I. John Calvin (1509-1564) in Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1960
Hence arises a wonderful consolation: that we perceive judgment to be in the hands of him who has already destined us to share with him the honor of judging [cf. Matt. 19:28]! Far indeed is he from mounting his judgment seat to condemn us! How could our most merciful Ruler destroy his people? How could the Head scatter his own members? (Institutes 2.16.18).
If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him” [I Cor. 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Heb. 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [cf. Heb. 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal. 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge (Institutes 2.16.19).
First, we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us. For this reason, he is called “our Head” [Eph. 4:15], and “the first-born among many brethren” [Rom. 8:29]. We also, in turn, are said to be “engrafted into him” [Rom. 11:17], and to “put on Christ” [Gal. 3:27]; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him (Institutes 3.1.1).
[Christ] unites himself to us by the Spirit alone. By the grace and power of the same Spirit we are made his members, to keep us under himself and in turn to possess him (Institutes 3.1.3).
As if we ought to think of Christ, standing afar off and not rather dwelling in us! For we await salvation from him not because he appears to us afar off but because he makes us, ingrafted into his body, participants not only in all his benefits but also in himself (Institutes 3.2.24).
We ought not to separate Christ from ourselves or ourselves from him. Rather we ought to hold fast bravely with both hands to that fellowship by which he has bound himself to us (Institutes 3.2.24).
But since Christ has been so imparted to you with all his benefits that all his things are made yours, that you are made a member of him, indeed one with him, his righteousness overwhelms your sins; his salvation wipes out your condemnation; with his worthiness he intercedes that your unworthiness may not come before God’s sight (Institutes 3.2.24).
Christ is not outside us but dwells within us. Not only does he cleave to us by an indivisible bond of fellowship, but with a wonderful communion, day by day, he grows more and more into one body with us, until he becomes completely one with us (Institutes 3.2.24).
Both things happen to us by participation in Christ. For if we truly partake in his death, “our old man is crucified by his power, and the body of sin perishes” [Rom. 6:6 p.], that the corruption of original nature may no longer thrive. If we share in his resurrection, through it we are raised up into newness of life to correspond with the righteousness of God (Institutes 3.3.9).
By partaking of him [i.e., the Lord Jesus], we principally receive a double grace: namely, that being reconciled 143Union With Christ to God through Christ’s blamelessness, we may have in heaven instead of a Judge a gracious Father [i.e., justification]; and secondly, that being sanctified by Christ’s Spirit we may cultivate blamelessness and purity of life [i.e., sanctification] (Institutes 3.11.1).
… not only Christ but also the Father and the Holy Spirit dwell in us … [We ought to consider] the manner of the indwelling—namely, that the Father and Spirit are in Christ, and even as the fullness of deity dwells in him [Col. 2:9], so in him we possess the whole of deity (Institutes 3.11.5).
I confess that we are deprived of this utterly incomparable good [i.e., justification] until Christ is made ours. Therefore, that joining together of Head and members, that indwelling of Christ in our hearts—in short, that mystical union—are accorded by us the highest degree of importance, so that Christ, having been made ours, makes us sharers with him in the gifts with which he has been endowed. We do not, therefore, contemplate him outside ourselves from afar in order that his righteousness may be imputed to us but because we put on Christ and are engrafted into his body—in short, because he deigns to make us one with him. For this reason, we glory that we have fellowship of [imputed] righteousness with him (Institutes 3.11.10).
You see that our righteousness is not in us but in Christ, that we possess it only because we are partakers in Christ; indeed, with him we possess all its riches … To declare that by him alone we are accounted righteous, what else is this but to lodge our righteousness in Christ’s obedience, because the obedience of Christ is reckoned to us as if it were our own? (Institutes 3.11.23).
He alone is well founded in Christ who has perfect righteousness in [the Lord Jesus]: since the apostle does not say that he was sent to help us attain righteousness but himself to be our righteousness [I Cor. 1:30]. Indeed, he states that “he has chosen us in him” from eternity “before the foundation of the world,” through no merit of our own “but according to the purpose of divine good pleasure” [Eph. 1:4-5, cf. Vg.]; that by his death we are redeemed from the condemnation of death and freed from ruin [cf. Col. 1:14, 20]; that we have been adopted unto him as sons and heirs by our Heavenly Father [cf. Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:5-7]; that we have been reconciled through his blood [Rom. 5:9-10]; that, given into his protection, we are released from the danger of perishing and falling [John 10:28]; that thus ingrafted into him [cf. Rom. 11:19] we are already, in a manner, partakers of eternal life, having entered into the Kingdom of God through hope (Institutes 3.15.5).
Yet more: we experience such participation in him that, although we are still foolish in ourselves, he is our wisdom before God; while we are sinners, he is our righteousness; while we are unclean, he is our purity; while we are weak, while we are unarmed and exposed to Satan, yet ours is that power which has been given him in heaven and on earth [Matt. 28:18], by which to crush Satan for us and shatter the gates of hell; while we still bear about with us the body of death, he is yet our life (Institutes 3.15.5).
In brief, because all his things are ours and we have all things in him, in us there is nothing. Upon this foundation, I say, we must be built if we would grow into a holy temple to the Lord [cf. Eph. 2:21] (Institutes 3.15.5).
Therefore, as soon as you become engrafted into Christ through faith, you are made a son of God, an heir of heaven, a partaker in righteousness, a possessor of life; and (by this their falsehood may be better refuted) you obtain not the opportunity to gain merit but all the merits of Christ, for they are communicated to you (Institutes 3.15.6).
… we define justification as follows: the sinner, received into communion with Christ … [1] obtains forgiveness of sins, and [2] clothed with Christ’s righteousness as if it were his own, he stands confident before the heavenly judgment seat (Institutes 3.17.8).
First, if we seek God’s fatherly mercy and kindly heart, we should turn our eyes to Christ, on whom alone God’s Spirit rests … No matter how much you toss it about and mull it over, you will discover that its final bounds still extend no farther … if we have been chosen in him, we shall not find assurance of our election in ourselves; and not even in God the Father, if we conceive him as severed from his Son. Christ, then, is the mirror wherein we must, and without self-deception may, contemplate our own election. For since it is into his body the Father has destined those to be engrafted whom he has willed from eternity to be his own, that he may hold as sons all whom he acknowledges to be among his members, we have a sufficiently clear and firm testimony that we have been inscribed in the book of life [cf. Rev. 21:27] if we are in communion with Christ (Institutes 3.24.5).
The ancient philosophers anxiously discussed the sovereign good, and even contended among themselves over it. Yet none but Plato recognized man’s highest good as union with God, and he could not even dimly sense its nature. And no wonder, for he had learned nothing of the sacred bond of that union (Institutes 3.25.2).
And to separate him from ourselves is not permissible and not even possible, without tearing him apart. From this, Paul argues: “If the dead do not rise up again, then Christ did not rise up again” [I Cor. 15:16]. For he takes it as an agreed principle that it was not for himself alone that Christ was subjected to death, or that he obtained victory over death by rising again. Rather there was begun in the Head what must be completed in all the members (Institutes 3.25.3).
He was raised by the Father, inasmuch as he was the Head of the church, from which the Father in no way allows him to be severed. He was raised by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Quickener of us in common with him (Institutes 3.25.3).
For it would be utterly absurd that the bodies which God has dedicated to himself as temples [I Cor. 3:16] should fall away into filth without hope of resurrection! What of the fact that they are also members of Christ [I Cor. 6:15]? (Institutes 3.25.7).
If the Lord will share his glory, power, and righteousness with the elect—nay, will give himself to be enjoyed by them and, what is more excellent, will somehow make them to become one with himself, let us remember that every sort of happiness is included under this benefit (Institutes 3.25.10).
As I explained in the previous book [i.e., book 3], it is by faith in the gospel that Christ becomes ours and we are made partakers of the salvation and eternal blessedness brought by him (Institutes 4.1.1).
For since the church itself is the body of Christ [Col. 1:24], it cannot be corrupted by such foul and decaying members without some disgrace falling upon its Head. Therefore … they from whose wickedness infamy redounds to the Christian name must be banished from its family (Institutes 4.12.5).
For if it is admitted that they are among the children of Adam, they are left in death, since in Adam we can but die [Rom. 5:12ff.]. On the contrary, Christ commands that they [i.e., these “little children” in Israel] be brought to him [Matt. 19:14]. Why is this? Because he is life. Therefore, to quicken them he makes them partakers in himself, while these fellows [i.e., the Anabaptists] sentence them to banishment and death (Institutes 4.16.17).
For as in baptism, God, regenerating us, engrafts us into the society of his church and makes us his own by adoption, so we have said, that he discharges the function of a provident householder in continually supplying to us the food [of the Lord’s Supper] to sustain and preserve us in that life (Institutes 4.17.1).
This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, becoming Son of man with us, he has made us sons of God with him; that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that, accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that, receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us; that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness (Institutes 4.17.2).
I do not see how anyone can trust that he has redemption and righteousness in the cross of Christ, and life in his death, unless he relies chiefly upon a true participation in Christ himself. For those benefits would not come to us unless Christ first made himself ours (Institutes 4.17.11).
For the Lord so communicates his body to us there that he is made completely one with us and we with him. Now, since he has only one body, of which he makes us all partakers, it is necessary that all of us also be made one body by such participation. The bread shown in the Sacrament represents this unity. As it is made of many grains so mixed together that one cannot be distinguished from another, so it is fitting that in the same way we should be joined and bound together by such great agreement of minds that no sort of disagreement or division may intrude (Institutes 4.17.38).
II. Others
Obadiah Sedgwick (c.1600–1658): “The soul and the body may be disunited by death; but the union ‘twixt us and Christ remains for ever. There is not only a continuation of it all our life, but also in death itself. Your very bodies sleeping in the dust are, even then, in union with Christ.”
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680): “It is true indeed the union on Christ’s part is in order of nature first made by the Spirit; therefore Philip. iii. 12, he is said first to ‘comprehend us ere we can comprehend him;’ yet that which makes the union on our part is faith, whereby we embrace and cleave to him … It is faith alone that doth it. Love indeed makes us cleave to him also, but yet faith first” (The Object and Acts of Justifying Faith, in Works, 8:463).
Obadiah Grew (1607-1689): “Union is the ground of all our comfort, and privilege we have by the Lord Jesus Christ: Our communion springs from our Union with him” (The Lord Jesus Christ the Lord Our Righteousness [London, 1669], p. 97).
Thomas Cole (1627-1697): “There can be no Change made in our Nature by the Spirit of Christ in our Sanctification, but upon a Change of State from our closing in with the Blood of Christ for Justification. The Spirit of Christ doeth always follow the Blood of Christ; ’tis the Purchase of that Blood; so that the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, extends himself in all his saving Operations, no further than the Body of Christ; none but Members vitally joined to Christ their Head, can be quickened by him; therefore no man or woman can be savingly wrought upon by the Spirit of Christ, who continue in a state of separation from him” (A Discourse of Regeneration … [London: for Will Marshall, 1698], pp. 81-82).
John Flavel (1628-1691): “How transcendently glorious is the advancement of believers, by their union with the Lord of glory? This also is an admirable and astonishing mystery; it is the highest dignity of which our nature is capable, to be hypostatically united; and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable is to be mystically united to this Lord of glory; to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. O what is this! Christian, does thou know and believe all this, and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ?” (quoted in J. Stephen Yuille, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ [Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2007], p. 4).
Herman Witsius (1636-1708): “By a true and real union, (but which is only passive on their part,) [the elect] are united to Christ when his Spirit first takes possession of them, and infuses into them a principle of new life: the beginning of which life can be from nothing else but from union with the Spirit of Christ … Further, since faith is an act flowing from the principle of spiritual life, it is plain, that in a sound sense, it may be said, an elect person is truly and really united to Christ before actual faith” (Conciliatory, or Irenical Animadversions on the Controversies Agitated in Britain, under the Unhappy Names of Antinomians and Neonomians, trans. Thomas Bell [Glasgow: W. Lang, 1807], p. 68).
Heinrich Heppe (1820-1879): “According to its real nature the calling of the elect is thus an insitio in Christum or unio cum Christo, a real, wholesale, spiritual and indissoluble union of the person of the elect with the divine-human … Redeemer, so that for the former the latter is … the same as soul is for body. The implanting of the elect into Christ is thus the beginning of all appropriation of salvation, of all fellowship in salvation (gratia) and in glory (gloria). At the root of the whole doctrine of the appropriation of salvation lies the doctrine of insitio or insertio in Christum, through which we live in him and he is us. So the dogmaticians discuss it with special emphasis” (Reformed Dogmatics, rev. & ed. Ernst Bizer, trans. G. T. Thompson [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, repr. 1978], p. 511).
