E413 Mysteries of the Faith: Union with Christ with Dr. Clive Bowsher

Galatians 2:20 – “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” 1 Corinthians 6:17 – “But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 – This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” These verses, along with many others in the Bible, paint a part of the picture of what happens as a result of salvation. And if we’re honest, I think it’s a part of the picture we tend to look past. When we think about salvation, our minds typically go to the part that is easier to understand: we will not go to hell, we will go to heaven. “I go here, not there, I get that.” But the picture of salvation in Scripture is so, so much more rich than that. In fact, as the verses I just read highlight, salvation makes us a new creation – and not just that but it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. The Bible paints a truly beautiful picture of oneness – it often uses the terms “in Christ” or “in him” or “united with Christ.” And again, speaking from a place of honesty, this is something I hadn’t spent too much time thinking about in my life – and I think many of us are this way. We move past it either as a truth that doesn’t seem to pertinent to the way I live every day, or too complex that we just add it to the list of mysteries of the faith. In this series we will explore some of the mysteries of the faith we tend to move past. I want to name them, examine them from different perspectives, and talk about who these mysteries can actually have profound effects on how we approach our personal walk with Jesus. This first episode is on what it means to be in union with Christ. To help navigate us through this is Dr. Clive Bowsher. Dr. Bowsher is provost of Union School of Theology and author of the books Life in the Son and One: Being United to Jesus Changes Everything. Doable Discipleship is a Saddleback Church podcast pro