Today we will be meditating on the Doctrine of Union with Christ. I must let you know that this is a more didactic sermon than perhaps what you may be used to, but I trust that it will still be a blessing to all of you. So if you have your bulletin, please take out that handout, and I will be reading the scripture passages which have been printed out for you. We will use these various scripture passages to meditate on the doctrine, this blessed doctrine of union with Christ. Please give your attention to the reading of God's holy word. Isaiah chapter 43, verse 10. Before me, no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me. First Corinthians chapter six, verse 15 to 20. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, the two will become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 John 4, verse 13. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us his spirit. Ephesians chapter one, verse three and four. Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. John chapter 15, verse one to four. I am the wine, I am the true wine, and my father is the wine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. Verse 7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. John chapter six, verse 56. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. Here ends the reading of God's holy word. May the Lord be pleased to write it on our hearts both now and forevermore. Shall we briefly look to the Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, we pray that as we meditate on this blessed teaching, rather the reality of our union with Christ, that you will make our hearts to burn within us, that we may enjoy you and that we may commune with you because you, the triune God, through Jesus Christ, are united. have united us to you. So please be with us. Lord, these are your sheep whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your right hand. Lord, we pray that you would feed them. And Lord, that you would also be with my mom, that she too will come to faith in Jesus Christ. In your name I pray, amen. In the Bible, and especially in the New Testament, as you read the New Testament, you will come across a phrase very often. And that phrase is in Christ or in him. And it's easy for us to read that phrase because we read it so often and we hear it so often that we sometimes lose or fail to understand the meaning of it and it becomes a cliche. So there are many passages which talk about Jesus Christ and that we are united to him for example in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 it says Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So we have in Christ all the spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Similarly in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 we have he who knew no sin became sin for us that in him we may become the righteousness of God. Again in Romans chapter six, where Paul explains about baptism, Paul says, we were buried with him in baptism and we were raised along with him so that we too may walk in the newness of life. So as these passages talk about in Christ or our union with Christ, we need to understand what this great truth is because it seems to cover the whole breadth of our salvation. And so today we will consider this doctrine under three headings. I will ask three questions and I will answer them for you from the word of God. We will consider what union with Christ is not. Then we will consider what union with Christ is. And then finally, what union with Christ entails. So firstly, what union with Christ is not. Well, union with Christ is not us becoming God. Union with Christ is not us becoming God. I come from a culture where salvation is thought of as one's union with God. In fact, in the Hindu way of thinking, Your good deeds enable you to become one with God. So they always use this analogy where you are a small drop of water, and as you, that small drop of water, goes into the ocean, you become one with the ocean, and that's what salvation is, where you lose your personal identity, and you become one with this universal identity, and that is salvation. Now, you may wonder, Venky, that is perhaps in your country. Why are you talking about that here? Well, that concept is very prevalent in your culture. There is a recent movie called Star Wars. And in that movie, it says, may the force be with you. Now, what force are they talking about, brothers and sisters? They are talking about some kind of a natural force, which is here in this world, and all you need to do is to tap into that force, and you will become some kind of a messiah. And that's how Star Wars, you know, they make their movie thinking that just tap into the force, and you can rescue this world. And so here they obliterate and completely blur the distinction between the creator and the creature. The force is one with you. All you need to do is tap into this force and you can get God-like power. And so when you talk about union with Christ in our culture, it could be very easy for you to sound like them. And so here we need to always maintain the biblical distinction between the creator and the creature. So when we are talking about union with Christ, we will never become one like God in the sense that we will become creator. We will be like him in other aspects. We will live forever. We will have love. We will have no sin. We will enjoy fellowship with him, but we will never become God. The creator-creature distinction always will remain throughout eternity. So, union with Christ is not us becoming God. And that's what you learn even in Isaiah chapter 43 verse 10, and that's why I quoted that for you here. God here clearly says, before me no God was formed, nor there shall be any after me. This is a distinct biblical teaching which we need to uphold in our generation as our culture forsakes Christianity. We have paganism coming up where the creator-creature distinction is obliterated. So union with Christ is not us becoming God. Secondly, union with Christ is not merely spiritual. Union with Christ is not merely spiritual. Notice what I said. It is spiritual, but it is not merely spiritual. We tend to always think of union with Christ as something which is connected to our inner man. That we in our inner man are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now of course that is true and we will meditate on that. But we also need to give full attention to the biblical teaching that union with Christ also involves this mortal body of yours. This body of yours is united to the Lord Jesus Christ because you are a Christian. It is on the basis of this doctrine that Paul tells the Corinthians to flee from sexual immorality. If you look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verses 15 to 20, Paul starts off in verse 15 by saying, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Paul is pleading with the Corinthians. He's saying, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And because your bodies are members of Christ, in verse 20 he says, glorify God in your body. He says, flee from sexual immorality. Why? Because your body, which is united with Christ, cannot be united with a prostitute. Because once you commit adultery, your body becomes one with the prostitute, and you are violating your body, which is in union with Christ. So it's on the basis of this doctrine that Paul exhorts the Corinthians to use their bodies as instruments of righteousness. And so we must remember that this body that we have cannot be used in any which way we want. We need to take care of our bodies, not because we want to become enamored with our bodies or to live for more time in this world than God has appointed us, but we want to use this body as instruments of righteousness so that we may serve him as long as God has given us grace to serve him in this earth. So union with Christ is not merely spiritual. So till now we have considered two lessons. Union with Christ is not us becoming God and union with Christ is not merely spiritual. So what then is union with Christ? That's the next question we will consider. Union with Christ is Us being united with the Lord Jesus Christ, in body and spirit, through the Holy Spirit. Let me repeat that. Union with Christ is us being united to the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, in body and spirit, through the Holy Spirit. Look at verse 19 of 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Earlier, Paul had said, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And in verse 19, Paul says, or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. So Paul, in this very short, in this passage, in a very short time after mentioning that your bodies are members of Christ also says that your bodies are temple of the Holy Spirit. And it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit that you and I are united with the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is right now in heaven at the right hand of God. So when we think of union with Christ, we do not think of it in a crass way that in some way like the Lutherans think that there is the ubiquitous presence of Christ's body and it is somehow enmeshed with our bodies. No, that's not the way we think. The agency or the agent who unites us with the risen Lord Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit. And that's why when Paul says, do you not know that your bodies are members of Jesus Christ? He also adds, do you not know that your bodies are temple of the Holy Spirit? It is the Holy Spirit who unites you with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he unites not just your bodies with the Lord Jesus Christ, he unites your spirit as well. Look at what it says in verse 17. But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. How are you joined to the Lord? You are joined to the Lord through the agency of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who dwells in you. And he is the one who makes your body a temple of the Holy Spirit and who unites you to Christ. And he is also the one who makes your spirit one with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. This is union with Christ, brothers and sisters. Again, an explicit confirmation of what we are talking about is found in 1 John 4, verse 13. Look at 1 John 4, verse 13, which is the next verse I've given to you. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us what? His Spirit. who is that he in that verse, 1 John 4, verse 13, that he is the Lord Jesus Christ. By this we know that we abide in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ abides in us because he has given us his spirit. So once again, John here links us to the Lord Jesus Christ through the agency of the Holy Spirit. So brothers and sisters, Union with Christ is us being united to the Lord Jesus Christ in body and spirit through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Union with Christ is also a source of every spiritual blessing that you have in your Christian life. Every spiritual blessing that you have in your Christian life comes through your union with Christ. John Owen said, there is not an iota of blessing you receive from God the Father outside of your union with Christ. Every spiritual blessing comes from Christ. First, Ephesians chapter one, verse three and four talks about our union with Christ even before the foundation of the world. It says, Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. So God chose you in Christ even before the foundation of the world. His choice of you was not outside of your union with Christ. Now, the question then arises is, am I united to the Lord Jesus Christ even before I became a believer? Well, perhaps in one sense, yes, because he chose us in Christ. But we say in theology that this is the non-vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not vital. You still do not experience it in your daily life because you did not exist on earth at that time. But God shows you in the councils of eternity in Christ. This speaks about your non-vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ. So He chose you in Christ, He foreknew you in Christ, He predestined you in Christ, even before the foundation of the world. But then, after our choice in Christ, before the foundation of the world, we also experience salvation blessings in our lifetime in Christ through the Holy Spirit. And we read this in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30. I have printed that out for you. It says there, and because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus. Because of God, the referent there is God. Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, and then it says, who became to us wisdom from God. He is the Word of God. And then it says righteousness. What righteousness is it talking about there? The righteousness that has been imputed to you, which is Christ's. He who knew no sin became sin for you. so that in him you may become, what? The righteousness of God. You are justified, you are given righteousness in Christ. So that righteousness in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 is talking about the imputed righteousness of Christ. And then it says, in him he became to you wisdom from God and sanctification. Even your sanctification is in Christ, brothers and sisters. It's not that we become justified in Christ and we try to work out our own salvation in a way that is disconnected from the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, even your sanctification has to be in constant union with Christ. That's why in Colossians chapter two, verse six, Paul says, now that you have received Christ, so walk in him, being rooted and grounded in him. It's only as you are rooted and grounded in the Lord Jesus Christ will you be sanctified. Even sanctification flows out of your union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it says, Jesus Christ became to us in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30, Jesus Christ became to us redemption as well. This redemption Paul is talking about the redemption of our bodies which would come at the end of age. Redemption is a summation term to sum up our salvation. We will be united with Christ on the day when he returns in body and spirit completely and our redemption will be complete. So if you see the breadth, all the breadth of salvation flows through the union with Christ. Your predestination for knowledge, justification, sanctification, regeneration, and even your eventual glorification, all of it comes from your union with Christ. So brothers and sisters, this is not some abstract teaching which we can shelve it in our books of theology. This is a teaching that we have to cherish every day. And this is what union with Christ entails. So we have considered till now what union with Christ is not. Union with Christ is not us becoming God. It is not merely spiritual. But union with Christ is us becoming one with Jesus Christ in body and spirit through the agency of the Holy Spirit. And it is through union with Christ that we receive all the spiritual blessings that we have as Christians. So if this is the great reality in which you are living, even now as you're sitting here, you're living in union with Christ, so what should be your response? Well, union with Christ entails communion with Christ. If you are united with Christ, you must commune with Christ every day. Otherwise we do violence to this understanding that we have of our union with Christ. And that's what Jesus commands us in John chapter 15 verse 1 to 4. In John chapter 15 verse 1 to 4 Jesus in verse 1 says, I am the true wine and my father is the wine dresser. Jesus here is affirming the doctrine of union with Christ. He's saying I am the wine My father is the wine dresser and every branch in me that does not bear fruit. He takes away He calls all Christians as branches. We are all organically united with the Lord Jesus Christ but just because we have this reality of union with Christ does not mean that we are to be passive in our sanctification and But Jesus says already in verse 4, abide in me and I in you. So Jesus affirms union with Christ of believers being united with Christ in verse 1 and 2. And in verse 4, Jesus gives you a commandment, abide in me. This is a very strange commandment in one sense. The Hebrew or the Greek reads, remain in me. Be with me. Before I was a psalm singer, I used to sing some hymns. Sorry for singing hymns, but there was one hymn which really spoke to my heart. It said, prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. You know, we are like boats. If they are not tethered to some place, we tend to drift away. And that's what this verse is talking to us about. Don't drift away from me, abide in me. Jesus is saying, now that you are united with me, abide in me. Now it's one thing to say abide in me but how do you actually abide in your daily lives? What does abiding in Jesus Christ mean? What does remaining in Jesus Christ mean? If you look at verse 7 Jesus gives you the answer to that. Jesus says if you abide in me and my words abide in you. In verse 4 Jesus said abide in me and I in you. So for Jesus, abiding in me and I in you is the same as abide in me and my words abide in you. So brothers, how do you abide in Christ? You abide in Christ when the word abides in you. And how will you let the word abide in you? It's only when you pick up your Bible and start reading. So let me ask you a question, which I ask to myself as well. Are you in the word? Because if you're not in the word, the word will not abide in you and Jesus will not abide in you. And when we say, are you in the word? I ask you, do you prepare yourself to come to the Sabbath day worship to hear God's word? We just sang one of the Psalms which says, One day in your court is better than thousand elsewhere. Why? Because on that day, the word is preached. And if the word is preached, our Westminster Confession, it says in the directory of worship, it says, God especially ministers to us through the preaching of his word. And if God especially ministers to you through the preaching of his word, dear congregation, do you take time to meditate on that word that is preached morning and evening? One of the parishioners in Joel Beakey's church said, well, I don't want to come in the evening worship because by the time I have evening worship, I'm unable to meditate on the whole of morning worship's sermon. It's too much. So do you take time? Perhaps you can take one of the days during your weeks to meditate on what you have learned from the sermon. That's a way in which you abide in Jesus Christ because the preached word is special. And then you also abide in Jesus Christ through your daily Bible reading. And for us as our peace, we also know that the word of God richly dwells in us. How? Through Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. So do you sing the word every day? Do you have a Bible reading plan and do you have a Psalm singing plan? Do you want to finish the Psalter singing to the Psalter every year? Maybe more than that. These are ways in which you abide in Jesus Christ. You can never have your union and communion with Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, if you don't abide in God's word, which is the preached word. The word which is read, the word which is meditated, and the word which is sung. This is Christianity 101. I'm not talking to you anything which is entirely new. Then Jesus says in verse seven as well, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Jesus almost assumes that you will ask. That's another ways in which you commune with Christ. It's not just prayer. It's also, it's not just Bible reading. It's also prayer. Ask whatever you wish. Do you ask him every day about the wishes of your heart? Of course, we understand that's not any wish that we want to ask. It has to be in accord with the word, but we have to ask him. We have to commune with him by talking to him in prayer. And Jesus also in John chapter 6 verse 56 talks to us about abiding in him through the sacrament. And this is an area where I would say that I and many Christians fall short in preparing ourselves for the sacrament. Jesus says here in John chapter 6 verse 56, whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. Now what is that referring to? How do you feed on Jesus's blood and how do you feed on his body and drink his blood? It is through the communion table. It is through the Lord's Supper. So do you prepare yourselves to commune with Christ when the Lord's Supper is administered? Or is it that we just casually come into the church, have the Lord's Supper and forget about it? Brothers and sisters, if we have such a casual attitude about the Lord's Supper, we are missing out on the blessings of communing with Christ. So brothers and sisters, your union with Christ entails your communion with Christ. You can never enjoy your union with Christ if you don't commune with Him. And as you commune with Him, you remain in Him. That's the way you abide in Him. And then sanctification becomes a natural process. You work out your salvation with fear and trembling because you allow God to work in and through you. Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 to 14. So brothers and sisters, union with Christ is a great doctrine. It is not a doctrine which is abstract. It is a doctrine which has to be cherished every day, and we cherish it by communing with our Lord Jesus Christ and with the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, by abiding in his word, by talking to him in prayer, and by partaking of the Lord's Supper with reverent hearts. So may we all enjoy our communion with Christ. May we all enjoy our union with Christ by communing with him every day. Shall we look to the Lord in prayer? Heavenly Father, we thank you that You have given us this great reality, indeed, not merely a teaching, but a great reality that we live and move and have our being in you. Lord, whatever we do has to be in you, Lord. And many times we, including myself, Lord, we sometimes forget the great blessing that we have. Oh God, we pray that you will enable us to every day enjoy our union with you. by communing with you through word and prayer and singing and, Lord, through the sacraments. Lord, these are basics. And yet, Lord, it is in these basics that we are attacked the most. Oh, God, we pray that you will enable us to enjoy you every day, no matter how busy we may be, no matter how many burdens that we may have in this life. Enable us to enjoy you by daily communing with you. Oh, God, be with us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.