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TRS Westminster Larger Catechism: Q69

09/24/2019

What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ?

A. The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.

Romans 8:30
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

1 Corinthians 1:30
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Ephesians 1:5
5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

Welcome to the Reformed Standard. I'm Tony, let's get started. Question 69 of the Westminster Larger Catechism reads: What is the communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ? And the answer is: The communion in grace which the members of the invisible church have with Christ, is their partaking of the virtue of his mediation, in their justification, adoption, sanctification, and whatever else, in this life, manifests their union with him.

So we mentioned in a previous question that the Catechism here calls out that the, the elect have both union and communion with with Christ in grace, and glory. And so what this question is getting at is that union is sort of a reality that is static, and it isn't necessarily positive or negative, it just is. But communion itself is sort of the benefit, or the positive elements of that union. And so, the Catechism here is talking about the different benefits or the different benefits and blessings of communion that come from union. And so what it says here is that the communion in grace is partaking of the virtue of his mediation. And we should read virtue here probably in terms of the the older classical idea of virtue in terms of the function. And so the communion and grace, which is the members, which the members of the invisible church have with Christ is that they participate in the function or the benefits or the outcome of his mediation. And so like we've seen in several other questions, this is sort of an introductory question, in that it introduces the next several questions, and that the primary functions or the primary benefits or outcomes of Christ's mediation, is justification, adoption, and sanctification. And then it has this sort of catch all final category of whatever else in this life manifests their union with him. And so over the course of the next several questions, we're going to we're going to talk about what justification is, what adoption is, what sanctification is, and then what these other several benefits are. So we will get into those in the next several questions. But the main thing to remember when we're reading this answer in this question, is that union with Christ comes with certain benefits. And the benefits that that you need that that union brings about the manifestation of that union is communion in grace and participation in the virtue of Christ mediation.

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