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UNION WITH CHRIST
THE UNION WITH CHRIST
Three questions will serve to describe the union with Christ and how it affects the backslider.
First, how are men united with Christ? In 1 Corinthians 12:13a Paul writes, For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body. This union with Christ occurs at the spiritual baptism or the “New Birth.”
Second, what is the union’s importance? Peter wrote, Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2 Peter 1:4). Dr. Picirilli points out that this verse refers to the salvation experience. The believer becomes a partaker in the divine nature and is freed from his past corruption. (This is found at length in Dr. Picirilli’s Dissertation). Dr. Picirilli writes, “Certainly we do not become a part of His essence, as the Stoics said, but we are ‘in union’ with God Himself through Christ. This is one of the most apt statements in the New Testament of the doctrine of the ‘mystic’ union.” Paul writes, 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 (Galatians 2:20). Paul reports in Romans 6:3-10 that the believer’s history of past unrighteousness is vanished and the believer has newness of life. Through this union with Christ, the believer receives Christ’s death as his eternal death that pays in full the penalty of his past sins. Thus, he is justified. With this mystic union the believer takes on the identification of Christ or a Christ like appearance in his actions. The believer strives to conform to the very image of Christ.
Finally, how may this union be broken? Apostasy breaks the union. God is the only one able to destroy the union with Christ and the person. When a believer kills his own faith, God rightfully withdraws the fellowship and union with Christ. The union maybe endangered by a disobedient believer. When a person’s sins are willful and habitual he damages the Christ like character. God, in this instance, places the person on probation. The union is in danger. If he conforms to the image of Christ again during his allotted time through repentance, he will be forgiven. If he refuses to conform and claim the union of Christ, thus not exercising Him as propitiation, by the end of his probationary period, he will be lost eternally and his identity with Christ destroyed. This probationary period is in agreement, at least in some ways with Dr. O’Donnell’s definition of a backslider. Dudley, Duncan and Jernigan state the backslider is on probation. Butler and Dunn agree to a probationary period. Check out our online bookstore, "The Backslider." http://billhaynesministries.com/online_store.php Comments?
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