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What is that union which the elect have with Christ?
A. The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.
John 10:28
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
John 15:5
5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
1 Corinthians 1:9
9 God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 6:17
17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
Ephesians 1:11
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
Ephesians 2:6–7
6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 3:17
17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
Ephesians 5:23
23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Ephesians 5:30
30 because we are members of his body.
1 Peter 5:10
10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Welcome to the Reformed Standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 66 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: What is that union which the elect have with Christ? And the answer is: The union which the elect have with Christ is the work of God's grace, whereby they are spiritually and mystically, yet really and inseparably, joined to Christ as their head and husband; which is done in their effectual calling.
A lot of times, the reformed world has sort of scribbles and squabbles over what is sort of the chief benefit or the chief reality or the first reality in salvation. And so there's some discussion in some debate, whether it is the amputation of righteousness, through through faith accomplished in justification, or whether it is effectual calling or union with Christ rather, which happens through an effectual calling. And I think that the debate really is sort of silly, to be honest, because it seems like the reformed tradition is always positioned union with Christ as the head, or the origin or the source of salvation. In that all other benefits which flow out of union with Christ, they take place in the context of union with Christ. So logically speaking, union with Christ happens, mystically, and actually, in time in, in the in the factual calling here, but also in history. in eternity past, there's a certain type of union with Christ that they'll act always had. But the Catechism here is really talking about that temporal union, that act, or that work in history, where God unites, unites the elect to Christ, through or in their effectual calling. And so here it says, that, first and foremost, the union that the elect have with Christ is a work of God's grace. And that that word work as opposed to act as important, we'll see as we get into justification, adoption and sanctification, that when the divine is want to talk about something that is ongoing and increasing and has duration, it's something that God does over time, rather than in a moment, that they use the word work. And so this union with Christ is something that God uses at a point in time, but it's a work which God continues to, to engage in. And so it's not as though we are united with Christ at a moment. And that that is just a one time thing where this union is affected. But this union is, is affected, and increase and sustained by God's grace. And so this union is said here to be spiritual and mystical, we shouldn't understand mystical in sort of the the way that it's commonly used in our culture of sort of magical, or use in sort of the Eastern Orthodox sense that there's some sort of energetic union, there's some sort of unique special energy that's happening, or some sort of unique special force or power that's happening. But we should understand this in the sense of the word of mystery. So we could say that the the union that we have with Christ is spiritual, in that it's not a physical union. It's not as though we are physically made a part of Christ, or something like that some sort of strange, strange, chi mera kind of you where we become a part of Christ physical body, there are certain certain positions in Roman Catholicism, for example, where the church itself, the institution of the church isn't a physical ongoing incarnation of Christ. So we're not not going that direction. So spiritual union, but it's also a mysterious union, a mystical union. We can also understand this word mystical. And we could substitute in the word experiential, probably. So it's a it's a union that is mysterious, but it's a union that we genuinely experience and it changes us. And then, to contrast this and to sort of push back against some of the criticisms that the reformed often hear is this spiritual mystical union is also real and inseparable. And so it's not, it's not some sort of false union. It's not some sort of legal fiction, it's not some sort of some sort of play acting that God does, where he pretends to be, pretends that Christ is united to his people, and so saves them on the basis of that, on that play acting, but it's a real and inseparable union. And then the the divides here, compare this union or or address this union in two ways. It says that the elect are joined to Christ as both their head and their husband. And so this is going in line with that covenant language, that covenant theology that's present throughout the Westminster standards in the reformed tradition, is that Christ is is the head of the covenant of grace. He's the federal head of the covenant of grace. And so in in Christ, we are comprehended as as righteous because of this union or through this union. And then also were united to Christ as our husband. In that he has, he has sworn to us that he will always be with us, that he will always act in our good that he will do what is necessary to bring about our ultimate salvation, just as a husband swears to his wife to serve and honor and protect her and to act for her good. And then finally, the Catechism here is identifying sort of where in the Ordo salute is this union happens. And so you know, there are again, there are debates in Protestant theology as far as where in the Ordo Salut is how you knew if Christ is related to other steps in the Ordo salute. The Lutherans, for example, would place union with Christ after justification in a sort of a sort of way where union with Christ is actually a benefit that the justified saints receive, where the reformed tradition actually places union with Christ, before justification in the auto Salinas, and so it's done in our effectual calling. And I take effectual calling and regeneration to be referring to roughly the same thing. regeneration is a component of our use of our elect, our effectual calling. And this is important, because in the Lutheran tradition, Christ, and this is why they place it this way, they do not believe that Christ can be united with sinners, so that he has to justify them, and make them legally righteous before he can have any sort of union with them. But the reformed have argued that union with Christ is something that Christ does when we are still sinners. He unites us to himself, bike through our calling, or in our effectual calling, when we are still sinners prior logically to justification. And that's important because Christ Express solidarity with sinners. It's part of why he was baptized by john. It's why he had to come and live a life under the curse and wrath of God. That's why he died on the cross. That's why he has passive and active OBD is because Christ identifies with and is in solidarity with sinners, not with the righteous, right, he came to call and to save those who are sinful he doctor does not come to those who are well. And so we look at the history of salvation. We look at what Christ did for us. We look at the language that while Christ while we were still sinners, Christ died for us, all of the all of the work that Christ did to save us happened in response to us and in reference to us being sinners. And so effectual calling happens to sinners, who are then made righteous, and this union that we have this spiritual and mystical, yet real and inseparable union that we have with Christ is a union that Christ has with sinners in order to bring about their salvation.