In society we refer to marriages as unions. Not like a trade union, but not totally unlike a trade union either. Union is a way to talk about intimate relationship in which two or more become one, in pursuit of a unified goal. Christians, therefore, have union with Christ.
Do you have union with Christ? I’m talking about an important Christian theological principle. What is Union with Christ?
In Galatians 2:20, Paul writes, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” If that sounds familiar, it is because we read that verse in unison together at the conclusion of our worship service a week ago.
In both 1st Thessalonians 5:10 (this week, as the title of this post suggests, we are studying 1 Thessalonians 5:5–11) and Galatians 2:20, Paul is talking about how Christians can have union with Christ.
In verse 10, Paul says that Union with Christ is living together with Jesus. In Galatians 2:20, Paul describes it as “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” These are two very early statements of this crucial spiritual principle. It must have been on Paul’s heart and mind at this early stage. Actually, he wouldn’t stop talking about it. Paul would only develop the teaching further.
Listen to how he describes Union with Christ in Ephesians 3:14-19, which is my favorite prayer in all of Scripture: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Listen to how Jesus himself talks about how he wants to have union with us in a few passages.
John 14:23, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
John 17:20-26, “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me… Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
In union with Christ, there is a deep inward entanglement between ourselves and Jesus, all of which he initiates and makes possible for those who are his genuine followers. Notice some of the phrases:
“that we may live together with him.”
“that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
But, you might ask, didn’t Jesus ascend to heaven where he now sits on the right hand of God? Yes. Jesus is not actually here on earth, right? Right. Even though we say things like “Ask Jesus into your heart,” we don’t mean that literally, right? Right. So how can we have union with Christ?
Jesus tells us in John 14:16–20 “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth….you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you…Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
In both 1st Corinthians chapter 3 and chapter 6 Paul writes that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives with us. When we think of the concept of living together with God, that union with Christ happens the moment a person becomes a true follower of Jesus. At that moment, God makes his home in us, as his Spirit lives with us.
Think about that for a moment. Just dwell on that. Right now, God is living with you. In you. Together with you.
Yes, there is a true sense in which 1 Thessalonians 5:5–11 is about the future, when Jesus returns, and we will live with him forever. But this passage is rightly applied to the here and now. It is not as if Paul is saying that you need to die to start living together with God.
Paul has clearly said in his other letters what is true about this phrase in 1 Thessalonians 5:10, we live together with God now through the Holy Spirit living in us. This is why Paul wrote to the Christians in Ephesus that they would deeply experience God inwardly, “that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.”
So at the end of it all, Paul says that this Union with Christ is the goal. This is what Jesus wants. He loves us and wants relationship with us. This is why he died and rose again.
So we should do about Union with Christ? I encourage you to use The Pause App. It has guided prayers that often reference Union with Christ.
Paul also has some ideas in verse 11 for what should happen in the lives of Christians who are “living together with God”, and we’ll learn about his ideas in the next post.
Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 