Thursday, August 20, 2009

Chapter 3, part 2

Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.


"What the Bible says about union with Jesus"

1. Jesus lives in believers.
[From the Bible, Jesus speaking]
"Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him."

[Jesus speaking]
"When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." John 14:20 New Living Translation
2. Jesus and believers are joined into one spirit.
[From the Bible]
But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.
1 Corinthians 6:17 New Living Translation
3. Believers are members of Jesus’ body, his flesh, his bones.
[From the Bible]
And we are members of his body.
Ephesians 5:30 New Living Translation
4. It’s like the union between God the Father and Jesus.
[From the Bible, already quoted]
"When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you."

[Jesus speaking]
"I pray that they will be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. An may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me .... I am in them, and you are in me ...."
5. It’s like the union between vine and branches.
[From the Bible, Jesus speaking]
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."
6. It’s like the connection between a head and a body.
[From the Bible]
God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
Ephesians 1:22-23 New Living Translation
7. It’s like the connection between bread and eater.
[From the Bible, Jesus speaking]
"I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh." Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" they asked. So Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day."
8. It’s like the sexual union between a man and a woman.
[From the Bible]
As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
Ephesians 5:31-32 New Living Translation
Marshall commented that our union with Jesus surpasses the sexual union with another human in both nearness and fullness "because those that are joined to the Lord are not only one flesh but one spirit with Him" (p. 16).

9. Though extremely close, our beings remain separate beings.

Marshall: "Though Christ be in heaven and we on earth, yet He can join our souls and bodies to His at such a distance, without any substantial change of either, by the same infinite Spirit dwelling in Him and us; and so our flesh will become His when it is quickened by His Spirit, and His flesh ours, as truly as if we did eat His flesh and drink His blood; and He will be in us Himself by His Spirit, who is one with Him, and who can make a more close and intimate union between Christ and us than any material substance can do" (p. 13).

10. There are different measures or degrees of the indwelling Spirit.

Marshall: "And it will not follow from hence that a believer is one person with Christ. Neither will a believer be necessarily perfect in holiness hereby, or Christ made a sinner: for Christ knoweth how to dwell in believers by certain measures and degrees, and to make them holy so far only as He dwelleth in them" (p. 13).

Next post: Marshall talks more about the Biblical teaching on our union with Jesus.

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