preaches on a mountain side to others of the righteousness of God and His Kingdom, the wisdom of this Sermon on the Mount is mine. Another time, a man approaches Christ with torment of spirit and body. Jesus commands a legion of devils to come out of him, but the victory is mine. In a wilderness, Satan approaches and tempts God’s Son with allurements that would satiate pleasure, power, and pride. Jesus resists him with the Word of God, and the righteousness of that resistance is mine. How can this be, since I certainly am not personally responsible for any of these activities, nor am I deserving of any of the credit? His righteousness is mine because Christ’s life is in me. He supplies my identity because God has made Him my life (1 Cor. 1:30; 2 Cor. 5:21). Holy in Christ
Without our earning it, God declares us holy (sanctified) by virtue of our union with Christ (Rom. 12:1). Though our lives are far from perfect, God has taken away the pollution of our sin and replaced it with the righteousness of Christ. This does not mean that I never do any more wrong or that God will not discipline me for sin. It means that God treats me with the love and status with which He relates to His own Son. I have this position and status not because I have kept God’s standards but because He who lives in me has kept them—and He allows me to share His identity. The nature and benefits of sharing Christ’s identity could be seen in the modern-day comparison of gas stations that allow us to use a credit card to pay at the pump. I appreciate these pumps not only because I don’t have to hike into the station to pay, but also because I don’t have to go at all. If my son needs the car, I can give him my credit card to use in the pump. At his current economy he usually doesn’t have the means to get what he needs, so he uses the card with my name on it. With my permission and according to my desire, he assumes my identity. Though he cannot fulfill the conditions required for payment, my son has all of my credit available to him. Though he could not provide it himself, my son acts with my identity and, thus, has all the credit that I have earned. Because we have the identity of the Son, we have the favor of the Father.
Strengthened by Grace
Our heavenly Father’s love should create a proper regard for self, despite shame for our wrongdoing, that curbs self-destructive attitudes and actions. Seeing the reality of Christ in us grants us the ability to claim the hope and help that God offers to each treasured child. Some Christians, however, fear that teaching about the security of our union with Christ will cause people to be less concerned about the wrong in their lives, reasoning that confidence in our relationship with God apart from our actions will encourage people to do as they wish. It is true that those who have no real love for the Savior can seek to take advantage of the grace that they presume exists for them. However, those
who are truly in union with Christ increasingly have the desires of the Author of that union because His heart beats within them. When we lose sight of our privileged position of being in union with Christ, we lose our ability to resist sin. Without confidence in our relationship with Christ, we become like children who are afraid to walk across a rope suspension bridge despite the fact that the anchors and ropes that hold the bridge are perfectly secure. Christians who are not confident of their security in Christ crawl forward in their pursuit of holiness, helpless to stand against the winds of difficulty and temptation rather than confidently venturing forth to serve the Lord on the strength of the union He has granted them with Himself. How, then, do I make progress in godliness as I live out what God intends for me with my new identity?
Empowered by Faith
The plain answer is that we access the power of our union with Christ by faith. Paul says that the life that he now lives (through Christ in him), he lives “by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20). This is a marvelous statement of how Christ’s past sacrifice was first applied to us by faith when we became Christians. But there is also another present reality in which this union by faith operates. Paul does not perceive the atoning work of Jesus as exhausting its benefits at the point when we were justified. The resultant union we have with Christ by faith also enables us to continue to live as God desires now. Faith in our unchanging status and in our changed ability is the powerful resource for spiritual transformation made available to us by our union with Christ. By virtue of our union with Christ, our sinful identity is dead, and His righteous identity is ours. With our status as God’s beloved we enter the Christian life, but Christ’s identity remains ours through our continuing union with Him. By faith, the resources of this union become the means by which we live the life that our God and our regenerated hearts desire. Weakness, wrongdoing, and failings still cling to us, yes. But they do not establish who we are. We are the beloved of God. Though sin still exists in our lives, we have the status of God’s own Son—the One who gave His life for us and to us. And because of the Father’s love for that Child who now indwells us, we have the ability to change and to progress in our Christian walk. Thus, as we seek to live holy lives, we can rest in the assurance of what the Bible so eloquently reminds us: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Dr. Bryan Chapell This article is excerpted and adapted from chapter two of Dr. Chapell’s book Holiness By Grace. Dr. Chapell has served as president of Covenant Seminary since 1994. He began teaching at Covenant Seminary in 1984 after 10 years in pastoral ministry. Dr. Chapell teaches the introductory homiletics courses and several practicums, giving every MDiv student the opportunity to study under him. His book Christ-Centered Preaching has established him as one of the nation’s most recognized teachers of homiletics.
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