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precedes both regeneration and justification by faith, while yet, chronologically, the moment
when we are united with Christ is also the moment of our regeneration and justification.
B. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MYSTICAL UNION.
From the preceding it appears that the term “mystical union” can be, and often is, used in a
broad sense, including the various aspects (legal, objective, subjective) of the union between
Christ and believers. Most generally, however, it denotes only the crowning aspect of that
union, namely, its subjective realization by the operation of the Holy Spirit, and it is this aspect
of it that is naturally in the foreground in soteriology. All that is said in the rest of this chapter
bears on this subjective union. The following are the main characteristics of this union:
1. IT IS AN ORGANIC UNION.
Christ and the believers form one body. The organic character of
this union is clearly taught in such passages as John 15:5; I Cor. 6:15-19; Eph. 1:22,23; 4:15,16;
5:29,30. In this organic union Christ ministers to the believers, and the believers minister to
Christ. Every part of the body serves and is served by every other part, and together they are
subservient to the whole in a union that is indissoluble.
2. IT IS A VITAL UNION.
In this union Christ is the vitalizing and dominating principle of the
whole body of believers. It is none other than the life of Christ that indwells and animates
believers, so that, to speak with Paul, “Christ is formed” in them, Gal. 4:19. By it Christ becomes
the formative principle of their life, and leads it in a Godward direction, Rom. 8:10; II Cor. 13:5;
Gal. 4:19,20.
3. IT IS A UNION MEDIATED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
The Holy Spirit was in a special capacity a part
of the Mediator’s reward, and as such was poured out on the day of Pentecost for the
formation of the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit Christ now dwells in
believers, unites them to Himself, and knits them together in a holy unity, I Cor. 6:17; 12:13; II
Cor. 3:17,18; Gal. 3:2,3.
4. IT IS A UNION THAT IMPLIES RECIPROCAL ACTION.
The initial act is that of Christ, who unites
believers to himself by regenerating them and thus producing faith in them. On the other hand,
the believer also unites himself to Christ by a conscious act of faith, and continues the union,
under the influence of the Holy Spirit, by the constant exercise of faith, John 14:23; 15:4,5; Gal.
2:20; Eph. 3:17.
5. IT IS A PERSONAL UNION.
Every believer is personally united directly to Christ. The
representation that the life which is in the Church through Christ flows from the Church into the
individual believer is decidedly unScriptural, not only in its sacramentarian but also in its
pantheistic form (Rome, Schleiermacher, and many modern theologians). Every sinner who is