What We Are as Christians

There are many things that may be said about Christians, and these are often brought up when we ask, "What is a Christian?" Christians believe in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, or, Christians believe that the Bible is truly God's Word, etc. While all of these are true in themselves, and are important, they fall short of getting to the heart of the matter, which is that a real Christian is a member of Christ. A Christian is so united to Christ that he participates in everything that Christ has, and so as to have everything that he is sanctified by Christ. After describing the office of Christ in Q/A 31, the Heidelberg Catechism uncharacteristically steps out of the words of the articles of the Apostles' Creed to ask, "Why are you called a "Christian?" The Catechism adds this question because without it the doctrine of Christ is incomplete. What Christ does in His threefold office as Prophet, Priest and King is done not in isolation, but in union with His people. A good example of this teaching is found in II Cor. 5:14, where the apostle Paul says, "...we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died." Every Christian, past, present and future, died the death of the punishment of his/her sins in the death of Christ because they were "in" or united to Him on the cross. This is why "our death is not a satisfaction for our sins, but only a dying to sin and an entering into eternal life" (Heid. Cat. Q. 42).

Union with Christ

In answering Heidelberg Catechism Question 32, "Why are you called a Christian?" the Catechism begins with, "because by faith I am a member of Christ, and thus a partaker of His anointing...." The rest of the answer speaks of our participation in Christ's threefold office of Prophet, Priest and King, but this happens through our union with Him as members of His body. A "union" is a combination of distinct parts into a single whole, and this is exactly the fundamental conception of what a Christian is, that is, someone who is united to Christ. Throughout the Bible the use of the prepositions, "in," and "into," and a number of other expressions make clear that we are saved by Christ, because of our union with Him.

In Rom. 6:1-6, for example, Paul again and again tells us that our salvation and our sanctification as Christians is ours by virtue of the fact that we are "baptized into His death," "are buried with Him through baptism into death," so that "just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in newness of life," because "we have been united together in the likeness of His death," and "certainly also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection." Furthermore, "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him," so "that the body of (our) sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be the slaves of sin." Each one of these phrases forces upon us the notion that it is in Christ, as those who are united to Him, that our salvation is effected, and that it is in Him that we live in newness of life as those who have risen in Him from the spiritual death of our own sins. Union with Christ is the central theme of many texts about how we are saved and what it means to be a Christian (as we will see below).

A few notes about this Romans passage need to be added to correct the common misconceptions about it fostered by our Baptist friends. First, this text speaks of spiritual baptism, that is, baptism with the Holy Spirit and not water baptism as is seen by noting: 1) this baptism actually effects union with Christ which the Bible specifically says water baptism does not (1 Cor. 1:17; 1 Pet. 3:21); 2) this text parallels others that speak expressly of baptism with the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26-27-remembering that water baptism does not produce faith); 3) the Heidelberg Catechism makes the biblical point that "only the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit cleanse us from all sin."

Secondly, we need to note that trying to find immersion as a mode of baptism in this text fails rather miserably because: 1) the text says in so many words "we are baptized into His death," (not into His burial) a death which was in the form of crucifixion. Yet no Baptist claims that crucifixion is the proper form of baptism. The first phrase of verse six says the same thing, "our old man was crucified with Him," again implying that crucifixion ought to be the form of baptism if the Baptist has a valid point; 2) the Baptist confuses the undertaker with the grave here. In the phrase, "we are buried with Him through (by) baptism into death," baptism is the active agent (the undertaker) and not the place of burial which is "death" (the grave in view here). The Baptist claim that baptism should look like burial is equivalent to saying that undertakers should look like graves, hardly a logical requirement. And, 3) the proper mode of water baptism is indicated by the form in which we are baptized by the Holy Spirit and in the blood of Christ (Heb. 10:22). The Holy Spirit is always "poured out" upon His objects and we are "sprinkled" with the blood of Christ (all three of the Old Testament baptisms described in Heb. 9:10-21 are sprinklings-the original Greek word translated "washings" in verse 10 is "baptism"). Romans 6:1-6 is about union with Christ through spiritual baptism, union with Christ in all His work which includes, but is not restricted to, His death and resurrection.

Union with Christ-Objectively Considered

When we think about union with Christ as the fundamental reality by which we are saved and sanctified, we need to begin with the objective reality of a union with Christ that we do not see or feel, indeed that is no way dependent on our action. When we speak of something "objective," we mean that something is outside of ourselves. If I am working far back in a cave, and it is raining outside, the rain is objective for me, it is real and is a fact, but I do not see, feel or know it in any way. On the other hand, when I leave the cave, the rain becomes a part of my experience, it then becomes subjective for me. We will consider our subjective union with Christ below, which also is essential, but we must begin with our objective union with Christ in God's eternal decree first, because that is the source of our salvation.

The fact that we are objectively "in Christ," that is, united with Him outside of our experience, needs to be seen in two ways. First, we are "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4), and second we are "in Christ" when He lives and dies for us during His earthly life. As Reformed believers we know that all credit for our salvation belongs to God because He alone is the One who plans, carries out and applies our salvation to us. Like Noah, we have not earned our place on the Ark (which typifies Christ) but we have "found grace in the eyes of the Lord," a grace that is according to God's choice Who "works all things according to the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11).

We are familiar and comfortable with the idea that God chooses who is to be saved and who is to be punished for their sins, but we also need to realize that God's predestinating choice is neither arbitrary nor unjust. We are, in fact, chosen not in ourselves, but as Eph. 1:4 declares, "in Him," that is, in Christ. Christ was foreordained in the plan of God to be our Savior (1 Pet. 1:20) to shed His blood for our sins, but in the same decree we were foreordained in Him to be those for whom He would die. Now we need to know that the plan or decree of God is just as real as the physical realities we see and touch every day. Indeed it is more real, for God's decree predates and is the source of every physical reality. Therefore we are not to think of our objective union with Christ in God's decree as some phantom possibility that only becomes real when it becomes a part of our subjective life, but we are to see this spiritual union in God's decree as the source and foundation for the subjective union with Christ that is ministered to us by regeneration of the Holy Spirit and exercised through our personal faith in Him.

In the same way, our union with Christ in His work on the cross is objective to us until it is ministered to us by the Holy Spirit, but it is just as real and necessary to our salvation. When Jesus died on the cross, He was not dying alone. As we saw above in 2 Cor. 5:14, we died in Christ's death, that is, we were united to Him so really that He literally bore the punishment of our sins (1 Pet. 2:24; Cf. Heidelberg #44). We should have no problem with this if we understand the biblical teaching that God is above time. He "declares the end from the beginning" (Isa. 46:10), that is, all things in our historical time are simultaneous for God. This gives us some idea about how Jesus can die for Abraham's sins, which were committed 2000 years before Christ and our sins, which are committed 2000 years after Christ. As Paul says, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself" (2 Cor. 5:19), not just the world geographically, but the world throughout history.

This teaching, that Christ's sacrifice bore the sins of all the elect, is stated in so many words in Eph. 5:25, and is foreshadowed by the Old Testament sacrifices. This is shown by the fact that the High Priest wore a breastplate on which were inscribed the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. The High Priest represented Israel before God in those sacramental types of Christ's sacrifice. In Christ, the sacrament becomes real and we are really and literally in Him as He lives a perfect life for us and suffers for our sins. This clear teaching of Scripture helps to establish the Reformed doctrine of Limited Atonement.

Union with Christ-Subjectively Considered

Fundamental to the biblical teaching of salvation is that the predestination of God and the work of Christ must become real and living in our personal lives if we are to be saved. The fact that this will most certainly happen to every person chosen in the decree of God, is guaranteed not only by the atonement that Christ fulfills for them, but also by the sovereign and irresistible work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8). He unites us to Christ by regeneration and faith. The Heidelberg Catechism notes this fact not only in HC #32 (as described above), but also in #53 which confesses that the Holy Spirit "by true faith makes me a partaker of Christ and all His benefits," and #86 which notes, "Christ having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image...." God's sovereign character guarantees that this will happen to every elect sinner. Predestination does not teach the salvation of unbelieving and profane people (elect children who die in infancy are a special case united to Christ by the Holy Spirit without exercising knowledgeable faith).

Now the Bible depicts this living, subjective union with Christ as occurring through regeneration and faith. Please note that these two agencies for union with Christ are two sides of the same coin. Regeneration always produces faith, and true faith can only issue from regeneration (1 Cor. 2:14; 12:3). At the same time, regeneration, also called "baptism with the Holy Spirit," is completely the work of God, while faith issuing from regeneration is the work of man. The Holy Spirit works faith in my heart, but it is my faith. I believe, it is not the Holy Spirit who believes in my place even though my very faith is the gift of God. In this way it is perfectly clear that regeneration always precedes true faith, it is never the other way around. Billy Graham's book "How To Be Born Again," has it backwards.

The point here is that when we ask "How does the Holy Spirit save me?" or "How does faith save me?" the answer is the same, by uniting me to Christ. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:13 "for by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body," that body of course, being the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27). Regeneration and faith are put together as means of union with Christ in Gal. 3:26-27, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." "Put on Christ," of course means you are united with Him.

There is much more that can be said about Union With Christ from the Bible's teaching, including the fact that we spiritually eat and drink Christ by believing His word (John 6:63-64), thus being united with Him. The Lord's Supper is a sacrament celebrating this union with Christ by faith, just as the sacrament of baptism signifies and seals our union with Christ by inward baptism with the Holy Spirit, even though neither sacrament itself effects that spiritual union. We do need to understand the foundational character of this doctrine. Union with Christ begins in the eternal decree of God and ends in heaven where the New Jerusalem is the Church united to Christ in marriage, "the bride, the Lamb's wife" (Rev. 21:9). Union with Christ is how we are saved, and members of Him is what we are!