Let's open up to Romans chapter eight this morning, Romans chapter eight. Paul writes, there's therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is a wonderful truth, no condemnation. through the gospel to those who are in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. And the explanation is this explanation of substitution for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death for God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. That's just a theological way to say you can't earn your salvation, right? And then he explains by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, that's the incarnation, and for sin, that's substitution, he condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us. And then it describes our walk as believers who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. But we see that all of those blessings are true and they're wonderful blessings because of this phrase, for those who, verse one, who are in Christ Jesus. What does that mean to be in Christ Jesus? Salvation from sin is about being in Christ, in Christ Jesus. What does that mean? Well, I was speaking to an older man this week on Tuesday at the YMCA in Columbus, and we try to swim there a couple times a week, my wife and I. And this older gentleman had grown up in the Roman Catholic Church. And so he explained to me that he was used to being forgiven by confessing his sins to a priest. And now he was realizing that that wasn't accurate according to the scriptures. And he realized that the priest could not forgive him. So what can I do as a pastor to guarantee that his sins were forgiven? Do I have some kind of formula I give? So I just said, friend, you got to go right to Jesus. write to Jesus with your sins and by faith you lay your sins on Jesus and you trust that he died in your place to forgive you and he provides his perfect righteousness which is the only righteousness that will save you. But it's really all about Jesus, and it's not about your former priest, and it's not about me as a pastor or a Christian, and it's certainly not about religion. It's about being in Jesus. Then I went through Ephesians 1-7. In him we have redemption through his blood. the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. And I wanted him to see as we do when we're witnessing to people that forgiveness and righteousness and acceptance with God, it's all about Jesus and being joined by faith and what he did. So he said, well, Dave, Do you mean that I can, he was going to the sauna. Do you mean I could ask Jesus to forgive me of my sins from the sauna? I said, yeah, I suppose you can. You could ask Jesus right from the sauna to trust in him, be forgiven, trust in his righteousness, not your own. You can be forgiven. And this was his final remarks. They kind of took me back for a second, but then I understood what he was meaning. He said, so if I don't need a priest to confess to and be forgiven, and you as a pastor can't forgive me, what good are you? Why do we need pastors? And then he said, this is how he was coming to it. He said, are you here just to talk to stupid people? And what he meant is like, this is very simple. I go to Jesus myself. Who can't understand that? And this is, the lights were coming on. And you know, in a real sense, Pastors are like that. What good are we? Well, we're good only in the sense that we point people to Jesus, that He is the only Savior and He was getting it, that salvation is about Jesus and particularly about our union with Him, not to a church. Not through a religious person. Salvation is about our union with Christ by faith. Now Pastor Joe wanted me to speak on this topic this morning and I was glad to do so. And our topic this morning is our union with Christ, its meaning and its joys. Our union with Christ. its meaning, and its joys. Let's go to Ephesians chapter one this morning. We're gonna be around to a number of passages, but probably the passage that will be in the most is in the book of Ephesians. Union with Christ. That may not be a topic that you're real familiar with, and that's okay. But we're gonna see this morning, it is really all through the Bible. Sometimes in the Bible we're described as believers as being in Christ. Like you know, 2 Corinthians 5, 17, if anyone is in Christ, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, new things have come. So at times, we're said to be in Christ. At other times, we're told that Christ is in us. And that, like in Galatians 2.20, the front of your bulletin, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. We'll stop there. We'll come back to that verse in a little bit. Colossians 1.27. When Paul is describing the gospel to the Gentiles, he describes it this way, the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you. the hope of glory, the hope of glory. So we have, sometimes we're referred to as being in Christ. Sometimes it's interchangeably said that Christ is in you. And this makes sense because we as believers, we share, and this is wonderful, in this living union with Jesus. We are in Christ and Christ is in us. And this union is as inseparable as my person is from my name. We're twined together, we're wed together. So this is what we wanna look at this morning, the union with Christ, its meanings and its joys. Let's begin this morning in Ephesians chapter one by looking at the basis, or we'll say the root of our union with Christ. And this is given to us for great security and great comfort, the root of our union with Christ, the basis of our union with Christ. Look at Ephesians 1.3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us, where? In Christ, with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Verse four, even as he chose us in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. Verse five, in love, he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us, where? In the beloved. in the beloved. So if we're gonna view our union with Christ properly, then we have to begin with God's gracious decision, which he made before the creation of the world to save his people in Christ. Now, by the way, this is the entire reason that Paul can begin by telling us to bless God. Bless Him because He has saved people from their sins. He has given us every spiritual blessing, not on the ground of our worthiness, no, but He's given us every spiritual blessing as followers and believers of Christ because God the Father graciously decided to save rebels. Not because of any goodness He saw in us, but only on the basis of our predetermined oneness with Christ. And this really wasn't given, these words like election and predestination, they really weren't given to start theological arguments in churches. These truths were given for our comfort and for our security. that our salvation is secure as believers in Christ because of God's work. And this is why we can sing songs like, when I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast. We can sing that because we recognize that there's a basis or there's a root to our union with Christ. And it goes way back, doesn't it? Well, we can't look into the doctrine of election more, but what is key to see here is that our election, that is to say our being chosen by God to be saved, should never be thought of apart from Christ. So our election is the basis of that is our union with Christ. We also see in verses seven through eight of Ephesians one, that we have a foundation to our union with Christ. Or we can say it's the fountainhead, the fountainhead, the source of our union with Christ is his redemptive work. Look at Ephesians one, seven, and the first part of eight. It says this. In him, in union with him again, we have, and look at these wonderful words, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace. And then verse eight at the beginning, which he lavished on us. Don't you love? the generous language here of the scriptures, there's nothing stingy about God and His salvation. And, you know, we all wonder about forgiveness sometimes. Am I forgiven? Can I be forgiven? all those horrible things in my past, how can God do that? I mean, he knows all of my garbage, more than any human here on earth. He knows it all, but he's offering forgiveness. But we see in our text here that forgiveness actually is the result or the byproduct of something. Do you see that? How can we be forgiven? Well, the text of scripture tells us we have in him, in union with him, we have redemption through his blood. And then there's the result. The result of redemption of being bought by the Lord out of slavery is the forgiveness of our trespasses. So we can know in Christ we have forgiveness because a price was paid, right? There was a price paid. It was a redemption. through his blood in Christ, that we are redeemed by Christ's blood. This is the payment, so therefore we have actual forgiveness. That's the result. Well, I don't feel very forgiven, Dave. I don't feel very redeemed. I actually feel condemned, someone may say. Well, I understand. I understand this. in your own righteousness, on your best day, with your best prayers, and your best time reading the Bible, and the best time you had trying to hold your temper, and in your own goodness, we are condemned because we cannot do it perfectly. But in Christ, in union with Christ, We understand by faith that we have redemption and thus forgiveness not in ourselves but in union with him. And so therefore we see that the determining factor in our own salvation is not our past. But it's the perfect righteous past. and present of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we began to see the importance of this wonderful root of union with Christ. having seen the foundation and the basis of our union with Christ in the redemption and electing work of God. Now we see briefly, secondly, the reality of our union with Christ. We'd say like the actual accomplishment of our union with Christ. When did this actual union with Christ take place? When was that accomplished? When did that reality come into play in my life? Well, look at Ephesians 2 now. Moving on to Ephesians 2. Well, Ephesians 2 tells us that when the Holy Spirit makes us alive in the new birth, When the Holy Spirit makes us alive from spiritual death to spiritual life into new birth, when he brings life to us, this is when we're brought initially into living union with Christ. Look at Ephesians 2. We're gonna go through these verses real quickly. Scripture says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins. That's true of everyone born into this world as children of Adam, dead. And there's three evidences of that deadness. They're given in verses two and three, in which you once walked, number one. We follow the course of this world or this age, follow along with what the world said was right. Number two, we are captive by Satan following the prince of the power of the air. He's described as a spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience. And number three, we had an enemy within among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature Naturally, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. That's the bad news of the gospel, but it needs to be proclaimed. That's the reality of our natural state. Verse four, but God. But God, being rich in mercy, rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, listen to this, made us alive together with Christ. By the way, it's by grace you've been saved. Isn't that wonderful? We've been made alive, but that happens always together with Christ. So the key truth I want you to see in this glorious passage is that being made alive takes place only in union with Christ. In other words, the new birth occurs when for the first time we are savingly united with Jesus. Now go down to verse 10, I want you to see this. It says the same type of language. For we are his workmanship created. That's something new. That's the life of God and the soul of man. Created how? In Christ Jesus. For good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Wow. That reminds me of 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. This is the wonderful truth, that salvation is God's gracious work. of eternally and in a living way, uniting us forever to the Lord Jesus Christ. It's an amazing truth. And of course we understand, because you may be here and say, I'm not sure if this has ever happened to me. I'm not sure if I'm a believer. Matter of fact, I can relate to the gentleman you were talking about, the YMCA. I'm coming out of a particular religion, whatever it may be, and it was really much about coming through a priest or a religion or earning my own righteousness, resting in my own self-righteousness. Well, the wonderful thing is this is all a gift from God. It's grace based on love. Look at Ephesians 2.8.9. It says, for by grace, a gift, A free gift from God. You've been saved. You've been delivered. It's through faith. What does that mean? It's not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. It's not as a result of work so that no one may boast. Now that's how you can always tell false and true religion from each other. One leads to boasting of your own accomplishments, and one leads of glorying in the cross, and glorying in Christ, and glorying in his grace, and his grace bringing us into union with his son. And by the way, the Bible tells us that we grasp this concept of our union with Christ, and we continue to live out and enjoy our union with Christ through faith alone. Faith alone. This is why Galatians 2.20 says, I'm crucified with Christ. Crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And remember the rest of that verse? And the life I now live. So this is talking about, okay, we've been saved, we've been crucified with Christ, we've been brought into union with Christ, and now it's talking about the life we now live. So this is you and I, where we live. The life I now live in the flesh, right here, I live by faith. I live by trusting Him. I live by faith in the Son of God, and never forget these truths, faith in the Son of God who loved me. gave Himself for me." I hate to tell you, friends, this is a surprise to you, but the Christian life is a journey of faith. We're trusting in Him. We're relying on Him. We're leaning on Him. We're doing it by faith alone. And I love what one person said, faith then, in this context of union with Christ, faith then means living daily in the joyful awareness that Christ lives in us. Faith, living in this daily awareness, this joyful awareness that Christ lives in us. So our actual union with Christ, it was initiated at the new birth. It's lived out by faith, right? By faith alone. But do you know that our union with Christ is said in the Bible to be the source of many other blessings? Now we're gonna be going through so many passages, we don't have time to go everywhere, but I want you to turn to Philippians 3, 8 and 9 as I'm talking. Turn to Philippians 3, 8 and 9 as I'm speaking. So we understand these many other blessings that Paul is referring to in Ephesians 1, 3. It's on the basis of our union with Christ. Let's just go through some of these real quick. And we see that Christ not only brings us righteousness and union with him, but he is our righteousness. Or we would say that we're justified, and we're justified only because we're in union with him, 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that, listen to this, in him, in Christ, in union with him, we might become the righteousness of God. Now look at Philippians 3.8. This is Paul's testimony. Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. So this is Paul coming from self-righteous human achievement to salvation by grace. And listen to how he describes it, verse 9. and be found in Him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ." What is that referring to? The righteousness of God that depends on faith. But in the context of Paul being justified, being declared righteous, he says, I want to be found in Him, in Christ. Let's go to Colossians 3 now. Colossians 3. We talked about justification. What about sanctification? What about this work of God's spirit where he's, you know, day by day, progressively renewing us so that we live our lives with the motives to honor him, to glorify him, to enjoy him forever? Well, we read that already this morning in John, haven't we? John 15. He who abides in me and I in him, he's the one that bears much fruit. Who are the ones bearing much fruit? The ones abiding in Him, abiding in Christ. For, did you catch this? For apart from me, Jesus says. Apart from this union, you can't do anything. Christianity is about the life of God in the soul of people. See, this is the truth. From the beginning of our lives, we begin to see here that it's all about living in Jesus Christ, but it even gets better than that. We are even said to die in Christ. Now, as you're looking at Colossians 3, and I'm just about to read this, I'm gonna read Romans 14, eight for you. Listen to this. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. So then whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. And then Colossians 3 comes in, and dying in Christ, we are raised with Christ and eternally glorified with Christ, Colossians 3, 1, if then, Listen to the wording, you have been raised with Christ. Now in the Greek language, that's one big long compound Greek word, that we're raised together in union with Christ. That that's true, since that's true as believers, Seek the things that are above. Where Christ is, he's seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. Here's the explanation for doing that. For you have died and your life, here's a beautiful way to describe union with Christ, your life is hidden with Christ in God. When therefore, Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. He's saying because of our union with Christ, there will be a sharing of the final glorification of Christ. Now I'm going to quote to you a passage that you know well, but I want you to see it in this light. 1 Thessalonians 4, for the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ. will rise first and then we who are alive, what's the parallel expression? We who are alive in Christ who are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so we will always be with the Lord. Now this is talking about the reality of the believer's eternal glory with Christ because of our union with him. That our future glory, based on these passages, will be nothing other than a continued unfolding of the riches of our union with Christ. Now, we don't know all the details of this, and I know there's a lot of different debates on this is the order of this end times event, and this is the order over here, but we know this with certainty. We will eternally be in Christ and eternally be with Christ, and that means a sharing in his glory. And maybe the best way to summarize what I've been saying, go back to Ephesians 2, because if you're following through Ephesians 2, you noted that we forgot a couple of very important verses. And just to get us the context again, let me begin with verse four. But God, being rich in love because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we are dead in our trespasses, he made us alive. This is the new birth. This is being born again. This is regeneration. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And now look at verse six. and he raised us up with him and he seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is all the language of union with Christ. And why was that? Verse seven, so that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us. in Christ Jesus. This is the wonderful life and future of every single one of God's believing children, united in an eternal living relationship with Jesus Christ. And folks, we receive this by faith alone. Have you come to Christ this morning? Have you realized that salvation is not about obtaining your own righteous standard? but it's about realizing that you lack a perfect righteousness, that you cannot keep the law on your own. You can't meet up to God's expectations. You can't follow the church's rules, whatever your church you're coming from, that salvation is a gift of grace. It's a gift from God through Jesus Christ to be received by faith alone. Maybe just this morning, someone is here. They need to recognize their own spiritual bankruptcy and look to Jesus. Come to Jesus, you who are weary and heavy laden, and you and Christ will find rest for your souls. The invitation to come to Christ is wide open by faith alone. What wonderful truths we've seen this morning as we've considered the meaning of our union with Christ. The third section, I'm just gonna mention, we don't have time to cover this morning. It was already read about this morning, but it's some biblical pictures and illustrations of our union with Christ. Maybe you can go back and think about these. By the way, union with Christ, as you're seeing, is all through the Bible. It's a phrase that's used 164 times in the New Testament, mostly in Paul's works. It's by far the top description for Christians. We're those who by faith are joined in union with Christ. And we're thankful that Jesus gives us some pictures of this. In John 6, this is the picture of the food and the life picture. of eating Christ and drinking him. It's a confusing passage to many today. They think, is that talking about what happens in communion and the Lord's Supper? No, that's talking about the need for this vital connection by faith to Christ. Just like without food, our bodies shrivel away. Now, some of us may take a couple of years for our bodies to shrivel away without food, but without food, we're weak, we're faint. And this is the same thing spiritually. Partaking of Christ spiritually by faith in his word has to be a regular thing. We need this for our functioning properly. There's also the illustration of the head. and the body picture of our union with Christ. This is true in a local church. Ephesians 4 says that we're to grow up in every way into him who is the head. So union with Christ really humbles us, right? We realize that we need to be healthy in our dependence on Christ. We feast on him. We love Pastor Joe and Pastor Greg, and we love being with the members and attenders here, but we don't have anything to offer but Jesus Christ, and him alone is our food and drink. He's the one that can really change our souls. The brother read the most popular illustration of union with Christ in John 15. the vine and the branches abiding in him. For apart from me, you can do nothing. There's another illustration, the husband-wife relationship, Christ and the church. We'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. But I wanted just to point out, we didn't have time to deal with this, but there are a number of illustrations that help us to try to wrap our mind around maybe a challenging concept. I know it's simple to say that we're totally dependent on Christ by faith in this living union we have with him. But the reality is this, is sometimes we struggle to grasp the most simple of truths. So in conclusion now, I wanna deal with some of the practical joys of our union with Christ. having established to some degree the meaning of union with Christ. What are some of the practical joys? What use is this to my life? Well, to start with the practical side in our conclusion, I wanna read just a statement from the German Reformed Confession of Faith. It's called the Heidelberg Catechism, and it's very beautiful. There was a question that would be asked and an answer given. Here's the question in the Heidelberg Catechism. What is your only comfort in life and in death? And here's the answer, that I am not my own, but belong body and soul and life and in death to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ. That's the beauty. And that's the practical application of our union with Christ. See, in our union with Christ, we learn this, that you're never living as a believer on your own. You're never experiencing anything, even though your feelings may tell you somewhat different at times, you're never living on your own outside of Christ. And this is how the writer of Hebrews deals with the problem of contentment. Hebrews 13 five, keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have. And here's the reason why. For I have said, I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you, end quote from God. Now friends, we understand that happens in connection with Jesus Christ and our union with him. It deals practically with issues of, I can be content even if I don't have this, or even if I've been frustrated about this. I'm never living on my own. It's only true in Christ. Also, we would see that on this doctrine, you're never without family and friends. In Christ, we are with all of God's people forever. And based on that, Ephesians 4.3 says, be eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Because by the way, he says, there's only one body and there's only one spirit. You are called to the one hope that belongs to your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Based on our union with Christ, we have eagerness to be unified with one another. And Ephesians 4.2 gives us five ingredients for maintaining that spirit-produced unity based on our union with Christ and our union with other believers. And it's this, have humility towards one another, have patience towards one another, have gentleness towards one another, bear with each other or forbear with one another on issues that are not laid down in scripture. And of course, it all wraps up with number five, love. You keep fervent in your love for one another. That's how we treat other people who are also in union with Christ and we're in one big family. We also see by practical, our practical joys of our union with Christ is that you don't ever have to feel or think that you're battling sin on your own. And this looks at the Christian life realistically as the Christian life is for the first time that you are battling sin. Sins that maybe you didn't even know you had issues with or you thought that that was in the past. No, you're battling sin. You are fighting sin. You're in a warfare. But you're not doing it on your own. And this is why Romans 6, which really deals with this issue of fighting with sin, takes us back to our union with Christ. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. And based on these truths, we believe and we apply that I'm not going to yield my members to unrighteousness, but I'm going to yield them as members of righteousness to God for his glory, because I'm united with Christ. I see that I'm not in the battle by myself. But going a little further with our practical joys and application of our union with Christ, we start to see that marriage, marriage was designed to be a picture of this union with Christ, of Christ and the church. And it's a great mystery as Ephesians 5 says, but this tells us that marriage is not just about having our own happiness in our own way. And union with Christ in our marriages speaks to the motivation for why I want to change. and get over some of these issues that we keep fighting and struggling with. It's not just about my happiness, it's about picturing the glory of Christ and his church and the love and submissive relationship between the two. Marriage is greater and working through marriage problems. It's not just about my happiness, it's about the picturing of Christ's union with his people. That motivation, by the way, and working through problems is very crucial to success. A little bit more and I'm done. Union with Christ tells us this. You don't have to live for your success anymore. You don't have to live for your own glory. You don't have to live to be, I gotta be known as the best. And you don't have to live for your popularity anymore. You're now living for Christ's glory. We get to point to the fame and love of Christ. We're eternally joined to him. I really can understand whether I eat or drink or whatever I do, I'm doing it all to the glory of God. And you know what, it's true. You and I, we are weak. We're weak and we're frail emotionally. And we struggle with depression at times and we struggle in ourselves. But in Christ, we have been made complete. And we look forward to our full redemption very soon. And of course our union with Christ tells us we don't have to strive to find acceptance by our own imperfect works to be right with God. We're already accepted by the works of Christ. I'm accepted in the beloved and I'm freed from bondage to my sins. I don't have to hide my sin because I'm united with Christ. I don't have to act like I have it all together. Only Jesus does that. That's why we need him. Now we get to live our lives of His righteousness for Him. I know we hear a lot of discussions today about identities, finding our identities in our work, in my profession, in my occupation, in my grades, in my looks, in my skills. But friends, that discussion is already dealt with for us. If we know Christ by faith, we are Christ's for His glory. And we identify primarily with Him. And I'm no longer living for my own agenda because I'm living for Jesus's agenda. And I'm one with Him. I'm living for Him. I'm glorying in Him. My life is more and more about Christ. no longer on my own, eternally connected by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, because he lives forevermore for God's honor. We share in this and rejoice that he loved us and gave himself for us, that we might be securely wrapped up in his life eternally. Friends, this is our true security. This is our true joy. living our life in union with Christ. And let me encourage you again, it isn't just something you say, I don't feel this. It's something that we grasp by faith in the Word of God, in the living Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, we have a lot to be thankful for today. And it is true, my older friends in the Lord, For all of us, maybe some of your parts have stopped working the way they should, the best is yet to come. All of God's people united to Christ, we have some good, wonderful times coming with Christ. And all the imperfections of this world that we struggle with, it's all gonna be over. And in Christ, everything is yes.