What happened to it?!
How good is your memory? Some things are too precious to forget, like car keys, renewing our passport, where we left the baby — and yet we do.
At Bible college I sat through a couple of lectures on the Union with Christ. They were moving, stirring and provoked a time of worship at the end of the lectures. Here I am years later having heard the topic mentioned and am left wondering when the last time I heard it mentioned was. ‘Union with Christ’ is a treasure, but what exactly is it? It’s not merely a doctrine tucked away in the dusty attic of Berkhof’s Systematic Theology or in mystical Christian thought, but in the very blazing heart of the gospel itself. Union with Christ — to be in Christ — is to be caught up in a life far greater and more immense and glorious than our own, hidden in the very auspices of His perfection and remade, recreated, transformed by the power of His Spirit. It’s immense.
Paul, the apostle who loves this stuff, says it plain, like a man handing you the unique yale key to freedom: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17, ESV). Union with Christ isn’t self-improvement, talking to the universe nonsense. It’s not moral reform or correction. It’s resurrection. You don’t just get help from Jesus — you get Him. All of Him. His life becomes yours. His obedience clothes your shame. His death buries your old self six feet deep, and His resurrection breathes new life into your tired, weary bones.
That’s not just theology — it’s breath-taking hope for a weary soul.
Union with Christ means that when God sees you, He sees His Son — perfect, righteous, dearly loved. Paul makes it clear, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20, ESV). This is no tick-box exercise or something you do on Pinterest or on an Instagram reel — it’s legal and it’s vital and done for you, not by you. Judicially, in the courtroom of heaven, you stand fully acquitted because Christ stands in your place — and in the vineyard of heaven, His life pulses through you like sap through a living branch.
The old preachers loved to tell it in stories: imagine a beggar, clothed in rags, married to the King. All their debts are paid, shame covered, and all the riches of the Kingdom are now theirs. That’s union with Christ — but it’s forever. Our filthy garments are swapped for robes of glory. Our spiritual bankruptcy swallowed up by His endless wealth.
But here’s the thing — it’s not a cold transaction. It’s not a business deal — you get no say in it — it’s done for you. It’s a marriage covenant. “He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him” (1 Corinthians 6:17, ESV). Covenant love, fierce and tender. Blood-bought intimacy. Christ doesn’t just forgive you from a distance — He draws you near, embraces you and binds you to Himself so tightly that nothing in heaven or on earth could tear you away. Ever. Not even the worst thing you have done or can do can prise those fingers of divine love from you.
And if you’re pressing in right now, you’ll realise: this is the ground of real transformation. You don’t change yourself and then get Christ. You get Christ — and He changes you. From the inside out. The gospel isn’t about God offering second, third or even fourth chances — it’s about God offering a new life entirely. A life in Christ. And nothing can separate you from that love. That’s what it means to be in Christ. Inseparable.
There’s a reason Paul could say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). Because when you’re in Christ, death isn’t a threat — it’s a doorway into an even deeper union. Life isn’t a performance — it’s an overflow of grace; like a ruptured mains water pipe it gushes, and never stops.
This very union fuels our willing obedience. Not striving desperately to earn love, but striving because we’re already loved beyond measure. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). Every step you take in holiness, every battle against sin, every act of love — it’s Christ alive in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). God is deep at work in your heart.
At the cross, the phenomenal great exchange happened. He took our sin so we could take His righteousness. He tasted our death so we could taste His life. He was forsaken so we could be adopted.
To be in Christ is to have everything you could possibly really need. It’s to boast in nothing but Him. To be safe, secure, and alive in the Son of God. It’s the core glory of the gospel — and it’s yours, right now, by grace through faith.
Hold fast to this treasure. Don’t let the noise of the world drown it out. Live each day rooted in the mystery that Christ is in you — and you are in Him.