines apparently amenable to logical, rational systematization than to embrace the mysteries of our faith in a state of wonder and confession” (One with Christ: An Evangelical Theology of Salvation, 27).

As we shall see, “God has joined himself to us through Jesus Christ in order to save us” (Marcus Johnson, Ibid., 37). This means that there never was a time when God did not regard us as united with his Son, nor will there ever be a time when that union ends. This leads to the stunning conclusion that whatever Jesus did for us as our representative, the Father counted it as something we ourselves have done. This is why Paul could declare that the guilt of our sins was reckoned to be his (2 Cor. 5:21). Thus, when Jesus Christ died, we died in him. We were “crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; 2 Cor. 5:14). It stands to reason, then, that having died with/in him we were also buried with him (Col. 2:12) in baptism and raised up “with him” and “seated . . . with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). It is nothing short of staggering that what Jesus experienced in saving us can be attributed no less to us because of the union between us and him that was decreed by the Father and brought into reality by the Spirit when he awakened faith in our hearts.

But it doesn’t stop with the initial moment of faith and conversion. Because of our union with Christ in his life, death, resurrection, and exaltation, we can respond to the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, as if “dead” (Rom. 7:6). We are truly “alive” to God and empowered to live a new and utterly marvelous life (Rom. 6:11). Paul sums it up well when he declares that we have become a “new creation” in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).

Not only eternal life, but life in the present moment is possible only because we are “in” Christ Jesus (1 John 5:11; 2 Tim. 1:1). All that we need to live lives that honor and glorify God is “in Christ.” This includes faith and love (1 Tim. 1:14; 2 Tim. 1:13), grace (2 Tim. 2:1), salvation (2 Tim. 2:10), and “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3). Paul sums it up well when he says that we “are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). Indeed, God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:3). To be cut off from Christ is to be severed from any and all such blessings. The testimony of Scripture is clear that there is only one avenue, one means, one way in which a person can lay hold of the multitude of blessings that God in grace has chosen to give: it is by union with Jesus!

In many texts, the language of “in Christ” points more directly to the idea of source. We find all we need for life here and in the hereafter in who Christ is and what he does. But knowing what is the source of all such blessings is of no benefit to us unless we ourselves are united to/with Christ. Such blessings become ours because Christ is ours and we are his.

Grudem goes so far as to say that “every stage of the application of redemption is given to us because we are ‘in Christ’” (1034). We are “called” in Christ (1 Cor. 7:22), born again or regenerated (what Paul refers to as being “created in Christ Jesus,” Eph. 2:10), “justified” (Phil. 3:9), set free from the condemnation that we otherwise would deserve (“there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1), and ultimately “glorified with him” (Rom. 8:17) on the final day. This means that to be outside of Christ or not in union with him exposes an individual to every curse and punishment of the law. If every positive and glorious blessing is found only in Christ, every negative and grievous tragedy is for those outside of Christ. Paul summed it up well when he said, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Simply put, “union with Christ is an inclusive term for the whole of salvation; the various other doctrines are simply subparts” (Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, 3:948).

Says Grudem, “every action in our lives can be done ‘in Christ,’ if it is done in the power of his kingdom and in a way that brings honor to him” (1035). For example,

Ø Paul speaks the truth “in Christ” (Rom. 9:1)

Ø Reminds his readers of his ways “in Christ” (1 Cor. 4:17)

Ø Hopes “in the Lord Jesus” (Phil. 2:19)

Ø Rejoices “in the Lord” (Phil. 4:10)

Ø Reminds children to obey their parents “in the Lord” (Eph. 6:1)

Ø Tells wives to submit to their husbands “in the Lord” (Col. 3:18)

Ø Exhorts us all to be “strong in the Lord” (Eph. 6:10)

Ø Exhorts us to be “encouraged in the Lord” (Phil. 2:1)

Ø To agree with one another “in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2)

Ø To stand firm “in the Lord” (Phil. 4:1)

Ø To live a godly life “in the Lord” (2 Tim. 3:12)

Ø To “work hard” (Rom. 16:12), be “confident” (Phil. 1:14) and stand “approved” (Rom. 16:10).

To be continued . . .