The Doctrines of Justification and Union with Christ Illuminate One Another
A Brief Explanation and Preliminary Defense
Scripture clearly says that Christians are united to Christ, but it is not intuitively obvious what this means. Union with Christ is a vague term. How is one united to Christ? The answers differ. Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox alike profess union with Christ while embracing soteriologies quite different from one another. And over the past century, prominent theologians have developed a variety of models to explain the nature of the union.1
When we examine Scripture, we find no discussion of union with Christ in the abstract. Instead, we learn what it means to be united to Christ as we read in Scripture about a range of events and blessings, such as Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (e.g., Rom. 6:3–5; Col. 2:11–12); baptism and the Lord’s Supper (e.g., Rom. 6:3–4; 1 Cor. 10:16–17); the new covenant (e.g., Gal. 3:25–29); the outpouring of the Spirit (e.g., 1 Cor. 6:15–19); or calling (e.g., Phil. 3:14), justification (e.g., Rom. 8:1; Gal. 2:17), adoption (e.g., Rom. 8:15–17), and sanctification (e.g., Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 1:4–5). This observation helps to explain why different theological traditions can affirm union with Christ while attaching different meanings to it: since they have different theologies of the atonement, the sacraments, and the application of salvation, their theologies of union take on diverse hues.
Already, therefore, we confront a compelling reason to be cautious about making union with Christ a controlling concept. It is impossible to know what it means in the abstract. A bundle of other important biblical concepts give union with Christ its substantive meaning. One of these concepts is justification. Thus, a proper doctrine of justification (although obviously not only the doctrine of justification) helps us understand what it means to be united to Christ.
The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands or Falls
Matthew Barrett
This collaborative volume of 26 essays explores the doctrine of justification from the lenses of history, the Bible, theology, and pastoral practice—revealing the enduring significance of this pillar of Protestant theology.
At the same time, it is also implausible to think that we can fully understand the doctrine of justification independently of union with Christ. Granted, it is probably easier to develop a biblical doctrine of justification than to develop a doctrine of union, since justification is considerably more concrete and specific than the rather vague union with Christ, and since a couple of places in Scripture, especially Romans 3–5, devote extended discussion to unpacking explicitly what justification is, which no extended text does for union. Nevertheless, a biblical doctrine of justification depends on union just as a biblical doctrine of union depends on justification. The most obvious reason why is that Paul, in the midst of the very texts we most associate with his doctrine of justification, says that justification occurs “in Christ” or “in him” (Rom. 3:24; 8:1; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 2:17; Phil. 3:9). Evidently, a good doctrine of union provides necessary insight for understanding how God justifies us.
These initial considerations provide excellent reason to believe that neither union nor justification is fully self-explanatory but that the meaning of each depends on the other. And if so, our theology should not allow either one to control the other but should seek to understand them as mutually determining and illuminating. Many other areas of theology add weight to this preliminary case. I mention three in particular.
The first concerns Christ’s resurrection. Scripture tells us that Christ was justified in his resurrection (e.g., 1 Tim. 3:16), that we have been raised with Christ (e.g., Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1), and that Christ was raised for our justification (e.g., Rom. 4:25). This interconnected set of ideas implies that to understand our justification, we need to understand Christ’s resurrection and our union with him; to understand Christ’s resurrection, we need to understand his justification and our justification; and to understand our union with Christ, we need to understand his resurrection and our justification. This way of putting things may sound confusing, but it highlights an important point: the rich truths associated with Christ’s resurrection indicate that justification and union with Christ are mutually illuminating.
Second, both union with Christ and justification are covenantal,2 as demonstrated by Galatians 3, for example. This means that exploring the relationship of union and justification is to reflect on the covenant of grace, and explaining the covenant of grace is to reflect on union and justification. In Scripture, covenant is relational, since it binds two parties together in an oath-secured bond. But covenant in Scripture is also legal, since covenants involve mutual obligations that ought to be enforced. To recognize that the relational bond that constitutes biblical covenants has a legal dimension gives further reason to believe that justification and union with Christ need not be alternatives or competitors but are in fact mutually illuminating.
Third, a biblical doctrine of the Holy Spirit points to the same conclusion.3 The Holy Spirit is the bond of our union with Christ (e.g., Rom. 8:9–10; 1 Cor. 6:15–19); the Spirit raised Christ from the dead (e.g., Rom. 1:4; 1 Pet. 3:18); in this resurrection, Christ was justified by the Spirit (e.g., 1 Tim. 3:16); and the Spirit creates the faith by which believers are justified (e.g., 1 Thess. 1:3–5). From this theological angle as well, therefore, justification and union with Christ illuminate one another.
Notes:
- For a summary of five such models, see Constantine R. Campbell, Paul and Union with Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Study (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2012), 60–61.
- This is an important theme in Michael S. Horton, Covenant and Salvation: Union with Christ (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2007); Grant Macaskill, Union with Christ in the New Testament (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
- The role of the Spirit in union with Christ is another important theme in Macaskill, Union with Christ; see also Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 205–6.
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