Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Union with Christ

The believer's real, Spirit-effected, faith-received joining to Jesus, so that his death, resurrection, standing, and future become the believer's — the source of every benefit of salvation.

From Paul's characteristic phrase en Christō, 'in Christ' (and 'in him', 'in the Lord') — used around 165 times.

John 15:1–8; 17:20–23; Romans 6:1–11; 8:1; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 6:17; 12:12–27; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 1:3–14; 2:5–6; Colossians 1:27; 2:6–13; 3:1–4.

Calvin made it the organising category of applied salvation ('we receive nothing until we grow into one body with him'); the Reformed ordo salutis (regeneration, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, glorification) is best read as facets of this one union. Lutheran (the Finnish school's 'Christ present in faith'), Orthodox (participation / theosis), and Catholic (incorporation into Christ) theologies express the same reality differently.

Union guards against both legalism (justification without transformation) and antinomianism (holiness detached from a righteousness not our own): justification and sanctification are 'distinct but inseparable' benefits of the one union.

Whether union grounds justification or justification is the entry into union; whether the ordo salutis is a causal sequence or facets of union.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.