When we discover that God intended for our salvation, sanctification, glorification and maturity into the likeness of Christ rests upon a continual invitation to be joined, experientially, with the works of Jesus on our behalf…the Christian life will become the extravagant, joy-filled adventure it was always meant to be!

John Murray wrote that “union with Christ is . . . the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation. . . . It is not simply a phase of the application of redemption; it underlies every aspect of redemption.”  

Colossians 1:27, “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 hope of glory.”

Ephesians 1:10 …TO UNITE ALL THINGS IN HIM

Sinclair Ferguson (in Christian Spirituality: Five Views of Sanctification [IVP, 1989], 58) said:

“If we are united to Christ, then we are united to him at all points of his activity on our behalf.”

We share…

• in his death (we were baptized into his death),
• in his resurrection (we are resurrected with Christ),
• in his ascension (we have been raised with him),
• in his heavenly session (we sit with him in heavenly places, so that our life is hidden with Christ in God), and we will share
• in his promised return (when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with him in glory)

1 Corinthians 6:17

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

“It is not so much working for God, or speaking for God, as living in the secret of His presence, which most glorifies Him. We must so seek to realize our Saviour’s presence with us and in us that our whole being shall be hushed, and quietly elevated, and controlled in every little thing.” [J. A. Clapperton, Culture of the Christian Heart, 90.]

John 17:20-26

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Think about this -

1. How does your view of salvation change in light of the revelation of union with Christ?
2. How does experiential union with Christ differ from a transactional approach where we “do the right thing” and God issues a blessing?
3. How can we shift our thinking from a more transactional approach with God to experiencing the blessing of being one with him?