One with Christ
August 18, 2023
Over the summer I have been reading through the New Testament starting in Acts because I was particularly interested in the beginning of the church and the directives given to those early believers. There has been one theme that has particularly stuck out to me. Did you know that the Bible mentions “being in union/one with Christ” over 200 times in Paul’s letters alone? This theme of being in union or being one with Christ has really taken root in my heart. I have begun to pray: “Father, help me get this revelation of being one with Jesus down deep.” Not only is this topic mentioned A LOT throughout the New Testament, but it’s also a very significant and foundational thing for Christians to understand. I want us to begin to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what being in union/one with Christ means for us in our lives currently. Let’s take a look at just a few verses that talk about this. (You can read the other 200 scriptures on your own ;).
Galatians 3:26-29, TPT
You have all become true children of God by faith in Jesus Christ! Faith immersed you into Christ, and now you are covered and clothed with his life. And we no longer see each other in our former state—Jew or non-Jew, rich or poor, male or female—because we’re all one through our union with Jesus Christ. And if you belong to Christ, then you are now Abraham’s “child” and a true heir of all his blessings because of the promise God made to Abraham!
Ephesians 6:10, TPT
Now my beloved ones, I have saved these most important truths for last: Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life-union with the Lord Jesus. Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you.
1 Corinthians 6:17, TPT
But the one who joins himself to the Lord is mingled into one spirit with him.
Romans 6:5-11, TPT
For since we are permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then we are permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts. Could it be any clearer that our former identity is now and forever deprived of its power? For we were co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within us, so that we would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power. Obviously, a dead person is incapable of sinning. And if we were co-crucified with the Anointed One, we know that we will also share in the fullness of his life. And we know that since the Anointed One has been raised from the dead to die no more, his resurrection life has vanquished death and its power over him is finished. For by his sacrifice he died to sin’s power once and for all, but he now lives continuously for the Father’s pleasure. So let it be the same way with you! Since you are now joined with him, you must continually view yourselves as dead and unresponsive to sin’s appeal while living daily for God’s pleasure in union with Jesus, the Anointed One.
After we have our salvation experience,becoming born again in our spirit, we become one with Jesus. We are no longer living a life separate or apart from Him. We are now in union with Him forever.
We have talked about the portion of this that means we have to lay our lives down and allow Jesus to live through our lives while we are here on the earth, but there’s also an added benefit to this situation. If we are currently, right now, in union and one with Jesus, then we get to live like that right now. This means that Jesus’ victory over the curse and the effects of sin in this world is now my personal reality because I am one with Jesus and I get to share in His life and inheritance of victory from the cross. This is our benefit, our inheritance, our major perk, as saved born-again believers in Christ! For one moment, think about Jesus. Set your thoughts on Him for this moment. Consider Him right now, seated in heavenly places. Is He sick? Is He depressed or fearful? Is He poor or in lack? Is He struggling with a mental illness? Is He unsure of who He is? Is He confused? Is He bound by sin or an addiction? Is He limited in any way? The answer is, of course not to all of those! So if Jesus isn’t living that way and I am one with Him sharing in His life and inheritance, then I should not be any of those things either. The Bible doesn’t say one day after we die and go to heaven, then we will live in union with Jesus. Yes, at that point we will physically be in heaven with Him, but we do not have to wait to start living in the benefits of being ONE WITH JESUS until we die and go to heaven. We can do that now because we are right NOW one with Him!
Many of us are letting too much of our benefit of being saved go to waste. It says in Hebrews 5:12-14 that we have to grow up a bit, get off the milk, and on to solid foods. It says that Christ is the foundation on which we begin and build everything else on. We have to mature to deeper truths and advance into perfection (Hebrews 6:1-3). The revelation of union with Christ is a deeper truth that I believe we are being called into. We can lightly brush over that with a surface-level understanding that “yes of course I’m in union with Jesus because I am saved and going to heaven”. Yet let us ask ourselves, “What does that really look like?” It is more, and it’s more for now and forever. Start tapping into that. Let us press into getting our circumstances to look like we’re actually one with Jesus instead of looking like those who are not. Why struggle in the same ways the lost struggle when we have access to a life of victory? THEN as we reveal our union with Christ through our lives, those who are lost will desire to be found…and we will have the good life to share with them on more than one level.
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