Who are you, really? Many people in the church today face an identity crisis. But the Apostle Paul had no question about what it meant to be a Christian: he was “in Christ.” Recovering this New Testament phrase is the key to understanding our identity and enjoying all the blessings of salvation. In this book, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson introduces the defining reality of the Christian life—our union with Christ. As we embrace the transformative truth of being “in Him,” we can live out of the fullness of joy, purpose, and assurance that the gospel brings. Endorsements “It is sometimes said that preachers come to have only one sermon. When kindly expressed, this is far from being a criticism! On the contrary, the meaning is not that the preacher simply says the same thing every time you hear him; it is that he is always saying different things via the same things: his deepest convictions about what it means to know and love the triune God. I know I speak for many in saying that one of the richest blessings of Sinclair Ferguson‘s ministry is the extent to which he has been captivated and shaped by the doctrine of union with Christ. For him, it is as much a meta-affection as a metanarrative; it is evident in the foundations as much as the structures of his thought; it overflows in his writing as much as in his preaching; it nourishes us in person as much as from the pulpit. So here is a delightful book on a glorious doctrine that Sinclair cannot preach and write about enough. May God use it to grant us all life-changing sight of what it means to belong to Jesus forever.“ —Dr. David Gibson “In this hugely readable little book, Sinclair Ferguson provides us with a biblical-theological road map of a truth that lies at the heart of biblical Christianity and that has shaped his own life and ministry for more than fifty years: union with Christ. Dr. Ferguson expounds the key New Testament passages that unpack for us the meaning of union with Christ and draws out their practical implications for living a joy-filled, Christ-loving, God-honoring life. The closing long quote from John Calvin‘s Institutes (2.16.19) is worth the cost of the book-read it slowly, out loud, and feel the weight of Christ-saturated truth. This is a book to read and reread, a book worthy to be a vade mecum, a book to slip into your pocket and take with you wherever you go.“ —Dr. Ian Hamilton

The Apostle Paul had no question about what it meant to be a Christian: he was "in Christ." This simple phrase encapsulates the glorious benefits and blessings of the Christian life, and the importance of this expression is underscored by how regularly Paul used it. But many Christians today suffer from an identity crisis, unaware of this truth and how this new identity can reshape every aspect of their lives. In this teaching series, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson explores the crucial meaning of our union with Christ, revealing that being a Christian is far more wonderful than many of us know.

Union with Christ is one of the central doctrines of the Christian faith. The vital union that believers have with Jesus Christ makes them recipients of all the spiritual blessings that are found in Him as the Mediator and Redeemer of the elect. There are eternal and temporal aspects to this union that are distinguished in the Scriptures. The New Testament Epistles allude to union with Christ in some manner of speaking more than two hundred times. The Holy Spirit unites believers to Christ by working faith in them. Union with Christ is the source of a believer’s communion with God and other believers—since all believers are united to one another by virtue of their union with Christ. Believers remain united to Christ throughout their entirety of their lives and for all eternity. In recent decades, union with Christ has become a matter of debate inasmuch as it is bound up with central arguments in the teaching of certain proponents of the New Perspective(s) on Paul.

What does it mean to be a Christian? Common answers to this question can be contradictory and confusing. Is Christianity simply an ethical system or a set of doctrinal beliefs? In Union with Christ, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson surveys one of the Apostle Paul’s favorite phrases to describe the essence of the Christian life: being “in Christ.” This twelve-part teaching series explores what it means to be “in Christ” and how these two simple words can reshape our entire existence.

Union with Christ is the central truth of the whole biblical teaching about salvation. The entirety of our relationship with God can be summed up in this doctrine. Yet when people ask what this union actually is, we flounder. The incarnation shows that God has made us to be united with him, and God has given us his Word to enable us to understand the nature of this union. Set out with Robert Letham to explore this doctrine from Scripture using help from the church fathers to modern theologians.

The Apostle Paul had no question about what it meant to be a Christian: he was “in Christ.” This simple phrase encapsulates the glorious benefits and blessings of the Christian life, and the importance of this expression is underscored by how regularly Paul used it. But many Christians today suffer from an identity crisis, unaware of this truth and how this new identity can reshape every aspect of their lives. In this teaching series, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson explores the crucial meaning of our union with Christ, revealing that being a Christian is far more wonderful than many of us know.

When the Bible speaks about our creation, it teaches us that we were united to Adam in creation. He was the head of the whole human race. He was our representative before God. He was like our priest before God, our king before God, and our prophet before God. When he fell, in him we all fell. This is what Paul teaches in Romans 5:12–21.

When Christ comes, He unites us to Himself, first by taking on our flesh so that we can speak about an incarnational union—He bonds Himself to us by taking our humanity. Then Christ does everything that is needed for our salvation, sends His Holy Spirit, and bonds us to Himself by the Holy Spirit so that we begin to taste and enjoy everything that He has done for us. Those are the basic elements of union with Christ.

Our union with Christ is a central theme in the New Testament. The word “Christian” is used only three times in the New Testament. New Testament believers seem to have thought of themselves fundamentally as people who had been given a new identity such that they were no longer united to Adam. Rather, they had been brought into a new humanity in Jesus Christ. All the riches of His grace were given to them to transform them into His likeness and ultimately to lead to the fruition of that union when we see Him face to face.

Peter 3:15), how much more should we strive for this spirit in our dealings with other Christians?

In addition to motivating us to deal with other Christians with civility and love, our union with Christ ought also to govern how we view Christians throughout the world that we may never see face to face in this life. Apart from denominational mission support or the occasional visit from an actual foreign missionary to a local church in an effort to gain support, most American Christians are simply unaware of what other Christians endure and suffer because of their faith. In no way do I mean this as an indictment. It is simply a reminder that union with Christ and the communion of the saints ought to enlarge our vision of the body of Christ and the diverse circumstances and situations that many of our brothers and sisters face. I’m sure that most of us share in financial support for missionaries and mission work. American Christians have proven to be very generous in providing relief and aid when disaster strikes in any part of the world. But as we wrap our minds around the concept of our union with Christ and the communion of the saints, I pray that we would make room in our personal and corporate prayers for brothers and sisters in any number of situations.

A number of years ago, I was conducting interviews at a major Christian event and was approached by a brother who asked me to interview a gentleman that he was supporting from a sub-Saharan African country. As it turned out, the gentleman that I was being asked to interview was an African pastor who had devoted his life to purchasing the freedom of Christians who had been taken by Muslims as prisoners of war and sold as slaves. We should think about underground churches in different countries, as well as inmates and those who minister to inmates here or abroad. Union with Christ and the communion of the saints should cause us to see that the struggles of these Christians are our struggles as well.

Let us not be so consumed with what is happening in our part of the vineyard that we do not see the glory of Christ in the lives and issues of brothers and sisters purchased by the same blood, who uphold the same faith. Let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Cor. 3:21–23)

the comfort of knowing that God accepts us for Christ’s sake, and that Jesus feels the persecution of His people as the persecution of His own body. To be united to Jesus is to be one with Him and in true fellowship with all others who are in Him. That is the level of intimacy and affection involved in union with Christ. All the images of that union point to this: the Head with the members of the body; the Bridegroom with His beloved bride; the Good Shepherd with His blood-bought flock; the Chief Cornerstone and the living stones; the Living Vine and the enlivened branches. The church is spoken of as the one whom Christ purchased with His own blood, whom He perfectly loves, for whom He perfectly cares, whom He constantly guards and guides, with all His wisdom and power as the risen Redeemer now directed and devoted toward bringing His people at last to be with Him where He is (John 17:24).

That prayer of Jesus that we will be with Him and may behold His God-given glory (John 17:24) will be answered. In sanctification, we are being conformed to Christ. In glorification, we are transformed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, entirely and comprehensively, into His image. It will not just be our character that bears the impress of His image; our whole humanity will be like His because we belong to Him. If He is the firstfruits of the glorious harvest, then all who are united to Him must follow. We must bear the image of the heavenly man (1 Cor. 15:49). We shall share His resurrection life in all its glorious fullness. The work begun when the Spirit of Christ renewed our hearts and took up residence in them will be comprehensively completed, and our union with Him will be entirely and eternally manifest.

This is the union of the new covenant in Christ Jesus, in which He—our Prophet, Priest, and King—stands as our true representative before His Father and ours, and we all enjoy all the fruits of that intimate, Spirit-worked connection—now, increasingly, and soon, fully and finally.

frustrations and unspectacular difficulties begin to make sense. We realize afresh the truth of Jesus’ words when He said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). Suffering is a nonnegotiable aspect of our discipleship. Cross bearing is part of Christ following. I don’t intend to minimize the pain we experience at seemingly unanswered prayer. Much less do I want to downplay the agonizing grief that grips us when a friend or family member dies. But we do not honor God, and we do not help ourselves, when we shake our fist at the heavens, as though hardship and suffering are something strange. According to the Bible, they are not (1 Peter 4:12). They mean we’re on the right path.

In my ministry, I have been privileged to witness Christians suffering well. Watching them endure like this has been both humbling and strengthening. They embody the truth that suffering comes before glory. I have watched parents put the bodies of toddlers into the cold earth. I have seen faithful saints suffering horribly with diseases like pancreatic cancer. I have prayed with families struggling to come to terms with a beloved child’s suicide. I leave these situations bewildered, full of questions, and with my faith stretched to the breaking point.

Through it all, I have seen firsthand families and individuals, with pain so deep that words failed them, continue to trust God. If anything, their faith has deepened in their suffering. It takes my breath away.

Their steadfast confidence in the Lord helps me fathom the unfathomable truth that, in ways none of us will understand this side of glory, suffering is God’s design for our lives. The pathway to a mature, lasting faith—the type of faith that gives way to resurrection sight—is paved with the rough stones of suffering (Col. 4:12; Heb. 6:1). The only way to keep putting one foot in front of the other on this dark road is through union with Christ and with the promise of resurrection to light the way. Here we see the Spirit manifest His power in our lives. No one but God Himself could keep us on the resurrection road when such difficulties loom in front of us. The Spirit indwells us to enable us to suffer well in union with Christ.

impossible to receive any of the saving blessings of God. Not even the cross and the empty tomb can save us unless we are joined to Jesus Christ. Calvin was emphatic: We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and to dwell within us…. We also, in turn, are said to be "engrafted into him" [Rom. 11:17], and to "put on Christ" [Gal. 3:27]; for, as I have said, all that he possesses is nothing to us until we grow into one body with him.

Simply put, if we are not in Christ, we have no part in His death on the cross to atone for sins and no share in His resurrection from the dead. We are not justified, adopted, sanctified, or glorified without being united to Christ. "I do not see," wrote Calvin, "how anyone can trust that he has redemption and righteousness in the cross of Christ, and life in his death, unless he relies chiefly upon a true participation in Christ himself. For those benefits would not come to us unless Christ first made himself ours." Union with Christ, therefore, is nothing less than a matter of spiritual life and death.

This excerpt is taken from John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology edited by Burk Parsons.

righteousness and holiness of Christ.

Question 60 of the Heidelberg Catechism asks, "How are you righteous before God?" The catechism then gives a very reassuring answer: Only by a true faith in Jesus Christ; that is, though my conscience accuse me that I have grievously sinned against all the commandments of God and kept none of them, and am still inclined to all evil, yet God, without any merit of mine, of mere grace, grants and imputes to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never had nor committed any sin, and myself had accomplished all the obedience which Christ has rendered for me; if only I accept such benefit with a believing heart.

What about personal holiness and good works? Are they no longer necessary? Are believers free from the need to do good works because of their justification? Are they free to sin?

These are the questions Paul faced after having addressed the glories of our justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone in Romans 3–5. Paul responds with his well known and emphatic "By no means!" to the question of whether Christians are free to sin because of their justification. The reality to which he points as the reason why we can no longer live in sin is our union with Christ: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Rom. 6:4–5)

In other words, in our union with Christ, we receive not only the benefit of justification, but we also have the benefit of sanctification. So many people think that their sanctification, their spiritual transformation and conformation to the holy image of Christ, is simply a matter of trying harder, of pulling as hard as they can on their moral bootstraps—resolving to be holier. However, one thing that should be clear is that Jesus clearly tells us that the only way we will produce fruit is if we abide in Him: "I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

We must realize that we must not live for life but from it—we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us (Gal. 2:20). Christians have the great assurance that when we are united to Christ by faith, we receive the whole Christ and all of the benefits of redemption, not just some of them.

To be part of the family of God is a gift. It is not something that believers earn, nor is it something that they have by the sheer virtue of being human. In this lesson, Dr. Sproul explains the special privilege of being a child of God through adoption and union with Christ.

Central to our identity as Christians is the reality that we live in spiritual union with our Lord Jesus Christ. In this seminar, Drs. Sinclair Ferguson and Derek Thomas expound on the importance of this union for our lives as believers.

We receive all the blessings of God and all that we need for the Christian life through our union with Christ. As our understanding of this union deepens, we experience greater encouragement and joy in the God who has united us to Himself, giving us strength to stand firm as we follow Christ. In this message, Dr. Michael Reeves considers the centrality of union with Christ for the Christian life, helping us see how the truths that we are in Christ and that Christ is in us give us everything we need to know Him and to be faithful to Him.

In this lesson, Dr. Reeves will examine a doctrine that is sometimes neglected in discussions about Reformation theology: union with Christ. This doctrine is at the very heart of the gospel. When sinners are joined to Jesus Christ, sharing in His death and resurrection, the vast riches of the gospel become theirs. Examining this crucial article of faith is an invitation to rejoice in a glorious Reformation truth.

Christian baptism includes a testimony of our belief in Christ, but it refers chiefly to God and to what He does for believers. Baptism, Westminster Confession of Faith 28.6 tells us, actually confers divine grace, albeit only to those to whom the grace “belongs”—the elect. We know this to be the case since only the elect of God receive His saving, regenerating grace (Rom. 9:1–29) and since the New Testament speaks of baptism in ways that make it more than a visible depiction of spiritual realities. Something actually happens in baptism—grace is conferred—but only to the elect, who invariably respond to that grace with repentance and faith, though the time of response does not necessarily coincide with the time of baptism.

We will consider the timing of baptism and its effects more in a few days. Today we will look at how Scripture speaks of baptism as accomplishing what it signifies. Using today’s passage as a prooftext, Westminster Confession 28.1 speaks of baptism as the sign and seal of “ingrafting into Christ,” or union with Christ. According to Romans 6, our baptism buries us with Christ in His death. Paul does not say we are buried with Christ because we are baptized. No, we are joined to Christ in His burial because God elects us, regenerates us, and grants us faith (Eph. 1:3–6; 2:8–9). Still, as union with Christ is dependent on the grace of God exhibited and conferred to the elect in baptism, Paul can say our baptism buries us with Christ.

Admittedly, we cannot describe exactly how this happens. We cannot be united to Christ apart from personally trusting in Jesus (John 3:16; Rom. 4), so baptism in itself cannot unite us to Christ. Yet we cannot have faith without the gift of God’s saving grace, which is somehow conferred to the elect in baptism since baptism is a sign of that salvation. Ultimately, there is mystery here that must be preserved. We tend to err by collapsing the sign and the thing signified together such that baptism regenerates all who receive it, or by so divorcing the sign and the thing signified that baptism confers no spiritual benefit even to the elect.

Whether we are immersed, sprinkled, dipped, or receive a pouring, we come under water—are buried—in baptism. Thus, our union with Christ is signed and sealed . And if we are truly baptized into the death of Christ, we are also united to Him in His resurrection. Baptism is God’s promise to believers that our old Adamic selves have been crucified and that we are new, resurrected creations in Christ.

In seeking to answer the all-important question “What must I do to be saved?” we have come to that part of the biblical answer that finds us focusing our attention on the necessity, nature, and fruits of saving faith. The Apostle Paul speaks of this saving faith in Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” In Titus 1:1, it is described as “the faith of God’s elect.”

The faith of God’s elect that unites us to Christ is not simply a momentary act that grants us entrance into a life-encompassing, life-transforming relationship with Christ. Rather, the relationship is sustained by faith. The Scriptures describe this faith in various ways: “The righteous shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17); “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7); and “The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20).

There are several inevitable and universal results from the life lived by faith in Christ. Since this faith unites us to Christ, our representative head, who died for sin and to sin, and rose from the dead as the triumphant victor over sin, our union with Him secures our death to the reigning power and dominion of sin (Rom. 6:1–14). Further, because faith unites us to the risen and enthroned Christ, this faith secures our progress in the putting to death of our remaining (but no longer reigning) sin (Col. 3:1–10).

Because of our union with Christ, who is now exalted in glory and provides spiritual life through His Spirit, we will ultimately share in that same glory. This glory culminates in the blessed vision, whereby we “shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2; see also Col. 3:4). Faith will at that point become sight.

Redemption Accomplished and Applied by John Murray is a marvelous distillation of biblical truth. In his chapter on union with Christ, Murray writes:

It is a travesty that the faith of God’s elect that unites the believer to Christ and imparts such wonderful blessings from Christ Himself is so often reduced to a cheap “decisionism” that leaves the self-deceived, unconverted sinner still in Adam, wedded to his sins, and on his way to hell with a lie in his hands. A “decision to accept Christ” is a far cry from that God-produced faith that actually unites the sinner to Christ in life-transforming power.

Who are you, really?

Many people in the church today face an identity crisis. But the Apostle Paul had no question about what it meant to be a Christian: he was “in Christ.” Recovering this New Testament phrase is the key to understanding our identity and enjoying all the blessings of salvation.

In his new book, Union with Christ, Dr. Sinclair Ferguson introduces the defining reality of the Christian life. As we embrace this transformative truth of our union with Christ, we can live out of the fullness of joy, purpose, and assurance that the gospel brings.

A Look Inside the Book

The reality of our union with Christ is a truth far more wonderful than many Christians today realize. Dr. Ferguson writes in the book, “Union with Christ is not an abstract theological concept but a living relationship. Undergirding it is the love of Christ. We have been united to Christ for one simple reason: He loved us.”

Companion Teaching Series

A companion video teaching series is also available. In twelve messages, Dr. Ferguson explores the foundation of our identity as believers, demonstrating how the doctrine of our union with Christ lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

Watch the first message to start your study.

When you order the Union with Christ teaching series, we’ll add all twelve messages to your Learning Library so you can stream them anytime on our website or in the Ligonier app. An accompanying study guide is also available.