Do Not Forget You Are United to Christ

If you are a believer, at this very moment, you are united to Christ. Did you remember that this morning when you rose and began your daily routine? How will this knowledge affect you as you go about the remainder of your day? If we truly understand what it means to be united to Jesus, it should impact us profoundly.

What does it mean to be united to Christ? The basis of our union with Christ is our legal standing before the Lord. Through faith, we have been justified. The cross of Christ has satisfied the punishment our sins demanded, and his righteousness is counted as ours. This legal standing is the foundation of our union with Christ, but it is not all that union entails.

Michael Horton reminds us of the importance of both the legal and relational aspects of our union when he compares union with Jesus to marriage. He says, “To be sure, the objective fact of one’s marriage provides the security of the relationship, but there is more to marriage than the ceremony and legal documents.”

Legally, if you are married, you are married, and that does not wax or wane. However, there is more to marriage than legal standing. There is the experiential union. Fellowship and communion are part of it. Horton goes on to say, “We grow experientially in this union as we come to know, communicate with, and respond to each other.”

As you slipped out of bed this morning, you may have been mindful that your sins are forgiven, and you have been declared righteous in Christ, but did you remember that your union with Christ is to be the most intimate relationship you have. Your salvation does not wax or wane if you are a Christian, but your relationship to Jesus can grow closer.

It is too easy for us to forget our first love. When we do that, and we walk into places we should not go or visit places online that we should not visit, there is a sense in which Christ goes with us. Like a spouse acting in unfaithful ways or simply being negligent, the relational part of the marriage suffers, even if the legal claim is still intact.

Though the negative impacts should concern us, the primary motivation to live in conscious union with Christ is not fear of the damage that occurs when we neglect our first love. What should drive us should be our love for him and the blessedness of that union when it is healthy.

Union with Christ is such a glorious reality that it should transform every moment of our day. There is never a moment when we are alone. When the day ahead of us is more than we can handle, he is with us. When we turn off the TV at the end of the day, and the silence of the house feels overwhelming, he is there.

Fellowship and communion with your Savior is available at all times, and the more we live in it, the sweeter it grows. By the power of the Spirit, Jesus does not only give us his gifts; he gives us himself, and the blessing of being united to Jesus will only grow richer the more we grow in communion with him.

-D. Eaton