Union With Christ

Ron Block is a musician with Alison Krauss and Union Station. He wrote the following about our union with Christ:

"Our human reactions, our feelings, etc., are not wrong in and of themselves. In fact, no human reaction or feeling is wrong in and of itself. If we look at all the attributes of the human psyche--affection, hatred, jealousy, sexual desire, anger, etc.--whether they are thought positive or negative, they’re not. They’re neutral. Affection can be used rightly or misused. Hatred is the same--we are allowed to hate evil, but not hate people. God is a jealous God, so jealousy has a right use as well. Sexuality--that’s obvious, right use and wrong use, and God has sexual attributes, or rather, human sexuality is a reflection of God’s desire for union with us. Thus, the church is 'the Bride of Christ.'

"In order to see these truths we must distinguish between soul and spirit. Spirit, where our spirit is joined to Christ in a union or unity, is the real 'I.' It is the essence, the part that when we die will be 'absent from the body' and 'present with the Lord'; the Bible speaks of 'the spirits of just men made perfect' and the spirits of the martyrs under the altar in Heaven.

"So spirit is the real 'I'.

"Therefore, when . . . you say, 'It irks me to be misunderstood or thought to be dumb,' those feelings every human being has are not wrong in and of themselves. They are a temptation, not a sin--a temptation to live in the flesh and live according to those feelings. Satan tempts us to wrong use. But feeling those things does not make you--the real you, spirit-you, Christ-in-you You--sinful.

"And self-dependence is really unbelief, and as believers we are often unaware of our indwelling Canaanites. As [C. S.] Lewis said in The Silver Chair, we are most under the power of an enchantment when we do not think we are enchanted at all. The satanic spell of self-effort, self-dependence, must be broken by the human becoming disenchanted with its own ability, its own power to choose good and reject evil. And so we come to the place of humility, where we know we are just cups and not the Wine.

"And then we move on to knowing our union, our unity with Christ, and the 'exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.'

"But my point being this--we are meant to live in an abiding awareness of Christ living in us, through us, as us. Many live in sin-consciousness, and all that leads to is more sin. It is a religious treadmill--on one hand we have those who say, 'Jesus forgives my sins. I’m a sinner. So I sin. But He forgives me.' And on the other hand we have those who say, 'You should, you ought, you’d better strive to be more like Jesus.' License on one side, legalism on the other. And it all comes from one thing--a human thinking it is separate from its Maker, not indwelt and empowered and being a nothing, a cup in and of itself. Instead, we believe we are autonomous choosers of good and evil, not realizing that in doing sin we are really committing adultery with Satan against our true husband, Jesus Christ. And in having Christ live through us we are really being manifestations of His life within us.

"Christ-awareness--submission to Him, fellowship with Him, as in a marriage--leads to oneness with Him, an abiding strength and power of faith that moves mountains."