A Union to Remember

In light of our New Year’s sermon last Sunday, let me ask you a follow-up question: How do we grow as Christians? There are many things we could say. We must make no provision for the flesh, walk by the Spirit, put sin to death, and strive to do God’s will, etc.  All of these things are necessary, but none should take precedence over remembering our union with Christ. As yet another insight from Dane Ortlund’s book, Deeper, this glorious truth struck me with fresh power. Quoting Jonathan Edwards,  Ortlund says:

By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he does in fact possess all things. But it may be asked, how does he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a true Christian so much richer than other people? To answer this, I’ll tell you what I mean by “possessing all things.” I mean that God three in one, all that he is, and all that he has, and all that he does, all that he has made or done—the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, humans and devils, sun, moon and stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all silver and gold, kings and potentates—are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, the house he dwells in, or the victuals he eats; yes, properly his, advantageously his, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly does possess all things, is entirely his: so that the Christian possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head does. It is all his. Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy.

In his own words, Ortlund continues:

Through no activity of your own, but by the sheer and mighty grace of God, you have been enveloped in the triumphant and tender ruler of the cosmos. Therefore: nothing can touch you that does not touch him. To get to you, every pain, every assault, every disappointment has to go through him. You are shielded by invincible love. Everything that washes into your life, no matter how hard, comes from and through the tender care of the friend of sinners. He himself feels your anguish even more deeply than you do, because you’re one with him; and he mediates everything hard in your life through his love for you, because you’re one with him. Picture yourself standing in a circle with an invisible but impenetrable wall surrounding you, a sphere of impregnability. But it’s not a circle you’re in. It’s a person—the person. The one before whom John fell down as he grappled for words to describe what he was looking at as one whose “eyes were like a flame of fire . . . and his voice was like the roar of many waters” (Rev. 1:14–15) has been made one with you. The might of heaven, the power that flung galaxies into existence, has swept you into himself. And you’re there to stay. Amid the storms of your little existence—the sins and sufferings, the failure and faltering, the waywardness and wandering—he is going to walk you right into heaven. He is not just with you. He is in you, and you in him. His destiny now falls on you. His union with you at both the macro and micro levels guarantees your eventual glory and rest and calm. You may as well question gravity as question the certainty of what your union with him means for your final future. So consider the darkness that remains in your life. The spiritual lethargy. The habitual sin. The deep-seated resentment. That place in your life where you feel most defeated. Our sins loom large. They seem so insurmountable. But Christ and your union with him loom larger still. As far as sin in your life reaches, Christ and your union with him reach further. As deep as your failure goes, Christ and your union with him go deeper still. As strong as your sin feels, the bond of your oneness with Jesus Christ is stronger still. Live the rest of your life mindful of your union with the prince of heaven. Rest in the knowledge that your sins and failures can never kick you out of Christ. Let an ever-deepening awareness of your union with him strengthen your resistance to sin.

Like a lamp on our desk connected to the electric grid, our souls are plugged into a Savior of unimaginable power, love, and grace. Experientially, we flick the switch of this union by looking to Jesus afresh, drawing His sufficiency down into our insufficiency, His victory down into our defeat, His wisdom down into our folly, His resolve down into our wandering hearts. This is what it means to believe in Jesus. It is the bedrock of the Christian life. Before we remember to put off sin and to put on Christ, we must first remember that we are already in Him and that we have been loved with an everlasting love. We are no longer orphans but are the well-beloved children of Almighty God.