On that fateful Friday thousands of years ago, four things were nailed to that cross. The first and most obvious was Jesus Christ himself. The second is the sign that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” The third thing nailed to the cross was the debt of sin of all who would come to faith in Jesus Christ. The fourth may be the most shocking. If you are a follower of Christ you were nailed to the cross too. William Perkins, a Puritan in the late 16th century, put it like this, “We are in mind and meditation to consider Christ crucified: and first, we are to believe that he was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and as it were spread ourselves on the cross of Christ believing and withall beholding ourselves crucified with him.” The Scriptures make it clear, but how can this be?

This truth that we have been crucified with Christ rests on the doctrine of union with Christ. We encounter union with Christ everywhere in the Scriptures. Over and over we see that the Christian is in Christ, that the Christian is united to Christ. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, then we are in Christ. Our union with Christ becomes a spiritual reality. Martin  Luther describes it like this, “By faith, you are so cemented to Christ that He and you are as one person, which cannot be separated but remains attached to Him forever.” It is such a wild doctrine because it states that once we are united to Christ by faith, then everything Christ has ever done becomes something that we have done. Because Jesus lived a perfect life and died a painful death it is like we have done that. Because Jesus was buried in a tomb and raised again it is like we have been buried in a tomb and raised again. The only way to get what Christ has to offer to us is to be united to him by faith.

This doctrine is so beautiful, but such a mystery. One of the obstacles to this is our language about grace, righteousness, and other theological words sounds like they are objects that we receive after Jesus hands them to us. Grace is like a ball when we come to faith in Jesus, Jesus then takes that ball and hands it to us and we hold it. That may be how our language describes it, but we only receive grace by being united to Jesus. Grace is not an external object, but grace is a person. The person of Jesus that we enter into a united relationship with through faith alone. Let it sink in that Jesus the eternal Son of God not only died for you, but he desires to be united with you for the rest of eternity. Let that settle all the fears and worries. Let that lead you to joy and freedom today.