"We were God's enemies, but he made us his friends through the death of his Son. Now that we are God's friends, how much more will we be saved by Christ's life!"

(Romans 5:10 GNB)

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In part 14 (click here to read it), we established that we as part of His body of which He is the head, share His legal identity. Here we look at the implications of this.

We are one with Christ through union. We share in His legal identity as Christ. If you were to receive a heart transplant, that new heart is now part of you and could not be legally separated from you and when people speak of you past or present that heart is now part of it even though it was not physically there in your past. We have been made one with Christ and therefore cannot be separated from His past or present. We can therefore make the following assertions:

(I). What He went through we did (retrospectively)

1. "...We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!" (Romans 8:16-17 MSG)

2. "Therefore we were buried[past] with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk[present] in newness of life." (Romans 6:4 MKJV)

(II). What ever He is, we are.

1. "..as He is, so also we are in this world." (1 John 4:17 MKJV)

2. "I sent them into the world, just as you sent me into the world." (John 17:18 GNB)

...

I am me

Yet not I, but He

It is He as me

He is the I am

Because He is

I am

...

The past

[I]. In Him we have fulfilled the law

1. "Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures--either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama." (Matthew 5:17 MSG)

[II]. In Him we died to the law

1. "And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin." (Romans 6:6 GNB)

2. "Certainly you will understand what I am about to say, my friends, because all of you know about law. The law rules over people only as long as they live. A married woman, for example, is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if he dies, then she is free from the law that bound her to him. So then, if she lives with another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is legally a free woman and does not commit adultery if she marries another man. That is how it is with you, my friends. As far as the Law is concerned, you also have died because you are part of the body of Christ; and now you belong to him who was raised from death in order that we might be useful in the service of God. For when we lived according to our human nature, the sinful desires stirred up by the Law were at work in our bodies, and all we did ended in death. Now, however, we are free from the Law, because we died to that which once held us prisoners. No longer do we serve in the old way of a written law, but in the new way of the Spirit." (Romans 7:1-6 GNB)

[III]. In Him we were healed by the healing of the wounds He received en-route to the cross

1. "Christ himself carried our sins in his body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by his wounds that you have been healed."

(1 Peter 2:24 GNB)

The present

[I]. In Him we are declared righteous with His righteousness

1. "Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21 GNB)

2. "Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be his through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before him. Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children;---this was his pleasure and purpose. Let us praise God for his glorious grace, for the free gift he gave us in his dear Son!" (Ephesians 1:4-6 GNB)

...

Holy is He

He alone is holy

In union two became one

He sanctifying the unsanctified

Holy

The Sanctifier and I

...

[II]. In Him, we live; Him living His life in us.

1. "For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with his death. By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life. For since we have become one with him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with him by being raised to life as he was." (Romans 6:3-5 GNB)

2. "Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again---death will no longer rule over him. And so, because he died, sin has no power over him; and now he lives his life in fellowship with God. In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:8-11 GNB)

3. "and you have been given full life in union with him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority. In union with Christ you were circumcised, not with the circumcision that is made by human beings, but with the circumcision made by Christ, which consists of being freed from the power of this sinful self. For when you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and in baptism you were also raised with Christ through your faith in the active power of God, who raised him from death. You were at one time spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were Gentiles without the Law. But God has now brought you to life with Christ. God forgave us all our sins; he canceled the unfavorable record of our debts with its binding rules and did away with it completely by nailing it to the cross. And on that cross Christ freed himself from the power of the spiritual rulers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them by leading them as captives in his victory procession." (Colossians 2:10-15 GNB)

...

More than a song or tear

More of a living sacrifice

Laid out on His alter

Where old self is put to death

That the life He provides

May raise a sweet fragrance

The only sacrifice that will suffice

The holy Lamb of God

Offered without spot or blemish

That I may be sanctified

To be filled by His life

The living sacrifice

Laid out in worship

Giving off His sweet fragrance

Through this yielded vessel

To give full expression

To His life that dwells in me

His living Sacrifice

...

[III]. In Him we are accepted and loved

1. "I am one with them, and you are one with me, so that they may become completely one. Then this world's people will know that you sent me. They will know that you love my followers as much as you love me. " (John 17:23 CEV)

2. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. " (Ephesians 1:6 KJV)

...

It's no wonder

We can't be separated from His love

We are one with Him, His very own body

He loves His body; it's part of Him

He cherishes and nourishes me

One with Him, inseparable

Loved forever, His very own body

...

Selah

In part 16 we will look at what has become ours through union with Christ.

(To be continued..)

click here to read part 16

To view others instalments in the series, click here