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IV. The Mystical Union
Calvin repeatedly expresses the idea that the sinner cannot share in the saving benefits of
Christ’s redemptive work, unless he be in union with Him, and thus emphasizes a very
important truth. As Adam was the representative head of the old humanity, so Christ is the
representative head of the new humanity. All the blessings of the covenant of grace flow from
Him who is the Mediator of the covenant. Even the very first blessing of the saving grace of God
which we receive already presupposes a union with the Person of the Mediator. It is exactly at
this point that we find one of the most characteristic differences between the operations and
blessings of special and those of common grace. The former can be received and enjoyed only
by those who are in union with Christ, while the latter can be and are enjoyed also by those
who are not reckoned in Christ, and therefore are not one with Him. Every spiritual blessing
which believers receive flows to them out of Christ. Hence Jesus in speaking of the coming
Paraklete could say unto His disciples: “He shall glorify me; for He shall take of mine, and shall
declare it unto you,” John 16:14. Subjectively, the union between Christ and believers is
effected by the Holy Spirit in a mysterious and supernatural way, and for that reason is
generally designated as the unio mystica or mystical union.
A. NATURE OF THE MYSTICAL UNION.
Lutherans generally treat the doctrine of the mystical union anthropologically, and therefore
conceive of it as established by faith. Hence they naturally take it up at a later point in their
soteriology. But this method fails to do full justice to the idea of our union with Christ, since it
loses sight of the eternal basis of the union and of its objective realization in Christ, and deals
exclusively with the subjective realization of it in our lives, and even so only with our personal
conscious entrance into this union. Reformed theology, on the other hand, deals with the union
of believers with Christ theologically, and as such does far greater justice to this important
subject. In doing so it employs the term “mystical union” in a broad sense as a designation not
only of the subjective union of Christ and believers, but also of the union that lies back of it,
that is basic to it, and of which it is only the culminating expression, namely, the federal union
of Christ and those who are His in the counsel of redemption, the mystical union ideally
established in that eternal counsel, and the union as it is objectively effected in the incarnation
and the redemptive work of Christ.
1. THE FEDERAL UNION OF CHRIST WITH THOSE WHOM THE FATHER HAS GIVEN HIM, IN THE
COUNSEL OF REDEMPTION.
In the counsel of peace Christ voluntarily took upon Himself to be
the Head and Surety of the elect, destined to constitute the new humanity, and as such to
establish their righteousness before God by paying the penalty for their sin and by rendering
perfect obedience to the law and thus securing their title to everlasting life. In that eternal