UNION OF THE BELIEVER WITH CHRIST.
By William Covert
JUST before Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane to suffer for the sins of the world, he bore us all before his Father's throne in holy supplication that we should be kept by omnipotent power in holy union with the Father, with himself, and with each other. A portion of that prayer was expressed in the following words:— "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." John 17:20-23. The mystery of this union is the mystery of godliness. Paul writes of it, saying it "is Christ in you, the hope of glory." Col. 1:27. In the citation above from the prayer of Christ the reader will notice a triple union, or Christian trinity. In this union, Christ forms the link which unites the believer to the Father. Christ was emptied of himself, that he might receive the Father in himself and reveal him to man. Self in man is also to be crucified, that Christ may dwell in him. At one time Jesus said to his disciples, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. . . . I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me." John 14:9-11. Christ claimed that he was in the Father and also that the Father was in him. So also should the Christian let Christ dwell in him and he dwell in Christ at the same time. Please also to notice that this mysterious union is essential that the world may know that the Father hath sent the Son, and that they may also know that the Father has loved man as he has loved Christ. There is no one thing that keeps the sinner away from God like the blindness of his heart concerning the Father's love for him. Could he but see and feel the power of that love as it is revealed in the gospel of Christ, it would break through every barrier that prevents that union, and man would become one with God again. The apostle described this union when he wrote as he did in Gal. 2:20:— "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." From the above scripture it is seen that the crucifixion of man must take place before he can receive Christ within. As expressed elsewhere, it is the flesh that is to be crucified, with the affections and lusts. Gal. 5:24. But the flesh, with the affections and lusts, constitutes self. What a happy exchange is offered every sinner,—just to yield up polluted self, and receive instead the Son of God! The power of the Holy Spirit brought to the heart by the indwelling of the Saviour, brings with it the atmosphere of heaven, and places in the mind of the believer its fruits, which are "love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." These blessed principles are the emanations of Christ, who is in this manner fulfilling the righteousness of the law in his children. It was this planting of the divine attributes in the human heart through the process of regeneration that Paul referred to when he wrote of his own experience, saying, "It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen." Gal. 1:15, 16. When the life of Christ is seen repeated in the Christian, the beholder must acknowledge that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world, because such a life can only come from above. It is not natural for fallen man to be so. This same transformation is also an undeniable evidence of God's love for man, for had it not been that God loved man as he loved his own Son, he never would have given that Son to the world and for the world. It is when Christ is thus revealed in his children that others can behold him. It is when thus lifted up that men are drawn unto him. How can they be drawn to Christ where he is not? How can they come to Christ where he is not found in the one who invites them? That union with Christ is also seen in the union of believers with each other. The prayer of Christ was, "That they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Christ is recognized most familiarly in the brotherly love of his disciples. Said Jesus, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:35. Love is of God. "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us." Again it is written, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." John 3:14. Herein is seen a trinity which is the blending together in unity the Father, the Son, and man, through the gospel of Jesus Christ. This union connects man with the strength of the Almighty One, and makes him "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Col. 1:11, 12. God does not want his children to be defeated by the power of Satan; therefore he comes through the mysterious power of this heavenly union to dwell with them and keep them from the power of the enemy. Just as Christ was about to be separated bodily from his disciples and leave them till the end of this age, without his personal presence, he gave them the perpetual promise of his presence, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Matt. 28:20. In ancient times God's people enjoyed the same protection and strength, for David wrote: "I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." Ps. 16:8. This theme is certainly but poorly comprehended or appreciated by professed Christians at present. Too many are to-day as Judas, the brother of James, was when he asked the Lord, saying, "How is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?"117John 14:22. Are we ready to apply the answer of the Saviour to our own experience? "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." Verse 23. No limit is placed to the righteousness and spiritual power that will come to the believer through this union and fellowship with heaven. Through this union Paul was even enabled to "take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake." 2 Cor. 12:10. When he was weak then he was strong. Strange paradox is this, but herein is strength, in becoming nothing that Christ may be all in all. The power of this nothing is real in that it enables the man that Satan was expecting to conquer, to be entirely swallowed up in Christ, so that Satan finds not the man at all, but in his stead he finds Christ. Here, then, is the mighty power of God, which becomes the weapons of our warfare, which the apostle says "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. 10:4, 5. This is complete and triumphant victory over all the power of Satan. This victory is for man when he is wholly united with God in Christ.