Man in His Four-Fold State: Man as Grace Renews Him

You are created in the image of God. This article looks at the state of man as an image-bearer renewed by the transforming grace of God and made a Christian. The author uses 2 Corinthians 5:17 to explain what a Christian is: someone who is in union with Christ, has become a new creation, and has been transformed to be like Christ.

A Puritan Theology – The Puritans on Union with Christ, Justification, and Regeneration

How does regeneration and the believer’s justification by faith relate to the believer’s union with Christ? Chapter 30 explores how the Puritans answered this question. The authors consider the chief blessing that Christians receive, faith, and thus union with Christ as it relates to the ordo salutis (order of salvation).

Union with Christ – Creation

This is a volume on believers’ union with Christ. Letham argues that union with God is founded in the very being of God as Trinity and relational. Man being made in the image of God reflects this characteristic. First Letham looks at the Trinitarian basis of creation. Next he notes the role of the Son of God as the mediator of creation. Man as one created in Christ is to be recognized as image of God.

Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes – Justification and Union with Christ

Gaffin reflects in Chapter 11 on John Calvin’s view of justification and union with Christ in Book 3 of his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Gaffin gives a brief overview of the treatment of justification in successive editions of the Institutes from 1536 to 1559. Next, he considers what Calvin mean by the “double grace” (duplex gratia) that believers receive by union with Christ.

Acting the Miracle – Incentives for Acting the Miracle: Fear, Rewards, and Multiplicity of Biblical Motivations

This chapter wants to correct a too-narrow focus on motivations for sanctification. DeYoung believes that preachers and counsellors are too limited in the tools available to encourage biblical holiness. He feels that commands, gratitude, and duties are unhelpful on their own. Believers are motivated in different ways. He illustrates from Colossians 3 that there is a wide array of motivations for holiness.

Acting the Miracle – The Search for Sanctification's Holy Grail

What is a biblical understanding of sanctification? The author explains that Scripture talks about sanctification in two different ways, definitive sanctification and progressive sanctification. He further warns against cheap slogans that communicate unhelpful and even misleading understandings of sanctification. He continues with a discussion of the centrality of union with Christ in believers’ sanctification.