Union with Christ

Union with Christ is the central bond by which believers share in all that Christ is and has done. The older Reformed and Puritan writers treated it not as one isolated doctrine but as the hinge on which justification, sanctification, adoption, perseverance, and final glory all turn. Without this union, there is no safe standing before God; with it, every spiritual blessing is secured. The quotations gathered here show how Charles Spurgeon, Jonathan Edwards, and Matthew Henry understood that union from the Scriptures, especially Romans and the Gospel of John.

Union with Christ as the ground of every benefit

For these writers, union with Christ is not a vague spiritual mood but the actual basis of a sinner's right to Christ's benefits. Edwards argues that being united to Christ is the basis for having a right to his benefits (1 John 5:12; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:6). Henry makes the same point in covenantal terms when he says that Christ acted as the public representative of the elect, doing all things for them, including dying, rising, and entering heaven (Romans 5:14). Spurgeon presses the personal edge of this truth: Christ's suffering and death were personally for believers, so his blood, agony, and tears are for them (Romans 5:8).

This relation or union to Christ, whereby Christians are said to be in Christ, (whatever it be,) is the ground of their right to his benefits Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Edwards is especially careful to distinguish the union itself from the blessings that flow from it. Faith does not earn union; rather, faith is the act by which a person is united to Christ, making it fitting for God to regard Christ's righteousness as belonging to that person. Henry adds that this union is not merely legal but also vital. Believers are married to Christ, entering a life of dependence on him and duty to him, in conformity to his resurrection (Romans 7:4). Spurgeon, with his usual warmth, says that a believer's right to God's promises rests on being united to Christ, not on whether a promise has been fulfilled or personally applied (Romans 3:25).

The twofold union: by the Spirit and by faith

Edwards develops a distinction that helps hold together divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He says that union to Christ is twofold: on Christ's part by his Spirit, in which we are passive, and on our part by faith, in which we are active. The first union is the immediate effect of sovereign grace, while the consequent union by faith is the effect of exercised grace in obeying a moral duty. This means that the Spirit's work precedes and produces faith, rather than faith producing the Spirit's work.

Union to Christ is of two kinds, on his part by his spirit; and on our part by faith, as explained in a preceding note. In the former, we are passive; and in the latter, we are active Jonathan Edwards, “Justification by Faith Alone”

Henry agrees that the Spirit is the one who makes the union real. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ at all (Romans 8:9). Having the Spirit means being conformed to Christ's own character. Henry says that having the Spirit of Christ means being spirited as Christ was, with a soul frame conformed to his meek, lowly, humble, peaceable, patient, and charitable pattern. Edwards adds that the immediate cause of vital union is the Spirit of Christ, not man, which secures salvation by grace and honors Christ's federal headship. This is why a carnal man cannot be the immediate cause of his own vital union with Christ, because the carnal mind is hostile to God and spiritually dead (Romans 8:7; 1 Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 2:1).

Yet faith is not made unnecessary. Edwards insists that faith is the act on the believer's part by which the union with Christ is formed. Scripture uses the expressions coming to Christ and receiving Christ to signify faith, showing that faith is the means of union with him (John 6:35–40; John 5:38–44; John 1:12). Spurgeon likewise says that saving faith must personally appropriate Jesus Christ as one's own Lord and Savior (Romans 4:24). The difference in emphasis is real but complementary: Edwards stresses that the Spirit's union comes first, while Spurgeon stresses the conscious act of receiving Christ, and Henry holds both together by rooting the believer's life in Christ as Mediator and head.

Union with Christ and justification

The writers are agreed that justification rests entirely on union with Christ. Spurgeon puts it in terms of exchange: justification involves a substitution and exchange: Christ takes the sinner's sins, and the sinner takes Christ's righteousness (Romans 3:24). Henry says that all who are united to Christ by faith are free from condemnation, even though they still sin and suffer (Romans 8:1). Edwards explains why this is so: faith justifies by making Christ and the believer one in the acceptance of God the judge, so that the believer has a right to Christ's satisfaction and merits.

The sinner and Christ do just what Jonathan and David did. Jonathan put his robes on David, David gave Jonathan his garments; so Christ takes our sins, we take Christ’s righteousness; and it is by a glorious substitution and interchange of places that sinners go free and are justified by his grace Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Justification by Grace”

Edwards also argues that Christ's obedience must be reckoned to believers' account just as his atonement is, because believers are legally one with Christ as their head. He points to Christ's incarnation as proof that union is necessary for imputation: without union to us, our sin could not have been imputed to him; without vital union, his righteousness cannot be imputed to us. Henry adds the note of security: believers are secure from condemnation because they are in Christ, who is their refuge and advocate and has satisfied the law by his death (Romans 8:1). Spurgeon makes the same point pastorally: the righteousness and blood of Christ remain always the same, so believers are always complete and accepted in Christ, never more or less (Romans 3:25).

There is a subtle difference in how Edwards and Spurgeon relate faith to justification. Edwards is careful to say that faith is not the instrument by which we receive justification directly, but the instrument by which we receive Christ, since Christ and his righteousness are the direct object of faith. Spurgeon speaks more simply of faith receiving Christ and his righteousness. But both agree that faith has no merit of its own. Henry says that faith is a law and a working grace, yet because it depends closely on Jesus Christ it excludes boasting (Romans 3:27). Edwards says that faith renders us meet for justification not because of any value or excellency in faith itself, but purely because of its relation to Christ the mediator, or as it unites us to him.

Union with Christ and sanctification

Union with Christ does not leave believers in sin. Henry says that believers are dead to sin in profession and obligation, having been cut off from sin's kingdom and united to Christ for its mortification (Romans 6:2). Baptism signifies and seals this union. Being baptized into Christ means being bound to Christ as teacher and sovereign, and specifically into his death, obliging believers to share in the privileges of his death and conform to its pattern (Romans 6:3). Henry adds that being buried with Christ in baptism means being cut off from all commerce and communion with sin, as the buried are cut off from the world (Romans 6:4).

In general, we are dead to sin, that is, in profession and in obligation. Our baptism signifies our cutting off from the kingdom of sin. We profess to have no more to do with sin. We are dead to sin by a participation of virtue and power for the killing of it, and by our union with Christ and interest in him, in and by whom it is killed Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Edwards uses the vine imagery to show that this union produces actual fruit. As a vine has a natural vital union with its branches, so Christ has a spiritual union with true Christians, and this union causes fruitful obedience and a good life (John 15:1). Henry agrees that the great end of our marriage to Christ is fruitfulness in love, grace, and every good work, which is fruit unto God (Romans 7:4). Spurgeon adds that true faith in Christ cannot be separated from a holy life, because Christ gives grace both to believe and to live obediently (Romans 3:24). Grace makes the sinner a new creature in Christ Jesus who runs with joy in the paths of holiness (Romans 5:21).

Yet the writers are careful not to make sanctification the ground of acceptance. Henry says that good works are only truly good when they are brought forth in union with Christ, distinguishing believers' works from those of hypocrites and self-justifiers (Romans 7:4). Edwards says that God's acceptance of our virtue as rewardable is built entirely on our already established interest in Christ, not the other way around. Spurgeon puts it bluntly: a person must be saved before he can do a truly good work, and then he serves God out of pure gratitude and love (Romans 3:27).

Union with Christ in suffering and perseverance

Union with Christ also shapes how believers endure suffering. Henry says that Christians suffer with Christ for his sake and will be glorified with him (Romans 8:17). Troubles cannot separate believers from Christ's love to them; they are neither a cause nor an evidence of any lessening of his love (Romans 8:35). In fact, suffering saints are not only not separated from Christ's love but are taken into its most sensible endearments and embraces, with consolations abounding as afflictions abound (Romans 8:37). Spurgeon adds that nothing in all creation can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 3:27).

Christ doth not, will not, love us the less for all this. All these troubles are very consistent with the strong and constant love of the Lord Jesus. They are neither a cause nor an evidence of the abatement of his love Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Edwards stresses that this union must continue. It is as necessary for union with Christ to continue as it is for it to begin, otherwise the beginning would be pointless. To be presently justified and free from condemnation, a person must presently be in Christ, not merely have been in him at some past time (Romans 8:1). Salvation is received by being found in Christ at the time salvation is bestowed, not by merely remembering a past union with him (Philippians 3:9). Believers must abide in Christ so that they may have confidence and not be ashamed at his second coming (1 John 2:28). Henry agrees that the love between God and believers exists only through Christ as Mediator, and this is the ground of its steadfastness (Romans 8:39).

Union with Christ and the church

Union with Christ also creates union among believers. Henry says that all believers form one body in Christ, united to him as their common head and animated by one Spirit (Romans 12:4–5). This has practical consequences. True Christian love makes the joys and sorrows of other believers our own, so that we rejoice with the joyful and weep with the weeping (Romans 12:15). The contribution was a communication in token of the communion of saints and their fellow-membership in Christ, like members of one body helping one another (Romans 15:26).

All the saints make up one body in Christ, who is the head of the body, and the common centre of their unity. Believers lie not in the world as a confused disorderly heap, but are organized and knit together, as they are united to one common head, and actuated and animated by one common Spirit Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Spurgeon looks forward to the perfection of this communion. In heaven, believers will have such perfect union and fellowship that private distinctions, ranks, and honors will be lost (Romans 3:27). Henry says that the satisfaction believers have in fellowship with other saints in this world is only partial, compared both with communion with Christ and with the future communion of perfected saints in heaven (Romans 15:24). Christ has received both Jews and Gentiles, making them one in himself, so they should agree with one another (Romans 15:8–12).

The security and glory of those in Christ

The writers close with the believer's safety and future glory. Henry says that believers are joint-heirs with Christ, and by virtue of their union with him they will share in his glory (Romans 8:17). The resurrection of Christ is a guarantee that believers' bodies will also be raised (Romans 8:11). The indwelling Holy Spirit is a second assurance that believers' bodies will be raised. Edwards adds that Christ has gone to heaven as our forerunner to take possession of our glory, and believers are already seated with him in heavenly places (Hebrews 6:20; Ephesians 2:6).

Joint-heirs with Christ. Christ, as Mediator, is said to be the heir of all things (Heb. i. 2), and true believers, by virtue of their union with him, shall inherit all things, Rev. xxi. 7. Those that now partake of the Spirit of Christ, as his brethren, shall, as his brethren, partake of his glory (John xvii. 24), shall sit down with him upon his throne, Rev. iii. 21 Matthew Henry, “Exposition of the Old and New Testaments”

Spurgeon says that believers are now more secure and more closely allied to Christ than they would have been by their original created standing (Romans 5:20). What we lost in Adam is more than restored in Christ, including a better habitation, immortality, and righteousness. Henry says that by Christ's righteousness believers are not only pardoned but advanced to reign in life, receiving more and greater privileges than were lost by Adam's offence (Romans 5:17). Believers not only escape wrath but joy in God himself through Jesus Christ, by whom they have now received the atonement (Romans 5:11).

We mourn our low and miserable condition, through sin, but we will rejoice at the thought, that we are now more secure than before we fell, and are brought into closer alliance with Jesus than our standing could have procured us Charles Spurgeon, sermon “Law and Grace”

Edwards grounds all this in the believer's union with the risen Christ. Believers, as soon as they believe, are admitted to share in Christ's justification, including both his acquittal and his acceptance to reward (Romans 4:25). To him who is in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation; he has passed from death unto life as an object of mere grace and mercy. Henry adds that since God gave Christ for believers, he will also give them Christ himself and apply all the benefits of his purchase to them (Romans 8:32). Spurgeon concludes with the believer's unshaken standing: Christ is an unchangeable propitiation for sin, so a believer's standing before God does not fluctuate with his frames, feelings, or failures (Romans 3:25).