P2 The New Christian Identity, The Reality Of Lingering Sin, And Introducing Union With Christ - Romans 6:1-7

Introduction:

   Over the last few posts, I've discussed the issue of the Christian's new identity. The first of these posts raised the question about whether we are "sinners saved by grace" or "saints who sin occasionally". To review that initial post, readers may click here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/05/is-christian-sinner-saint-or-somehow.html . We then did a follow-up post to unpack further how it can be that in having a newly regenerated, transformed nature from salvation, the saint of God can still sin in this life. To review that second post, readers may click here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/05/a-follow-up-need-to-unpack-reality-of.html . Then in the last post, the third of the series, we began to offer comments on Romans 6:1-7, talking about the new Christian identity and the lingering effects of indwelling sin here http://www.growingchristianresources.com/2023/05/p1-new-christian-identity-and-reality.html . 

    What we want to do today is continue on from our last post, exploring the important truth of our union with Christ. We will look at how this truth factors into the Christian's core identity, and offer further comments on that secondary reality we spoke of last post, namely the Christian's choice to still commit sin.

Meet the two trees that illustrate the Christian's two realities of a new identity and still lingering sin

    Years ago, when we served at a church in Florida, we lived near a small lake. The perimeter of this lake featured a small residential road, dotted with palm trees and other sorts of flora. It was common to see oak trees or large pine trees side-by-side with the tall palm trees that stood straight and swayed in the warm Florida breeze.

    There was one particular tree that I can remember that was an older tree. This tree had wide boughs and branches that were crooked. You could tell the tree was older than most of the others around the lake due to the bark. What was curious about this older tree was that it had a palm tree growing out of the middle of its trunk. When I looked at this tree, it was hard to tell where the old oak tree and the palm tree began and ended with one another. The oak tree had started its life sooner, with the palm tree somehow becoming a part of this older tree at a later time.

    The two trees were contrasts of one another. The oak tree, as mentioned, had crooked, sprawling branches; whereas the palm tree was straight. As expected, the palm tree's growth had to battle its oak tree host. Still, the oak was an oak, having its own sort of life, a life that was slowly ebbing away. Meanwhile, the younger palm tree had a different way of life, vibrant and hopeful as it shot its way toward the Florida sun.

    When I look at the Christian identity in Jesus Christ, we're like that palm tree. We become implanted in an older, crooked, shell of humanity (see James 1:21). The new nature, the heart of Christian identity, grows amidst the left-overs of the former old life. 

    Although the old nature is dead, yet its effects linger on. It presses in upon the new nature which was implanted and begun by the Holy Spirit in saving faith. The older tree in our analogy is a secondary feature, with the palm tree springing forth as the primary reality of the Christian's identity. They are two unequal, yet warring realities.

The Christian's new identity centers upon their union with Jesus Christ

    What I want to do now is focus attention upon the primary reality of the Christian life - their new identity. In my studies of the New Testament, one finds the following facts about what Christian people are referred to in the Gospels, Acts, Epistles, or John's Apocalypse. I'll list five of the leading descriptions of Christ-followers.

1. Christians were first called  

    "disciples". This title is found only in  

    the Gospels and Acts, yet it is by far 

    the most common designation, 

    registering over 250 places.  

2. Christians are called "saints" over 50      times. 

3. Christians are referred to as "elect"or      "chosen ones" some 15 times. 

4. Christians are termed "believers" on        9 occasions. 

5. Christians are deemed "Christians" in      3 places. 

    These five leading descriptors address the Christian life from different angles. 

    The "disciple" is at root a follower of Jesus Christ. He or she sets out to follow Jesus so closely as to mimic Jesus in thought, word, or deed. To say one is a "Christian" is to say one is a "disciple". In salvation, I accept Jesus as my Savior and my Lord. He is Lord or Master not only by right, but also by fact. The disciple's entire life is growing in their awareness, understanding, and competency in living their life for the glory of the Master Who redeemed them. 

    The term "saint" addresses how God has set apart a sinner, called him or her unto himself in saving faith, and changed their underlying human nature from being at war with God to walking with God as a "holy one" - i.e. "a saint". 

    When we speak of someone as "chosen" or "elect", this reminds us that before we ever choose God, He chose us for the sake of His Son before time began, prior to our birth, to be holy and blameless in His sight. 

    As for the designation "believer", this reminds us that God's choosing and electing does not cancel out the obligation nor call to the sinner to believe and repent of their sins in Jesus Christ. 

    The name "Christian" derived from those who opposed the earlier followers of Christ, reminding us that becoming one entails suffering for Jesus' sake. 

A brief comment on "union with Christ".

    For sake of space, I'll devote the next post to unpacking what is meant by "union with Christ". This reality of "union with Christ" is the most common teaching about Christian identity we find in the New Testament. The clearest passage that summarizes this truth is what Paul writes in Galatians 2:20  

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me."

    In the next post, I'll spend more time on this vital truth that is at the heart of the Christian's new identity in Jesus Christ

P1 The New Christian Identity And The Reality Of Lingering Sin - Romans 6:1-7

Introduction:

    In this series of posts we are understanding two truths about the Christian life in this world. 

1. First, the Christian has a new identity,

    and thus a new nature in Jesus              Christ. 

2. Second, though having a new 

    identity, the Christian still retains the      lingering effects of corruption.


Romans 6,7 and 8 helps us understand how these two truths are to be explained. If I were to summarize these three chapters, the following could be said.


1. Romans 6 - New Christian identity and no excuse to sin.

2. Romans 7 - Old vss New identity and      the conflict of sin.

3. Romans 8 - New Christian identity          and defeating sins.

    As an old preacher I heard once noted, until I understand the realities of Romans 6, and deal with the conflict of Romans 7, only then can I enjoy the victory promised in Romans 8. 

    Lets look what we find in Romans 6 concerning the new Christian identity and no excuse to sin. These are two realities. The new identity in Jesus Christ speaks to what I become and who I am as a Christian. The lingering corruption of sin speaks to a secondary reality of the Christian life that stems from our unredeemed flesh. We shall first note some questions to ask ourselves.

Important questions to ask of our new identity and the tendencies to still desire to sin

    Let's first begin with the second reality of the Christian life, the lingering corruption that clings to our flesh and which imposes itself upon our new nature. Paul writes about this issue of sin in the Christian life, and the need to rely upon the Holy Spirit who brought it about. We can note what he says in Galatians 5:16-17

"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please."

    Anyone reading this post, especially Christian readers, ought to identity with what Paul wrote in Galatians. These two competing realities, unequal to be sure, stir about on the inside. In later posts I'll take note of this enormous conflict in Paul's extensive treatment of it in Romans 7. 

    Suffice to say, any working model of Christian sanctification has to handle how the Christian can have a new nature on the one hand, while still dealing with the uncomfortable reality of lingering sin. As we turn to Romans 6, the opening three verses pose three diagnostic questions that help us to see that thought the Christian is "a saint who sins occasionally", they never have a legitimate excuse for doing so.

1. Do I have the right to sin? No

Romans 6:1 "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be!"

    When one becomes a Christian, they are brought into a new life, united to Christ, with new rights. We have the right to live for God. The right to love God. The right to hate sin. Whenever we compare those rights to the one right don't have - the right to sin, we discover that in all reality, nothing is lost. Whenever you think about it, a "right" in the moral and spiritual sense is something granted by God. The sinner's claim on having the "right to sin" is a deception of the fallen impulses of our physical body, containing those selfish drives the Scripture calls "the flesh". The Christian has the license to live for God and does not have the right to sin.

2. Do I have to sin? No

Romans 6:2b "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

    This second question deals with the issue of no longer having the necessity to sin. Before Christ, the sinner could say: "I couldn't help my self" because they not only sin out of willingness, but also necessity. Necessity has to do with the overall disposition of one's moral and spiritual nature. When I speak of "nature", I mean the way in which something expresses its existence, behavior, or (if possessing an intellect) it's personality. Another way of describing one's nature would be to say "how one is wound" or, "how one is wired".

    What happens when the nature is changed to a new one in Christ? The will of the human person now has options! Fallen man's freedom of the will is limited to only doing what pleases himself. He is free to do whatever he wants and yet, no matter how religious or moral he may be, unless the Holy Spirit is acting upon and in the heart - that person will refuse God 100% of the time. At saving faith, the will is "freed" to do the one thing it refused to do - truly and freely love God.

    In post-conversion life (that is, the life that follows from having been born-again to saving faith), Christians will still sin. With that reality understood, the Christian cannot claim they "had to sin", since the necessity to sin is removed. Even though I may sin post-conversion, I don't have to. One's growth in sanctification ought to see a lessening frequency and severity of sins relative to what they would had been pre-conversion.

3. Can I have victory over sins? Yes

Romans 6:3 "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?"

    Let us suppose one has a dead mouse in a mouse trap. If you were to put a piece of cheese up to his nose - would he grab for it? Clearly not. Why? The mouse is "dead". No amount cheese, even the finest cut, will entice a dead mouse. Paul describes the Christian's relationship to the power of sin as being "dead". By one's union in Christ - sin - in effect - is "dead to them". 

    This is Paul's way of saying that in Christ, ground is given to the Christian to have victory. Victory over particular sins requires a daily giving of oneself to God's Word, prayer, and putting on the shield of faith (see Ephesians 6:1-11). Our flesh may very well "flare-up" in such instances - since the cancellation of "power of sin", not the "presence of sin", has occured.

    We must remember that in justification - the penalty of sin is removed. In sanctification - the power of sin is removed. Only when I am in heaven with Jesus - or glorification - will the presence of sin be removed. With those distinctions noted, since my relationship with Christ is defined - that means my relationship to sin ought to change. 

    The more I grow deeper in love with Jesus, the higher will be my hatred of sin. In sanctification - I am becoming in experience whom God declared me to be by position in justification.

    In our next post, we shall continue on by exploring the meaning of how the primary reality of the Christian's new identity is rooted in their union with Jesus Christ. 

More next time....

P2 - How Jesus Christ Provides For Christians That Feel Spiritually Drained

Romans 15:5-6 "Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Introduction:

In our last post, we considered how Jesus Christ provides for the Christian whenever they feel spiritually drained. We introduced this subject by first identifying the typical spiritual ailments that afflict all Christians. In this post we aim to explore how Christ has specifically provided for any Christian that has experienced what it is like to be spiritually, physically and emotionally drained. 

1. Jesus' incarnation enabled Him to experience fatigue

Jesus did experience, as man, what is was like to get drained. In Luke 8:46 we read of the account where a woman with a severe hemorrhage sought Jesus for healing. She was crawling along the ground among the mob of people encircling Jesus. The woman desired to touch the hem of his robe. In Jewish culture it was common for the men to have tassels on their robes that symbolized the promises and commands of the Torah or God's law.  As soon as the woman did this, Luke 8:46 tells us: “power went out from him to heal the woman”. Jesus sensed this "draining".

To remind the reader briefly: Jesus of Nazareth ever remained God. Isaiah 40:28 asserts that God never grows tired nor weary. Jesus of Nazareth ever remained the Divine Person of the Son. With that said, the reader must remember that from the moment He entered into the virgin's womb, the Holy Spirit joined a truly human nature to the Son of God - resulting in union of two natures within the Person of the Son. Henceforth, the Son of God could experience reality as both God and man. He never grew tired in His deity and yet, He would experience the fatigue of human existence as a man. The Lord Jesus Christ knew what it felt to pour out Himself for the sake of others. 

2. Jesus became incarnate to model how getting alone with the heavenly Father will replenish the spiritual fuel-tank of the Christian

To cite one more example of Jesus' experience of being "drained", consider Mark 8:24. Mark 8:24 plainly states that Jesus was fast asleep in the bottom of a boat. The Son of God did experience fatigue as such experience touched His humanity.

Yet, we never once see Jesus get distressed, delay obedience nor get discouraged over fear that God may had somehow abandoned Him. As one writer has note:

"our Lord was often imposed upon by life, by people and by circumstance, yet, He never once was unsettled in His spirit."

Whenever Paul cites Jesus in Romans 15:3, He describes how Jesus "never pleased Himself". Jesus willing took whatever this world and humanity threw at Him. He put Himself last. Is it no wonder we find Jesus retreating in solitude to get recharged with the Father (see Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12).  Such an example set before the Christian by the Lord Jesus portrays the path to replenishment - namely finding time alone with God.

Most certainly, other important disciplines are needful for replenishment, which the Apostle Paul lays out in Romans 15 (meditating on scripture, making time for God's people and majoring on the Holy Spirit's leadership). Yet, Jesus gives us the foundation for refueling the spiritual tank of the Christian-life - time alone with God. Why? All the other Christian disciplines are but means to this singular goal of knowing the Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Jesus became incarnate to provide the Christian what they need whenever they get drained 

The Apostle Peter's sermon on the life of Jesus in Acts 10 gives abundant testimony of all that Jesus did in the course of His earthly ministry in the Gospel accounts. Acts 10:38 records an excerpt from that address:

"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."

Jesus went about "doing good". Jesus went about "healing all who were oppressed by the devil". Yet, in the midst of all the business of ministry and life, Jesus never lost His sense of the presence of the Father. Whenever a Christ-follower is able to walk-about with that supreme awareness of God's working in and through them, others will take notice. With the work of ministry and the involvement of one's soul in communion with God comes the draining of one's physical body. Jesus never let the work of God take priority over His time-alone with God. Jesus would get drained - but never empty.

By becoming truly man, the Son of God provided the resources every Christian can access in living daily for Him. The Apostle Peter describes the Christian's access to the benefits accrued by Christ in His incarnation as that of "partaking" or "participation" in the Divine nature (compare 2 Peter 1:3-4). Paul uses different terms to describe this availability every Christian has to get refueled in their spiritual walk by the vocabulary of "union with Christ" and "drinking in of the Spirit" (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-13).

The Person of the Son will ever have residing in Himself the two natures of true deity and true humanity. The wonder of the Christian in union with Jesus is that all He is and all He did makes me a beneficiary of all I need to live out effectively for Him in this world. Quite literally, I'm living the Christian life as Christ, in-turn, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, lives out the life in me (see Galatians 2:20).

P1 - How Jesus Christ Provides For Christians That Feel Spiritually Drained

Romans 15:1-3 "Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. 2 Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. 3 For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

Introduction:

The Christian life is a call to die to self, put others ahead of ourselves and to fix our eyes on Jesus. Each of the aforementioned elements do not follow from the carnal drives that remain in the Christian. Christ-followers find propensities within themselves to put themselves ahead of others. One author has termed the "self-life" as the "me-in-me" life. The self-life is the number-one competitor to ongoing Christian growth. The goal of Christian-growth is to have "Him-in-me" characterizing Christian-living, rather than the all-to-often "me-in-me" mentality. Thankfully every Christian has access to Christ by the indwelling Person and work of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 3:16; 6:19-20; Galatians 2:20; 5:16; Ephesians 5:18).

What can lead to feeling spiritually emotionally or physically drained

If dealing with oneself is not enough, we find in the opening verses of Romans 15 certain spiritual maladies that affect all Christians. Seasons come into the Christian's walk that are characterized by "weaknesses" and "having no strength" (see Romans 15:1). Such spiritual-liabilities may arise not so much as a direct result of overt sin as through the process of emptying the spiritual gas-tank. Everyone experiences what it is like to get "drained". Following the point beyond what were terming "spiritually drained" is a matter of whether or not the Christian does something about it through the Divinely appointed means of grace through Christ.  

To illustrate, I can recall as a boy how my father would let me borrow the family car. He always told me to make sure that whenever I was done - to fill the tank. My father always ran the car above the three-quarter mark. But do you know, as a teenage boy, I would run that car until it got near to "E". More than one time I would hear him say: "E" means "empty", not "enough". I won't comment further on my driving habits today, however, I too often find myself treating my Christian life much like I did the family car. If I would follow the Heavenly Father by the example set by the Son and empowered by His Spirit on a consistent basis, though I may still experience "drainage", yet, the gas-gauge might be able to never read "E". Each occasion of life is an opportunity for me to either "trust in the Lord" rather than to "lean on my own understanding" (see Proverbs 3:5-6).  

1 Thessalonians 5:14 elaborates for us on the "spiritual maladies already mentioned in in Romans 15:1 -  

“We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.”

Jude adds insight to the garden-variety ailments that afflict God's people, and what their fellow-believers need to do, in Jude 1:22 “....have mercy on some who are doubting.”

In the verses above I identify four maladies, the first resulting from interacting with the needs of others, whilst the remainder follow from the Christian either unintentionally or at times carelessly letting down their guard: drained --> discouraged, delayed obedience, distress.

How Christ is the resource for the Christian that feels drained 

Whenever the Apostle writes about the typical Christian experience, his inclusion of the Lord Jesus Christ is such a relief. Why? Christ came to partake of true humanity for three main reasons:

a). to atone for sin (Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 2:1-2).

b). to defeat Satan by becoming the New Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 John 3:8).

c).  to provide what was needed for His people to gain victory over the world, flesh and Devil in their humanity (Hebrews 2:14).

A quick study of Jesus' life reveals how he would get drained in the course of His everyday life. Spiritual, emotional and physical drainage is part-and-parcel of living in this world. Yet, unlike those of us who follow Him in faith, the Lord Jesus Christ never once lost awareness of who He was nor ever acted carelessly. Jesus told the woman at the well in John 4:13-14 that "whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst".

As we shall see, although Jesus did experience what it was liked to get drained, He never once had his spiritual gas tank read "E". That is, the Lord Jesus did get saddened but never discouraged (there is a difference, mind-you). He often faced opposition when doing the will of the Father but never delayed in obedience. His heart grew heavier with the pending approach of Calvary, yet, He never got distressed due to feeling like God was no longer in control. To describe Jesus' experience in another way: Jesus never let His well run dry. Three headings will guide us through considerations of how Jesus Christ, by His incarnation, provides everything the Christian needs to not go empty whenever they are feeling drained. To those headings we will look in the next post. 

More next time....

Why Jesus needed to ascend into Heaven rather than remain here on earth for our sakes

John 14:16-20 "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you."

Introduction:

In our last post we began considering what it means to be united to Jesus Christ. Union with Christ lies at the core of Christian identity. Union is that ministry of the Holy Spirit that connects the Christian to Christ. Such union begins at conversion and continues on into sanctification. In the above opening passage, we see first mention of this concept by the Lord Jesus Christ. This truth is relayed in the context of the devastating announcement that He was going to be leaving His disciples. His promise to the disciples was that upon His ascension into Heaven, He would have the Holy Spirit sent to them in His name (see John 14:26-27; 15:26-37; 16:8-12). Today's post wants to briefly explain why Jesus words here in John 14,15,16 turn out to be better for our sake. In other words: why did Jesus need to ascend into heaven rather than remain here on earth as it relates to our relationship to Him and He with us?

It is far better for Jesus to be "in" us and us to be "in" Him than how He was with His disciples

Now it is at this point I raise this question: which is better? to have the physical, pre-pentecost Jesus here and localized or to have the glorified physical post-pentecost Jesus in Heaven? I raise this question as it pertains to comparing the relationship with Christ experienced by all Christians versus what the disciples had in the four Gospel accounts. 

I'm sure we all have said to ourselves: "how great it must had been to hear Jesus preach, watch Him do miracles and eat meals together with Him". The disciples had certainly come to enjoy the company of their master. However, Jesus' ultimate aim was not merely to be with them. Doubtless He would go to the cross and die for them (and us) and rise from the dead. 

However, even beyond those crucial works, the Lord Jesus Christ was expressing this incredible state whereby He could be "in" His people and He "in them. The only way this amazing state could be achieved was for Jesus to ascend 40 days after His resurrection and for the Holy Spirit to be sent in His name at Pentecost in Acts 2. The Lord Jesus Christ functions currently as the Mediator between believers and God (see 1 Timothy 2:5 and 1 John 2:1-2). In as much as we are saved by Christ's accomplished work at the cross and resurrection (see Ephesians 1:7; Romans 4:25); the Christian is also a recipient of His ongoing work as Prophet (Hebrews 1:1-2); Priest (Hebrews 7:24-25) and King (Romans 9:5; Philippians 3:20). These incredible benefits are possible due to the Holy Spirit's uniting of each Christian to Christ in justification and continuing such connection in sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). Thus, these are some of the main reasons why Jesus needed to ascend into Heaven rather than remain here on earth for our sakes.

One Sweet Powerful Union - Understanding The Christian's Union With Jesus Christ

Romans 6:5 "For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection."

Introduction:

Whenever we talk about the Christian life as presented in the New Testament, certain terms are used to describe it. With regards to the beginning of the Christian life, we discover one is regenerated or born again - thus marking the official moment of entry into the Christian life. In this moment of entry, a whole host of graces are experienced simultaneously: regeneration (John 3:3-5); justification or God's legal declaration and accrediting of Christ's righteousness to the sinner (Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:23-24); adoption into God's family (Romans 8:14-16; Galatians 4:4-6); sealing or preserving of one's faith (Ephesians 1:11-14) and of course the beginning of one's sanctification or growth in Christ (Philippians 1:6). 

The second way the New Testament describes the Christian life is by the broad term of sanctification. In conversion (which includes justification, adoption and all the beginning graces of salvation), one is declared positionally right with God in Jesus Christ. In sanctification, one is being made in experience and practice what God declared them to be in position and circumstance at salvation. In conversion, God is the one doing the work of calling, regenerating and justifying the sinner. The faith expressed by the sinner in salvation is a response to the call and facilitating work of the Spirit - apart from whose working there would be no faith to express (see John 16:8-16; Ephesians 2:8-9). Sanctification, or post-conversion Christian living, entails a cooperative effort between the Holy Spirit and the Christian (see Philippians 2:12-13). We can graphically illustrate what we're talking about below:

justification/conversion       Sanctification

point & time work of God(.)        Progressive                                                             cooperative effort 

                                             between us and God

                                                     --------Heaven

                                                ------

                                        (.)---          

                                       sanctification

                                                                                begins

Both ways of the describing the Christian life are distinct and yet related to one another. Conversion or justification by faith is a point and time event (symbolized by the "dot" (.)). Sanctification is, on the other hand, an "onward & upward" progression, signified by an onward and upward series of "ups" and "downs" which gradually and progressively increase one's experience of God. It must be noted that the course of one's sanctification may not be a consistent onward and upward upon close inspection, however, the overall course of the Christian life ought to be characterized by arriving at a closer walk with God and greater Christ-likeness. 

Avoiding extremes

The question is: how is one's conversion connected to their post-conversion or sanctification? This question is important, since many Christians live practically as if their sanctification is totally up to their will-power. Other Christians will go to the other extreme and say: "let go, and let God". The first extreme, called "activism", envisions the Christian doing all the work in sanctification. The second extreme, called "quietism", pictures God doing all the work. Both extremes are in error due to missing one key vital truth that connects God's work of conversion/justification to the cooperative work He and the believer have in sanctification: namely union with Christ. 

One Sweet Powerful Union: Union with Christ

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines "union with Christ" as having to do with identification with Christ. It notes on page 588:

"...the theological concept of identification with Christ relates a Christian to the person and work of Christ by Divine reckoning, by the human experience of faith, and by the spiritual union of the believer with Christ effected by the baptism of the Holy Spirit."

Theologian Michael Horton on page 587 of his volume:"The Christian Faith" describes this union of the believer and Jesus Christ in both salvation and sanctification as follows:

"Nevertheless, our subjective inclusion in Christ occurs when the Spirit calls us effectually to Christ and gives us the faith to cling to him for all of his riches."

To understand this union more concretely, Jesus compares union with Him as a branch to a vine and the vine to the branches (John 15:1-7). In Ephesians 5:22-33, the union of Christ and His people is likened unto the union shared between a husband and the wife. This idea of "union with Christ" is vital, since Christ connects not only our justification and sanctification together, but also connects His Person and current work to us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit that both initially and progressively continue such a connection (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-13). 

In closing

As we have briefly considered the importance and meaning of "union with Christ", I want to leave the reader with a quote from a recent book on sanctification, with particular reference to the topic at hand. Dr. Sinclair Ferguson declares the sweetness of this union on page 59 of his book: "Devoted to God - Blueprints For Sanctification":

"Thus, through the Spirit's uniting us to Christ we have been connected to the source of our salvation. His justification-God's declaration that He was righteous-is our justification; his sanctification-since He sanctified Himself for our sakes-is also ours. Thus, everything Christ did He did for me in obedience to His Father. All that He has done is therefore mine as a gift. He gave Himself for me, in His love to me; and now through the Spirit all that He did is mine."

A Slow-Motion View Of God's Power Experienced In Salvation

Romans 4:16-17 "For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, 17 (as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist."

Introduction:

The above picture captures a baseball getting hit by a bat in extreme slow motion. Such an event is instantaneous from the standpoint of normal human perception. Today's post is going to consider another instantaneous event, a supernatural one, namely: the power of God experienced in the life changing moment of salvation. We will attempt to do this by a Biblical and doctrinal "frame-by-frame" view of Biblical salvation. Hopefully, we will discern a sequence of logical moments in an otherwise simultaneous, instantaneous event we call salvation. 

Justification is God's declaration of a change in one's legal standing or position before Him

Commonly, discussions about justification by faith detail the positional standing that changes with respect to the sinner's standing before a Holy God. Prior to justification by faith, the sinner is a child of wrath, in darkness, spiritually dead and condemned (see John 3:36; 8:24; Romans 3:10-19; Ephesians 2:1-4, 12; 1 Peter 2:10). 

Justification involves a changing about of the position of the person from primarily being identified as a sinner to having a new positional identity as a saint (see 1 Corinthians 1:2; 1 Peter 2:12). Elmer L. Towns in his volume: "Theology For Today" notes on page 457 an analogy of a foreigner becoming a legalized citizen of the United States to clarify this point:

"But as he becomes aware of his new legal standing, he may shout, cry, or break out into a grin. The emotional reaction has no organic connection to his changed legal status, but there surely is a cognitive awareness of his new advantages. In the same way, justification changes our legal papers in heaven; we become children of God. In response to this new relationship we may cry, rejoice or worship God in silent gratitude."

G.I Williamson in his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith, page 105, matches Towns' observations in his comments on justification by faith:

"This means that at the instant we begin to trust in Christ we are then and there declared to be legally without sin, guilt, or future punishment. This declaration cannot depend upon anything done by the sinner. Faith which is not 'doing' but only dependence  upon what Christ has done instantaneously results in complete and eternal justification, provided it be true faith."

Since justification by faith involves God declaring a change in our position, what then occurs right before and right after it?

So what takes place when God's declares a believing sinner righteous? An important doctrinal truth that sheds light on justification is what Bible teachers call "imputation". In short, imputation has to do with the crediting of Christ's life and work to the sinner's account in saving faith, since on the cross, the sinner's life and sin was "imputed", or "reckoned" or "credited" to Christ on the cross (see Romans 4:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21). This act of transfer by God means then that in justification, what saves the sinner is not so much their faith, but the righteousness of Christ credited to them through the reception of it in faith. All faith can do is receive into its otherwise empty hands all that Christ did. So what logically occurs before justification by faith and what follows logically from it? Below we will see that the Holy Spirit's preparatory work of regeneration operates before and His work of adoption follows upon the heels of the grand declaration of justification. For all practical intents and purposes, all three occur simultaneously and none of them than take place lest all three are operating. Still, a closer look can yield why it is Christian salvation is truly amazing! 

Witnessing the redemption of a sinner in slow motion

I'm sure the reader has seen videos where they take an extremely high speed video and place it into "slow motion". It is important to recognize that Christian salvation involves a momentary act that is composed of distinctive moments that are logically prior to and following from justification. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 notes about our redemption: 

"Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord."

In the first three chapters of Romans, we discover that mankind is faced with a three-fold crisis: a spiritual crisis, a moral crisis and a relational crisis. All three crises characterize sinful, fallen man. To address each of these crises, which are occurring simultaneously in the sinner on a practical, everyday level, God issues forth in the Gospel three distinctive "graces" that constitute the redemption or salvation of that person. Justification represents the second of these two and deals primarily with man's moral condition as a condemned and guilty sinner. There are two others which must be mentioned:

1. Regeneration. The Baptist Faith and Message places God's work of regeneration ahead of justification by faith in terms of logical sequence. It states: 

"Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace." 

The Baptist faith and Message then adds:

"Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour." 

2. Adoption. Though not specifically mentioned in the Baptist Faith and Message, the grace of adoption follows logically from one's legally declared change of position in justification. G.I. Williamson notes on adoption in his commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith:

"Adoption, as the term clearly implies, is an act of transfer from an alien family into the family of God Himself. It means that those who were by nature children of wrath, children of darkness, even children of Satan (Eph. 2:3, Col. 3:6, John 8:44), are constituted the children of light and and of God."

How regeneration, justification and adoption operate in the salvation of the sinner

Regeneration takes care of the sinner's spiritual death in sins and trespasses. Justification by faith is God's declaration over the sinner due to their simultaneous response to the Spirit's work in their heart. Justification takes care of the sinner's legal or moral crisis. But what about the relational crisis? It is where we find the grace of adoption grant the rights of responsibilities of the new found relationship legally declared in justification.  

Closing thoughts:

We aimed today to consider how the power of God is experienced in salvation. We did a "frame-by-frame" view of Biblical salvation, noting a sequence of logical moments in an otherwise simultaneous, instantaneous event we call salvation. We noted that there are the graces of: regeneration, justification and adoption. We discovered that each of these address mankind's spiritually dead crisis, moral crisis and relational crisis before a Holy righteous God. 

Jesus Came To Be Crushed In Spirit So As To Provide Healing To Those Experiencing The Same

Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners."

Introduction:

When Jesus came into our world, what is it He came to accomplish and experience? No doubt He came to experience what it was like to be a man. The incarnation of the Son of God involved Him taking unto His Person true humanity. Apart from never having sinned, Jesus Christ endured the frailties, limitations, momentary joys and more-often-than-not heartbreaks of what it means to be a human being. 

In the above opening verse, Isaiah is predicting what would be the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah's prophetic telescope saw one coming of Christ. It would take the lenses of further prophetic revelation by the later Old Testament prophets and especially the New Testament to show that what Isaiah was seeing was Christ's first coming in Isaiah 61:1 and His second coming in Isaiah 61:2. 

The Gospels allude to Isaiah 61 as referring to Jesus ministry (see Matthew 11:5 and Luke 7:22). Jesus' words to John the Baptist were that He was indeed the One of prophetic anticipation. In Luke 4:18 we find Jesus' first recorded reading of scripture. As He reads out of the scroll of Isaiah, we see Him reading this very text of Isaiah 61, with Him stopping at the appropriate place in verse 1 of that chapter and exclaiming that its very words were fulfilled by Him. Jesus came to minister to the "brokenhearted and crushed in spirit".

In our last post we explored those two terms: namely "brokenhearted" and "crushed in spirit". We discovered that God permits His people to undergo seasons of hardship that can crush the spirit or the innermost being. Such crushing of the spirit breaks us into pieces on the inside so that He who is already on the inside can work the deeper work in getting His influence to affect us from the inside to the outside. Such breakage of the heart or crushing of the spirit is jarring at first. We find out though that for those who yield to God's inner and deeper working, marvelous experiences of His grace are discovered. 

In today's post we want to explore how it is that Jesus came to experience what it was like to not only minister first hand to those "crushed in spirit", but to experience such a state Himself. 

Whatever Christ came to redeem, He became what He came to redeem

When Jesus came to experience what it was like to be a man, He experienced the full-orbed reality of total humanity. Jesus redeemed what He came to redeem by becoming a man in every sense of the word. He never sinned but He came to be treated as such. He experienced what it was like to undergo heartache and a "crushing of the spirit". God is described in Isaiah 57:15 "For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,
“I dwell on a high and holy place,
And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite." God as God could sympathize with man, since He had made man. However, when the Person of the Son became incarnate, that mean as God He could not only sympathize but empathize. Hebrews 2:14 reminds us: "Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Or again, Hebrews 2:18 "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." In order for Jesus to redeem and bring healing to our damaged emotions, crushed spirits and broken hearts, He had to experience the same.

Jesus came to be crushed in spirit and to have His heart broken

Does the idea of Jesus' experiencing a crushing of his human spirit and experiencing a broken heart startle you? We tend to forget how human Jesus of Nazareth was. How far did the incarnation go? Isaiah 53:5 begins with the notion of "surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. We esteem Him stricken by God and afflicted". In as much as Christ dies for our sins, He also bore in His body the collateral damage of sin and a fallen world: namely the broken emotions and human psyche, the wrenched hearts and wounded spirits of people. He was rejected and despised and betrayed. Jesus was not a pretend human being - He was flesh and blood humanity with a true soul and spirit. This thought ought not to jar us, but comfort us. He knows all about it!

How else could the Eternal Son of God, Immanuel, who became flesh, heal us in our hearts and put us back together in our spirits lest He too underwent such agonies? He did it for you. He did it for me. When our spirits are crushed and hearts are broken, God in His permissive will is bringing us into contact with a powerful healing stream of His grace that can only be found in Jesus. 

Consider these words from 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort." 

Like railroad tracks running parallel to one another, both suffering and comfort run side-by-side in the Christian life. In the center of this text is Christ. He still endures suffering with His people in that their struggles, heartaches and crushing of spirits are the subject matter of His intercessions on our behalf. He suffered once-for-all for sin on the cross (1 Peter 3:18) and He ever endures with His church by bearing those burdens on His heart in prayer. Jesus Christ has retained His true humanity in the heavenly realms. Those railroad tracks of Christian suffering and comfort are seen meeting off in the distance in Him. In Christ we find a place for the brokenhearted and shattered in spirit. As man He knows all about it. As God, He can do something about it.

By His resurrection He came forth with healing power to bind up the broken hearted and to revive the crushed in spirit

As a final thought for today, we musn't think God's permissive will includes leaving the believer in a permanent state of being crushed in spirit and broken in heart. When Christ raised from the dead, He brought with Him all the healing power to bind up the broken heart. We are broken in order to be healed. Christ experienced this was well. In the famous text of Isaiah 53, we not only see predictions of Christ death, but also of His resurrection. Notice Isaiah 53:10-11 "But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. 11 As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities." As the old song goes: "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just, because He lives."