by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
December, 1935
Union and Communion.
4. Federal. Once more we would point out that the origin of that union which subsists between the Church and Christ was the everlasting love of God: this it was which cemented Head and members together. The loving purpose of God gave the Church an election-union to Christ, which (for the want of a better term) we have styled the “mystical.” Inseparably connected with the election-standing of the Church before God, was its marriage to Christ, and upon that marital relationship we dwelt at length in last month's article. We are now to consider further what branched out of the mystical union in view of the Church's fall in its nature-head. Having in His high sovereignty predetermined the apostasy of Adam, upon His foreviews of the same, God engaged in an everlasting covenant with Christ, the spiritual Head of the elect, to raise them up from the ruins of their fall. What that involved and included it will now be our joy to consider.
In contemplating the Covenant of Grace [the Everlasting Covenant] which was made between God and the Mediator, it is very necessary to recognise that Christ acted therein as the Head of the Church. This it is which determined the title of our present article. The elect had not only a mystical union with Christ in the womb of God's decrees, but they had an actual oneness together in the sight of the Divine Law. That oneness has been variously designated by different writers: “covenant union,” “legal union,” “representative union,” “federal union,” all which signify much the same. The grand point to be apprehended here is, that Christ and His people were one in Divine election, He the Head and they the members of the mystical Body, and so likewise they are to be regarded in the Everlasting Covenant. The Covenant was made with Christ, not as a single person, but as a common Head, representing all the elect who were given to Him in a federal way; so that what He promised in the covenant, He promised for them and on their account; and what He was promised, He received on their behalf.
This federal oneness which exists between Christ and the elect from everlasting, means that they are one in a legal sense: or to state it yet more simply, Christ and His people are looked at as one by the eyes of the law, as surety and debtor are one. The bond of this union is Christ's suretyship. “A relation is formed between a surety and the person for whom he engages, by which they are thus far considered as one, that the surety is liable for the debt which the other has contracted, and his payment is held as the payment of the debtor, who is ipso facto absolved from all obligation to the creditor. A similar connection is established between our Redeemer and those who are given to Him by His Father. He became answerable for them to the justice of God; and it was stipulated that, on account of His satisfaction to its demands, they should receive the pardon of their sins” (John Dick).
The federal union between Christ and the elect gave them a covenant-subsistence in Him, for it was as their Head and Representative that He contracted to serve. The Everlasting Covenant flowed from and was the fruit of the love and grace of God. The ordering thereof pre-supposed sin, for its provisions had respect to the Fall, and its effects upon the Church. It was made with Christ not as a private or single person, but as a public and common Person. As the Covenant of Works was made with the first Adam as the federal head of his posterity—so that he was “the figure of Him that was to come” (Rom. 5:14)—so the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the last Adam as the federal Head of His spiritual offspring. The elect, then, had a representative union to Christ in the Covenant, for all that He engaged to do, He engaged in their name and on their account; and when He performed its stipulations it was the same with God as if it had been done by them.
The bond, then, of the federal, legal and representative union between Christ and His people, is suretyship for them. Christ's entering upon that office on their behalf gave full proof of His deep and unchangeable affection to them. He loved them “with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3), and as Song of Solomon 8:7 declares, “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.” So it was here: not even His foreviews of the Church's apostasy in Adam, its fall into a state of degradation and defilement could change the heart of Christ toward His Bride. Her defection in Adam and her alienation from God only provided opportunity unto her eternal Lover to manifest the infinite affection He bore to her. Christ drew nigh unto God on the behalf of His Church, gave His bond, and placed Himself under obligation to pay all the debts of His people and satisfy for their sins.
Though the Church fell in Adam from her state of native innocency, she did not fall from the heart or arms of her heavenly Bridegroom. “Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it” (Eph. 5:25): note “loved” before “gave Himself for it.” And when did He first love the Church? Hear His own answer: “I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). That declaration establishes two points: the eternality and the nature of Christ's love for His Church. Christ has been loved by the Father “before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24), and He had been loved with a love which delighted in the excellency of His Person. Such was Christ's love toward His Church: it was not a love of compassion in view of the wretchedness occasioned by her fall in Adam, but a love of complacency, when He first viewed her as “all glorious within” (Psa. 45:13). His “delights” with the sons of men (Prov. 8:31) were precisely the same as the Father's “delight” in Him (Prov. 8:30). Blessedly did He display that love when, in foreviews of the Fall, He presented Himself to the Father to serve as “Surety” on behalf of His Church, who was immersed in debt which she could never discharge.
Then it was that the Father said, “Who is this that engaged (or, as the Hebrew word is rendered, “be surety for” in Psa. 119:122; Prov. 11:15) His heart to approach unto Me?” (Jer. 30:21). That the reference here is to Christ Himself, and that His undertaking to serve as Surety was infinitely wellpleasing to God, is clear from the first part of the verse: “their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause Him to draw near, and He shall approach unto Me.” It was then that Christ became “a Surety of a better testament” (Heb. 7:22), substituting Himself in the place and stead of His fallen people, placing Himself under obligation to fully discharge their legal responsibility, pay their debts, satisfy for their sins, and procure for them all the blessings of grace and glory. It was then that Christ offered to “finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness” (Dan. 9:24). This being accepted of by God, henceforth Christ and His elect were looked upon by the law as one person.
What was then transacted in the secret councils of eternity was, “when the fullness of the time was come” (Gal. 4:4), openly manifested on earth. In order to discharge His suretyship, it was necessary for there to be a natural union (a union in human nature), between Christ and His people, for “both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”—one nature (Heb. 2:11). Before the Son of God could take upon Him the sins of the elect, He must first assume their nature. It was meet that the Divine Law should be magnified and made honourable by One in the same nature as those by whom it had been disobeyed and dishonoured. Moreover, it was only by becoming incarnate that the second Person in the Trinity could be “made under the law.” Therefore do we read, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14).
The incarnation of Christ may therefore be called “manifestative union,” for at His birth there was openly displayed the oneness which existed between Him and His Church. “Wherefore in all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people” (Heb. 2:17). The elect, who had fallen in Adam, could not be conformed unto the image of Christ until He had—by amazing grace—been conformed to their image. The nature which Christ assumed was the same as that which we have, for it was the “seed” of the woman—save that it was entirely free of sin's taint. Though this union was supernaturally effected in time, yet it was the fruit of Christ's love for the Church and the fulfillment of His covenant-engagements on her behalf before time began. Though the nature Christ assumed is one that is common to all mankind, yet as Hebrews 2 so plainly intimates, it was taken by Him with a peculiar regard to the elect—His “brethren,”—the “children,” the seed “of Abraham.”
Before proceeding further, let it be pointed out that the election union, the marital union, the federal union which the Church had with Christ, and the manifest union which the incarnation gave Him to the Church, are only so many branches of and all take their rise from the everlasting love union. Everything is founded upon and grows out of the eternal love of the Triune God unto the elect: this is the grand original, the strong and firm bond of union between the Head and His members, and is the spring of all that communion and fellowship which the Church has with Christ (and God in Him) in time, and shall have to all eternity. All is antecedent to our faith union with Christ. It is from hence that the Holy Spirit is sent down into their hearts to renew them and work faith in their souls. Faith does not give them a being in Christ, but is only one of the fruits, effects, and evidences of their being in Christ and of their union to Him.
It is true that the elect do not, and cannot, know of their being eternally in Christ, nor of their union to Him before the foundation of the world, until they are given to savingly believe in Him; and that, by Christ's sending the quickening Spirit into their hearts. Only then is that which before was concealed from them, revealed to them. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17): but being made a “new creature,” does not put a man into Christ, rather is it the evidence of his being there, and without which he cannot know it. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom. 8:9): nevertheless, I may be one of Christ's chosen and redeemed ones, though I have not yet the Spirit indwelling me. The full manifestation of our union to Christ will only appear in heaven itself, when His prayer in John 17:20-24 is fulfilled. But to return unto the present aspect of our subject.
Christ is the Friend who “sticketh closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24) to His people. Nothing could dissolve the tie which had been established between them ere the world began. Nothing could quench His love to them, for “having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end” (John 13:1). Therefore, when He viewed the Church in its fallen estate, He willingly became incarnate, entered the office of Surety on their behalf, and engaged to put away all their sins and bring in a perfect righteousness for them. Christ undertook to conquer Satan, death, and Hell for His Church, and to present her before the high throne of God holy and without spot, as though she had never been defiled. This is a greater work than His making all things out of nothing, or the upholding of all things by the Word of His power. This work is the admiration and marvel of angels, and the theme of Heaven's new song.
Jehovah Jesus, the God-man, with all the love of the Godhead in His heart, in His incarnate state, stood in the law-place, room and stead of, His sinful people as their Sponsor, lived and obeyed the law for them. He was here as their Representative, and His perfect fulfillment of the law in thought and word and deed, constitutes their everlasting righteousness. When Christ had magnified the law and made it honourable, the Lord caused to meet on Him the iniquities of all His people, so that He was, imputatively, “made sin” (2 Cor. 5:21) for them. Jehovah the Father alone could dispose of iniquity, and gather all the sins of all the elect and place them on Christ: He “the Judge of all” (Heb. 12:23) was the One immediately sinned against, and therefore the only One who could provide and accept an atoning sacrifice. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (2 Cor. 5:19).
As “the Lamb of God” Christ was appointed and prepared from eternity as is clear from Revelation 13:8 and 1 Peter 1:19, 20. The atoning death of Christ, then, was a grand article of the Everlasting Covenant between the Father and the Son. This was decreed by God, agreed upon by the Mediator, and published by the Spirit in the Scriptures. The transferring of sin from the persons of the elect to the Person of Christ was shadowed forth under the Old Testament sacrifices, they being substituted in the room of sinners and offered for sin—the sins of the offenders being laid upon them in a typical way: see Leviticus 4:4 and 16:21. The curse and vengeance of God's wrath which was to fall upon Christ when He should have the sins of His people laid upon Him, and be borne by Him in His own body to and on the Tree, was set forth by the fire which lighted upon and consumed the sacrifices under the law.
The covenant oneness of Christ and His Church was adumbrated by the relation which obtained between Adam and the human race, for though Christ's actual discharge of His suretyship was historically afterwards, yet in the order of God's decrees it was before it. This is clear from Romans 5:18, 19, “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” Believers are made righteous through the obedience of Christ on precisely the same principles of all of Adam's posterity were made sinners by the disobedience of their natural head: there was an identity of legal relations and reciprocal obligations and rights. In each case it was the one that was acting on the behalf of many, and doing so because of his federal union with the many.
When God accepted Christ as the federal Head of His people, they were henceforth considered as legally one: this, and this alone, being the foundation for the imputation of their sins to Him and of His righteousness to them. This was the foundation of all which Christ did and suffered for them, and for them alone; and for all the blessings of grace which are or shall be bestowed on them; which blessings are denied all others. To discharge their legal liabilities, Christ entered upon the office of Surety, in consequence of which He became responsible to the law for His people: so truly so, that the benefit of His transactions redounds to them. As Adam's transgression was imputed to us because we were legally one with him, so our iniquities were imputed to Christ because He stood before the law as our Sponsor; and in like manner, His obedience and its reward is reckoned to our account: “For He (God) hath made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21).
It is of vast importance to perceive that the saving-work of Christ was performed not only for His people, but that He did it as in union with them, so that the Church has such an interest in all her Head did and suffered for her sake, that she was one with Him, yea, in Him, in all His actions and sufferings. He loved them, was born for them, lived for them, died for them, rose from the grave for them, and ascended into Heaven for them. But more: they were one with Him at every point. They were crucified “with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), “buried with Him” (Col. 2:12), “and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). These expressions indicate not only the intimacy of the federal union, but the efficacy of the same, for the validity and virtue of His actions are reckoned to her. In Christ the Church is holy and righteous, pure and spotless: “ye are complete in Him” (Col. 2:10).
In the grand fact of federal union, and nowhere else, do we obtain an adequate answer to the age-long question of infidels, “How could Christ, a perfectly innocent person, justly suffer the curse of the law? If he were guiltless in Himself, then how could the Judge of all the earth righteously cause His sword to smite Him?” This objection loses its air of plausibility once the clear light of Christ's Covenant Headship is thrown upon it. Christ voluntarily suffered in the room and stead of others. If it be asked, What righteous principle justified His dying as a Substitute? “the just for the unjust?” the answer is, That gracious substituting of Himself as a victim for His people was the discharge of His Suretyship. If the inquiry be pressed further back still, “And what justified Christ's entering upon His office of Surety? the answer is, His Covenant-oneness with His people. And what moved Him to enter into His covenant engagement? LOVE, love to His Bride as He foresaw her fallen into sin.
In view of what has just been pointed out, must we not join the Apostle in exclaiming “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (Rom. 11:33). Contrariwise, are we not also obliged to lament “O the dreadful superficiality of present-day preaching (?) of the Cross!” It was by a voluntary act on Christ's part, out of love to God and His people, that He offered to serve as the Surety of His elect, substitute Himself in their fallen stead, and bear the full punishment due their sins. Because their guilt was imputed to Him, the Father, without the slightest impeachment of His holiness and justice, exacted satisfaction from the Sponsor. In like manner, in perfect righteousness, God imputes Christ's merits to them. Therefore, no one considered as innocent, suffered; and none, considered guilty, escaped. The blood shed by Christ was “the blood of the everlasting covenant” (Heb. 13:20), and therefore has God promised Christ “By the blood of Thy covenant I have sent forth Thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water” (Zech. 9:11).
The effect of this federal union is the Church's communion with Christ in all the benefits which His infinitely-meritorious work as Surety procured. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1); “In the LORD have I righteousness and strength” (Isa. 45:24); “And of His fullness have all we received, and grace for grace” (John 1:16). The elect have a community with their Head in His covenant standing and rights: His God and Father is their God and Father (John 20:17). The one Spirit who sanctified, anointed, sealed, and graced Him, does the same (according to their measure) for them. They have fellowship with Him now in His sufferings, and shall have fellowship with Him in His glory throughout eternity. May writer and reader be enabled to “mix faith” with this blessed truth to the praise and glory of Him “who loved us and gave Himself for us.”—A.W.P.
Philologos | Bible Prophecy Research | The BPR Reference Guide | About Us