For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.- Romans 6:5

We are saved by grace not only in the sense that Christ merited all the blessings of salvation for us by His death and perfect obedience, so that we are reconciled to God, but also in this sense, that it is the power of grace which delivers us from all the power of sin and death and makes us actual partakers of righteousness and eternal life.

The word grace has different connotations in Scripture. It may refer merely to an attribute, a perception, a virtue of God: God is gracious in Himself, apart from any relation which He sustains toward us. Grace then means that God is beautiful in His perfections and that He is pleasant and attractive, as well as that He is eternally attracted by His own virtues. There are pleasures with our God for evermore. Grace may also denote a disposition and attitude of God towards the creature, and then it signifies favor. And when this favor is revealed to those who are themselves unworthy of it, who have forfeited it through sin, it stands in opposition to works. It is, of course, this aspect of grace which is revealed in salvation, particularly in God's justifying the ungodly in Christ, and thus reconciling us unto Himself. But this is not all. The term grace also is used in Scripture to denote that power and divine operation upon us and within us whereby we are actually delivered from the dominion of sin and death, whereby we are liberated from sin's slavery, changed from guilty children of darkness into righteous and living children of the light. Also this grace operates upon us from the God of our salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Christ is not only the Mediator of our redemption; He is also the Mediator of our deliverance. From Him we receive all the spiritual blessings of salvation. And in order to receive them, we must be united with Christ, incorporated in Him, become one plant with Him. It is to this incorporation into Christ, this spiritual union with Him, that we must now call your attention.

The first truth which we must somewhat understand in this connection is that Christ is our salvation, and that all the spiritual blessings of salvation which we need to become and to remain children of God, redeemed, delivered, sanctified, and glorified, are in Him. This truth is frequently expressed in the Word of God. The apostle Paul writes in I Corinthians 1: 30 that Christ Jesus "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." In Ephesians 2: 14 he writes that Christ is our peace. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to Colossians 1:14; and in chapter 2: 3 of the same epistle we are told that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For it pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell, and in Him does dwell all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. (Colossians 1:19; 2:9) Our Lord Himself proclaims that He is the bread of life, so that if anyone cometh unto Him, he shall never hunger (J ohn 6:3 5, 48); that He is the living bread, which, if any man eat, he shall live forever (John 6:51); and He presents Himself as the water of life, and calls the thirsty to Him that they may drink. He is the light of the world; and he that follows after Him shall have the light of life. (J ohn 8: 12) He is the resurrection and the life; and he that believeth in Him shall never die. (John 11:25, 26) He is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

Let us try to understand the implication of this as clearly as possible.
For it is exactly in this respect that no man ever spake, nor will any man ever be able to speak as our Savior. And it is because of these claims of Christ that men marveled at Him, but also were offended in Him. You never heard a man speak thus, did you? Nor did you ever hear of a man or read about a mere man that spake thus. Philosophers may probably tell you how you may find life and happiness and satisfaction, and how the world may find rest and peace; and even so, their philosophy always fails and disappoints those who put their trust in it. But this man said boldly and absolutely: "I am the resurrection and the life! I am the bread of life! I am the fountain of living water! I am the light of the world! I am the way, the truth, the life!" He called men unto Him not in order to instruct them as to the best way to happiness; but He boldly promised that He would give them life, rest, peace, everlasting satisfaction. And so He is our righteousness, wisdom and knowledge, peace and rest, sanctification and redemption. He is our all. All the spiritual blessings of salvation which we need to translate us from death into life, from darkness into light, from corruption into righteousness, and to raise us from lowest hell to highest heaven, are in Him. For He did not only die that He might be our righteousness in a juridical sense; He also arose, and He also was exalted at the right hand of God, and He also received the Spirit without measure, in order that as the quickening Spirit He might set us free and bestow upon us the grace of eternal life.

We might, perhaps, employ a few simple illustrations to elucidate the meaning of all this. You all know that in our towns and villages we receive the water in our homes from a central reservoir, or tank or water tower, into which it is pumped from some natural source in the first place. Or, to use another illustration, you are acquainted with the fact that the electric current which brings light into your home is generated in some central power plant in the city in which you live. And the gas which you use to cook your food or to heat your home reaches you from huge storage tanks. From the one reservoir all the homes in your city are supplied with drinking water. That one power plant generates all the electricity used in your town and illuminates all your homes. >From the one central gas plant flows the gas which supplies the whole city. Well, so Christ is the spiritual power-plant in the entire New Jerusalem, from Whom the current of life and light flows into your soul. He is the one and only central storage tank in the entire kingdom of God, the sole reservoir, out of which flows continually all the water of life to quench the thirst of all the citizens of that kingdom. He is God's spiritual reservoir of salvation for all His people.

Now what immediately follows from this?

You say, and quite correctly so: it follows that one must be connected, united with Christ in order to receive salvation. If your home is not properly wired and connected with the central electric plant in your city, you turn the switch in your living room quite in vain. You will have no light. If from the gas main pipes do not conduct the gas into your house, it is of no avail that you put a beautiful gas stove in your kitchen, or gas furnace in your basement. You will have no heat. In vain do you turn the faucet to draw water, if your home is not connected at all with that central reservoir in your town. The same is true in our relation to Christ. If our soul is not spiritually connected with Him, Who is our light, life, righteousness, wisdom, knowledge, sanctification, and redemption, we shall never have light, righteousness, and peace. It will remain dark and miserable in our soul. We must therefore be literally joined with Christ, united with Him. We must be in Him, even as He must be in us, in order that He may become our righteousness, holiness, and eternal life, and in order that we may draw out of Him all the blessings of grace.

This is what Scripture teaches us. This is taught by the figure of the vine and the branches. The branches must be in the vine in order to bear fruit. Christ is the vine; believers, and that, too, in their generations, are the branches. The branches are nothing except for their organic union with the vine. Even as it is the vine that bears fruit in and through the branches, so believers can bear fruit only because Christ lives and bears fruit in them. The same truth is taught us by the figure of the church as the body of Christ. Christ is the Head; the church is His body. And it is only from and by the Head that the body lives. Further, what is true of the body as a whole is equally true of the believers individually as members of that body. They have no life in themselves. Only in virtue of their organic union with the body do they live. For this reason the Bible speaks of believers as being in Christ. For of God they are in Christ Jesus, Who is made unto them wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. (I Corinthians 1: 30) And as in Adam all die, so in Christ all shall be made alive. (I Corinthians 15:22) And "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." (II Corinthians 5: 17) The saints are called "the faithful in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 1: 1) And they were sometimes darkness, but now they are light in the Lord. (Ephesians 5:8) And we are admonished to abide in Him, that we may bear much fruit. (John 15:4; I John 2:28)

This, then, is the first and absolutely indispensable requirement of our salvation: we must be in Christ. Hence, we must be incorporated into Him; we must be united with Him. A spiritual union must be established between Christ and our soul, before we can receive any fruit of Christ's death and resurrection. This union is absolutely first. Unless that living connection is established between Christ and our inmost heart, we are outside of Him. And outside of Christ there is only guilt and damnation, corruption and death, darkness and desolation. Before there can be the faintest spark of new life in us, before there can appear even the faintest glimmer of light in our soul, before the simplest prayer can be uttered from our lips, before even the slightest longing can arise in our soul for God and His Christ, that union must be accomplished. It is an absolute prerequisite for the reception of all salvation. For Christ is our all, and all our salvation is in Him. But we cannot begin to draw our life and light, our knowledge and wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification, from Him until our inmost heart is joined in spiritual unity with Him, Who is the revelation of the God of our salvation.

But how is this union accomplished?

The answer of Scripture is unequivocally: this union is unconditionally and absolutely the work of God's grace in Christ Jesus. By grace are ye saved! That implies, too, that by grace, and by grace only, you are incorporated into Christ, so that you become one plant with Him.

When we say this, we proclaim nothing new. But we do wipe the dust of oblivion from a very old, very fundamental, and very precious truth. And we do claim that this truth is in dire need of a new emphasis over against many false representations, not by modernists, but by those who claim that they preach the doctrine of salvation by grace. For very many directly teach, or indirectly leave the impression by the way they preach, that this first touch of the soul of the sinner with Christ is accomplished by the sinner himself, or, at least, is contingent for its establishment upon the will and choice of the sinner. Yes, they admit, Christ is our salvation; and the soul must be united with Christ in order to receive salvation. But if this union is to be accomplished, the sinner must come to Christ. The Savior is willing to receive him, to come into his heart, to join that sinner unto Himself; but the sinner must first come. He must accept Christ. Or he must be willing to receive Him. Or he must long and pray for this coming of Christ into his heart. And it seems that very sensational preaching, accompanied preferably by a heart-touching hymn and by begging and praying on the part of the preacher, is especially considered to be conducive to persuade the sinner to come to Jesus, to open the door of his heart, and to let Jesus come in. In last analysis, the union of the soul with the living Lord depends not on efficacious grace, but on the will of the sinner!

But, first of all, how absurd and utterly impossible is this presentation of salvation! If it were true, no man would be saved! For according to Scripture, the natural man is in the flesh; and the mind of the flesh is death. It is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. Man is dead in sin and misery. He can neither perform nor will that which is good. He loves iniquity, and he is a slave of sin. He loves darkness rather than light. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Such is the natural man. Such is every man before that union with Christ is established of which we made mention. Do you expect that man to open his heart to Christ? Do you insist that this dead sinner must come to Christ before Christ will come to Him? Do you still maintain that this darkened sinner must at least long for Christ, hunger and thirst for Him, seek Him, ask for Him, before his soul can be united with the living Lord? I reply that if such were the truth, then could no man be saved. For before the sinner is united with Christ he can neither come to Him, nor long for Him, nor seek Him, nor utter the weakest prayer beseeching Him to come into his heart. But thanks be to God, this is not the truth! Salvation is not of man, nor of the will of man; nor does our union with Christ depend on man's consent. "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." (John 6:44) Again: "Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father." (John 6:65)

And the Father does draw, and the Father does give, and the Father does unite us with the living Lord! And He does so, too, through Christ Himself, Who is exalted and draws all unto Him. He draws with cords of love, with irresistible power of grace. And when we are so drawn and so united with Christ, and He by His Spirit lives in us, we respond. We hunger and thirst, we long and pray, we come and embrace Him, we eat the bread of life and are satisfied, we drink the water of life and thirst nevermore, we draw from Him Who is the fulness of all the blessings of salvation, even grace for grace! All this is the fruit and manifestation in us of that marvelous, mysterious, blessed wonder of grace, of grace sovereign and free, whereby we are united with Christ. For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God!

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world!

1. The Idea of Salvation by Grace
2. Chosen by Grace
   
3. Reconciled by Grace
   
4. United With Christ by Grace
   
5. Regenerated by Grace
   
6. Called by Grace
   
7. Believing Through Grace
   
8. Justified by Grace
   
9. Converted by Grace
   
10. Working Out Our Salvation by Grace
    
11. Good Works Through Grace
    
12. Suffering Through Grace
    
13. Victory Through Grace
    
14. Assurance of Grace
    
15. Glorified Through Grace