Living out our blessed Identification Truths in Christ
By Jay Wegter
Why is it so valuable to think upon Christ from the vantage point of our union with Him? It is because the Father contemplates us in the Son. By that we mean He regards us according to our being in union with Christ. This perspective of union is truly remarkable. For, we see the beauty of Christ most clearly through the riches the believer possesses by virtue of being in union with Him. The book of Ephesians refers to these riches as ‘every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ’ (Eph 1:3). This abundance of spiritual wealth is all because of our position in Christ. But, consider that to dwell upon our union with Christ is quite counterintuitive. Why? Because we tend to contemplate ourselves in ourselves, and not in Another. Thus, to regularly think upon Christ from the vantage point of our union with Him is a spiritual discipline, and an extremely fruitful one.
The staging area, or sphere for God’s grace to be poured into our life was the guilt exchange Christ accomplished by His sacrificial work (Col 2:8-15). The penal substitution accomplished at Calvary was a true guilt exchange; a kind of divine courtroom in which perfect justice under God was carried out. In that exchange, Christ accomplished His vicarious work in our human nature. He took on our humanity that His people might have life in Him, by organic, ongoing eternal union with Him. The reality of this shared life in Christ is that believers are co-heirs, co-sons, by means of adoption and union with Christ.
This spiritual discipline of meditating on our union with Christ is essential if we are to really come to terms with how fully our Savior has dealt with our alienation due to sin. Most Christians have not delved into these glorious truths of mystical union with Christ, but they ought to, for it is a vein of gold that keeps yielding its wealth. How does Christ make our guilt His, and our death His? How does He make His righteousness ours, His life ours? How does he make His death, our death to sin? How does His burial become the termination of our old life? How does His resurrection give us newness of life and the guarantee of future resurrection? The answer is by divine decree and covenant.
Before the creation of the cosmos there was an eternal covenant of redemption formed between the members of the Trinity. The Son of God agreed to the most humbling arrangement imaginable. He would enter our time-space existence as a mortal man (Is 53:10-12; Jn 17:1-5; Phil 2:5-11). This covenant of redemption guaranteed that His obedience, incarnation, death and resurrection would be the source of His people’s salvation, life, blessedness and glory. And, for His work, His Father would give Him an innumerable people whom He would represent as their Kinsmen Redeemer, High Priest, and Surety. “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself” (Heb 7:26-27). Thus, there is an inseparable connection between the two greatest gifts ever given: Christ was given for sinners, and elect sinners were given to Christ.
This spiritual discipline of meditating upon our union with Christ is not solely for our comfort or theological sophistication. Meditating on union with Christ is a blessed way to fellowship with Him and enjoy His intimacy. For, the word ‘communion’ means commonality—something which is shared in common. Christ takes delight when His people reckon and celebrate their shared life with Him (1 Jn 1:1-4). For, Christ is our life (Col 3:4). How glorious! Though the gospel truth of possessing God’s favor anchors our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I meet many Christians who still wrestle with doubt about having God’s full acceptance. They have never come to terms with the fact that by union with Christ believers have, by gracious donation, God’s full favor (Eph 1:3-14).
We never outgrow this blessed exchange that Christ bore the guilt of our sin that we might have His righteousness credited to us. How frequently we need to dwell upon the gracious fact that this exchange of guilt and righteousness is the basis of our communing with Him. Puritan John Owen states it very clearly in his book Communion with God. “When you bring your sin to Christ and go to Him for righteousness, you are communing with God.” So, when we meditate on our position in Christ, we are enjoying comfort and hope in the fact that in Christ we possess an immutable status of right-standing before God. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Rom 15:13).
According to John 6:32-35, 48-58, Christ is the food that sustains our souls. “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’” (Jn 6:35). And, in Colossians 3:2-3 our lives are said to be ‘hidden in Christ’ but will be revealed publicly when He is revealed. In fact, in all that Christ does publicly from now, He will be accompanied by His bride at His side. “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col 3:4). How indebted we are to the apostle Paul for these identification truths, for he truly is the apostle of the believer’s mystical union with Christ. “. . .God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory”(Col 1:27). And, when speaking of our union with Christ, we often see the following prepositional phrases repeated in the Pauline epistles: in Him, in Whom, in Christ, with Christ. But, where would we go in the Old Covenant to find this radical identification with Christ? Or, where in the synoptic Gospels? No, we cannot find an abundance of definitive information about our union with Christ except in the epistles of Paul.
When we meditate on our union with Christ, we are also focusing upon the sufficiency of His finished work. So much of the book of Hebrews is devoted to what Christ has done in our human nature (see Hebrews chapters 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13). What Christ has done in our human nature, He has done for our human nature, even accomplishing what the future state of our human nature will be. For, the divine plan is that we shall be conformed to Christ’s moral perfection that He might be ‘the firstborn among many brethren’ (Rom 8:28-30).
British divine Isaac Ambrose has said that the church desperately needs to see Christ exhibited to them in His glorified state. There is a crucial reason for this. When by faith we behold Christ’s glorified human nature, there is no greater tonic for our flagging hearts so often harassed by the remnants of indwelling sin. When the glorified Christ is exhibited to our affections and understanding, the Holy Spirit floods our hearts with assurance and hope. The reason why is as follows. When, by faith we behold Christ’s glorified human nature, we are witnessing the destiny of our own redeemed human nature. That is the gospel promise: ‘when we see Him we will be like Him for we will see Him as He is’ (1 Jn 3:2). When Christ is displayed in His glorified human nature to the eye of faith, the saints take fresh hope that as Christ is in His glorified state, we will become. This is why according to 2 Corinthians 3:18, that in beholding the glory of the Lord we are incrementally conformed to His image.
Now, we know what dulls our spiritual senses: it is that we are so fixated on our own defects that we give very little attention to focusing upon our position in Christ. We are so frequently distracted, for a little voice rises up inside of us many hours of the day and says, “you know, you are not what you ought to be.” God’s answer to this is Himself, for at the heart of the universe is infinite love; redeeming, justifying love. And the marvelous thing about this infinite love is that it has the power to remove every barrier, and every disqualification to its reception. “. . .and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma” (Eph 5:2).
God has called you to find ‘your story’ in ‘His story’. And here is God’s story: the two greatest gifts ever given in time and eternity are these: God’s gift of Christ to sinners, and God’s gift of the elect (the church) to Christ. The first gift is the giving of the Son, the second is the giving to the Son. The giving of these two gifts is at the heart of God’s story, or God’s plot. Every true believer, every saved man or woman has been drawn by God into His plot, His story. This is a matter of sovereign grace, for no one will come to the Father unless he or she is drawn by the Father (Mt 11:25-27; Jn 6:44). Being brought into God’s story or plot is all of grace.
Now, the giving of these two gifts: Christ for sinners, and the church to Christ, is the most clear revelation of who God is. For, in the giving of these gifts, and in the gifts themselves, we see God’s perfections and attributes revealed. The theologizer (the person who proclaims and teaches the gospel) knows this, and therefore commits himself to the great privilege of explaining how these gifts glorify God the Giver, and how these two gifts create a forever, immutable family—known as the ‘sons of God’ (Rom 8:21-23).
What does it mean to live in light of these two gifts; to have one’s life controlled by these two gifts? It means that you, having been brought into God’s plot, will find your story in God’s story. You will find your ultimate purpose and identity in God’s story. What you live for will be based firmly upon God’s redemptive plot—His story (2 Cor 4:16-18; Col 3:1-4ff.). Therefore, the cream of your time, talent, resources, and affections will be plowed into God’s plot, His story. Your affections and spiritual sight and vision will be clearly fixed upon God’s redemptive story. And, therefore, in possessing genuine, God-given faith, your story will issue forth in a lifestyle of righteousness, love, and service.
My friends, there are no sidelines in God’s plot—every man and every woman’s ‘story’ is being written day by day. What you believe, love, worship and serve is daily constructing your story. And, your story will someday be read publicly when God reveals ‘the secrets of men’s hearts’ (Rom 2:16). This issue of finding your story in God’s story is truly ‘for all the marbles’—in other words for eternity. When your story is read publicly on Judgment Day, what you have trusted, desired, and invested in will be revealed. What you have served and worshipped will be ineffably, inescapably manifested. It will be demonstrated that the man or woman of God lived by faith in the Word of God—for, the believer’s story will reveal that his or her heart proved by grace to be good soil. God’s Word dominated exceptionally in that person’s life, enabling a crop to be brought to maturity, to harvest (Mt 13:23).
Scripture commands us to test ourselves and examine ourselves to see if we truly be of the faith (2 Cor 13:5). It is vital to perform this test. Are we daily finding our purpose, comfort, and goal in God’s story? Are we consciously giving ourselves back to Christ daily, presenting ourselves to Him in response to the first gift—the gift of Christ to sinners. “. . .do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:11-13)? And, are we responding to the second gift, the gift of the Church to Christ by building up the Church, the Body of Christ through edification, and service? Are we yearning to see Christ formed in the members of His body—and taking action unto this end (Gal 4:19; Col 1:28-29)? Only if we are serving Christ by presenting ourselves back to Him and building up His body can we honestly say that we are finding our story in God’s story.
God’s story shows us that at the heart of the universe is infinite love—it is love perfectly expressed in these two glorious gifts God has given (Christ to sinners, and the church to Christ). To have tasted this divine love once, through the redemption that is in Christ is to taste that love forever (Eph 3:14-19). And to have tasted this love is to love the people of God, one’s ‘forever brethren’—those given to Christ—the glorious second gift (Rom 15:1-4; 1 Tim 1:5; Gal 5:6; 1 Jn 4:10, 19). To love Christ who is given to us, is to love the people given to Christ (1 Jn 4:7-9). And to love the people given to Christ is to gladly be spent in building up His body, the church. Is that your story?