On The Priority Of Union With Christ

There is much debate between Arminians and Calvinists over the arrangement of the "ordo salutis" and I have chimed in on this debate many times over the years. The debate focuses on whether faith precedes the new birth or follows it. Let me say here at the outset that I get very agitated when men on both sides say - "Calvinists believe that regeneration precedes faith." Many times I have had to say to both Arminians and Calvinists that such is not true. That some Calvinists or "Reformed" theologians put regeneration before faith is not doubted. But to put all Calvinists into that category is a gross falsehood. In my writings I have cited many Calvinists, such as Calvin and Booth, who did not aver that regeneration precedes faith. I am Calvinist but I do not put regeneration or the new birth before faith and conversion.

Let me also say that the older Calvinist writers did not make conversion something different from regeneration, seeing rather that evangelical conversion is regeneration. A man was not viewed as regenerate or born again before be believed in Christ.

In all the writings of those on this issue, over the past several hundred years, I have noticed a gross inconsistency by those who affirm that regeneration precedes faith. How so? Because even those who espouse such will often affirm that 1) union with Christ is the first requirement, preceding all other graces and aspects of salvation, and that 2) "vital union" is "by faith." Now, if these two propositions are true (and they are), then regeneration, rebirth, justification, forgiveness, sanctification, etc., must all follow this union; And, faith must be before these things, for it is what unites the soul to Christ. Therefore, union with Christ by faith must precede regeneration, justification, etc. Don't you see?

So, with that in mind, we cannot but hold to this order:

1. Faith
2. Union with Christ
3. Justification
4. Regeneration
5. Sanctification

Now let me cite from some Calvinists on the priority of union with Christ by faith.

The following citations can be found (here) and all emphasis is mine:

On this subject Dr. John Gill wrote:

"In a word, union to Christ is the first thing, the first blessing of grace flowing from love and effected by it; hence, [it] is the application of all others. “Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus”—first loved and united to Christ—and then it follows, “who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1Co 1:30). So Dr. Goodwin observes that “union with Christ is the first fundamental thing of justification and sanctification and all. Christ first takes us, and then sends His Spirit; He apprehends us first; it is not my being regenerate that puts me into a right of all these privileges; but it is Christ takes me, and then gives me His Spirit, faith, holiness.”"

In "FAITH UNITES US TO CHRIST," William Cunningham (1805-1861) wrote:

"LET us now…shortly consider the effect of faith as uniting us to Christ, and thus saving the soul. There is a great deal spoken of in Scripture on the subject of faith—of its great importance and of its indispensable necessity to salvation. We read, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned” (Mar 16:16). It is faith that makes a man a Christian, that produces all those things that accompany salvation, that salvation which is the turning point of a man’s existence, that salvation which delivers him from the authority of the devil and translates him into the kingdom of God’s dear Son.

Faith occupies this important place in our salvation because it unites us to Christ. We are expressly told this by the Apostle in Ephesians 3:17, where it is written, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” This union of believers to Christ, effected by faith, is indeed frequently spoken of in the New Testament. The nature of it is set before us by every mode of expression and description fitted to convey the strongest impression of its closeness and its importance.

Now when a man believes in Christ, he is, according to God’s appointment, united to Him. There is a union formed between them. God regards him as if he were Christ and treats him as if he had suffered the punishment for his sins that Christ endured in his room—as if he had in his own person performed that full and perfect obedience to the Divine Law that our Savior's conduct exhibited. It is this imputation of Christ’s sufferings and of His righteousness, or, as it is often called, His active and passive obedience—it is this communion of suffering and of merit in which the union of believers with Christ mainly consists. This union and communion with Him is the foundation of their salvation in all its parts and in all its aspects. When they believe Him, God regards them as one with Him—as if they had offered what He has suffered, as if they had done what He has done, as if they had paid the penalty for their sins and had gained a title to His favor.

Viewing them thus as united to Christ—as one with Him—God bestows upon them the blessings that Christ purchased for all who should believe on His name. They obtain through faith the forgiveness of their sins, acceptance with God as righteous persons, the renovation and sanctification of their natures, and, finally, an inheritance among them that are sanctified. Christ is the great Head of influence: all spiritual blessings are the fruits of His purchase. It is only by abiding in Him that we are enabled to bring forth fruits unto eternal life; as it is written, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit” (Joh 15:5).

You see now the great importance of faith in the salvation of sinners. It is the instrument by means of which we receive everything necessary to our peace. None can be saved without it, and everyone who has it will assuredly be saved. It is connected in the statements of God’s Word with almost every blessing that is mentioned as important and valuable, as the origin from which they are all derived, the instrument by which they are all received. It is the Holy Spirit that forms the union between Christ and believers, and faith wrought in their hearts by His almighty power is the tie that connects them together and forms the bond of union.

While salvation is thus through faith, it is, at the same time, “by grace” (Eph 2:5, 8). It is to be traced wholly to God’s free and unmerited favor. There is nothing whatever in faith as a grace or virtue, as an act of ours, to merit anything at God’s hands [or] to deserve anything for us…Faith, viewed as a work or act of ours, could not itself procure for us the pardon of sin any more than repentance, if that too were in our power. Far less—[even if] we could believe by our own strength—could it ever merit for us any reward at God’s hands.

It is not indeed, then, as a work or a grace that faith saves: it is merely the instrument of uniting us to Christ. His work is the sole ground of our salvation and of all that is connected with it. We owe it all to Him. He purchased it for us by His own sufferings and obedience, and He bestows it upon us by His Spirit. Therefore, we must beware, friends, of giving to our own faith, in the work of salvation, the place that belongs only to Christ. When salvation is ascribed to faith, this is so far from attaching merit to faith that it is just expressly renouncing it. We are saved indeed by faith, but it is faith in Christ Jesus. Our faith is that which carries us out of ourselves to Christ, transferring our whole dependence, as it were, from our own doing to what He has done and suffered for us. And it is a constant act of trust, a confidence in Him for everything pertaining to another world. It bears at all times upon it a declaration of our utter inability to do anything for ourselves. Hence, not only is salvation by faith quite consistent with being by grace, but further, as the Apostle tells us, it is of faith that it might be by grace. Not only are they consistent with each other, but the one affords the most striking illustration of the other. Nothing could have more fully established or more clearly illustrated the free grace of the Gospel than making our salvation depend upon faith; for faith, besides being originally God’s gift, is a constant appeal to His agency: it is both in form and in substance a casting [of] ourselves entirely and unreservedly upon His mercy through Christ and resting upon Him alone. We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved."

These are my sentiments exactly.

In "JUSTIFIED IN CHRIST" Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) said:

"This relation or union to Christ, whereby Christians are said to be in Christ (whatever it be) is the ground of their right to His benefits. This needs no proof: the reason of the thing, at first blush, demonstrates it. It is exceeding evident also by Scripture: “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1Jo 5:12). “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us…righteousness” (1Co 1:30). First, we must be in Him, and then He will be made righteousness or justification to us. “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (Eph 1:6). Our being in Him is the ground of our being accepted. So it is in those unions to which the Holy Ghost has thought fit to compare this. The union of the members of the body with the head is the ground of their partaking of the life of the head. It is the union of the branches to the stock that is the ground of their partaking of the sap and life of the stock. It is the relation of the wife to the husband that is the ground of her joint interest in his estate.

As there is nobody [who will not agree] that there is a peculiar relation between Christ and His true disciples by which they are in some sense in Scripture said to be one, so I suppose there is nobody [who will not agree] that there may be something that the true Christian does on his part, whereby he is active in coming into this relation or union…Now faith I suppose to be this act.

I do not now pretend to define justifying faith or to determine precisely how much is contained in it. [I will] only determine thus much concerning it: [justifying faith] is that by which the soul, which before was separate and alienated from Christ, unites itself to Him. [The soul] ceases to be any longer in that state of alienation and comes into that forementioned union or relation to Him. Or, to use the Scripture phrase, it is that by which the soul comes to Christ and receives Him. This is evident by the Scriptures using these very expressions to signify faith.

God does not give union with or an interest in the Savior to those that believe as a reward for faith, but only because faith is the soul’s active uniting with Christ. [Faith] is itself the very act of unition on their part. God sees it fit that in order to a union being established between two intelligent active beings or persons, so that they should be looked upon as one, there should be the mutual act of both that each should receive [the] other as actively joining themselves one to another. God, in requiring this in order to a union with Christ as one of His people, treats men as reasonable creatures, capable of act and choice.

It is [in this way] that faith justifies or gives an interest in Christ’s satisfaction and merits and a right to the benefits procured thereby, that is, as it thus makes Christ and the believer one in the acceptance of the Supreme Judge. It is by faith that we have a title to eternal life because it is by faith that we have the Son of God by whom life is. The Apostle John in these words, “He that hath the Son, hath life,” (1Jo 5:12) seems evidently to have respect to those words of Christ of which he gives an account in his Gospel: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Joh 3:36). And where the Scripture speaks of faith as the soul’s receiving or coming to Christ, it speaks of this receiving, coming to, or joining with Christ as the ground of an interest in His benefits. To as many as received Him, “to them gave he power” to become the sons of God. Ye will not come unto me “that ye might have life.”

Can I get an amen?