– 6 min read
Introduction
As we come to an end in this three-part series, I wish to end with one of the richest doctrines of the Christian faith: union with Christ. For the believer, this union is not merely a theological concept to be studied but a living reality that transforms how we understand every aspect of our life and our death. When Paul writes, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21), he is not speaking from a place of morbid fascination or death wish, but from a profound understanding of his union with Christ. How can death be gain? How can we, like Paul, desire “to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better” (Phil. 1:23)? I believe the answer lies in grasping the doctrine of our union with Christ—a union so complete that not even death can sever it. In this final article, we will examine the nature and blessings of our union with Christ as it pertains to death.
The Benefits of Our Union
Q. 40: What benefits do believers receive from Christ at their death?
– The Baptist Catechism, Question & Answer 40
A. The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.
Even in our death, we receive benefits from Christ. This is because we are forever united to Him. Our union with Christ brings about many benefits indeed. According to the New Testament, we are predestined in Christ (Eph 1:5), we are created in Christ (Eph 2:10), we are made alive in Christ (Rom 6:11), we are a new creature in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), we are justified in Christ (Rom 8:1), we are given eternal life in Christ (Rom 6:23), we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 2:6), we are sanctified in Christ (1 Cor 1:2), we are infants in Christ (1 Cor 3:1), we are God’s sons in Christ (Gal 3:26), we are united together as one body in Christ (Rom 12:5), and we die in Christ (1 Cor 15:18). The New Testamant believers did not think of themselves as “Christians,” a derogatory term that they would adopt later. Rather, the New Testament is clear that believers viewed themselves as being those “in Christ“: a term found over 100 times in the New Testament.[1]
What does our union with Christ mean for death? It means that the believer never faces death alone. When we consider our union with Christ, we must understand that we are united to Him in both His death and His resurrection. Paul declares, “Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:3-4). Our union with Christ means we have already died with Him. Even though we undergo a physical death that will be a new experience for us, the reality of it has already taken place. We therefore can endure death with a confidence that Christ has gone before us. Christ, who possessed immortality, tasted death and bore the full weight of God’s wrath against sin. He did this so that we, united to Him, might pass through death without facing its sting.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.
– Hebrews 2:14-15 (LSB)
Christ entered into death to destroy death’s power over us. Because we are united to Him, His victory over death becomes our victory. The grave that held Him for three days could not keep Him, and the grave that will hold us cannot keep us either. As Paul puts it, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom. 8:11).
The Bond of Our Union
The benefits of the gospel are in Christ. They do not exist apart from him. They are ours only in him. They cannot be abstracted from him as if we ourselves could possess them independently of him.
– Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 2016), 44.
One of the most comforting truths about our union with Christ is its permanence. Paul asks rhetorically, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction, or turmoil, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” (Rom. 8:35). He concludes with certainty: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 8:38-39). Notice that death is listed among the things that cannot separate us from Christ’s love. Death, which seems so final and so fearsome, has no power to break our union with the Savior.
The most comforting words spoken to a dying man were from our Lord Jesus. He told the thief on the cross next to Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). It is a great balm for the soul to hear our Lord say to us that upon our death, we will be with Him in Paradise. Paul understood this to be true and so rightly concluded that while “…we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord…” and how we “…prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:6,8). Our union with Christ means that death is not a journey into the unknown, but a homecoming.
When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we do not walk alone. Psalm 23 reminds us, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4). The Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep walks with His sheep through death’s dark valley. Our spiritual union with Christ is not merely an intangible, invisible reality that we conceptualize, but a truth that provides real comfort in this life and in our death. Not only is Christ with us in the valley of the shadow of death, but Christ is with us in the waters of death as well.
In Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan depicts Christian and Hopeful crossing the river to reach the Celestial City, a journey that symbolizes death. Christian begins to sink and cries out in fear, but Hopeful reminds him: “Be of good cheer, my brother: I feel the bottom, and it is good.” Then Christian hears a voice saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you” (Isaiah 43:2). This is the comfort of union with Christ: He is with us in the waters.
CONCLUSION: Our union with Christ transforms death from a terror to be feared into a doorway to be entered. We are united to Him in His death, united to Him in His resurrection, and united to Him through our own death and resurrection. This union is unbreakable, eternal, and glorious. Death cannot separate us from Christ; it can only bring us into fuller experience of His presence.
Question 1: “How does your understanding of union with Christ affect your view of death?”
Question 2: “In what practical ways are you living out your union with Christ today?”
Question 3: “Can you say with Paul that ‘to die is gain’? Why or why not?”
To go back and read Part 1, click here
To go back and read Part 2, click here
Works Cited
[1] Sinclair Ferguson, The Whole Christ (Crossway, Wheaton, IL, 2016), 45.