Union with Christ: Holy Living

God calls His people to a holy life (1 Pet 1:16). One must be willing to live this life, which is the desire in those who know they are forgiven of their sins (Rom 8:1; Eph 1:7), having been reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:18–20). One must live in the positive expectation of a future, eternal bliss with God (Col 1:27). One must be willing to do what God wants him to do.

Holy living is in accord with keeping the law of God (Ezek 36:27). This reality is only found in union with Christ. Holy living is a product of Christ living in the regenerate believer (Gal 2:20). She has right standing before God because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, and she lives right only by the power of Christ in her. Union with Christ imparts His godly nature, which is a holy disposition contrasted with the reign of sin and its produce of sins (Rom 3:23; 5:21; 6:6).

The critical error of the Christian life is the attempt to live the holy life in one’s own wisdom and power (1 Cor 1:24). Grace is misunderstood merely to be God’s help, in one’s struggle and striving to be holy. In the same way that faith is misconstrued as self-generated, “helped by grace” for justification, so holiness is misunderstood to be self-powered, “helped by grace” for sanctification.

This mystical union, Christ in you and you in Christ, is the correction of this critical error. This union is illustrated as being most intimate, as in the relationship between one’s head and his body (Eph 5:30–31). It resembles a tree and its branches (Jn 15). It is as close as one’s bread ingested into her body. It is a spiritual union.

The Christian is a living stone being cut and crafted for his place in the spiritual temple of God in the Spirit, with Christ as the cornerstone of that temple (Is 28:16; Eph 2:21–22). Each Christian has his or her place in this union of stone and superstructure.

Stones, as with clay pots, are mere objects of the Master craftsman (Jer 18:1–4; Rom 9:20–21). Sanctification is the will of God for the Christian (1 Thess 4:3), and it is the work of God’s Spirit (Jn 17:17; Phil 2:13; 1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2), employing the Word of God as the cutting instrument (Heb 4:12). Apart from Christ, the Word of God, the wisdom of God, the power of God, you can do nothing (Jn 15:5). It is not in the stone, the clay pot, the branch, nor the body to actuate apart from their source.

Nothing of holy value in the Christian life is self-generated. It is all of God, who produces every good work, every obedience, every gift, and every fruit (Is 26:12; Rom 11:36). Every advancement in Christian holiness is from the wonder working power of the precious blood of Christ (1 Pet 1:19). The circumcision is the putting off of sins of the flesh. It is cutting off the dominion and power of sin (1 Cor 15:56). It is the revelation of the corona, the crowned King of glory from which the seed of life comes to give new life through the new birth (Jn 3:1–8).

All the spiritual blessings of God are in Christ (Eph 1:3), who is the fullness of God dwelling in bodily form (Col 2:9). The mind of Christ is a blessing (1 Cor 2:16). The holy heart of God and His pure affections of true love are in Christ. Christ is seated in the heavens as Lord of all (1 Chr 16:31; Acts 10:36), and we are seated with Him in glory by the Spirit (Eph 2:6). By the same Spirit, Christ lives in each Christian (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Gal 4:6; 2 Tim 1:14). He is causing us to walk in holiness (Dt 11:22; Ezek 36:27). Christ is our sanctification (1 Cor 1:30), and we receive Him and His works by grace given to us through the indwelling Spirit (Rom 8:9, 11).

God is committed to showing His people that it is all of Him and none of us (Jon 2:9; Rom 11:36). Union is revealed in the relationship of God the Father and the Son, husband and wife, head and body, vine and branch, powerful Shepherd and helpless sheep, stones and temple, bread and stomach, wine and its influence on a person, even in the enslavement of sin over the sons of Adam. In union, two things are made to be one. In Christ, the divine and the human are one. Jesus prayed for His unity with His people in John 17.

The intimacy of spiritual union with Christ is seen in the biblical presentation of baptism (Rom 6:1–23). The old man, with his sin nature, is brought into union with Christ on the cross. Christian, you have died with Christ! The old has been buried with Christ, and the new has come (2 Cor 5:17). The newness of life is our union with Christ in His resurrection from the dead. Our souls have been resurrected, that is, regenerated by the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit, who has caused us to be born again of God (Jn 3; 1 Pet 1:3).

Christ is the sole kernel of wheat buried (Jn 12:24). He is the struck rock (1 Cor 10:4), the sacrificial lamb (1 Cor 5:7). In His death, He has brought forth life, abundant and eternal (Jn 10:10; 1 Jn 5:17). Those who are in union with Him are not disappointed with His gracious choice to include us in these works (Ps 22:5; Rom 9:33; 10:11; 1 Pet 2:6).

Resurrection life (Jn 11), like original sin (Gen 3; Rom 5), is the work of another, not one’s self (Jn 1:13). We are born in union with Adam and his sin; and the Christian is born again into union with the second Adam and His righteousness (Jn 3). He saved us (Titus 3:5), and by grace you are saved, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God (Eph 2:8–9). Good works flow from this same fount in eternity (Eph 2:10; Jas 2:14–26).

The wisdom of God and the power of God to perform all that concerns us, will manifest in the holy life, which is the Christian’s new inclination in mind, heart, and will. The Christian is a war zone (Rom 7), yet He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world (1 Jn 4:4).

The Spirit of adoption assures us of our union with Christ (Eph 1:5; Rom 8:15, 23). He teaches and comforts us with the knowledge of holiness and its manifestation. All holiness in the world, from Adam to the end of history, is the product of Christ’s incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. We are overcomers in the manifestation of the holy life because of the power of God in us (Rom 8:37; 1 Jn 5:4), and the fact that we are in Him.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

May 5, 2022