Union with Christ
Encyclopedia
John Murray (theologian)
John Murray was a Scottish-born Calvinist theologian who taught at Princeton Seminary and then left to help found Westminster Theological Seminary, where he taught for many years.-Life:...
says, union with Christ is "the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation." The expression "in Christ" (en Christo, en kyrio, en Christo Iesou, en auto etc) occurs 216 times in the Pauline letters and 26 times in the Johannine literature. Given the large number of occurrences and the wide range of contexts, the phrase embodies a breadth of meaning. (For example; Paul uses the phrase "en Christo" as a synonym for a Christian (Romans
Epistle to the Romans
The Epistle of Paul to the Romans, often shortened to Romans, is the sixth book in the New Testament. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by the Apostle Paul to explain that Salvation is offered through the Gospel of Jesus Christ...
16:7) and the phrase "en emoi" to describe the intimate identification of Christ with the believer (Galatians
Epistle to the Galatians
The Epistle of Paul to the Galatians, often shortened to Galatians, is the ninth book of the New Testament. It is a letter from Paul of Tarsus to a number of Early Christian communities in the Roman province of Galatia in central Anatolia...
2:20).)
According to the narrower sense of the phrase, used in Christian theology
Christian theology
- Divisions of Christian theology :There are many methods of categorizing different approaches to Christian theology. For a historical analysis, see the main article on the History of Christian theology.- Sub-disciplines :...
, union with Christ is a step in the ordo salutis
Ordo salutis
Ordo salutis, refers to the series of conceptual steps within the Christian doctrine of salvation. It has been defined as "a technical term of Protestant dogmatics to designate the consecutive steps in the work of the Holy Spirit in the appropriation of salvation." Although there is within...
("order of salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
"), and the basis of the believer's justification
Justification (theology)
Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....
. In this sense, union with Christ follows faith
Faith
Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...
and precedes adoption
Adoption (theology)
Adoption, in Christian theology, is the term that describes the admission of a believer into the family of God. In the evangelical ordo salutis , adoption is usually regarded as a step immediately subsequent to justification...
(Galatians 3:26-27). Augustus Strong
Augustus Hopkins Strong
Augustus Hopkins Strong was a Baptist minister and theologian who lived in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries...
describes it in this way; "union with Christ logically precedes both regeneration and justification; and yet, chronologically, the moment of our union with Christ is also the moment when we are regenerated and justified."
Roman Catholic
Traditional Roman Catholic theologyRoman Catholic theology
Roman Catholic theology comprises the "Roman Catholic teachings" of the Catholic Church which bases its conclusions on Scripture and Sacred Tradition, as interpreted by the Magisterium. The Church teaches that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ, keeping of the Ten commandments and...
centres the union with Christ in a substantial sense on the unity of the institutional church, past and present. "The communion of saints is the spiritual solidarity which binds together the faithful on earth, the souls in purgatory, and the saints in heaven in the organic unity of the same mystical body under Christ its head." Christians, according to Roman Catholic theology, are united to Christ through the sacrements.
Reformed
In Reformed theology, union with Christ is understood to be a comprehensive category that runs through the entire doctrine of Salvation. John Murray observes; "Union with Christ is a very inclusive subject. It embraces the wide span of salvation from the ultimate source in the eternal election of God to its final fruition in the glorifcation of the elect."As a step in the order of salvation, union with Christ was seen by John Calvin
John Calvin
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...
to be the basis for both justification and sanctification
Sanctification
Sanctity is an ancient concept widespread among religions, a property of a thing or person sacred or set apart within the religion, from totem poles through temple vessels to days of the week, to a human believer who achieves this state. Sanctification is the act or process of acquiring sanctity,...
. Alister McGrath
Alister McGrath
Alister Edgar McGrath is an Anglican priest, theologian, and Christian apologist, currently Professor of Theology, Ministry, and Education at Kings College London and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture...
notes that while Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer was a Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled...
suggested that justification causes (moral) regeneration, Calvin argued that "both justification and regeneration are the results of the believer's union with Christ through faith."
Evangelical
Some Evangelicals see union with Christ as a discrete stage in the "order of salvation." The evangelical theologian William SheddWilliam Greenough Thayer Shedd
William Greenough Thayer Shedd , son of the Reverend Marshall Shedd and Eliza Thayer, was an American Presbyterian Theologian born in Acton, Massachusetts....
comments "The impartation of Christ's righteousness presupposes a union with him." Robert Dabney
Robert Lewis Dabney
Robert Lewis Dabney was an American Christian theologian, a Southern Presbyterian pastor, and Confederate Army chaplain. He was also chief of staff and biographer to Stonewall Jackson. His biography of Jackson remains in print today.Dabney and James Henley Thornwell were two of Southern...
while avoiding deification said that the bond of the union is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
.
Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox theologyEastern Orthodox theology
Eastern Orthodox Christian theology is the theology particular to the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is characterized by monotheistic Trinitarianism, belief in the Incarnation of the Logos , a balancing of cataphatic theology with apophatic theology, a hermeneutic defined by Sacred Tradition, a...
emphasies the incarnation
Incarnation
Incarnation literally means embodied in flesh or taking on flesh. It refers to the conception and birth of a sentient creature who is the material manifestation of an entity, god or force whose original nature is immaterial....
as the starting point for our union with Christ. "In Christ God becomes one with us in order to make us one with him; he stooped to take our nature, in order that we might be restored to become partakers of his nature."
The Basis of Union with Christ
In Christian theology the union of Christ is built on the a priori assumption of Adam'sAdam
Adam is a figure in the Book of Genesis. According to the creation myth of Abrahamic religions, he is the first human. In the Genesis creation narratives, he was created by Yahweh-Elohim , and the first woman, Eve was formed from his rib...
union with humanity (Romans 5:12-21). Also according to the Apostle Paul, Christ's death and resurrection is a prerequisite for believers to be identified with Christ (Romans 6:8-10). In other words the vicarious
Substitutionary atonement
Technically speaking, substitutionary atonement is the name given to a number of Christian models of the atonement that all regard Jesus as dying as a substitute for others, "instead of" them...
death of Jesus is the basis for incorporation into Christ.
The Nature of Union with Christ
There are a number of ways of describing the nature of the union with Christ. Roman Catholic theology holds that believers actually imbide the physical body and blood of Christ when they partake in the EucharistEucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
. Reformed theology using the model of federal headship
Federal headship
Federal headship refers to the representation of a group united under a federation or covenant. For example, a country's president may be seen as the federal head of his nation, representing and speaking on its behalf before the rest of the world....
, where humanity is covenantally represented by Adam, sees Christians represented covenantally by Christ. Pietist theology see a union with Christ as mystical, "hidden" in the spiritual dimension. Evangelical theology contains the idea of an experiential union, where Jesus having gone through life, death and resurrection, shares these experiences with believers. Both Reformed and Evangelical theology acknowledges that union with Christ is the subjective application of God's
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
objective work in Salvation. In Protestant theology the phrase; union with Christ means a mutual indwelling (John 14-15), of Christians and the triune
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
God, without affirming that Christians are absorbed into God. Several biblical themes are expressed within concept of being "in Christ." For example the Old Testament notion of God dwelling among the Israelites (Exodus 25:8) is expressed by Jesus in the New Testament as the triune God dwelling with believers (John 14:23).
Consquences of Union with Christ
The blessings of Salvation observes Philip RykenPhilip Ryken
Philip Graham Ryken is president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Dr. Ryken was inaugurated on Friday, September 17, 2010 at Edman Chapel.-Education:...
are obtained by being "in Christ." Furthermore union with Christ has a relational dimension, because believers are brought into fellowship with the Trinity (John 17:21 and Romans 8:9). Being "in Christ" means for Christians being part of one body of believers (Romans 12:5).
Bibliographies
- Bibliography of Resources on Union with Christ, by Phil Gons
- An Annotated Bibliography of Resources Pertaining to "Christ in You" and "Union with Christ", by James A. Fowler
See also
- Imputed righteousnessImputed righteousnessImputed righteousness is a concept in Christian theology that proposes that the "righteousness of Christ ... is imputed to [believers] — that is, treated as if it were theirs through faith." It is on the basis of this "alien"...
- JustificationJustification (theology)Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....
- TheosisTheosisIn Christian theology, divinization, deification, making divine or theosis is the transforming effect of divine grace. This concept of salvation is historical and fundamental for Christian understanding that is prominent in the Eastern Orthodox Church and also in the Catholic Church, and is a...