Union with Christ

Q: What does the Bible say about union with Christ?

Union with Christ means believers are spiritually united with Jesus, sharing in His righteousness and sanctification. Union with Christ is a profound theological truth indicating that believers are spiritually united with Jesus. As stated in Hebrews 2:11, 'For both he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctified are all of one.' This means that all believers are considered one with Christ and share in His righteousness before God. This union is fundamental for salvation and sanctification, as it signifies that our holiness before God comes not from our efforts but from our identification with Christ. Through faith in Him, we receive His righteousness, allowing us to stand boldly before God, both in our current lives and on the day of judgment.

Q: How do we know sanctification is true?

Sanctification is rooted in God's work, as He set us apart through Christ's sacrifice and the Holy Spirit's call. The doctrine of sanctification is affirmed through Scripture, which teaches it is the work of God in the life of believers. In Hebrews 10:10, it is highlighted that we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. This indicates that our sanctification is not a result of our gradual improvement in holiness but an accomplished fact based on Christ's atoning work. Additionally, 2 Thessalonians 2:13 states that God has chosen believers for salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit. Thus, the truth of our sanctification rests in God's sovereign will and action, not our performance.

Q: Why is sanctification important for Christians?

Sanctification is vital as it represents believers' identity in Christ and assures them of their standing before God. Sanctification is crucial for Christians as it establishes their identity in Christ and embodies the transformative work God performs in them. As described in Romans 8:29, those God foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, demonstrating that sanctification involves becoming more like Christ. This transformation provides believers with confidence to approach God, fostering a relationship free from fear and filled with love, as perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Consequently, understanding sanctification helps believers recognize their complete reliance on Christ for holiness, further motivating them to live in a manner that glorifies God.

Good morning. Let's go before our Lord and ask for his blessings on our time together. Our gracious and merciful Heavenly Father, what great comfort we have and be able to sing that hymn with some understanding. to know that the Lord Jesus has bore the full weight and justice of all the sins of all of his people and put them away once and for all by the sacrifice of himself, that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Lord, we pray that your Holy Spirit would speak that truth to our hearts this day. Lord, that we would be able to worship you and be able to leave this place knowing that you have met with us and that you have revealed yourself and comforted us in Christ.

We ask it in his name. Amen. There's a verse or two in Hebrews chapter two that we often quote. If you'd like to turn with me there in your Bibles, I want us to focus our attention this morning on verse 11. For both he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctified are all of one, all of one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. Union with Christ being all as one before God Almighty in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's called being sanctified. Many will teach the subject of sanctification, causing us to look to ourselves to find out how sanctified we are. I hope this morning that the Lord will enable us to look to Christ alone for all of our sanctification. He that sanctify us.

That's the Lord Jesus and them which are sanctified. That's all his people are all as one for which cause he's not ashamed to call them his brethren. If you'll turn just a few pages over with me to 1 John chapter 4, I want to look at a few verses. This truth of being found in Him, being found in Christ, Not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness which is by the faith and the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Having Christ as my righteousness before God. Being made holy. That's what sanctified means. It means to be made holy. Is that just a positional truth? Or does it have an effect? on my heart and my life.

Look here in 1 John chapter 4, and we'll begin reading at verse 16. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment." And not only does this next phrase refer to the boldness that we have in the day of judgment to be able to stand in the presence of a holy God, being found in Christ. But it gives us boldness now to come before the throne of grace and find help in our time of need. We're able to approach God based on this glorious truth. Let's read this verse again.

Herein is our love made perfect. This is what perfects love. And love is the fulfillment of the law. When the Pharisee asked the Lord Jesus, what's the greatest of all the commandments? The Lord said, love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and all of your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. For all the law and the prophets hang on this, love. Does love change a person's life? Oh yes, does it change their heart? Yes. like nothing else.

Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment and that we may have boldness now to come before the throne of grace because as he is, so are we in this world. That's union with Christ. That's the hope that we have of being able to come before God to know that we are found in Christ. Look at verse 18. There's no fear in love. There's no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us.

The perfection of our salvation is seen and believed. And when I say seen, I don't mean that we see it in our lives. We see it In God's word, we see it by faith. We believe what God has said about our union with Christ and we have boldness in the day of judgment and we have boldness now because as he is, so are we, so are we. When the Lord Jesus was praying for us in John chapter 17, verse 23, he said to the heavenly father, I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one for thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.

Most of what we hear relating to the subject of being sanctified or the doctrine of sanctification, as I've already mentioned, for an honest person creates fear because it points one's attention to themselves to see how they're progressing on the road of sanctification.

It's called progressive sanctification. It teaches that one becomes more and more sanctified. This word sanctified means to be set apart for a holy purpose. It means to be made holy. And most teaching on sanctification would have us Look closely to see how well we're doing in becoming less sinful and more holy.

Go back with me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews chapter two. Sanctification is not a cooperative effort. We cannot do anything to make ourselves more holy. Holiness is an absolute. If we're to stand in the presence of a holy God, we must be as absolutely holy as he is. We can't make contributions to that.

Notice in our verse 11, for both he, that, sanctifyeth. Now this word, this first word sanctifyeth is in the active voice. That means that the subject is the one doing the action. What is the subject in this first phrase? He. He that sanctifyeth. He's the one that does the action. And they that are sanctifyeth.

Now that word sanctified is in the passive voice, which means the subject is not the actor, but the receiver. So he that sanctify it, that's God taking an active role in setting us apart, and they that are sanctified, that's us, passive in this matter of sanctification, have been made by God all as one, whereby he's not ashamed to call them his brethren.

In our text, the reference is to the Lord Jesus Christ sanctifying us in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 10. The Lord says by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. once for all. When the Lord Jesus offered himself to his heavenly father at Calvary's cross and paid the debt for all the sins of all of God's people, putting them away once and for all, he made those for whom he died holy, sanctified. Sanctification is also spoken of in the scriptures as something that the Father does. When Jude addresses himself or introduces himself in the book of Jude, he says, Jude, a servant of God, to them who are sanctified by God the Father, by God the Father.

So it's not just the Lord Jesus Christ who has set his people apart, but it's God the Father who set his people apart. Ephesians 1, verse 4 says, according as he, the heavenly Father, has chosen us in the covenant of grace, in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. This thing of sanctification, it is a work that God performed in the covenant of grace when he elected a particular people and put them before time ever was in Christ, in Christ.

Can we see that? No, but we believe it because God said so. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Thessalonians 2. And look with me in verse 13. God the Father has sanctified us when he set us apart in Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has sanctified his people when he laid down his life and shed his precious blood at Calvary's cross. And verse 13 of 2 Thessalonians chapter two, but we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. All three persons of the Triune Godhead concur and cooperate in sanctifying all of God's people. Is there any way, is there any way that we could not be sanctified?

Romans chapter eight, verse 29 says, whom he did foreknow, That's the omniscient, not just omniscient, but the love of the Father, whom he did foreknow. He knew his people in the covenant of grace, in love, before the foundation of the world, whom he did foreknow. He did predestinate. He predestinated them.

And then in our King James Version in Romans chapter eight, verse 29, And one of the reasons I like the King James is because when the translators added words, they put them in italics. And generally speaking, if you see italicized words in the King James, it reads better without them. And this is one of those verses, whom he did predestinate, whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate, and also whom he did predestinate, I can't quote. Let's look at this verse. I want you to see it anyway. Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight. I want you to see these italicized words. Verse 29.

And whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, you see, to be, to be, He did predestinate it that at some point in time we might be conformed? No, just leave out to be, it's not there. Whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate conformed to the image of his son.

Now that's sanctification. That's union with Christ. That is what gives us boldness in the time of judgment and boldness to approach the throne of grace now. That is the glorious truth of the gospel that perfects love, that perfects love. I know that I had nothing to do with being sanctified. I know that I am sanctified before God because God did it. And I know that he did it because he said so. And he has given me faith to believe what he has revealed. This is my hope.

This is the thing that affects my heart as much or more than anything. Well, we just read in 1 John 4, this is what perfects love. It is what perfects love, that as he is, so are we in this world. And perfect love casteth out fear, for where there's fear, there's not love.

If sanctification is what is being taught in most circles today, a cooperative effort that God and me do together and that I have to progress in becoming more holy, and I'm an honest man, then I'm afraid. I'm afraid. But if it's a work that he performed, and it's complete, and I can Regardless of the state of my heart and my life, I can come boldly before the throne of grace and find help in my time of need. I can have the confidence that I'll be able to stand boldly in the presence of God on the day of judgment. Why? Because he has sanctified me. And he gets all the glory. He that does the sanctifying and they which are sanctified are all as one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. The Bible uses a lot of words to define and to describe God's people. the elect of God, the church of God, the chosen ones, believers, Christian. There's one word that's used more often than all those put together. Can you think of what word it is?

Saint. Saint. Now, generally, when we hear the word saint, in a casual sense, we use it to compliment someone because they've done something good. Well, that, boy, you've been a saint to me. Well, that person's a real saint. And perhaps maybe even in a more formal sense, particularly for those who came out of Catholicism, We think of saint as one who has been recognized officially by the church because of their extraordinary life, because they were identified with particular miracles. For the Catholic Church to canonize a person as a saint, they have to be identified with two miracles, and then the Pope has to approve it. And perhaps that would be what people would think about when they think of saints. Unfortunately, that idea is carried over even in my Bible.

When the Gospels are identified as the Gospel of Saint Matthew, the Gospel of Saint Mark, the Gospel of Saint Luke and the gospel of St. John. That's how my gospel accounts are identified in my Bible. Of course, that was added and they were saints. But just like in the book of Revelation in my Bible, at the beginning of the book of Revelation, the revelation given to St. John the divine. That's what it says in my Bible. That's the title of the book of Revelation.

And that sort of language gives us the thought that a saint, a sanctified one, is a particular individual who has achieved some high level of spirituality. But in fact, that's not what the Bible, that's not how the Bible defines the word saint. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1. Paul addressing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit a letter to the church at Corinth who have a lot of things going on in that church that weren't very saintly, if I can use that word broadly. And in verse two of chapter one, after he identifies himself, he says, unto the church of God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called, and once again, the verb to be is an italics, called saints. called saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus, of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.

I think it's well over a hundred times the word saint is used in the New Testament to identify God's people. sanctified one, sanctified by God. Paul said in Philippians chapter one verse six, this sanctification is God's work from start to finish. He said, I'm confident that he which began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. This work of sanctification, God keeps alive in the soul. I pray that he's doing that now. that he is renewing our understanding and renewing our faith to believe what he has said about our position before God, being made holy before God Almighty. Nothing will affect love more than that. And nothing affects faith more than love.

Proverbs 4, verse 18 says, the path of the just, or justified, or saint. The path of the saint is as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Although this matter of sanctification is not something progressive in the sense that we become more holy and less sinful, it is a growth in grace. And it is a growth in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the glorious thing about growth in grace. The way up is down.

The more the Lord Jesus shines the light of the gospel in the glory of his own face in the heart and shows us what he has, who he has made us to be, the more that light reveals the dark, hidden sin of pride and unbelief and worldliness And so as we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, we see ourselves more sinful than we were when we were first converted, even though we may have been converted out of some sort of shameful, horrible life.

I was reading the words of James Guthrie. He was a Scottish preacher, and he was taken to the gallows in 1661 for preaching the gospel, preaching the gospel of God's free grace, of God's sanctifying grace, preaching Christ as all in salvation to a church that was that believed in works. And they gave him an opportunity to speak before they hung him. And here's some of what he said.

I acknowledge that I am a sinner. Yea, one of the greatest vilest that have ever owned the profession of religion and one of the most unworthy sinners to preach the gospel. My corruptions have been strong and many and have made me a sinner in all things. As for righteousness, I have none of my own.

That Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners is all the hope of my salvation. Now, do you suppose that James Guthrie was engaged in some sort of life that was shameful or inconsistent with what he was preaching? No. No, if they had found something of that sort to charge him with, they would have put him to death for that.

But that's the testimony of a man just before he dies, I remember Marvin Stoniker standing in this pulpit and telling us not long after his first wife Linda passed, as he lied with her in the bed, in her deathbed, in her dying moments, he said, honey, I see, she said, honey, I see more now than ever before that Christ is all I have. Christ is all I have.

You see, sanctification doesn't make, the people who teach sanctification as being progressive, as if we become less sinful and more holy, first of all, that can only be measured by the law. So those churches that teach that end up putting people under the law because that's the means by which we have to measure how sanctified you become. And that genders pride, self-righteousness, in the liars, and in the honest man, it genders fear. Fear. Union with Christ And when my faith wanes and when my heart is gripped with unbelief and fear and pride and self-righteousness, the Lord said through the prophet Hosea, they shall revive as the corn and they shall be renewed.

I'll see to it. I'm not gonna leave them nor forsake them. No man can pluck them out of my hand. And my father, which is greater than me, which gave them all to me. He's greater than all, and he gave them to me. No man can pluck them out of my father's hand. Because I live, they shall live also. The prophet Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 40 said, they shall not depart from me. He will keep us from falling.

This matter of faith and repentance is a daily work of grace done by the spirit of God in them which are sanctified. not are being sanctified, are sanctified. It's God's work in the soul. It's God's work in the heart. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter 17, verse 19, I, he's praying for his church to our heavenly father. He said, father, I sanctify myself. Would it be possible for the Lord Jesus to become more holy and less sinful? I sanctify myself. In Genesis chapter three, when God finished creation, maybe it's in Genesis two, the Lord said that the seventh day, he sanctified and made holy.

He set it apart. He set it apart as a day of rest, as a sign to point to Christ in whom we rest. When the temple was built, it was sanctified. It was set apart. When the articles that were used in worship were blessed, they were sanctified. They were set apart. The priests were sanctified. The prophets were sanctified. God's kings were sanctified. anointed with oil and set apart, for what?

For God's service. When the Lord Jesus said, I sanctify myself, he wasn't saying I make myself more holy and less sinful. He was saying, Father, I dedicate myself to you as the surety and the redeemer of my people. I dedicate myself, I consecrate myself, I set myself apart to accomplish the work that you sent me to do, to be the surety. A surety is a person that provides everything necessary for the debt of another. Sanctification It's not just a cold doctrine of position in Christ that has no real effect on the heart.

No, herein is our love made perfect. Our love for Christ, our love for God's people, our love for his word, Herein is our love made perfect. And herein is our boldness to come before God in the day of judgment and now in the throne of grace, that as he is, so are we in this world. Only God could perform such a miraculous work It's mysterious, it cannot be seen with the natural eye, and the more we look at ourselves, the less we see of it. The more we look to Christ, the more we know that if I'm gonna be sanctified, I must be found in him. because the light of the countenance of his glory and grace only reveals, like James Guthrie, more and more, that old sinful nature. Of which cause he is not ashamed to call them his brethren. I wanna close with this.

If you'll turn with me to Galatians, Galatians chapter four, An adopted child might have reason in themselves to believe themselves to be inferior to the firstborn. And in a sense, we are. But here's what the Lord's saying to us. that though he's the only begotten son of the father, he's the natural born child. He's the first born that gets all the inheritance. And by adoption, we might, we might feel somewhat unworthy to to approach the father. We go in prayer, we go to the heavenly father and we may feel unworthy to approach the father because we're just his by adoption.

Galatians chapter four, verse four. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, he's the natural born child, to redeem them who were under the law, they were cursed by the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, enabling you to cry, Abba Father, You have as much liberty and freedom to come to the throne of grace, to come to your heavenly father, as does the firstborn, even though you're an adopted child. He sent his spirit into your heart, and it is the spirit of God that enables us to cry, Abba, Father.

Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, A servant would have reason to be afraid. A servant might fear coming before the father. A servant in the household might wonder, you know, I gotta choose my moments right, and my words right, and I gotta be very careful about coming towards the master to make a request. But not a son. Not a son. and not even an adopted child. Wherefore thou art no more servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ, an heir of God.

We'll stop there. Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. He that set you apart, he that made you holy, he that consecrated you for God's purpose and those that he consecrated, those that he sanctified, those that he made holy are all one and this is what gives us boldness to come before God whereby for which cause for which cause he is not ashamed to call them his brethren what we have here is a picture of the first natural-born child looking at the adopted children and saying you have as much freedom as to come before my father as I do. I'm not ashamed. You're my brother. You're not my servant. You're my brother. Come. Come.

Union with Christ

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What does the Bible say about union with Christ?

How do we know sanctification is true?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

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About Greg Elmquist

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Union with Christ

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about union with Christ?

How do we know sanctification is true?

Why is sanctification important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Greg Elmquist

Comments

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