Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Union with Christ: A Zondervan Digital Short
    Union with Christ: A Zondervan Digital Short
    Union with Christ: A Zondervan Digital Short
    Ebook67 pages1 hour

    Union with Christ: A Zondervan Digital Short

    By Michael Horton

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Derived from Michael Horton’s recently released The Christian Faith, this digital short presents a full theological investigation into the biblical concept of union with Christ. Horton covers the nature of this union, exegetical development of the concept, and both historical visions and contrasting paradigms of it. He also draws connections between a Christian’s ongoing union with his or her Savior and grace, ontology, essence and energies, and covenant—an altogether masterful sketch of a beautiful and mysterious spiritual reality.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherZondervan
    Release dateApr 10, 2012
    ISBN9780310496304
    Union with Christ: A Zondervan Digital Short
    Author

    Michael Horton

    Michael Horton (PhD) is Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary in California. Author of many books, including The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way, he also hosts the White Horse Inn radio program. He lives with his wife, Lisa, and four children in Escondido, California.  

    Read more from Michael Horton

    Related to Union with Christ

    Related ebooks

    Christianity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What Are Some Of The Symbols Of The Holy Spirit In The Bible?

      Dec 30, 2019

      The dove is perhaps the most recognised symbol of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. “As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Getting to Know God The Personhood & Deity of the Holy Spirit

      Jan 1, 2021

      In examining the biblical revelation concerning God, we come upon an apparent contradiction. The Bible teaches that there is only one God, but it also teaches that Jesus is God. And what do we make of situations where God the Son is speaking to God t

      3 min read

    • Article

      Getting to Know God Jesus is God

      Nov 27, 2020

      The doctrine of the Trinity is what makes Christianity’s monotheism unique. Last month we began a three-part series on the Trinity. We noted how the Bible’s monotheism differs from the monotheism of Islam and Judaism. This month, as we continue to ex

      3 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost Part Lll

      Feb 10, 2023

      Over the last few issues of JOY, I have been sharing insights about the day of Pentecost in the Bible (Acts 2). To fully appreciate the context of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on this day, we must first look at the events that took place before

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Oct 28, 2022

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      WHERE WAS JESUS BETWEEN HIS DEATH & RESURRECTION?

      Mar 10, 2023

      After Jesus said, “It is finished,” on the Cross, “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (John 19:30). His dead body remained on the Cross until it was taken down and placed in a nearby tomb (John 19:40–42). His spirit, however, was elsewhere. Th

      3 min read

    • Article

      AGENTS OF Change

      Apr 13, 2020

      What on earth is a Reformational church? The Reformational church is God’s agent of constant change from glory to glory, conforming to the image of His Son. That’s why we are straightening and aligning the church to what Jesus intended in the first p

      4 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost Part VI

      May 19, 2023

      The scripture above records the final words of Jesus Christ to His disciples before He was taken up into a cloud. One of His last promises was that the Father would send the Holy Spirit, and the baptism of the Spirit would enable the disciples to acc

      2 min read

    • Article

      Christmas The Gift Of Peace

      Dec 1, 2023

      Christmas The Gift Of Peace
      8 min read

    • Article

      A New Day Of Pentecost Part LV

      Mar 10, 2023

      Over the last few issues of JOY!, I have been sharing insights about the day of Pentecost in the Bible (Acts 2). In my previous writings about a “new day of Pentecost”, I laboured the need for oneness in the Body of Christ if we want to experience a

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Nov 19, 2021

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      Ask Val

      Jun 16, 2023

      Ask Val
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Great Shaking

      Nov 27, 2020

      Way back in the last millennium when I was still a teenager there was a popular song made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis, “There’s been a whole lotta shakin goin’ on.”This is certainly true of today’s world. One major difference between the current global

      5 min read

    • Article

      How to Spread the Gospel Like Wildfire

      Aug 19, 2019

      The Gospel spread like wildfire in the early church. For example, a single speech from Peter converted 3000 people (Acts 2:41), and after he gave a second speech, the number of believers totalled 5000 (Acts 4:4). In only a few decades, the Good News

      5 min read

    • Article

      How Close is the SECOND COMING of Jesus Christ?

      Jul 30, 2021

      The past year has been a wake-up call for many people. A global pandemic, riots and social unrest in countless nations, fractures in the global economy, and most recently Israel and Hamas at war. Everywhere you look, it seems as though the end is nea

      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Union with Christ

    4/5

    2 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Union with Christ - Michael Horton

      CONTENTS

      Cover

      Union with Christ

      Copyright

      Union with Christ

      What a wondrous thing it is that even though Jesus Christ has been exalted to the throne of God, absent from us in the flesh, we may nevertheless only now be united to him in a manner far more intimate than the fellowship enjoyed by the disciples with Jesus during his earthly ministry. Having united himself to us in our flesh, in our sins, in our suffering and death, he now unites us to himself in his new-creation life by his Spirit.

      Union with Christ is not to be understood as a moment in the application of salvation to believers. Rather, it is a way of speaking about the way in which believers share in Christ in eternity (by election), in past history (by redemption), in the present (by effectual calling, justification, and sanctification), and in the future (by glorification). Nevertheless, our subjective inclusion in Christ occurs when the Spirit calls us effectually to Christ and gives us the faith to cling to him for all of his riches.

      The intratrinitarian covenant of redemption made in eternity realizes itself through the mutual working of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, in that ordo salutis of Paul in Romans 8:30 — 31, which William Perkins aptly called the golden chain: Those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. Behind all of the covenants in history lies the eternal purpose of election to which Paul repeatedly refers (Ro 8:28; 9:11; Eph 1:4 — 5, 11; 3:11; 2Ti 1:9). First Peter is addressed to those who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood, which explains the sense in which he can say, He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God (1Pe 1:2, 20 — 21). Here the basis of all covenants was found in the eternal counsel of God, writes Bavinck, "in a covenant between the very persons of the Trinity, the pactum salutis (counsel of salvation)."¹

      I. THE NATURE OF THE UNION

      The motif of mystical union has often been presented as an alternative to the forensic (legal) motifs of redemption, especially vicarious substitution and justification. Since Albert Schweitzer, the thesis has repeatedly been advanced, refuted, and then advanced again that justification is a subsidiary crater in Paul, while the real central dogma is mystical union. Reginald Fuller notes, Attempts have been made to pinpoint some other center or focus for Pauline theology, such as ‘being in Christ’ (Schweitzer) or salvation history (Johannes Munck). However, Romans, the most systematic exposition of Paul’s thought, clearly makes justification the center. Not only in Paul but in the pre-Pauline creedal hymns we find this affirmation (2Ti 1:9 and Tit 3:4 – 5).²

      Like Schweitzer, a variety of contemporary trends in Pauline studies as well as Reformation scholarship are driven by the presupposition that mystical participation in Christ stands over against a forensic emphasis on Christ’s alien righteousness imputed to believers.³ Through the interpretive lens of union with Christ we can move beyond the false choice of a legal, judicial, and passive salvation on one hand and a relational, mystical, and transformative participation in Christ on the other. Nevertheless, as I argued in relation to Christ’s atoning work, the integral unity of these motifs is possible only because the latter is grounded in the former. As Geerhardus Vos expressed it,

      In our opinion Paul consciously and consistently subordinated the mystical aspect of the relation to Christ to the forensic one. Paul’s mind was to such an extent forensically oriented that he regarded the entire complex of subjective spiritual changes that take place in the believer and of subjective spiritual blessings enjoyed by the believer as the direct outcome of the forensic work of Christ applied in justification. The mystical is based on the forensic, not the forensic on the mystical.⁴

      A. EXEGETICAL DEVELOPMENT

      The doctrine of union with Christ may be gathered from various biblical sources. First, there is the covenantal theme that underlies the entire biblical narrative from creation to consummation. From the very beginning, the goal is to bring creatures into fellowship (koinōnia) with God and each other that is as close as humanly possible to that communion between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

      From creation to the flood to the exodus all the way to the new creation, there is a close connection between the covenant and union with the covenant mediator, effected by the Spirit, through a separation of the waters of judgment so that his people may cross through to the other side on dry land (Ge 1:1 — 2, 9 — 10;

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1