4. Spiritual Union (2)
Rev I D MacDonald
3. The necessity and benefits of spiritual union.
- (1.) Spiritual union is necessary to justification. It provides a final and “immediate” foundation for the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer in order to their justification. John Owen says2 that all the prior phases of union centre upon spiritual union, which makes Christ and believers “one mystical person”, and which is a “complete foundation” for the imputation of their sins to Him, and of His righteousness to them.
Owen says, “God appointed that there shall be an immediate foundation of the imputation of the satisfaction and righteousness of Christ unto us: whereon we may be said to have done and suffered in Him what He did and suffered in our stead, by that . . . imputation of it unto us; or that we may be made interested in it, that it may be made ours. . . . And this is our actual coalescency into one mystical person with Him by faith.”3
The connection with the imputation of Christ’s righteousness follows from the fact that the sinner now united to Christ has a communion with Him in, or a right to, all that is His. By virtue of this union, Christ and the sinner become one mystical person, so that all belonging to Christ becomes their possession, just as Boston’s poor, debt-ridden woman has access to the rich man’s wealth when a marriage union is formed between them.4 When united
1The previous section of this paper, given at the 2021 Theological Conference, dealt with “the formation and nature of spiritual union”. This section continues the discussion of spiritual union, and the conclusion of the paper follows.
2Owen, Works, Edinburgh, 1851, vol 5, p 196.
3Owen, Works, vol 5, pp 217-8.
4See the top of page 206 in the previous issue of this Magazine.
to Christ’s person, the guiltiest sinner begins to have a right to His righteousness. On this point Boston says, “The first particular benefit that a sinner has, by his union to Christ, is justification: for, being united to Christ, he has communion with Him in His righteousness, 1 Cor 1:30, ‘But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness'”.5
On the basis of this communion, or interest, in Christ’s surety righteousness, the Father imputes that righteousness to the sinner in order to their justification. In an act of His free grace, the Father then justifies the sinner on the grounds of this imputed righteousness. Scripture teaches that it is only “in Him” that the imputation of His righteousness to them takes place: “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21). Since saving faith is a necessary part of the bond of spiritual union, we have one reason why saving faith is essential to justification.
The comparison may be made here with the way sin is imputed to Adam’s posterity. When Adam sinned and was condemned, his posterity were virtually (that is representatively) condemned by virtue of their federal union to him in the covenant of works. However, it is not until they have a real natural union to Adam through being conceived and born into the world that the guilt of Adam’s sin is actually imputed to them to their condemnation. Christ was justified from imputed guilt when His active obedience and passive obedience were accepted, and then His seed were virtually (that is representatively) justified by virtue of their federal union to Him in the covenant of grace (Rom 4:25, Is 50:8). However, it is only once they come to have a real spiritual union with Christ, in their effectual calling, that His righteousness is imputed to them for their actual justification. Thus the elect come into the world as the fallen sons of Adam, and they remain children of wrath even as others until they are united to Christ and justified.
One final aspect here is the fact that divine wisdom is seen in securing the consent of the debtors to the whole scheme of redemption by suretyship before they participate in the benefits of it. The Father so ordered the matter that, unless sinners would consent to have union with His beloved Son, they would not have the benefit of His suretyship (1 Jn 5:12). The Father as the Creditor gave His consent in the covenant of grace that the Son would be the Surety for the elect, and the Son also then gave His consent to be their Surety, but since the debtors had then no existence, they were of course not able to give their own consent.
However, the debtor’s consent to the way of salvation through the suretyship of Christ is included in the first exercise of saving faith. This consent
5Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1957, p 195.
leads on from the hearty approval of the way of salvation bound up with the assent of faith, and consists especially in the willingness of their wills to be saved by the suretyship of Christ. Faith, as it were, lays its hands upon the head of the sacrifice as the worshippers did typically in the old dispensation, saying, I am well pleased to be reconciled to God through the imputation of my sins to the Surety-Substitute and by the imputation of His righteousness to cover me.
(2.) Spiritual union is necessary to adoption. At one level, this is simply because no one but the justified can be adopted, and spiritual union has been shown to be necessary to justification. Going further, it can be said that one essential ground of adoption is the spiritual union itself. The believer’s relation to God the Father in adoption is dependent on the prior relation to the Son as Mediator, formed in spiritual union to Him. Thus the adopted become “joint-heirs” with Christ so that He will be “the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom 8:29). As John Murray says, “union with Christ reaches its zenith in adoption, and adoption has its orbit in union with Christ. The people of God are ‘heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ’.”6
(3.) Spiritual union is necessary to sanctification. “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us . . . sanctification” (1 Cor 1:30). Sinners require to be saved not only from guilt and wrath upon their persons, but from the power and pollution of sin in their hearts and lives. Not until they are “in Christ” do they become new creatures, and the old things of the dominion of sin pass away, and all things become new (2 Cor 5:17).
One way of viewing sanctification is as the renewal of the image of God in the soul of the sinner. When Adam lost God’s image it was gathered up, as Archibald Cook puts it, into the last Adam, the Lord from heaven. In His human nature, the divine image is drawn with greater beauty than ever it was in the first Adam. He was filled with the Holy Spirit above measure, and all the graces of the Spirit found their perfection in Him. Having removed by His atonement the judicial obstacles to the outflowing of the Spirit and His graces to sinners, and when condemnation is removed from them in their justification, the way is now clear for Him to become a source of all sanctifying influences to them.
Scripture directs us to think about the “two Adams” in this way: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor 15:47-49). Through union with the first Adam in the covenant of works we derive a corrupt
6John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Banner of Truth, 1979, p 170.
nature when we come to have a natural being; and through union with the last Adam in the covenant of grace we derive a spiritual, holy nature when we come to have a spiritual being in regeneration. Not one drop of holiness will be conveyed to the soul of a sinner until then.
Christ is not only the “ruling” Head of the Church, but He is the “organic” Head to provide all needed supplies of the Spirit and grace to His people, as members of His mystical body (Col 1:18, Eph 4:15,16). As the stalk of the vine supplies all necessary nourishment to maintain life in the branches and to make them fruitful, so Christ the living Head provides continual supplies of the Holy Spirit to maintain spiritual life and fruitfulness in those who are united to Him (Jn 15).
This aspect of the spiritual union with Christ highlights the privilege of believers in union to a risen and living Saviour with an unfathomable supply of all spiritual fulness. As Thomas Boston says, “Being united to Christ they partake of His Spirit, which is the Spirit of holiness. There is a fulness of the Spirit in Christ, and it is not like the fullness of a vessel, which only retains what is poured into it, but it is the fullness of a fountain for diffusion and communication, which is always sending forth its waters, and yet is always full.”7
Christ came to give life to sinners and life “more abundantly”, and here is one instance of a life “more abundant” than Adam had in innocence. It is true that Adam in innocence had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the principle of his spiritual life, but he was not thereby united to the Son of God as the unfailing source of all needed spiritual strength.
(4.) Other benefits. Time forbids anything but to list the other benefits bound up with spiritual union. These include the final perseverance of the saints, fellowship between the saints, communion with the Persons of the Godhead, Christ’s sympathy with His people as one who can be touched with the feeling of their infirmities, the believer’s comfort in view of death and the grave, as well as their resurrection and final glorification. To quote Thomas Boston on these final blessings: “The Lord says to a dying saint as to Jacob (Gen 46:3,4): ‘I am God, the God of thy father; fear not to go down into Egypt [that is, the grave]: I will go down with thee into Egypt [that is, the grave]; and I will surely bring thee up again’.”8
5. Concluding thoughts. The great question for each in the visible Church is, Am I in Christ? It is not enough to be near Him, nor to be externally joined to Him in the visible Church, in our baptism and a profession of faith, far less to have a mere outward association with His people. Nothing less
7Boston, Human Nature in its Fourfold State, Sovereign Grace Book Club, 1957, p 201.
8Boston, Works, London, 1854, vol 1, p 553.
than the new birth by the Holy Spirit and a saving faith which embraces Christ will suffice. Can we hear about the necessity and privilege of union with Christ without determining, in dependence upon divine grace, not to rest until we “win Christ, and [are] found in Him, not having [our] own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil 3:8,9)?