Our Union With Christ

Question 31: When Is Our Union with Christ Actualized?

When is our union with Christ—both objectively and subjectively—actualized?

Answer:
Considering the objective side, we may say that our union with Christ is actualized at the time of His death on the cross. “One died for all, therefore all died” (2 Cor. 5.14). When Christ died He took all the people of the world to the cross with Him, and therefore all died in Him.

Judging the subjective side, our union with Christ is actualized at the time we are born again, that is, by virtue of the Lord’s resurrection. By reading Romans 6.3-5, and also Chapter 8, we may clearly see this fact. Our union with Christ on the subjective side is effected in His resurrection. What does baptism represent? It represents death. Viewed objectively, when we are baptized we are saying that we have already died, because only the dead are buried. We are acknowledging that the death is real, and so we accept the burial. But resurrection comes after the burial: a rising after being buried is resurrection. In our daily life we are not seeking death, since we confess that we have already died in Christ; instead, we are daily allowing the resurrection life to be lived out through us. Romans 6 requires us to do one thing, which is to yield (or to consecrate). The minds and hearts of many people are bent on experiencing death, but they are unable to put themselves to death. We should realize that after we believe in the Lord the first thing for us to do is to be buried, not to die. We are to acknowledge our death, not to beg for our death.

There is another point to be raised in this discussion. Suppose people talk about the cross by stating that first, the Lord died on the cross for me; second, the Lord died on the cross as me; and third, the Lord died on the cross with me. Is such a statement scriptural? Laying aside the first two points, let us focus on the third. Is there any error in saying “the Lord died on the cross with me”? In searching the New Testament, nowhere can we find such a statement that Christ died with me. The Bible says instead, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2.20). It also says in Galatians 6.14 that through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ you and I have been crucified to the world. Simply by reading these two passages we ought to know that we have died with Christ, not that Christ died with us. This is because our union with His death is an objective fact. Christ died once, and forever. We have already died in His death.

To say that He died with us would be to turn that which is objective into that which is subjective; and it would mean that Christ must be offered up many times: today Christ must die with Mr. Smith, and tomorrow with Mr. Jones. If a thousand persons believe in Him, He would need to die afresh a thousand times. Let us remember this well, that the Scriptures only tell us this truth—that “we have died with Christ” and not that “Christ died with us”. Do not think that reversing the order is of no importance, because in fact such inversion unsettles the truth. The word of the Lord allows no inversion.