Thomas Case
Use 4.
O that such as have for many years together sat under the ministry of the gospel of Christ, who to this day are altogether strangers to this blessed union with Christ, would now apply themselves, with all seriousness, to know it – and to know it experimentally. O that they would, with holy Paul, “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:8) – even this, that they may “be found in Him”, to know Him in this mysterious and blessed union: Christ in them, and they in Christ.
Alas, this is the undoing mistake of thousands who are called Christians: they know somewhat of the history of Christ; they have some notions of Christ in their heads. But this is the precipice on which they ruin themselves: they think they will be saved by a Christ not united to them; they hang upon the outside of the ark; they live upon bare notions: the Son of God took our nature upon Him, died for sins, rose again and is gone up into heaven and sits at God’s right hand; and they therefore conclude they shall be saved. O how they deceive their souls (Jas 1:22)! Christ is the hope of salvation, it is true, but it is not simply Christ in our nature, not simply Christ on the cross, not Christ in the grave, no, not Christ on the throne only, but, says the Apostle, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). It would be an easy thing to be saved if a Christ not united to us were all. And I know no reason why reprobate men and devils might not get to heaven on such terms.
Christ must be in us by His Spirit and we must be in Christ by faith, or else our persons and our hope are both reprobate (2 Cor 13:5). If you appear before God’s tribunal in the great day without this union, you will be answered thus, plead what you will, “I never knew you; depart from Me . . . ” (Mt 7:21-23, Luke 13:26,27).
Believe this, all you carnal, Christless Christians, and tremble, and swim no longer down the stream of security, lest it empty you forth into the lake of perdition. But work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and give all diligence to make this union with Christ sure to your own souls, that when He shall appear you may also appear with Him in glory (Phil 2:12, Col 3:4). Remember, all your true and solid comfort and rejoicing in life, in death, and at the day of judgment, is all bound up in your union with Jesus Christ, “Christ in you, the hope of glory”.
Use 5.
The doctrine of this glorious union with Christ is not more for the honour of the living than for the comfort of dying saints and of their surviving mourners. Why do you tremble at the thoughts of death, you saints of God? And why do you do what the Jews supposed Mary did: go so often to the sepulchre to weep there? (John 11:31). Behold, your beloved Lazarus “is not dead, but sleepeth” – indeed, what is of an infinitely higher consideration, he sleeps in Jesus. Did he live in Christ? Behold he died in Christ also. Did he die in Christ? Behold he sleeps in Christ. Christ is nearly related to the saints’ dust; their ashes are not laid up in the grave so much as in Christ. Though they should pass through ever so many changes and should be scattered at length into all quarters of the world, He that calls the stars by their own names knows every particle of the dust of their precious bodies, keeps it in His hand, and is as really united to it as to His own human nature in heaven.
This may be as Jonathan’s honey upon the top of the rod. Taste it, O mourners of hope, and your eyes will be enlightened. Do not look on your precious relations, so much as they lie rotting in the grave or turn into dust, as upon their dust laid up, as it were, in the hand of Jesus Christ. He Himself will be responsible for it and bring it forth safely and entirely on the morning of the resurrection; for so it is written: “Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him”.
1Taken, with editing, from Mount Pisgah, or A Prospect of Heaven, one of two productions of this English Puritan (1598-1682) included in his Select Works. A London minister, he was a member of the Westminster Assembly. This extract gives two points of application.