Union with Christ is undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary blessings and privileges of every Christian. That union is forged by the Holy Spirit in the hour of regeneration when He cuts a sinner off from Adam and grafts him into Christ. The Spirit then establishes a spiritual union between Christ and the sinner – a union that is unbreak­able, irreversible, and eternal.

In so doing, the Holy Spirit reestablishes a covenantal relationship between God and sinners that once existed between God and Adam prior to the Fall. Though the essence of this union is identical to this original covenantal union, one difference is significant: the covenant bond between God and Adam proved to be breakable because it was established externally from God’s being. But when the Holy Spirit unites a sinner to Christ, the bond is internal to God’s Being. It lies within the second Person of the Godhead, the Lord Jesus Christ. When a sinner is united to Christ, he is thereby united to the triune God with a covenantal bond that cannot be severed to all eternity. As impossible as it is to sever the divine and human natures of Christ, so the covenantal bond between God and His people, established in Christ, can never be dissolved. Paul could therefore write boldly to believers that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:39).

All of this is implied when we say that believers are united to Christ by faith. However, this glorious objective truth must also become an experiential reality for us if we are to enjoy its blessed benefits. Objectively, this union is established in the hour of regeneration, but this union with Christ is subjectively established and maintained by the exercise of faith. Only by faith can the believer become conscious of this union and enjoy its benefits.

Though from God’s side this union is uninterrupted, from the believer’s side the awareness and enjoyment of this union is very much contingent upon the exercise of faith. The more a believer exercises faith, the more he will enjoy the reality and comfort of being united to Christ. Enjoying the union is therefore directly proportionate to our believing appropriation of it. In John 15, Christ so lovingly urges His people to abide in Him, saying, “Abide in me, and I in you ... I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (John 15:4-5). Christ makes it abundantly clear that He desires believers to live in the full awareness and comfort of this union. It is therefore so essential that believers exercise faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work each day afresh. There will be times that such faith is exercised when we are not engaged emotionally and thus even in the absence of the sweet and tender frames God’s children so much enjoy. At such moments we do not feel united to Christ, but by faith we embrace the truth that nevertheless we are united to Christ. What a bless­ing when we increasingly live by faith and not by feeling! “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1).

Dear reader, do you know whether you are united to this precious Christ? If you indeed are, you will be irresist­ibly drawn to Christ, embrace Him by faith, be progressively conformed to Him, and be increasingly assured of your union with Him. If this in some measure is descriptive of your life, continue coming to and abiding in Christ. In so doing, you will increasingly enjoy your objective union with Christ and the more you will begin to understand what Paul means when he writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).