Union With Christ By Faith

For many Calvinists, such as Puritan Calvinists, or the first Calvinists immediately following Calvin, including John Calvin himself, union with Christ was first in the ordo salutis and that union was effected by faith, and so faith was first, though there was grace and divine preparations prior to faith. "Whatever is not of sin misses the mark" (Rom. 14:23); therefore all is by faith. However, grace precedes faith, for says the apostle -- "by grace are you saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8) and people are said to have "believed through grace" (Acts 18:27). So we have this order: 

1) grace, 2) faith, 3) union with Christ, 4) repentance and all aspects of salvation or redemption, which includes becoming indwelt by the Father, Son, and Spirit, regeneration (or rebirth), resurrection from spiritual death, justification and imputation of Christ's righteousness, forgiveness, sanctification, etc. 

Believers are united to Christ by faith, but faith does not save by its own merit. Faith is not the basis or ground of salvation but is the means or condition of salvation. In this post (here) I cited Dr. A.H. Strong who rightly observed:

"...because faith, and not repentance or love or hope is the medium or instrument by which we receive Christ and are united to him. Hence we are never said to be justified dia pistin, = on account of faith, but only dia pisteos, = through faith, or ek pisteos, = by faith. Or, to express the same truth in other words, while the grace of God is the efficient cause of justification and the obedience and sufferings of Christ are the meritorious or procuring cause, faith is the mediate or instrumental cause." (pg. 160, 161 in the "Relation of Justification to Faith," from his Systematic Theology)

Faith acts as an empty hand reaching out to grasp and receive Christ and his righteousness. Union with Christ by faith logically precedes the benefits of salvation. God first gives the hand of faith, the hearing ear and seeing eye, before salvation. Union precedes communion. In "Union with Christ Is at the Heart of Reformation Theology" Matthew C. Bingham (May 17, 2025; See here) wrote (emphasis mine):

"And Bunyan was not alone in this thinking. Whether we examine pioneering sixteenth-century Reformed theologians such as John Calvin and Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562), post-Reformation thinkers such as Jerome Zanchi (1516–1590) and Theodore Beza (1519–1605), or English divines such as William Perkins (1558–1602) and William Ames, the conclusion is the same: union with Christ is the controlling idea from which flows the entirety of our redemption.2 Union played a central role in the theology of the English Puritans, for whom it has been described by one historian as “the existential nerve” of their piety.3"

1. Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), 202–43. 

2. R. Tudur Jones, “Union with Christ: The Existential Nerve of Puritan Piety,” Tyndale Bulletin 41, no. 2 (1990): 186–208, https://doi.org/10.53751/001c.30522

There are those who will admit that the older Calvinists, and the Puritan Calvinists, said that union with Christ was by faith but will say that they also taught that regeneration preceded faith. That is, however, ridiculous. The ones who say this are those Calvinists who insist that regeneration precedes faith. Some of these will even argue that Christ unites himself to sinners in regeneration apart from faith, but sinners after this union unite themselves to Christ by faith. Again, that is ridiculous. That would be like saying that my wife was joined to me in marriage before I was joined to her. 

John Calvin taught that union with Christ was by faith and also taught that regeneration or rebirth was by faith. That is being consistent. Those Calvinists who want to say regeneration precedes faith and yet want to say that union with Christ is by faith are contradicting themselves. Bingham rightly observes that from union with Christ "flows the entirety of our redemption." If that is so, then regeneration must follow union with Christ by faith for regeneration is one of the blessings of redemption.

In the Westminster Shorter Catechism, we read: 

 

Q. 30. How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ? 

 

A. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Likewise, in Keach's catechism, reflecting the faith expressed in the 1689 London Confession of Baptists, we read:

Q. 34. How does the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?

A. The Spirit applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. 

In one discussion forum titled "How are Regeneration, Faith, and Union with Christ ordered in Reformed Theology?" (See here), the discussion opens with these words (emphasis mine):

"1 In the Reformed Ordo Salutis, or order of salvation, how are Regeneration, Faith, and Union with Christ ordered? (Note that the order of salvation is a logical order, not temporal, and the believer will experience several stages concurrently.) Because of Total Depravity, the doctrine that we are spiritually dead in our sin, I think Regeneration is usually said to precede Faith, because we need to be brought back to spiritual life in order to have faith. Faith is said to precede Union with Christ because it is through Faith that the Holy Spirit unites us the Christ. But isn't it Union with Christ that gives us new life in Christ? Does Union with Christ therefore precede Regeneration? Or is the new life of Regeneration somehow different from the new life we receive through being united to Christ? How is this chicken-and-egg cycle resolved in Reformed Theology?"

The respondents to this query struggled to answer the difficulties raised by this scenario. It is contradictory to say that people are joined to Christ by regeneration BEFORE faith (and thus without faith).

In "The Puritans on Coming to Christ" Dr. Joel Beeke, a man who is an expert on Puritan beliefs and Puritan Calvinism, wrote the following (See here; emphasis mine): 

"Faith unites a sinner with his Savior. As John Calvin (1509 –1564) said, “Faith justifies in no other way than as it introduces us into a participation of the righteousness of Christ.” It apprehends (fides apprehensiva), closes with, and grasps Christ in a believing embrace, surrendering self, clinging to His Word, and relying on His promises."

Thomas Boston (1676-1732), a Calvinist, in "Union With Christ" (Read here) wrote (emphasis mine):

"1 Corinthians xii. 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether toe be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit."

1. From the sacrament of baptism, where he shews us the blessed union made. And here consider, 1st. The parties united: on the one hand, we all; viz. who believe in Christ, as distinguished from unbelievers. On the other hand, Jesus Christ, whom he had just before mentioned, and who is here understood as implied in the one body, whereof he is the head, or principal part. 

2dly, The uniting or joining of the parties, which is expressed by being baptized into one body, the sacramental sign being put for the thing signified: as if he had said, we are united into one body with Christ, which is signified and sealed by our baptism. 

3dly, The efficient cause of the union, or the party uniting us to Christ, one Spirit, the one Spirit of Christ. It is by him we are baptized, and are joined to Christ. He casts the indissoluble knot; as Christ brings us to the Father, the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, by faith which he works in us, and makes the marriage-tie between the King of saints and the daughter of Zion. This Spirit must needs be the infinite Spirit of God, since it is but one Spirit that knits all, not only as the author, but the bond of the union."

He also wrote:

"And he unites them to Christ by working faith in them; for he deals with them that have reason, not as with stocks, knitting them without any action of their own, but as rational creatures, apprehending them, and working faith in them, whereby they apprehend Christ."

"Hence we may see, That 'the Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.'"

"2. Faith on the believer's part, Eph. iii. 17- 'That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' Thereby the believer apprehends, takes, and keeps hold of Christ. It is by that we receive Christ, John i. 12. come unto him, John vi. 35. and feed on him, ver. 56. This faith is that- true one, whereby a sinner heartily receives and rests on Christ for all his salvation."

Wrote John Calvin:

"We should be satisfied with the benefits of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that when we are grafted into his body and made one with him by belief of the gospel, then we may assure ourselves that he is the fountain which never dries up, nor can ever become exhausted, and that in him we have all variety of good things, and all perfection." ("Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians" by Lee Gatis, as cited here)

Gatis comments:

"For Calvin then, justification and sanctification are distinct yet inseparable, and simultaneously bestowed on us in union with Christ by faith...This would seem to imply very strongly that for Calvin justification, the imputation of righteousness, does not take place prior to union, but is in fact one of the manifold blessings obtained in union itself."

"In Christ by faith we obtain both a new life and a new legal status. Christ is the source of both; the legal change does not create the life, or vice versa."