Required reading
Initially Murray surveys the breadth of teaching in Scripture concerning this union:
(i) The fountain of salvation itself in the eternal election of the Father is 'in Christ';
(ii) Because the people of God were in Christ when he gave his life a ransom and redeemed by his blood that salvation has been secured for them;
(iii) It is in Christ that the people of God are created anew;
(iv) It is in Christ that Christian life and behaviour are conducted;
(v) It is in Christ that believers die;
(vi) It is in Christ that the people of God will be resurrected and glorified.
Then Murray examines the nature of the union with Christ. It is:
(i) Spiritual (meaning it involves the Holy Spirit and it involves a spiritual relationship between Christ and the man).
(ii) Mystical (meaning it is 'something which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath entered into heart of man but which God has revealed unto us by his Spirit and which by revelation and faith comes to be known and appropriated by men').
I enjoyed Murray's application of the fact that union with Christ transcends time and space: '“We thus see that union with Christ has its source in the election of God the Father before the foundation of the world and its fruition in the glorification of the sons of God. The perspective of God’s people is not narrow; it is broad and it is long. It is not confined to space and time; it has the expanse of eternity. Its orbit has two foci, one the electing love of God the Father in the counsels of eternity, the other glorification with Christ in the manifestation of his glory. The former has no beginning, the latter has no end. Glorification with Christ at his coming will be but the beginning of a consummation that will encompass the ages of the ages. "So shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess 4:17). It is a perspctive with a past and with a future, but neither the past nor the future is bounded by what we know as our temporal history. And because temporal history falls within such a perspective it has meaning and hope. What is it that binds past and present and future together in the life of faith and in the hope of glory? Why does the believer entertain the thought of God's determinate counsel with such joy? Why can he have patience in the perplexities and adversities of the present? Why can he have confident assurance with reference to the future and rejoice in hope of the glory of God? It is because he cannot think of past, present, or future apart from union with Christ.'
Union with Christ gives us a hope that is not confined to one age, but to every age!
Now it's your turn
Go over to http://www.challies.com/ and post your thoughts.
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