Union with Christ: An Unbreakable Fellowship
The doctrine of union with Christ is an invitation to make our home with God in Christ Jesus. It is an unbreakable fellowship. Not because we strive to keep the faith, but because God the Father keeps His people in His forever love in the Son of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I can remember the first time I heard of the doctrine of union with Christ. I was sitting in a classroom in north Texas listening to Dr. Sinclair Ferguson lecture on the doctrine of salvation. He had us to turn to Ephesians 1 and asked a student to read it out loud to the class. Every time the student read the phrase “in Him,” he said in his deep Scottish voice: “IN HIM.”
When the student finished reading, he launched into 45 minutes on the beauty of the doctrine of union with Christ. I sat in the back of the room, tears in my eyes. I had been a Christian for 22 years and the gospel was surprising me yet again.
After class, in the student commons, Dr. Ferguson was chatting with students and I began to pepper him with questions about this doctrine.At one point, after what must have been my tenth question, Dr. Ferguson turned to me and said, “Young Mr. Worley, it’s all in Christ. Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”
He walked back into class, but I didn’t. I walked out of the building in a daze and I walked around the neighborhood for the next two hours. All I could think about was what Dr. Ferguson had said: “Every blessing God has for His people. They are all in Christ. Where else would they be?”
The doctrine of union with Christ changed my life. It changed the way I conceive of my relationship with God. It changed the way I read the Bible. It changed the way I pray. It changed the way I pastor. It changed everything.
Union with Christ
But, what is it? In 500 words or less, here’s how I would explain the doctrine of union with Christ:
Louis Berkhof defined union with Christ as that “intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation.” That’s a really wonderful way of stating it.
This union is intimate in that it takes God’s people and places them into divine fellowship by placing them into the identity and under the covenant headship of the Son of God. It’s vital in that it is necessary for salvation. As John Calvin says concerning salvation, “We are deprived of this utterly incomparable good until Christ is made ours.” It is spiritual in that it is a “mystical” union, it isn’t some tangible thing we can see, but it is real nonetheless.
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Not to Think is a Sin
I am talking about normal Christians who do have a working mind. It is a sin for them not to use it. Sure, some folks might be smarter or brighter than others – maybe even have higher IQs and the like. But that is still no excuse. Some Christians will just have to work harder at this and put more effort into it. This is true of all areas of life. In Christ we are to grow and mature in all spheres.
The English humourist P. G. Wodehouse once said: “Some minds are like soup in a poor restaurant—better left unstirred.” On a more serious note, the renowned English Christian John Stott said this: “Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God’s grace.”
Yet my title may concern some folks. ‘Wow, did he just say it is a sin not to think? Yes I did. And in this case I am writing to a Christian audience. ‘So where do you get that in the Bible?’ some might ask. Hey, easy as. You might recall that someone helped us greatly in this regard.
A lawyer came to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Wow, the greatest commandment. So it is a very good thing indeed that Jesus answered him. He said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:34-40; also found in Mark 12:28-34 and Luke 10:25-8 – all appealing to Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
So there you have it: the greatest person who ever lived is asked what is the greatest commandment. Every single one of us should stand up and take notice. Loving God with the totality of our being is the answer. And that includes using the mind that God gave us.
It is with the mind of course that we think, as well as reason, question, evaluate, discern, judge, test, reflect, remember, and ascertain. Clearly, if we refuse to think and if we refuse to use our minds, then we have just violated the greatest commandment there is. And that my friends is sin.
Why this article?
I have written often about this issue before, so why bring it up again? Well, often my circumstance can dictate what I write about. And often what I go through can come in waves or clusters. For example, if I write a piece on dealing with hatred and persecution, it might be because I just received a whole bunch of ugly and vile comments or hateful emails in the space of a day or two.
In this case I came upon 6 or 7 rather extreme cases of Christians who clearly seem not to be able to think. Some really outrageous and stupid remarks or comments all came my way in a very short period of time, so I felt the need to once again write on this topic. As I said on the social media the other day:
One of the great sins I see today in the Christian church is the blatant refusal of far too many believers to obey the greatest command of Christ: to ‘love God with all our minds…’ The number of utterly stupid, uninformed, ignorant and just plain idiotic comments I see almost daily on my website and on the social media does my head in. It makes me want to weep. I want to ask God for his forgiveness for the way we misrepresent him and drag his name in the mud with our brainless and reckless remarks and beliefs. Lord, forgive us! Please Lord, let your people think!
As to the recent batch of comments that came my way, I best not go into much detail about them. However, it can be said that some of these were so appallingly bad, so moronic, and so off base, that you really have to wonder what some believers have lodged between their two ears. I cringe when I see some of these remarks. How can some believers be so clueless and so brainless?
Worse yet, some of these Christians actually seem to delight in and are proud of their ignorance and foolishness and lack of understanding. One of these folks said to me, “Also i like to keep it simple”. That much was clear. But there is a big difference between being simple and being simplistic.
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Held by Tender Hands
Bring your bruises to Jesus. He will not break you off and caste you aside. That little bit of flame that remains, the small glow that just burns in desperate defiance of the approaching night, he will not snuff it out. The breath he breaths on you is to fan that smouldering wick into flame again. The hands that hold you now are not to caste you aside, but to draw you near.
I am a reed, but not like others.
I suppose I should be. I grow by the quiet waters of a sheltered pond. In the late Summer evenings I watch the same dance of the Dragonfly as she gently kisses the smooth surface and momentarily shatters the mirrored sky. I grow beneath the sprawling branches of an ancient tree that drinks the same water I do. I grow among my brethren, other reeds who bow their heads each evening, only to lift them again to greet the rising sun, nodding with the warm breeze that carries the smell of earth and harvest. I don’t grow alone.
I am a reed, but not like the others.
Oh, it may appear I am the clone of those who gather round me; tall and straight I stretch toward the sky. The creatures of the wetland make their home around my feet, the birds of the air come to harvest from my crown, and like my brethren, one day the workers from the village will come and harvest us to weave into their art. We reeds have a noble calling. But I am not like the others.
I am wounded. The fibres of my being have faltered. Where others stand strong and secure, I feel the soft place within, the weakness that threatens to topple me. While others sway with the gentle evening breeze, I fear that their breeze will be my storm. Rather than sway, I bend, and I know that one day the bend will become a break.
I am bruised.
When the other reeds of the river are woven into tapestries of beauty, I will not be wound around my brothers, I will still be standing here, alone. Or worse, I will be hewn in half and thrown down; a bruised reed broken and left behind. I’m sure it is only a matter of time. Like the fire that burns the chaff away, when it has done its intended work the labourers of the field stamp out the smouldering remains. Or like the nightwatchman who blows out the candle before the smouldering wick stings his eyes with unwanted smoke, so my tall crown will be cast down to the mud in which I stand.
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Why Does the Bible Call the Fear of God “Clean”? — Psalm 19:9
God’s Word is the means by which God works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure, purifying you by his work of sanctification through faith in your Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the fear of God that is clean and endures forever.
We often think of “fear” in a negative sense—being afraid even to the point of terror or feeling high anxiety and worry, especially toward the unknown. Yet, we are called to fear God, which is right and good. Is there a difference between fear of God and fear of the unknown, and why does the Bible call the fear of God “clean” in Psalm 19:9?
…the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring foreverthe rules of the LORD are true,and righteous altogether. — Psalm 19:9
The psalmist writes that the fear of God is “clean” in Psalm 19:9 in the context of God’s righteous and perfect word—his commandments, rules, and laws. In other words, as God is pure and holy, so is his word. Fear of God means to revere, respect, and submit to his word because it is holy as God is holy.
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