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4. SACRAMENTARIAN ERROR.
Another error to be avoided is that of the sacramentarians,
represented by the Roman Catholic Church and by some Lutherans and High Church
Episcopalians. Strong speaks of this as “perhaps the most pernicious misinterpretation of the
nature of this union.” It makes the grace of God something substantial, of which the Church is
the depositary, and which can be passed on in the sacraments; and completely loses sight of
the fact that the sacraments cannot effect this union, because they already presuppose it.
D. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MYSTICAL UNION.
1. The mystical union in the sense in which we are now speaking of it is not the judicial ground,
on the basis of which we become partakers of the riches that are in Christ. It is sometimes said
that the merits of Christ cannot be imputed to us as long as we are not in Christ, since it is only
on the basis of our oneness with Him that such an imputation could be reasonable. But this
view fails to distinguish between our legal unity with Christ and our spiritual oneness with Him,
and is a falsification of the fundamental element in the doctrine of redemption, namely, of the
doctrine of justification. Justification is always a declaration of God, not on the basis of an
existing condition, but on that of a gracious imputation, — a declaration which is not in
harmony with the existing condition of the sinner. The judicial ground for all the special grace
which we receive lies in the fact that the righteousness of Christ is freely imputed to us.
2. But this state of affairs, namely, that the sinner has nothing in himself and receives
everything freely from Christ, must be reflected in the consciousness of the sinner. And this
takes place through the mediation of the mystical union. While the union is effected when the
sinner is renewed by the operation of the Holy Spirit, he does not become cognizant of it and
does not actively cultivate it until the conscious operation of faith begins. Then he becomes
aware of the fact that he has no righteousness of his own, and that the righteousness by which
he appears just in the sight of God is imputed to him. But even so something additional is
required. The sinner must feel his dependence on Christ in the very depths of his being, — in
the sub-conscious life. Hence he is incorporated in Christ, and as a result experiences that all
the grace which he receives flows from Christ. The constant feeling of dependence thus
engendered, is an antidote against all self-righteousness.
3. The mystical union with Christ also secures for the believer the continuously transforming
power of the life of Christ, not only in the soul but also in the body. The soul is gradually
renewed in the image of Christ, as Paul expresses it, “from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit
of the Lord.” II Cor. 3:18. And the body is consecrated in the present to be a fit instrument of
the renewed soul, and will at last be raised up in the likeness of Christ’s glorified body, Phil.
3:21. Being in Christ, believers share in all the blessings which He merited for his people. He is
for them a perennial fountain springing into everlasting life.