GIFT OF UNION WITH CHRIST UNION WITH CHRIST ^ Qllfapter of ^gBkinatk SClj^oIogg BY AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG D.D., LL.D. /' President Emeritus of the Rochester Theological Seminary AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY PHILADELPHIA BOSTON CHICAGO ST. LOUIS TORONTO. CAN. *» • S g 3 J Copyright 1913 by A. J. ROWLAND, Secretary Published August, 1913 0IIimt0 ^^0 ^^il&atmrt PREFACE I HAVE been asked to reprint in compendious form the chapter of my " Systematic The- ology " on Union with Christ, and in this way to make it accessible to a wider circle of read- ers. On account of its scholastic method of treatment, I have hesitated to offer it to the general public. But further solicitations have overcome my fears, and I now print the chap- ter, which occupies pages 793-809 of the larger work, with the hope that it may meet the needs of some who are not theological students. Let me add a quotation from an earlier essay in my book " Philosophy and Religion," pages 220-225, a few sentences with regard to the effects upon the world which may be ex- pected to follow the full recognition by tTie church of this doctrine of Union with Christ: " Humanity is a dead and shattered vine, plucked up from its roots in God, and fit only for the fires. But in Christ, God has planted a PREFACE new vine, a vine full of his own divine life, a vine into which it is his purpose one by one to graft these dead and withered branches, so that they may once more have the life of God flowing through them and may bear the fruits of heaven. It is a supernatural, not a natural, process. But the things that are impossible with men are possible with God, and the process shall not cease until he has gathered together in one all things in Christ, and in him has perfectly redeemed and glorified the humanity for which and to which Christ has given his life." Augustus H. Strong. Rochester, June 14, 1913. • • ••• : Union with Christ The redemption wrought out object- ively by Jesus Christ upon the Cross needs to be subjectively applied. Elec- tion and Calling prepare the way; the actual beginning of this application in- cludes Union with Christ, Regenera- tion, Conversion (embracing Repent- ance and Faith), and Justification. Much confusion and error have arisen from conceiving these as occurring in chronological order. The order is logical, not chronological. As it is only *' in Christ " that man is " a new crea- ture " (2 Cor. 5: 17) or is "justified" (Acts 13: 39), union with Christ logic- ally precedes both regeneration and • • • »e * J • 5 ?/• e c '.••.•• ': luM^N'WITH CHRIST justification; and yet, chronologically, the moment of our union with Christ is also the moment when we are regener- ated and justified. So too, regenera- tion and conversion are but the divine and human sides or aspects of the same fact, although regeneration has logical precedence, and man turns only as God turns him. Sanctification and Perse- verance are the continuation of this application, Sanctification being the divine, and Perseverance the human, side of one and the same process. Dorner, Glaubenslehre, 3:694 (Syst. Doct., 4: 159), gives at this point an account of the work of the Holy Spirit in general. The Holy Spirit's work, he says, presupposes the his- torical work of Christ, and prepares the way for Christ's return. " As the Holy Spirit is the principle of union between the Father and the Son, so he is the principle of union be- tween God and man. Only through the Holy Spirit does Christ secure for himself those 10 UNION wiTHyoiikfsi\' who will love him as distinct and free per- sonalities." Regeneration and conversion are not chronologically separate. Which of the spokes of a wheel starts first? The ray of light and the ray of heat enter at the same mo- ment. Sensation and perception are not sepa- rated in time, although the former is the cause of the latter. " Suppose a non-elastic tube extending across the Atlantic. Suppose that the tube is completely filled with an incompressible fluid. Then there would be no interval of time be- tween the impulse given to the fluid at this end of the tube, and the effect upon the fluid at the other end." See Hazard, Causation and Freedom in Willing, 33-38, who argues that cause and effect are always simultaneous ; else, in the intervening time, there would be a cause that had no effect; that is, a cause that caused nothing; that is, a cause that was not a cause. " A potential cause may exist for an unlimited period without producing any effect, and of course may precede its effect by any length of time. But actual, effective cause being the exercise of a sufficient power, its effect cannot be delayed; for, in that case, II k 6 * * •? i, i ^** «•.•*«' 'UMI0N:WITH CHRIST there would be the exercise of a sufficient power to produce the effect, without pro- ducing it, — involving the absurdity of its being both sufficient and insufficient at the same time. " A difficulty may here be suggested in re- gard to the flow or progress of events in time, if they are all simultaneous with their causes. This difficulty cannot arise as to intelligent effort; for, in regard to it, periods of non- action may continually intervene; but if there are series of events and material phenomena, each of which is in turn effect and cause, it may be difficult to see how any time could elapse between the first and last of the series. .... If however, as I suppose, these series of events, or material changes, are always effected through the medium of motion it need not trouble us, for there is precisely the same dif- ficulty in regard to our conception of the motion of matter from point to point, there being no space or length between any two con- secutive points, and yet the body in motion gets from one end of a long line to the other, and in this case this difficulty just neutralizes the other So, even if we cannot conceive 12 UNION WITH CHRIST how motion involves the idea of time, we may perceive that, if it does so, it may be a means of conveying events, which depend upon it, through time also." Martineau, Study, i: 148-150 — "Simultane- ity does not exclude duration," — since each cause has duration and each effect has dura- tion also. Bowne, Metaphysics, 106 — " In the system, the complete ground of an event never lies in any one thing, but only in a com- plex of things. If a single thing were the sufficient ground of an effect, the effect would coexist with the thing, and all effects would be instantaneously given. Hence all events in the system must be viewed as the result of the in- teraction of two or more things." The first manifestation of life in an infant may be in the lungs or heart or brain, but that which makes any and all of tTiese manifesta- tions possible is the antecedent life. We may not be able to tell which comes first, but hav- ing the life we have all the rest. When the wheel goes, all the spokes will go. The soul that is born again will show it in faith and hope and love and holy living. Regeneration will involve repentance and faith and justifica- 13 UNION WITH CHRIST tion and sanctification. But the one life which makes regeneration and all these consequent blessings possible is the life of Christ who joins himself to us in order that we may join ourselves to him. Anne Reeve Aldrich, The Meaning : I lost my life in losing love. This blurred my spring and killed its dove. Along my path the dying roses Fell, and disclosed the thorns thereof. I found my life in finding God. In ecstasy I kiss the rod; For who that wins the goal, but lightly Thinks of the thorns whereon he trod? See A. A. Hodge, on the Ordo Salutis, in Princeton Rev., March, 1888:304-321. Union with Christ, says Doctor Hodge, " is ef- fected by the Holy Ghost in effectual calling. Of this calling the parts are two: (a) the of- fering of Christ to the sinner, externally by the gospel, and internally by the illumination of the Holy Ghost; {b) the reception of Christ, which on our part is both passive and active. The passive reception is that whereby a spiritual principle is ingenerated into the human will, whence issues the active reception, 14 UNION WITH CHRIST which is an act of faith with which repentance is always conjoined. The communion of bene- fits which results from this union involves : (a) a change of state or relation, called justi- fication; and (b) a change of subjective moral character, commenced in regeneration and com- pleted through sanctification." See also Doc- tor Hodge's Popular Lectures on Theological Themes, 340, and Outlines of Theology, 333- 429. H. B. Smith, however, in his System of Christian Theology, is more clear in the put- ting of Union with Christ before Regeneration. On page 502, he begins his treatment of the Application of Redemption with the title: " The Union between Christ and the individual believer as effected by the Holy Spirit. This embraces the subjects of Justification, Regen- eration, and Sanctification, with the underly- ing topic which comes first to be considered, Election." He therefore treat's Union with Christ (531-539) before Regeneration (553- 569). He says Calvin defines regeneration as coming to us by participation in Christ, and apparently agrees with this view (559), de- claring : 15 UNION WITH CHRIST " This union [with Christ] is at the ground of regeneration and justification" (534)- " The great difference of theological systems comes out here. Since Christianity is redemp- tion through Christ, our mode of conceiving that will determine the character of our whole theological system" (536). "The union with Christ is mediated by his Spirit, whence we are both renewed and justified. The great fact of objective Christianity is incarnation in order to atonement; the great fact of subjective Christianity is union with Christ, whereby we receive the atonement" (537). We may add that this union with Christ, in view of which God elects and to which God calls the sinner, is begun in regeneration, completed in conver- sion, declared in justification, and proved in sanctification and perseverance. The Scriptures declare that, through the operation of God, there is consti- tuted a union of the soul with Christ different in kind from God's natural and providential concursus with all spirits, as well as from all unions of 16 UNION WITH CHRIST mere association or sympathy, moral likeness, or moral influence, — ^a union of life, in which the human spirit, while then most truly possessing its own indi- viduality and personal distinctness, is interpenetrated and energized by the Spirit of Christ, is made inscrutably but indissolubly one with him, and so becomes a member and partaker of that regenerated, believing, and justified humanity of which he is the head. Union with Christ is not union with a system of doctrine, nor with external rehgious in- fluences, nor with an organized church, nor with an ideal man, — but rather, with a per- sonal, risen, living, omnipresent Lord (J. W. A. Stewart). Dr. J. W. Alexander well calls this doctrine of the Union of the Believer with Christ " the central truth of all theology and of all religion." Yet it receives little of formal recognition, either in dogmatic treatises or in common religious experience. Quenstedt, 886- 912, has devoted a section to it; A. A. Hodge B 17 UNION WITH CHRIST gives to it a chapter, in his Outlines of The- <^lo^> 369 ^q-, to which we are indebted for valuable suggestions; H. B. Smith treats of it, not however as a separate topic, but under the head of Justification (System, 531-539). The majority of printed systems of doctrine, however, contain no chapter or section on Union with Christ, and the majority of Chris- tians much more frequently think of Christ as a Saviour outside of them, than as a Saviour who dwells within. This comparative neglect of the doctrine is doubtless a reaction from the exaggerations of a false mysticism. But there is great need of rescuing the doctrine from neglect. For this we rely wholly upon Scripture. Doctrines which reason can neither discover nor prove need large support from the Bible. It is a mark of divine wisdom that the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is so in- woven with the whole fabric of the New Tes- tament, that the rejection of the former is the virtual rejection of the latter. The doctrine of Union with Christ, in like manner, is taught so variously and abundantly, that to deny it is to deny inspiration itself. See Kahnis, Luth. Dogmatik, 3 : 447-450- 18 UNION WITH CHRIST 1. Scripture Representations of this Union, A. Figurative teaching. It is illus- trated : (a) From the union of a building and its foundation. Eph. 2 : 20-22 — '* being built upon the foun- dation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner-stone ; in whom each several building, fitly framed to- gether, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord ; in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit " ; Col. 2 : 7 — " builded up in him " — grounded in Christ as our foundation ; i Pet. 2 : 4, 5 — '' unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as liv- ing stones, are built up a spiritual house" — each living stone in the Christian temple is kept in proper relation to every other, and is made to do its part in furnishing a habitation for God, only by being built upon and per- manently connected with Christ, the chief corner-stone. Cf. Ps. 118:22 — "The stone 19 UNION WITH CHRIST which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner"; Is. 28: 16 — '' Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not be in haste." (b) From the union between hus- band and wife. Rom. 7 : 4 — '' ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ ; that ye should be joined to another, even to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit unto God " — here union with Christ is illus- trated by the indissoluble bond that connects husband and wife, and makes them legally and organically one; 2 Cor. 11 : 2 — " I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ"; Eph. 5:31, 32 — " For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard to Christ and the church " — Meyer refers verse 31 wholly to Christ, and says that Christ leaves father and 20 UNION WITH CHRIST mother (the right hand of God) and is joined to the church as his wife, the two constituting thenceforth one moral person. He makes the union future, however, ** For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother " — the con- summation is at Christ's second coming. But the Fathers, as Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Jerome, referred it more properly to the in- carnation. Rev. 19:7 — "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready " ; 22:17 — "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come " ; cf. Is. 54 : 5 — " For thy Maker is thine husband " ; Jer. 3 : 20 — " Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah " ; Hos. 2 : 2-5 — " for their mother hath played the harlot " — depart- ure from God is adultery; the Song of Sol- omon , as Jewish interpreters have always maintained, is an allegorical poem describing, under the figure of marriage, the union be- tween Jehovah and his people: Paul only adopts the Old Testament figure, and applies it more precisely to the union of God with the church in Jesus Christ. 21 UNION WITH CHRIST (c) From the union between the vine and its branches. John 15: i-io — " I am the vine, ye are the branches : He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: fbr apart from me ye can do nothing " — as God's natural life is in the vine, that it may give life to its natural branches, so God's spiritual life is in the vine, Christ, that he may give life to his spiritual branches. The roots of this new vine are planted in heaven, not on earth; and into it the half -withered branches of the old humanity are to be grafted, that tbey may have life divine. Yet our Lord does not say " I am the root." The branch is not something outside, which has to get nourishment out of the root, — it is rather a part of the vine. Rom. 6: 5 — " if we have become united with him [aufiipOToe — ' grown together ' — ^used of the man and horse in the Centaur, Xen., Cyrop., 4:3: 18], in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection " ; 11: 24 — " thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree " ; Col. 2 : 6, 7 — 22 UNION WITH CHRIST "As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him " — not only grounded in Christ as our foundation, but thrusting down roots into him as the deep, rich, all-sustaining soil. This union with Christ is consistent with individ- uality : for the graft brings forth fruit after its kind, though modified by the tree into which it is grafted. Bishop H. W. Warren, in S. S. Times, Oct. 17, 1891 — '' The lessons of the vine are inti- macy, likeness of nature, continuous imparta- tion of life, fruit. Between friends there is intimacy by means of media, such as food, presents, care, words, soul looking from the eyes. The mother gives her liquid flesh to the babe, but such intimacy soon ceases. The mother is not rich enough in life continuously to feed the ever-enlarging nature of the grow- ing man. Not so with the vine. It continu- ously feeds. Its rivers crowd all the banks. They burst out in leaf, blossom^ clinging ten- drils, and fruit, everywhere. In nature a thorn grafted on a pear tree bears only thorn. There is not pear-life enough to compel change of its nature. But a wild olive, typical of depraved 23 UNION WITH CHRIST nature, grafted on a good olive tree finds, con- trary to nature, that there is force enough in the growing stock to change the nature of the wild scion." {d) From the union between the members and the head of the body. I Cor. 6: 15, 19 — '' Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? .... know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God?" 12: 12 — '* For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body ; so also is Christ " — ^here Christ is identified with the church of which he is the head ; Eph. i : 22, 23 — " he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all " — as the members of the human body are united to the head, the source of their activity and the power that controls their movements, so all believers are members of an invisible body whose head is Christ. Shall we tie a string around the finger 24 UNION WITH CHRIST to keep for it its own blood? No, for all the blood of the body is needed to nourish one finger. So Christ is " head over all things to [for the benefit of] the church " (Tyler, Theol. Greek Poets, preface, ii). " The church is the fulness {nh^pwfia) of Christ; as it was not good for the first man, Adam, to be alone, no more was it good for the second man, Christ '^ (C. H. Macintosh). Eph. 4:15, 16— " grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body .... maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love " ; 5 : 29, 30 — *' for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body." {e) From the union of the race with the source of its life in Adam. Rom. 5:12, 21 — "as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin .... that, as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord " ; i Cor. 15 : 22, 45, 49 — " as in Adam all die, so also in 25 UNION WITH CHRIST Christ shall all be made alive The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit .... as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly " — as the whole race is one with the first man Adam, in whom it fell and from whom it has derived a corrupted and guilty nature, so the whole race of believers constitutes a new and restored humanity, whose justified and purified nature is derived from Christ, the second Adam. Cf. Gen. 2 : 23 — " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man " - — here Macintosh remarks that, as man is first created and then woman is viewed in and formed out of him, so it is with Christ and the church. " We are members of Christ's body, because in Christ we have the principle of our origin ; from him bur life arose, just as the life of Eve was derived from Adam .... The church is Christ's helpmeet, formed out of Christ in his deep sleep of death, as Eve out of Adam .... The church will be nearest to Christ, as Eve was to Adam." Because Christ is the source of all spiritual life for his people. 26 UNION WITH CHRIST he is called, in Is. 9:6, " Everlasting Father," and it is said, in Is. 53 : 10 that " he shall see his seed " (see page 680). B. Direct statements. (a) The believer is said to be in Christ. Lest we should regard the figures mentioned above as merely oriental metaphors, the fact of the believer's union with Christ is asserted in the most direct and prosaic manner. John 14 : 20 — " ye in me " ; Rom. 6 : 1 1 — " alive unto God in Christ Jesus " ; 8 : i — *' no condemna- tion to them that are in Christ Jesus " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 17 — " if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature " ; Eph. i : 4 — " chose us in him be- fore the foundation of the world"; 2:13 — " now in Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ." Thus the believer is said to be " in Christ," as the element or atmosphere which surrounds him with its perpetual presence and which con- stitutes his vital breath; in fact, this phrase " in Christ," always meaning " in union with Christ," is the very key to Paul's epistles, and 27 UNION WITH CHRIST to the whole New Testament. The fact that the believer is in Christ is symbolized in bap- tism: we are ''baptized into Christ" (Gal. 3:27). (b) Christ is said to be in the be- liever. John 14: 20 — " I in you " ; Rom. 8 : 9 — " ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his " — ^that this Spirit of Christ is Christ himself, is shown from verse 10 — " And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin ; but the spirit is life because of righteous- ness " ; Gal. 2 : 20 — " I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me " — here Christ is said to be in the believer, and so to live his life within the believer, that the latter can point to this as the dominating fact of his experience, — it is not so much he that lives, as it is Christ that lives in him. The fact that Christ is in the believer is symbolized in the Lord's Supper: *' The bread which we break, is it not a par- 28 UNION WITH CHRIST ticipation in the body of Christ?" (i Cor. id: i6). (c) The Father and the Son dwell in the believer. John 14:23 — "If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him " ; cf. 10—" Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ? the words that I say unto you I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works " — ^the Father and the Son dwell in the believer; for where the Son is, there always the Father must be also. If the union between the believer and Christ in John 14:23 is to be interpreted as one of mere moral influence, then the union of Christ and the Father in John 14: 10 must also be inter- preted as a union of mere moral influence. Eph. 3 : 17 — " that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith " ; i John 4: 16 — " he that abideth in love abideth in God, and God abideth in him " ; 2 John 9 — " He that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son." 29 UNION WITH CHRIST (d) The believer has life by parta- king of Christ, as Christ has Ufe by partaking of the Father. John 6 : 53, 56, 57 — " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves .... He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so he that eateth me, he also shall live because of me " — > the believer has life by partaking of Christ in a way that may not inappropriately be com- pared with Christ's having hfe by partaking of the Father, i Cor. 10:16, 17 — "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a com- munion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a communion of the body of Christ? " — ^here it is intimated that the Lord's Supper sets forth, in the language of symbol, the soul's actual participation in the life of Christ; and the margin properly trans- lates the word xoiucovta, not " communion," but " participation." Cf. i John 1 : 3 — " our fel- lowship {xoivo)via ) is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." Foster, Christian Life 30 UNION WITH CHRIST and Theology, 216 — " In John 6, the phrases call to mind the ancient form of sacrifice, and the participation therein by the offerer at the sacrificial meal, — as at the Passover." {e) All believers are one in Christ. John 17: 21-23 — " that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one " — all believers are one in Christ, to whom they are severally and collectively united, as Christ himself is one with God. (/) The believer is made partaker of the divine nature. 2 Pet. 1 : 4 — " that through these [promises] ye may become partakers of the divine nature " — not by having the essence of your humanity changed into the essence of divinity, but by 31 UNION WITH CHRIST having Christ the divine Saviour continually dwelling within, and indissolubly joined to, your human souls. {g) The believer is made one spirit with the Lord. I Cor. 6:17 — "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit " — ^human nature is so inter- penetrated and energized by the divine, that the two move and act as one : cf. 19 — " know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God ? " Rom. 8 : 26—" the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity: for we know not how to pray as we ought ; but the Spirit himself maketh in- tercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered " — the Spirit is so near to us, and so one with us, that our prayer is called his, or rather, his prayer becomes ours. Weiss, in his Life of Jesus, says that, in the view of Scripture, human greatness does not consist in a man's producing everything in a natural way out of himself, but in possessing perfect receptivity for God's greatest gift. Therefore God's Son receives the Spirit without meas- 32 UNION WITH CHRIST lire; and we may add that the believer in like manner receives Christ. John i : i6 — " And of his fulness have all we received." 2. Nature of this Union, We have here to do not only with a fact of life, but with a unique relation between the finite and the infinite. Our descriptions must therefore be inade- quate. Yet in many respects we know what this union is not; in certain re- spects we can positively characterize it. It should not surprise us if we find it far more difficult to give a scientific definition of this union, than to determine the fact of its existence. It is a fact of life with which we have to deal ; and the secret of life, even in its lowest forms, no philosopher has ever yet dis- covered. The tiniest flower witnesses to two facts: first, that of its own relative independ- ence, as an independent organism; and sec- ondly, that of its ultimate dependence upon a life and power not its own. So every human soul has its proper powers of intellect, affec- c 33 UNION WITH CHRIST tion, and will; yet it lives, moves, and has its being in God (Acts 17:28). Starting out from the truth of God's omni- presence, it might seem as if God's indwell- ing in the granite boulder was the last limit of his union with the finite. But we see the divine intelligence and goodness drawing nearer to us, by successive stages, in vegetable life, in the animal creation, and in the moral nature of man. And yet there are two stages beyond all these: first, in Christ's union with the believer; and secondly, in God's union with Christ. If this union of God with the believer be only one of several approximations of God to his finite creation, the fact that it is, equally with the others, not wholly compre- hensible to reason, should not blind us either to its truth or to its importance. It is easier to-day than at any other pre- vious period of history to believe in the union of the believer with Christ. That God is im- manent' in the universe, and that there is a divine element in man, is familiar to our gen- eration. All men are naturally one with Christ, the immanent God, and this natural union pre- pares the way for that spiritual union in which 34 UNION WITH CHRIST Christ joins himself to our faith. Campbell, The Indwelling Christ, 131 — " In the im- manence of Christ in nature we find the ground of his immanence in human nature. ... A man may be out of Christ, but Christ is never out of him. Those who banish him he does not abandon." John Caird, Fund. Ideas of Chris- tianity, 2 : 233-256 — " God is united with na- ture, in the atoms, in the trees, in the planets. Science is seeing nature full of the life of God. God is united to man in body and soul. The beating of his heart and the voice of conscience witness to God within. God sleeps in the stone, dreams in the animal, wakes in man." Shumaker, God and Man, 113, 114 — " God is in consciousness, as truly as he is in nature, in our own bodies, in our subconscious life. Spir- itual realities do not wave banners and shout. The divine Presence may be all the more real and rich, the further it is removed from * ob- servation ' (Luke 17:20). God was not in ' the earthquake.' The field of consciousness may be the peculiar field for ' the still, small voice' (i K. 19:11, 12). * Surely, Jehovah is in this place, and I knew it not ' (Gen. 28:16)." 35 UNION WITH CHRIST A. Negatively. — It is not : (a) A merely natural union, like that of God with all human spirits, — as held by rationalists. In our physical life we are conscious of an- other life within us which is not subject to our wills : the heart beats involuntarily, whether we sleep or wake. But in our spiritual life we are still more conscious of a life within our life. Even the heathen said : " Est Deus in nobis; agitante calescimus illo/* and the Egyptians held to the identification of the de- parted with Osiris (Renouf, Hibbert Lectures, 185). But Paul urges us to work out our salvation, upon the very ground that " it is God that' worketh " in us, " both to will and to work, for his good pleasure" (Phil. 2:12, 13). This life of God in the soul is the life of Christ. The movement of the electric car cannot be explained simply from the working of its own motor apparatus. The electric current throb- bing through the wire, and the dynamo from which that energy proceeds, are needed to ex- plain the result. In like manner we need a 36 UNION WITH CHRIST spiritual Christ to explain the spiritual activity of the Christian. A. H. Strong, Sermon be- fore the Baptist World Congress in London, 1905 — " We had in America some years ago a steam engine all whose working parts were made of glass. The steam came from without, but, being hot enough to move machinery, this steam was itself invisible, and there was pre- sented the curious spectacle of an engine, trans- parent, moving, and doing important work, while yet no cause for this activity was per- ceptible. So the church, humanity, the uni- verse, are all in constant and progressive movement, but the Christ who moves them is invisible. Faith comes to believe where it can- not see. It joins itself to this invisible Christ, and knows him as its very life." (h) A merely moral union, or union of love and sympathy, like that between teacher and scholar, friend and friend, — as held by Socinians and Arminians. There is a moral union between different souls : I Sam. 18 : i^ — " the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan 37 UNION WITH CHRIST loved him as his own soul " — here the Vulgate has : " Aiiima Jonathae agglutinata Davidi/' Aristotle calls friends ** one soul." So in a higher sense, in Acts 4 : 32, the early believers are said to have been " of one heart and soul." But in John 17: 21, 26, Christ's union with his people is distinguished from any mere union of love and sympathy: "that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that' they also may be in us ; ... . that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them, and I in them." Jesus' aim, in the whole of his last discourse, is to show that no mere union of love and sympathy will be sufficient: " apart from me," he says, " ye can do noth- ing " (John 15 : 5). That his disciples may be vitally joined to himself, is therefore the sub- ject of his last prayer. Dorner says well, that Arminianism (and with this doctrine Roman Catholics and the advocates of New School views substantially agree) makes man a mere tangent to the circle of the divine nature. It has no idea of the interpenetration of the one by the other. But the Lutheran Formula of Concord says much more correctly : " Damnamus sententiam quod 38 UNION WITH CHRIST non Deus ipse, sed dona Dei duntaxat, in credentibus habitent." Ritschl present's to us a historical Christ, and Pfleiderer presents to us an ideal Christ, but neither one gives us the living Christ who is the present spiritual life of the believer. Wendt, in his Teaching of Jesus, 2: 310, comes equally far short of a serious interpretation of our Lord's promise, when he says : *' This union to his person, as to its contents, is noth- ing else than adherence to the message of the kingdom of God brought by him." It is not enough for me to be merely in touch with Christ. He must come to be '' not so far as even to be near." Tennyson, The Higher Pan- theism : ** Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than hands or feet." William Watson, The Unknown God : ** Yea, in my flesh his Spirit doth flow, Too near, too far, for me to know." (c) A union of essence, which des- troys the distinct personality and sub- sistence of either Christ or the human spirit, — as held by many of the mystics. 39 UNION WITH CHRIST Many of the mystics, as Schwenkfeld, Weigel, Sebastian Frank, held to an essential union between Christ and the believer. One of Weigel's followers, therefore, could say to another : " I am Christ Jesus, the living Word of God; I have redeemed thee by my sinless sufferings." We are ever to remember that the indwelling of Christ only puts the believer more completely in possession of himself, and makes him more conscious of his own person- ality and power. Union with Christ must be taken in connection with the other truth of the personality and activity of the Christian ; other- wise it tends to pantheism. Martineau, Study, 2 : 190 — " In nature it is God's immanent life, in morals it' is God's transcendent life, with which we commune.'* Angelus Silesius, a German philosophical poet (1624-1677), audaciously wrote: '' I know God cannot live an instant without me; He must give up the ghost, if I should cease to be." Lowde, a disciple of Malebranche, used the phrase " Godded with God, and Christed with Christ," and Jonathan Edwards, in his Religious Affections, quotes it with disappro- bation saying that " the saints do not become 40 UNION WITH CHRIST actually partakers of the divine essence, as would be inferred from this abominable and blasphemous language of heretics " (Allen, Jonathan Edwards, 224). '' Self is not a mode of the divine : it is a principle of isolation. In order to religion, I must have a will to sur- render .... * Our wills are ours, to make them thine.' .... Though the self is, in knowledge, a principle of unification ; in existence, or meta- physically, it is a principle of isolation " (Seth). Inge, Christian Mysticism, 30 — " Some of the mystics went astray by teaching a real sub- stitution of the divine for human nature, thus depersonalizing man — a fatal mistake, for without human personality we cannot conceive of divine personality." Lyman Abbott : " In Christ, God and man are united, not as the river is united with the sea, losing its person- ality therein, but as the child is united with the father, or the wife with the husband, whose personality and individuality are strengthened and increased by the union." Here Doctor Abbott's view comes as far short of the truth as that of the mystics goes beyond the truth. As we shall see, the union of the believer with 41 UNION WITH CHRIST Christ is a vital union, surpassing in its inti- macy any union of souls that we know. The union of child with father, or of wife with husband, is only a pointer which hints very imperfectly at the interpenetrating and ener- gizing of the human spirit by the divine. {d) A union mediated and condi- tioned by participation of the sacra- ments of the church, — as held by Ro- manists, Lutherans, and High-Church Episcopalians. Perhaps the most pernicious misinterpre- tation of the nature of this union is that which conceives of it as a physical and material one, and which rears upon this basis the fabric of a sacramental and external Christianity. It is sufficient here to say that this union cannot be mediated by sacraments, since sacraments presuppose it as already existing ; both Baptism and the Lord's Supper are designed only for believers. Only faith receives and retains Christ; and faith is the act of the soul grasp- ing what is purely invisible and supersensible : 42 UNION WITH CHRIST not the act of the body, submitting to Baptism or partaking of the Supper. William Lincoln : " The only way for the believer, if he wants to go rightly, is to remem- ber that truth is always two-sided. If there is any truth that the Holy Spirit has specially pressed upon your heart, if you do not want to push it to the extreme, ask what is the coun- ter-truth, and lean a little of your weight upon that; otherwise, if you bear so very much on one side of the truth, there is a danger of pushing it into a heresy. Heresy means selected truth; it does not mean error; heresy and error are very different things. Heresy is truth, but truth pushed into undue importance, to the disparagement of the truth upon the other side." Heresy (aip^aii;) = an act of choice, the picking and choosing of a part, instead of comprehensively embracing the whole of truth. Sacramentarians substitute the symbol for the thing symbolized. B. Positively. — It is: (a) An organic union, — in which we become members of Christ and par- takers of his humanity. 43 UNION WITH CHRIST Kant defines an organism, as that whose parts are reciprocally means and end. The body is an organism; since the limbs exist for the heart, and the heart for the limbs. So each member of Christ's body lives for him who is the head; and Christ the head equally lives for his members : Eph. 5 : 29, 30 — " no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even ,as Christ also the church ; because we are members of his body." The train-despatcher is a symbol of the con- centration of energy; the switchmen and con- ductors who receive his orders are symbols of the localization of force; but it is all one or- ganic system, moved by one superintending in- telligence and will. Johnston, Philosophy of the Fourth Gospel, 161 — " The union of the individual human soul with the divine Logos is something mo're than ' an ethical harmony of wills.' The Logos- light which flows into every human soul bears the same relation to the soul as the ocean bears to its countless bays and inlets ; if the channels are kept open and unobstructed, the Logos will flood the soul, just as the ocean sends up its tides into every creek." 44 UNION WITH CHRIST (b) A vital union, — in which Christ's life becomes the dominating principle within us. This union is a vital one, in distinction from any union of mere juxtaposition or external influence. Christ does not work upon us from without, as one separated from us, but from within, as the very heart from which the life- blood of our spirit flows. See Gal. 2 : 20 — " it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me : and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me " ; Col. 3 : 3, 4 — " For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory.'* Christ's life is not corrupted by the corruption of his members, any more than the ray of light is defiled by the filth with which it comes in contact. We may be unconscious of this union with Christ, as we often are of the circulation of the blood, yet it may be the very source and condition of our life. Cf. Is. 45 : 5 — " I sur- named thee, though thou hast not known me." 45 UNION WITH CHRIST (c) A spiritual union, — that is, a union whose source and author is the Holy Spirit. By a spiritual union we mean a union not of body but of spirit, — a union, therefore, which only the Holy Spirit originates and maintains. Rom. 8 : 9, 10 — " ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because af sin; but the spirit is life be- cause of righteousness." The indwelling of Christ involves a continual exercise of efficient power. In Eph. 3 : 16, 17, " strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man " is immediately followed by " that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith ; . . . . filled unto all the fulness of God." (d) An indissoluble union, — that is, a union which, consistently with Christ's promise and grace, can never be dis- solved. 46 UNION WITH CHRIST Matt. 28:20 — " lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world "; John 10: 28 — "they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand " ; Rom. 8 : 35, 39 — " Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? .... nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord"; i Thess. 4:14, 17 — ^" them also that are fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Christ's omnipresence makes it possible for him to be united to, and to be present in, each believer, as perfectly and fully as if that be- liever were the only one to receive Christ's fulness. As Christ's omnipresence makes the whole Christ present in every place, each be- liever has the whole Christ witli him, as his source of strength, purity, life; so that each may say: Christ gives all his time and wis- dom and care to me. Such a union as this lacks every element of instability. Once formed, the union is indissoluble. Many of the 47 UNION WITH CHRIST ties of earth are rudely broken, — ^not so with our union with Christ,^ — that endures forever. Since there is now an unchangeable and di- vine element in us, our salvation depends no longer upon our unstable wills, but upon Christ's purpose and power. By temporary declension from duty, or by our causeless un- belief, we may banish Christ to the barest and most' remote room of the soul's house ; but he does not suffer us wholly to exclude him ; and when we are willing to unbar the doors, he is still there, ready to fill the whole mansion with his light and love. (e) An inscrutable union, — mystical, however, only in the sense of surpassing in its intimacy and value any other union of souls which we know. This union is inscrutable, indeed; but it is not mystical, in the sense of being unintel- ligible to the Christian or beyond the reach of his experience. If we call it mystical at all, it should be only because, in the intimacy of its communion and in the transforming power of its influence, it surpasses any other 48 UNION WITH CHRIST union of souls that we know, and so cannot be fully described or understood by earthly analogies. Eph. 5:32 — "This mystery is great: but I speak in regard to Christ and the church " ; Col. i : 27 — ** the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." See Diman, Theistic Argument, 380— " As physical science has brought us to the conclu- sion that back of all the phenomena of the material universe there lies an invisible uni- verse of forces, and that these forces may ulti- mately be reduced to one all-pervading force in which the unity of the physical universe consists; and as philosophy has advanced the rational conjecture that this ultimate all-per- vading force is simply will- force ; so the great Teacher holds up to us the spiritual universe as pervaded by one omnipotent life — a life which was revealed in him as its highest mani- festation, but which is shared by all who by faith become partakers of his nature. He was Son of God: they too had power to become sons of God. The incarnation is wholly within the natural course and tendency of things. It was prepared for, it came, in the fulness of 49 UNION WITH CHRIST times. Christ's life is not something sporadic and individual, having its source in the per- sonal conviction of each disciple; it implies a real connection with Christ, the head. Be- hind all nature there is one force; behind all varieties of Christian life and character there is one spiritual power. All nature is not inert matter, — it is pervaded by a living presence. So all the body of believers live by virtue of the all-working Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost." An epitaph at Silton, in Dorsetshire, reads : Here lies a piece of Christ — a star in dust, A vein of gold, a china dish that must Be used in heaven when God shall feed the just. A. H. Strong, in Examiner, 1880: " Such is the nature of union with Christ, — such I mean, is the nature of every believer's union with Christ. For whether he knows it or not, every Christian has entered into just such a partner- ship as this. It is this and this only which constitutes him a Christian, and which makes possible a Christian church. We may, indeed, be thus united to Christ, without being fully conscious of the real nature of our relation to 50 UNION WITH CHRIST him. We may actually possess the kernel, while as yet we have regard only to the shell ; we may seem to ourselves to be united to Christ only by an external bond, while after all it is an inward and spiritual bond that makes us his, God often reveals to the Chris- tian the mystery of the gospel, which is Christ in him the hope of glory, at the very time that he is seeking only some nearer access to a Re- deemer outside of him. Trying to find a union of cooperation or of sympathy, he is amazed to learn that there is already established a union with Christ more glorious and blessed, namely, a union of life ; and so, like the miners in the Rocky Mountains, while he is looking only for silver, he finds gold. Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some tem- porary bond of friendship, — they are united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the same blood ran in their veins. Yet the Christian may never have suspected how intimate a union he has with his Saviour; and the first understanding of this truth may be the gate- way through which he passes into a holier and happier stage of the Christian life." 51 UNION WITH CHRIST So the Way leads, through the Truth, to the Life (John 14:6). Apprehension of an ex- ternal Saviour prepares for the reception and experience of the internal Saviour. Christ is first the Door of the sheep, but in him, after they have once entered in, they find pasture (John 10:7-9). On the nature of this union, see H. B. Smith, System of Christian The- ology, 531-539; Baird, Elohim Revealed, 601; Wilberforce, Incarnation, 208-272, and New- Birth of Man's Nature, 1-30. Per contra, see Park, Discourses, 1 17-136. 3. Consequences of this Union as respects the Believer. We have seen that Christ's union with humanity, at the incarnation, in- volved him in all the legal liabilities of the race to which he united himself, and enabled him so to assume the penalty of its sin as to make for all men a full satisfaction to the divine justice, and to remove all external obstacles to man's return to God. An internal obstacle, 52 UNION WITH CHRIST however, still remains — the evil affec- tions and will, and the consequent guilt, of the individual soul. This last ob- stacle also Christ removes, in the case of all his people, by uniting himself to them in a closer and more perfect man- ner than that in which he is united to humanity at large. As Christ's union with the race secures the objective reconciliation of the race to God, so Christ's union with believers secures the subjective reconciliation of believers to God. Forsyth, Work of Christ, 76, yy — Recon- ciliation is I. between two parties who have fallen out ; 2. it affects and alters both parties ; 3. it rests upon atonement and redemption; 4. it is a reconciliation of the world as a cosmic whole; 5. it is a reconciliation final in Jesus Christ and his Cross. 87 — The first bearing of Christ's work was upon the race as a total- ity. It changed man's corporate relation to God. Then, when it is taken home individ- 53 UNION WITH CHRIST ually, it changes our present attitude. Forsyth, Cruciality of the Cross, 29 — '' Reconciliation means changing a whole race's relation to God. For good and all, that could only be done from God's side ; and it was done in the Cross. We have to be redeemed into that reconciliation, and redeemed as a race All we may do to reconcile men to God is but the following up of a great and final deed of God — the Cross." In Baird, Elohim Revealed, 607-610, in Owen, on Justification, chap. 8, in Boston, Covenant of Grace, chap. 2, and in Dale, Atonement, 265-440, the union of the believer with Christ is made to explain the bearing of our sins by Christ. As we have seen in our discussion of the Atonement, however (page 759), this explains the cause by the effect, and implies that Christ died only for the elect (see review of Dale, in Brit. Quar. Rev., Apr. 1876:221-225). It is not the union of Christ with the believer, but the union of Christ with humanity at large, that explains his taking upon him human guilt and penalty. Amnesty offered to a rebellious city may be complete, yet it may avail only for those who 54 UNION WITH CHRIST surrender. Pardon secured from a Governor, upon the ground of the services of an Advo- cate, may be effectual only v^hen the convict accepts it, — there is no hope for him when he tears up the pardon. Dr. H. E. Robins: " The judicial declaration of acquittal on the ground of the death of Christ, which comes to all men (Rom. 5:18), and into the benefits of which they are introduced by natural birth, is inchoate justification, and will become per- fected justification through the new birth of the Holy Spirit, unless the working of this divine agent is resisted by the personal moral action of those who are lost." What Doctor Robins calls " inchoate justification " we prefer to call " ideal justification," or " attainable justifica- tion." Humanity in Christ is justified, and every member of the race who joins himself to Christ by faith participates in Christ's justi- fication. H. E. Dudley: "Adam's sin holds us all down just as gravity holds all, while Christ's righteousness, though secured for all and ac- cessible to all, involves an effort of will in climbing and grasping which not all will make." Justification in Christ is the birth- right of humanity ; but, in order to possess and 55 UNION WITH CHRIST enjoy it, each of us must claim and appropriate it by faith. R. W. Dale, Fellowship with Christ, 7 — '' When we were created in Christ, the for- tunes of the human race for good or evil be- came his. The Incarnation revealed and ful- filled the relations which already existed be- tween the Son of God and mankind. From the beginning Christ had entered into fellow- ship with us. When we sinned, he remained in fellowship with us still. Our miseries " [we would add: our guilt] "were his, by his own choice. . . . His fellowship with us is the foundation of our fellowship with him. . . . When I have discovered that by the very con- stitution of my nature I am to achieve per- fection in the power of the life of Another — who is yet not Another, but the very ground of my being — it ceases to be incredible to me that Another — who is yet not Another — should be the Atonement for my sin, and that his rela- tion to God should determine mine." Mabie, The Reason of the Cross, 142^ — " On the ground of what God in Christ has effected through his age-long sacrificial work, mankind has been adjudged to a new redeemed moral 56 UNION WITH CHRIST status. This world is a potentially redeemed and forgiven world, though largely unaware of it and deeply indifferent to it ; and the final character of men will be determined, not by any standard of legal merit, but by one's peni- tent and believing attitude to the Christ — ' the Light which lighteth. every man coming into the world ' (John i : 9) — in whatever form that Light may have appeared." A tract entitled " The Seven Togethers " sums up the Scripture testimony with regard to the Consequences Of the believer's Union with Christ: i. Crucified together with Christ — Gal. 2 : 20 — (TDveazaupmiJLCu. 2. Died together with Christ — Col. 2 : 20 — dneMvere. 3. Buried together with Christ — ^Rom. 6 : 4 — (Twerdipr^fjieu. 4. Quickened together with Christ. — Eph. 2 : 5 — (Tuve^cooTToiT^aep. 5. Raised together with Christ' — Col. 3 : i* — aovTjjepd^TjTe. 6. Sufferers together with Christ — ^Rom. 8:17 — aofmda- yofizv, 7. Glorified together with Christ — Rom. 8:17 — auvdo^aa&ajpev. Union with Christ results in common sonship, relation to God, character, influence, and destiny. Imperfect apprehension of the believer's union with Christ works to the great injury of 57 UNION WITH CHRIST Christian doctrine. An experience of union with Christ first enables us to understand the death of sin and separation from God which has befallen the race sprung from the first Adam. The life and liberty of the children of God in Christ Jesus shows us by contrast how far astray we had. gone. The vital and organic unity of the new race sprung from the second Adam reveals the depravity and disin- tegration which we had inherited from our first father. We see that as there is one source of spiritual life in Christ, so there was one source of corrupt life in Adam; and th^t as we are justified by reason of our oneness with the justified Christ, so we are condemned by reason of our oneness with the condemned Adam. A. H. Strong, Christ in Creation, 175 — " If it is consistent with evolution that the physical and natural life of the race should be derived from a single source, then it is equally con- sistent with evolution that the moral and spir- itual life of the race should be derived from a single source. Scripture is stating only scien- tific fact when it sets the second Adam, the head of redeemed humanity, over against the 58 UNION WITH CHRIST first Adam, the head of fallen humanity. We are told that evolution should give us many Christs. We reply that evolution has not given us many Adams. Evolution, as it as- signs to the natural head of the race a supreme and unique position, must be consistent with itself, and must assign a supreme and unique position to Jesus Christ, the spiritual head of the race. As there was but one Adam from whom all the natural life of the race was de- rived, so there can be but one Christ from whom all the spiritual life of the race is de- rived.'' The consequences of union with Christ may be summarily stated as follows : (a) Union with Christ involves a change in the dominant affection of the soul. Christ's entrance into the soul makes it a new creature, in the sense that the ruling disposition, which before was sinful, now becomes holy. This change we call Regeneration. 59 UNION WITH CHRIST Rom. 8:2 — "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death"; 2 Cor. 5: 17 — " if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature " (marg. — " there is a new creation ") ; Gal. 1:15, 16 — " it was the good pleasure of God .... to reveal his Son in me " ; Eph. 2 : 10 — " For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." As we derive our old nature from the first man Adam, by birth, so we derive a new nature from the second man Christ, by the new birth. Union with Christ is the true " transfusion of blood." " The death-struck sinner, like the wan, anaemic, dying invalid, is saved by having poured into his veins, the healthier blood of Christ" (Drummond, Nat. Law in the Spir. World). God regenerates the soul by uniting it to Jesus Christ. In the Johnston Harvester Works at Bata- via, when they paint their machinery, they do it by immersing part after part in a great tank of paint, — so the painting is instantaneous and complete. Our baptism into Christ is the outward picture of an inward immersion of the soul not only into his love and fellow- 60 UNION WITH CHRIST ship, but into his very life, so that in him we become new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17). As Miss Sullivan surrounded Helen Keller with the influence of her strong personality, by in- telligence and sympathy and determination stri- ving to awaken the blind and dumb soul and give it light and love, so Jesus envelops us. But his Spirit is more encompassing and more penetrating than any human influence how- ever powerful, because his life is the very ground and principle of our being. Tennyson has well written : Oh, for a man to arise in me. That the man that I am may cease to be! And Emerson has the same thought: Himself from God he could not free; He builded better than he knew. Religion is not the adding of a new department of activity as an adjunct to our own life, or the grafting of a new method of manifesta- tion upon the old. It is rather the grafting of our souls into Christ, so that his life dominates and manifests itself in all our activities. The 61 UNION WITH CHRIST magnet, which left to itself can lift only a three-pound weight, will lift three hundred when it is attached to the electric dynamo. Expositor's Greek Testament on i Cor. 15: 45, 46 — " The action of Jesus in ' breathing ' upon his disciples while he said, ' Receive the Holy Spirit' (John 20:22, sq.) symbolized the vitalizing relationship which at this epoch he assumed towards mankind; this act raised to a higher potency the original ' breathing ' of God by which ' man became a living soul ' (Gen. 2:7)." (b) Union with Christ involves a new exercise of the soul's powers in repentance and faith; faith, indeed, is the act of the soul by which, under the operation of God, Christ is received. This new exercise of the souFs powers we call Conversion (Repentance and Faith). It is the obverse or human side of Regeneration. Eph. 3 : 17 — " that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith"; 2 Tim. 3:15 — "the 62 UNION WITH CHRIST sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." Faith is the soul's laying hold of Christ as its only source of life, pardon, and salvation. And so we see what true re- ligion is. It is not a moral life; it is not a determination to be religious; it is not faith, if by faith we mean an external trust that somehow Christ will save us ; it is nothing less than the life of the soul in God, through Christ his Son. To Christ, then, we are to look for the origin, continuance, and increase of our faith (Luke 17:5 — "said unto the Lord, In- crease our faith"). Our faith is but a part of " his fulness " of which " we all received, and grace for grace " (John i : 16). A. H. Strong, Sermon before the Baptist World Congress, London, 1905 — " Christianity is summed up in the two facts : Christ for us, and Christ in us — Christ for us upon the Cross, revealing the eternal opposition of holi- ness to sin, and yet, through God's eternal suffering for sin making objective atonement for us; and Christ in us by his Spirit, renew- ing in us the lost image of God, and abiding in us as the all-sufficient source of purity and 63 UNION WITH CHRIST power. Here are the two foci of the Chris- tian ellipse: Christ for us, who redeemed us from the curse of the laiw by being made a curse for us, and Christ in us, the hope of glory, whom the apostle calls the mystery of the gospel. " We need Christ in us as well as Christ for us. How shall I, how shall society, find healing and purification within? Let me an- swer by reminding you of what they did at Chicago. In all the world there was no river more stagnant and fetid than was Chicago River. Its sluggish stream received the sweep- ings of the watercraft and the offal of the city, and there was no current to carry the detritus away. There it settled, and bred miasma and fever. At last it was suggested that, by cutting through the low ridge between the city and the Desplaines River, the current could be set running in the opposite direction, and drain- age could be secured into the Illinois River and the great Mississippi. At a cost of fifteen millions of dollars the cut was made, and now all the water of Lake Michigan can be relied upon to cleanse that turbid stream. What Chicago River could never do for itself, the 64 UNION WITH CHRIST great lake now does for it. So no human soul can purge itself of its sin; and what the indi- vidual cannot do, humanity at large is power- less to accomplish. Sin has dominion over us, and we are foul to the very depths of our be- ing, until with the help of God we break through the barrier of our self-will, and let the floods of Christ's purifying life flow into us. Then, in an hour, more is done to renew, than all our efforts for years had effected. Thus humanity is saved, individual by indi- vidual, not by philosophy, or philanthropy, or self-development, or self-reformation, but simply by joining itself to Jesus Christ and by being filled in Him with all the fulness of God." (c) Union with Christ gives to the believer the legal standing and rights of Christ. As Christ's union with the race involves atonement, so the believ- er's union with Christ involves Justifi- cation, The believer is entitled to take for his own all that Christ is, and all that Christ has done: and this because 65 UNION WITH CHRIST he has within him that new Hfe of humanity which suffered in Christ's death and rose from the grave in Christ's resurrection, — in other words, because he is virtually one person with the Redeemer. In Christ the believer is prophet, priest, and king. Acts 13 : 39 — " by him [lit. : ' in him ' — in union with him] every one that believeth is justified"; Rom. 6:7, 8—" he that hath died is justified from sin . . . we died with Christ " ; 7 : 4 — " dead to the law through the body of Christ " ; 8 : i — " no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus " ; 17 — " heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ"; i Cor. 1:30 — "But of him ye are in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness [justification]''; 3:21, 23 — "all things are yours . . . and ye are Christ's " ; 6:1 1 — " ye were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God " ; 2 Cor. 5 : 14 — " we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died " ; 21 — " Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; that we 66 UNION WITH CHRIST might become the righteousness [justification] of God in him '* — God's justified persons, in union with Christ. Gal. 2 : 20 — " I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me " ; Eph. i : 4, 6 — " chose us in him ... to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved " ; 2 : 5, 6 — " even when we were dead through our trespass, made us alive together with Christ . . . made us to sit with him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus " ; Phil. 3 : 8, 9 — " that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith " ; 2 Tim. 2 : 1 1 — "Faithful is the saying: For if we died with him, we shall also live with him." Prophet: Luke 12 : 12 — " the tloly Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say " ; I John 2 : 20 — " ye have an anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things." Priest : I Pet. 2 : 5 — " a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ " ; Rev. 20 : 6 — " they shall be 67 UNION WITH CHRIST priests of God and of Christ"; i Pet. 2:9 — " a royal priesthood." King : Rev. 3 : 21 — " He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne " ; 5 : 10 — " madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests." The connection of justification and union with Christ delivers the former from the charge of being a mechanical and arbitrary procedure. As Jonathan Edwards has said : " The justi- fication of the believer is no other than his being admitted to communion in, or participa- tion of, this head and surety of all believers." {d) Union with Christ secures to the behever the continuously transforming, assimilating power of Christ's life, — first, for the soul; secondly, for the body, — consecrating it in the present, and in the future raising it up in the likeness of Christ's glorified body. This continuous influence, so far as it is ex- erted in the present life, we call Sancti- fication, the human side or aspect of which is Perseverance. 68 UNION WITH CHRIST For the soul: John i : i6 — ** of his fulness we all received and grace for grace " — succes- sive and increasing measures of grace, corre- sponding to the soul's successive and increasing needs; Rom. 8: lo — ** if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness"; i Cor. 15:45 — ** The last Adam became a life-giving spirit " ; Phil. 2 : 5 — " Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " ; i John 3 : 2 ' — " if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him." *' Can Christ let the believer fall out of his hands ? No, for the believer is his hands." For the body: i Cor. 6: 17-20 — "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit .... know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you .... glorify God there- fore in your body " ; i Thess. 5 : 23 — " And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be pre- served entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " ; Rom. 8 : 1 1 — " shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you " ; i Cor. 15 : 49 — " as we have borne the image of the earthy [man], we shall also bear the image of the 69 UNION WITH CHRIST heavenly [man] "; Phil. 3:20, 21 — "For our citizenship is in heaven ; from whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself." Is there a physical miracle wrought for the drunkard in his regeneration? Mr. Moody said, Yes ; Mr. Gough said, No. We prefer to say that the change is a spiritual one ; but that the " expulsive power of a new affection " in- directly affects the body, so that old appetites sometimes disappear in a moment; and that often, in the course of years, great changes take place even in the believer's body. Tennyson, Idylls : " Have ye looked at Edryn ? Have ye seen how nobly changed ? This work of his is great and wonderful : His very face with change of heart is changed." " Christ in the soul fashions the germinal man into his own like- ness,' — this is the embryology of the new life. The cardinal error in religious life is the at- tempt to live without proper environment " (see Drummond, Natural Law in Spiritual World, 253-284). Human life from Adam 70 UNION WITH CHRIST does not stand the test, — only divine-human life in Christ can secure us from falling. This is the work of Christ, now that he has as- cended and taken to himself his power, namely, to give his life more and more fully to the church, until it shall grow up in all things into him, the Head, and shall fitly express his glory to the world. As the accomplished organist discloses un- suspected capabilities of his instrument, so Christ brings into activity all the latent powers of the human soul. *' I was five years in the ministry," said an American preacher, " be- fore I realized that my Saviour is alive." Dr. R. W. Dale has left on record the almost un- utterable feelings that stirred his soul when he first realized this truth ; see Walker, The Spirit and the Incarnation, preface, v. Many have struggled in vain against sin until they have admitted Christ to their hearts, — ^then they could say : " this is the victory that hath over- come the world, even our faith" (i John 5:4). Go out, God will go in; Die thou, and let him live; Be not, and he will be ; Wait, and he'll all things give. 71 UNION WITH CHRIST The best way to get air out of a vessel is to pour water in. Only in Christ can we find our pardon, peace, purity, and power. He is '* made unto us wisdom from God, and justi- fication, and sanctification, and redemption " (i Cor. 1:30). A medical man says: "The only radical remedy for dipsomania is re- ligiomania " (quoted in William James, Vari- eties of Religious Experience, 268). It is easy to break into an empty house; the spirit cast out returns, finds the house empty, brings seven others, and " the last state of that man becometh worse than the first" (Matt. 12: 45). There is no safety in simply expelling sin; we need also to bring in Christ; in fact, only he can enable us to expel not only actual sin but the love of it. Alexander McLaren: '* If we are ' in Christ,' we are like a diver in his crystal bell, and have a solid though invisible wall around us, which keeps all sea-monsters off us, and com- municates with the upper air, whence we draw the breath of calm life and can work in security though in the ocean depths." John Caird, Fund. Ideas, 2 : 98 — " How do we know that the life of God has not departed from 7z UNION WITH CHRIST nature? Because every spring we witness the annual miracle of nature's revival, every sum- mer and autumn the waving corn. How do we know that Christ has not departed from the world? Because he imparts to the soul that trusts him a power, a purity, a peace, which are beyond all that nature can give." See A. H. Strong, Miscellanies, i : 53-55. (e) Union with Christ brings about a fellowship of Christ with the believer, — Christ takes part in all the labors, temptations, and sufferings of his peo- ple; a fellowship of the believer with Christ, — so that Christ's whole experi- ence on earth is in some measure repro- duced in him; a fellowship of all be- lievers with one another, — furnishing a basis for the spiritual unity of Christ's people on earth, and for the eternal communion of heaven. The doctrine of Union with Christ is there- fore the indispensable preparation for Ecclesiology, and for Eschatology 73 UNION WITH CHRIST If Christ be only man, then his union with God and our union with God in him will be only union of sympathy, character, and pur- pose. But if Christ be God, then his union and our union with the Father is a union of life, and we can say with Paul : " I live, yet not I: Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20). Fellowship of Christ with the believer : Phil. 4:13 — "I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me"; Heb. 4:15 — "For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities " ; cf. Is. 63 : g—" In all their affliction he was afflicted." Heb. 2 : 18 — " in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted " — are being tempted, are under temptation. Bp. Wordsworth : " By his pas- sion he acquired compassion/' 2 Cor. 2 : 14 — " thanks be unto God, who always leadeth us in triumph in Christ " — Christ leads us in triumph, but his triumph is ours, even if it be a triumph over us. One with him, we partici- pate in his joy and in his sovereignty. Rev. 3 : 21' — " He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne." W. F. Taylor on Rom. 8 : 9 — " The Spirit of God 74 UNION WITH CHRIST dwelleth in you .... if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his " — Christ dwells in us, says the apostle. But do we ac- cept him as a resident, or as a ruler? Eng- land was first represented at King Thebau's court by her resident. This official could re- buke, and even threaten, but no more, — Thebau was sovereign. Burma knew no peace, till England ruled. So Christ does not consent to be represented by a mere resident. He must himself dwell within the soul, and he must reign." Christina Rossetti, Thee Only: Lord, we are rivers running to thy sea, Our waves and ripples all derived from thee; A nothing we should have, a nothing be, Except for thee. Sweet are the waters of thy shoreless sea; . Make sweet our waters that make haste to thee; Pour in thy sweetness, that ourselves may be Sweetness to thee. Of the believer with Christ: Phil. 3:10 — " that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his suffer- ings, becoming conformed unto his death " ; Col. 1 : 24 — " fill up on my part that which is 75 UNION WITH CHRIST lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church " ; I Pet. 4: 13 — " partakers of Christ's sufferings. The Christian reproduces Christ's life in minia- ture, and, in a true sense, lives it over again. Only upon the principle of union with Christ can we explain how the Christian instinctively applies to himself the prophecies and promises which originally and primarily were uttered with reference to Christ : '' Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol ; Neither wilt thou suffer thy holy one to see corruption" (Ps. 16: 10, 11). This fellowship is the ground of the promises made to beHeving prayer: John 14:13 — " whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do " ; Westcott, Bib. Com., in loco: " The meaning of the phrase [' in my name '] is ' as being one with me even as I am revealed to you.' Its two correlatives are ' in me ' and the Pauline ' in Christ' " " All things are yours " (i Cor. 3:21), because Christ is universal King, and all believers are exalted to fellow- ship with him. After the battle of Sedan, King William asked a wounded Prussian of- ficer whether it were well with him. " All is well where your majesty leads!" was the 76 UNION WITH CHRIST reply. Phil, i : 21 — " For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." Paul indeed uses the words ' Christ ' and * church * as inter- changeable terms: i Cor. 12: 12 — " as the body is one, and hath many members, .... so also is Christ." Denney, Studies in Theology, 171 — " There is not in the N. T. from beginning to end, in the record of the original and genuine Christian life, a single word of despondency or gloom. It is the most buoyant, exhilarating and joyful book in the world." This is due to the fact that the writers believe in a living and exalted Christ, and know themselves to be one with him. They descend crowned into the arena. In the Soudan, every morning for half an hour before General Gordon's tent there lay a white handkerchief. The most press- ing message, even on matters of life and death, waited till that handkerchief was with- drawn. It was the signal that Christ and Gordon were in communion with each other. Of all believers with one another: John 17: 21 — " that they may all be one " ; i Cor. 10: 17 — " we, who are many are one bread, one body : for we all partake of the one bread " ; Eph. 2: 15 — " create in himself of the two one new 77 UNION WITH CHRIST man, so making peace " ; i John i : 3 — " that ye also may have fellowship with us : yea, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ " — here the word xoipcouca is used. Fellowship with each other is the effect and result of the fellowship of each with God in Christ. Compare John 10: 16 — "they shall become one flock, one shepherd " ; West- cott. Bib. Com., in loco: " The bond of fellow- ship is shown to lie in the common relation to one Lord Nothing is said of one ' fold ' under the new dispensation." Here is a unity, not of external organization, but of common life. Of this the visible church is the conse- quence and expression. But this communion is not limited to earth, — it is perpetuated be- yond death: i Thess. 4: 17 — '' so shall we ever be with the Lord"; Heb. 12:23— "to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect"; Rev. 21 and 22 — the city of God, the new Jerusalem, is the image of per- fect society, as well as of intensity and fulness of life in Christ. The ordinances express the essence of Ecclesiology' — union with Christ — 78 UNION WITH CHRIST for Baptism symbolizes the incorporation of the believer in Christ, while the Lord's Supper symbolizes the incorporation of Christ in the believer. Christianity is a social matter, and the true Christian feels the need of being with and among his brethren. The Romans could not understand why " this new sect " must be holding meetings all the time — even daily meetings. Why could they not go singly, or in families, to the temples, and make offerings to their God, and then come away, as the pagans did? It was this meeting together which ex- posed them to persecution and martyrdom. It was the natural and inevitable expression of their union with Christ and so of their union with one another. The consciousness of union with Christ gives assurance of salvation. It is a great stimulus to believing prayer and to patient labor. It is a duty to " know what is the hope of his call- ing, what the riches of the glory of his inherit- ance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who be- lieve " (Eph. i:i8, 19). Christ's command, "Abide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4), implies that we are both to realize and to con- 79 UNION WITH CHRIST firm this union, by active exertion of our own wills. We are to abide in him by an entire consecration, and to let him abide in us by an appropriating faith. We are to give ourselves to Christ, and to take in return the Christ who gives himself to us, — in other words, we are to believe Christ's promises and to act upon them. All sin consists in the sundering of man's life from God, and most systems of falsehood in religion are attempts to save man without merging his life in God's once more. The only religion that can save man- kind is the religion that fills the whole heart and the whole life with God, and that aims to interpenetrate universal humanity with that same living Christ who has already made him- self one with the believer. This conscious- ness of union with Christ gives " boldness " {nappTja'ta — Acts 4: 13; i John 5: 14) toward men and toward God. The word belongs to the Greek democracies. Freemen are bold. Demosthenes boasts of his frankness. Christ frees us from the hide-bound, introspective, self-conscious spirit. In him we become free, demonstrative, outspoken. So we find in John's epistles, that boldness in prayer is 80 UNION WITH CHRIST spoken of as a virtue, and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews urges us to "draw near with boldness unto the throne of grace " (Heb. 4:16). An engagement of marriage is not the same as marriage. The parties may be still distant from each other. Many Christians get just near enough to Christ to be engaged to him. This seems to be the experience of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress. But our privilege is to have a present Christ, and to do our work not only for him, but in him. Since Christ and we are one, Why should we doubt or fear? We two are so joined, He'll not be in heaven, And leave me behind. We append a few statements with regard to this union and its consequences, from noted names in theology and the church. Luther: " By faith thou art so glued to Christ that of thee and him there becomes as it were one person, so that with confidence thou canst say : * I am Christ, — that is, Christ's righteousness, victory, etc.j are mine ' ; and Christ in turn can 81 UNION WITH CHRIST say: *I am that sinner, — that is, his sins, his death, etc.y are mine, because he dings to me and I to him, for we have been joined through faith into one flesh and bone.' " Calvin : " I attribute the highest importance to the connec- tion between the head and the members; to the inhabitation of Christ in our hearts; in a word, to the mystical union by which we enjoy him, so that, being made ours, he makes us partakers of the blessings with which he is furnished." John Bunyan : " The Lord led me into the knowledge of the mystery of union with Christ, that I was joined to him, that I was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. By this also my faith in him as my righteous- ness was the more confirmed ; for if he and I were one, then his righteousness was mine, his merits mine, his victory also mine. Now could I see myself in heaven and on earth at once — in heaven by my Christ, my risen head, my righteousness and life, though on earth by my body or person." Edwards : " Faith is the soul's active uniting with Christ. God sees fit that, in order to a union's being established between two intelligent active beings, there should be the mutual act of both, that each 82 • • ... • ••< UNION ivrrM'VmisT' •''•• '• ••"' should receive the other, as entirely joining themselves to one another." Andrew Fuller: " I have no doubt that the imputation of Christ*? righteousness presupposes a union with him; since there is no perceivable fitness in bestowing benefits on one for another's sake, where there is no union or relation between." See Luther, quoted, with other references, in Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, 3: 325. See also Calvin, Institutes, i : 660 ; Ed- wards, Works, 4 : 66, 69, 70 ; Andrew Fuller, Works, 2 : 685 ; Pascal, Thoughts, Eng. trans., 429; Hooker, Eccl. Polity, book 5, ch. 56; Tillotson, Sermons, 3 : 307 ; Trench, Studies in Gospels, 284, and Christ the True Vine, in Hulsean Lectures ; Schoberlein, in Studien und Kritiken, 1847:7-69; Caird, on Union with God, in Scotch Sermons, sermon 2; Godet, on the Ultimate Design of Man, in Princeton Rev., Nov. 1880 — the design is " God in man and man in God " ; Baird, Elohim Revealed 590-617; Upham, Divine Union, Interior Life Life of Madame Guyon and Fenelon; A. J Gordon, In Christ; McDuff, In Christo; J Denham Smith, Life-truths, 25-98; A. H Strong, Philosophy and Religion, 220-225 83 ''U^-rO^'Wl^H CHRIST Bishop Hall's Treatise on The Church Mys- tical; Andrew Murray, Abide in Christ; Stearns, Evidence of Christian Experience, 145, 174, 179; F. B. Meyer, Christian Living — essay on Appropriation of Christ, vs. mere imitation of Christ; Sanday, Epistle to the Romans, supplementary essay on the Mystic Union; H. B. Smith, System of Theology, 531 ; J. M. 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