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“In Him.” In my estimation, these are the two most important words for understanding the Christian life. These words teach us that union with Christ—being spiritually one with him—is what makes all the difference for the Christian. All that is Christ’s becomes mine. Every blessing I have I must understand through the lens of my union to Christ. And this is fundamentally and foundationally true of election.
We can’t make sense of election without union with Christ.
Paul writes in the opening of Ephesians,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. (Eph. 1:3-4; emphasis added)
We can’t make sense of election without union with Christ, because there is nothing inherent within us that would make us desirous to God. There is nothing in us worth choosing. But when we are united to Christ, it all starts to make a little more sense.
When Paul tells us that this choosing took place “before the foundation of the world,” he sends us into the marvelous and mysterious eternal counsel of the Godhead. More specifically, Paul refers to what theologians call the Covenant of Redemption. A covenant is a binding agreement between two or more parties. The Covenant of Redemption teaches us that the Trinity made a binding agreement before time began that the Father would send the Son who, equipped by the Spirit, would redeem the elect.
Christ came to the world with a purpose.
While it might sound overly heady and perhaps even speculative, the Covenant of Redemption can be understood quite simply by stating it this way: Christ came to the world with a purpose. He had an agenda. He had a particular people in mind to save. The redemption of sinners was not wishful thinking on his part, nor were the saved selected by lottery. Jesus speaks of this intention in John 17, in what is known as the High Priestly Prayer:
Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.” (John 17:1–5)
Jesus came to give eternal life to all whom the Father had given Him. This is the mission Jesus was on, or as he says, “the work that you gave me to do” (see also John 6:37-39). Paul’s words in the opening of Ephesians fill in the picture of what Jesus is referring to here—namely, that to be chosen in Christ means to be part of the eternal will of the Trinity for the redemption of mankind.
Jesus came to save his body, his bride, the church.
Even through all eternity God was contemplating us—but he was always contemplating us in Christ. If it weren’t for this last bit, it would be a terrifying thought. But thanks be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ! The Father’s love was towards us because his love has always been towards his Son. Wilhelmus รก Brakel notes:
Love moved the Father and love moved the Lord Jesus. It is a covenant of love between those whose love proceeds within themselves, without there being any lovableness in the object of this love.”[1]
God was thinking of us, not in and of ourselves, and certainly not in and of our sin, but truly in and of His Son. We are in His Son in the sense that we were the people given to His Son. He came to earth to represent us. He came to earth for us. Jesus came to save his body, his bride, the church (Eph. 5:23, 25)—the people whom He has been united to and appointed to represent since eternity.
In one sense it is right to say we have always been united to Christ.
You see, there is a right and proper sense in which we must say we are not united to Christ until we put our faith in him. That is, without faith we have no Spirit to draw us to and into Christ. The Westminster Shorter Catechism says the Spirit applies the saving benefits of redemption to us “by working faith in us and thereby uniting us to Christ” (WSC 30). Spiritually, really and truly, we have no union until we have faith.
But there is another sense in which it is right to say we have always been united to Christ. By means of representing us and our sorry state, our poor condition, we have been united to Christ ever since God chose us in him before the foundations of the world. Even before coming to earth in the incarnation, the Second Person of the Trinity was already standing in our place, representing us in the eternal counsels of the Godhead.
If God would not love us in his Son, he could not love us at all.
We will never properly understand the doctrine of election if we don’t take to heart those two precious words “in him.” Apart from union with Christ, election would make no sense and could truly never have taken place. If God would not love us in his Son, He could not love us at all. So that is why, when we consider this topic, we must always do so with an eye to Christ. John Calvin wisely states,
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.[2]
Election doesn’t need to be an intimidating or offensive topic. God’s choice is not arbitrary, cold, cruel, or foolish. God chose what was best, because he chose his Son. True, there is no lovableness in us. But when God set his affection on us, he did so by selecting us in his Son—his beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased (Matt. 3:17). And that makes us beloved sons as well, for what he saw in us was everything that Christ one day would do for us.
When God set his affection on us, he did so by selecting us in his Son—his beloved Son.
This is what it means to be chosen in Christ. This is what it means to have an identity that is found in Christ, and not in ourselves. How often we try to find our worth in our own accomplishments, the trophies on the shelf, the likes we get on Facebook, our looks—and how often we end up disappointed! Why? Because none of those things can give us a true and lasting sense of value and worth. We can never accomplish enough, win enough, be popular enough, be attractive enough. These things can never confer upon us a sense that we are intrinsically and eternally valuable.
The gospel sweeps away all of those poor attempts to find worth in ourselves and our own works when it announces the news that the God of the universe freely sought us out, set his heart upon us in love, and chose us.
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The Christian’s True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ by Jonathan Landry Cruse
This article is adapted from the recently released book The Christian’s True Identity: What It Means to Be in Christ (Reformation Heritage Books, 2019) by Jonathan Landry Cruse.
Notes:
[1] Quoted in J.V. Fesko, The Trinity and the Covenant of Redemption (Christian Mentor, 2016), 43.
[2] Calvin, Institutes, 3.24.5.
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