LIBERTY UNIVERSITY JOHN W. RAWLINGS SCHOOL OF DIVINITY
The Language of Union with Christ in Christ
A Paper Submitted to
the Faculty of the School of Divinity
in Candidacy for the Degree of
Doctor of Education in Christian Leadership (Ed. D) Department of Christian Leadership and
Church Ministries
By
Mary Gracias
Lynchburg, Virginia
10/2022
The Language of Union with Christ in Christ
Union with Christ is frequently spoken of as “in Christ.” So predominant is this phrase that
it is virtually interchangeable with other NT expressions such as “salvation,” and in particular,
“new life.” Thus we are not surprised to find Paul alternating among the expressions “in Christ,”
“in the Spirit,” and “in the faith.”35 In Christ the old life has been finished once and for all time.
“You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).
But what does being “in Christ” mean?
Some claim that something inside us as believers actually changes or a part of our person,.
“the spirit,” which before was dead is made alive, and so we can look inside ourselves and see
“a new life” there. Paul does say that we are a new creation, that we have new life, but he does
not mean by this that a dramatic change, observable internally, has taken place in some part of
us. He is referring, primarily, to our new status before God: because Christ is our representative
and is alive, we too, being in Christ by faith, have life (italics his).36
Through some 164 occurrences, Paul uses the phrase “in Christ” to signify that there is a
correspondence between the work of God accomplished in Christ and the blessings believers
receive. “In Christ is one of Paul’s favorite terms for the new life, describing the deep,
permanent and joyful relationship between the new Christian and his Lord, a life which can only
be thought of in terms of a totally different form of existence.”37 In Ephesians chapter 1 Paul
says that in Christ the believer is “chosen” (v. 4), “graced” (v. 6), “redeemed” (v. 7), “reconciled”
(v. 10), “destined” (v. 11), and “sealed” (v. 13). God worked in Christ to effect the inauguration
of a new dimension of existence, one that conquers the old dominion in Adam. Joined with
Christ, believers are now members of that new humanity of which Christ is the head. The
immediate result is that the “chosen in Christ” are blessed “with all spiritual blessings.” In
Christ, we are a new “creation” or a new person whose citizenship is in the new age or aeon.
Newness is the description of being joined with Christ.
Baptism
In Romans 6:1–11 Paul uses the idiom of dying and rising with Christ to express the same
truth as that found in the phrase “in Christ.” United with Christ in salvation, the believer enters
a new mode, and, even further, the “old has passed away.” In Romans 6 Paul explains the
meaning of this by claiming that in Christ believers have “died to sin” (6:1–2). “What the apostle
has in view is the once-for-all definitive breach with sin which constitutes the identity of the
believer. A believer cannot therefore live in sin; if a man lives in sin he is not a believer. If we
view sin as a realm or sphere [aeon] then the believer no longer lives in that realm or sphere.”38
Then in verse four Paul uses the term baptism to argue that death to sin is the fruit of being
united with Christ. “Therefore, union with Christ, which baptism signifies, means union with
Him in His death.”39
Similar to the use of the phrase “in Christ,” baptism (in nonsacramental usages) is nearly
interchangeable with the thought of the union of believers with Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; cf. Gal.
3:27; Col. 2:11, 12). This intertwining of baptism with union in Christ is noted by Ridderbos: “For
Paul, what once took place in Christ has also taken place with the church. The ‘in Christ’ has its
validity back into Christ’s preexistence (Eph. 1:4), and reaches out to his parousia (Col. 3:4). But
so far as the church is concerned, through baptism the ‘once’ becomes a ‘here’ and ‘now.’ ”40
Conclusion
Since Christ’s work of redemption, there have been two life dominions: that of Christ and
that of Adam. While outside Christ, people are spiritually dead (Eph. 2:11–12), but inside Christ
they have life with God and can experience spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3–14) and death to sin
(Rom. 6:1–11). Since blessing and death to sin are what God has accomplished in Christ, these
must be appropriated personally through union with Christ. This is the union described by Paul
as “in Christ” and “baptism.”
We have argued that to understand the concept of union with Christ we need to consider
in what sense we can say that change occurs in salvation. Furthermore, when Paul speaks of
spiritual change he frequently uses metaphors. We have taken a brief look at five of these and
have discovered that central to each image is the quality of corporateness. Scripture declares
the believer in Christ to be “new”—a description of a person who is now a part of the new
humanity that exists under the rule of Christ. The consequences of that union are manifold.
Justification, new life, and indwelling of the Spirit are key fruits that issue from this relationship
with God. These consequences are entirely consistent with the union aspect of Paul’s imagery
in that they, too, are derivatives of being joined to Christ.
From our inclusion into the new realm of Christ we are declared righteous; all that is
descriptive of life is now ours, and because the Spirit indwells Christ, we are participants in that
gift as well. And finally, Pauline terminology of union finds expression in phrases such as
“baptism” and “in Christ.” Baptism into Christ means death to sin because the old man has
been crucified (Rom. 6:2, 6). On the positive side baptism brings “life unto God.” The idiom of
dying and rising, which baptism conveys, is a death to the old age and participation in the new
age.
Redemptively speaking, the person who once lived in the old age has ceased to exist. In the
language of Paul, that person “has passed away” (2 Cor. 5:17). “In Christ, the eternal Christ,
who suffered, rose, ascended, who is se
ated now at God’s right hand supreme over all the forces of the universe: in Christ, in the
heavenly sphere wherein He now abides, in the region of spiritual activities, all spiritual blessing
is ours: in Christ God has blessed us.41 It should be no surprise to us that Paul says that in Christ
“man is a new creation.” In Christ old things have passed (aorist) and the new has come
(perfect).
As part of the race in Adam, the unregenerate person held to a world-and life-view that
was anthropocentric (man-centered). Now, in Christ, the regenerate person lives life with a
christocentric world-and life-view (Christ-centered). The primary reality of this change is a new
relationship with God known in union with His Son. The foundational aspect of that change can
be summarized in these words: “To know one’s environment in a new way, and to be newly
related to God through justification, is to live in a new world; a new set of relationships has
come into being.”42 The new person is genuinely but not totally new. Hence, being “free from
sin” and “sinless” are two very different things. In Christ, the new man has been freed from the
dominion of sin. It is freedom from sin’s dominion that is the basis for and gives explanation to
the believer’s continued fight against sin. Indeed, “the imperative is spoken because the
indicative is true.”43 The old person is totally dead. But in neither case is the reality a matter of a
change in substance, but, as we have shown, a matter of union with Christ. We, along with
Murray, can conclude that
sanctification involves … conformity to the image of God’s Son, a conformity attained not
through external imitative assimilation, but through an impartation of the fulness of Christ, an
impartation which flows through a living organism that subsists and acts on an immensely
higher plane than any form of organic or animate life with which we are acquainted in our
earthly existence.44
The counselee’s conflict with sin is to be interpreted in light of Paul’s conflict in Romans
7:14–25. For in both, the source of tension is in terms of two colliding modes of existence or
aeons. In Romans 7 the believer is at conflict because of his double situation brought about
when he lives out the new age in the context of the old age (flesh).
