This Is A Great Mystery

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. - Ephesians 5:30

    Here the apostle speaks of the believer’s relation with Christ, which he symbolically illustrates by the marriage relation of a husband and wife. Our spiritual union with Christ is a great mystery in that it has a divine substance and meaning, which is beyond human understanding. The believer’s union with Christ is such a one of eternal origin.

    We are chosen in him before the foundation of the world. We are in him when he lived upon this earth, having assumed sinless human flesh, as he fulfilled all righteousness. We are one with him when he expiated our sin in his death upon his cross. We are one with him in his resurrection and glorification. We are in him as he is now seated in heaven in his resurrection body.

    His church (His bride) is one body, having many members, yet joined together with Him, he being the Head. Our union with Christ infinitely supersedes all human intellect, and can only be embraced as truth by divine assistance. This wondrous truth does not void the reality of our natural depravity and lost estate as the sons of Adam, nor our own guilt, which is lively in our nativity and continues in our fleshly body. Our depravity and eternal union with Christ required the person and work of our Redeemer, and the work of his Omnipotent Spirit in regeneration. The latter reveals and applies the former. The purpose of God never changes, yet his purpose changes many things, bringing all things into harmony with, and according to his purpose. The salvation of his elect church is according to his eternal purpose of grace in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:28-30). From election to glorification, divine Inspiration records all in the past and present tense, revealing this union is accomplished in eternity, in time, and in the consummation, when Christ shall deliver up the kingdom to his Father. Again, This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church (Eph 5:32).