by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
February, 1936
Union and Communion.
6. Saving. That which unites the believer to Christ may (for the purpose of simplification) be likened to a golden chain, a chain possessing a number of distinct links, yet inseparably welded together. The first of these links we denominated “mystical,” having reference to our original uniting to Christ, when the Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. The second link we denominated “federal,” having reference to our covenant-oneness with Christ, wherein He served as our Surety, we having a representative or legal being in Him. The third link we denominated “vital,” having reference to the Spirit's quickening us, whereby we became livingly united to our Head in Heaven. Now, this wondrous chain is let down still lower, for the fourth link in it is formed by our personally cleaving unto Christ. This is a union unto Christ, as the previous ones were in Him.
In last month's article we pointed out that it is by means of the vital union that our mystical and federal oneness with Christ is made manifest. Not until the Holy Spirit has brought us from death unto life can we have any experimental knowledge of the Father's love and the Son's work for us. In like manner, it is not until we have a saving union with Christ by our believing in Him, that we have any personal evidence we have been vitally joined to Him. In other words, we are only able to apprehend the outworking of God's eternal purpose in the inverse order to His execution of it: He proceeds from cause to effect, but we have to work back from effect to cause. Or, to use the terms of our illustration: as we grasp the lowest link in the chain that brings into our view the one next above it.
Thus, the whole of this article will supply answer to a question which may have been raised in exercised readers by the last one, namely, How may I ascertain whether or not spiritual life has actually been communicated to my soul? O how urgently it behooves each one of us to earnestly and prayerfully examine ourselves on this all-important matter. Before developing the distinctive theme of this article, and as a suitable introduction thereto, let us offer one or two observations by way of determining the above matter. First, where there is spiritual life, there is spiritual sensibility: “senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb. 5:14). Just as our natural senses recognize and feel the difference between cold and heat, so the spiritual senses of a quickened soul perceive and feel the difference between good and evil, sin and holiness. If there be spiritual life within, the soul cannot but be sensible of and groan under the burden of sin.
What we have just alluded to is something radically different from those prickings of conscience and pangs of fear which the unregenerate are sometimes conscious of. They may be alarmed at the condemnation of sin, but they are not grieved and horror-stricken at its pollution. They may be terrified of Hell, yet never horrified at displeasing God. They are mortified if a fellow-creature discovers them in a lie, but they make no conscience of it Godwards. Second, where there is spiritual life, there is spiritual hunger and thirst: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word” (1 Peter 2:2). Those who have been born again have a strong intuition that none but Christ can meet their deep need. Third, if there be spiritual life, there must be spiritual activity. This will be enlarged upon as we proceed.
It may surprise some of the more critical readers that we have drawn a sharp distinction between vital union and saving union, for many suppose they are one and the same, that the moment a sinner is born again he is actually saved. Not so: regeneration and salvation are quite distinct, though the one necessarily makes way for the other. We are not “saved” until we personally “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31). But as saving faith is a spiritual act, one who is spiritually dead cannot perform it. The Spirit quickens the soul in order to capacitate it unto a saving faith in Christ. Note carefully the order in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth”: the “sanctification of the Spirit” is His impartation of life, whereby He separates us from those who are dead in sins, and this precedes our “belief of the Truth.”
It is the Spirit's quickening of us into newness of life which lays the foundation for feeling our deep need of Christ and casting ourselves upon Him. Until the sinner be regenerated, there can be no repentance unto life, no believing unto salvation, no hope which maketh not ashamed. As the union which exists between a man's soul and his body is absolutely necessary in order for him to think and reason, speak and perform such actions as are in keeping with his natural life; so a vital union between the soul and Christ is indispensable in order to enable us to perform any spiritual functions. No vital act of faith can be put forth by us until a vital principle has been communicated to us: notice the order in “whosoever (1) liveth and (2) believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:26)—how few do believe that the impartation of spiritual life precedes faith.
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3), still less is he capable of entering it. Until a supernatural work of grace has been wrought upon his heart, fallen man is utterly incapable of discerning the nature of God's kingdom, the superlative excellency of it, or the way of entrance into it. “No man can come to Me,” said Christ, “except the Father which hath sent Me draw him” (John 6:44), and that Divine “drawing” consists first in his being brought out of spiritual death and made “a new creature” in Christ. When that miracle of grace takes place, the subject of it is still the same person he was before, but he has been “renewed” by a principle of spiritual life being infused into him from above, and now he has new desires and aspirations, which issue in a new experience and conduct.
“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power (the right) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:11, 12). When Christ appeared unto the Jewish nation, the great majority in it “despised and rejected” Him. But here and there was one who “received Him”: received Him as the Sent One of God, received Him as the Lord of their hearts and lives, received Him as the all-sufficient Saviour. And why did those “receive” Christ? Was it because their wills were less stubborn than their fellows? Not at all. Our question is answered in the explanatory verse which immediately follows: “Which (those who “received Him”) were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” What could be clearer: those who receive Christ are previously born of God.
No sinner believes savingly in Christ until he has been convicted of his lost condition and made to feel his dire need of a Saviour, and that is not until God has “begun a good work in him” (Phil. 1:6). No man will truly come to Christ until he has been quickened by Christ. Nor does that statement conflict in anywise with his own words “Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life” (John 5:40). If the unregenerate would come to Christ, there is life for them. They ought to come: they are freely invited to come: but they “will not,” and no argument or persuasion of man can induce them to do so. Were God to do nothing more than send the Gospel to the unsaved, in every instance it would fall on deaf ears and unresponsive hearts. “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned” (Jer. 31:18): we had to be turned by God before ever we turn to Him.
The trouble with so many today is that their theology is derived from their experiences, instead of from the Scriptures. They prefer to follow the testimony of their senses, instead of the teaching of God's Word. The first thing of which the Christian became conscious was his sense of need, his realization that he was a lost sinner, his crying unto God for mercy, his turning to Christ. And because he was not conscious of the quickening work of the Spirit within him before he was ever awakened and convicted, he is very slow to allow the reality of it. But this ought not to be: “to the Law and to the Testimony” must be the final court of appeal. Were we not alive physically (in the antenatal state) long before we had any consciousness of our existence? So it is spiritually: there must be life, before there can be the consciousness of that life.
A supernatural Object requires a supernatural faith, and this the natural man is utterly incapable of putting forth. He must, then, have imparted to him a spiritual life ere he can savingly believe on the Lord Jesus. “This faith is not merely a natural act of the mind, assenting to the truth of the Gospel, as it assents to any other truth upon reliable testimony; but it is a supernatural act, an effect produced by the power of the Spirit of grace, and is such a persuasion of the truth as calls forth exercises suitable to the nature of its object. It is a cordial approbation of the Saviour, heartily consenting to His offers, an acceptance of Him in His entire character, as Prophet, Priest, and King” (J. Dick). Saving faith is the heart going off all others and cleaving to Christ alone.
Now Christ's design in quickening us is that we should turn to and put our trust in Him, for we are not saved until we do so. “For by grace are ye saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8). True, we are not saved because of our faith; yet, we cannot be saved without it. Rightly did Thomas Brooks, the Puritan, affirm, “Faith in its place is as necessary as the blood of Christ is in its place.” “To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins” (Acts 10:43). The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ is “unto all and upon all them that believe” (Rom. 3:22), and it is not upon them until they do. Christ is a “propitiation through faith in His blood” (Rom. 3:25), for His blood avails none but those who plead it. To the Hebrew Christians Paul wrote, We are “of them that believe to the saving of the soul” (Heb. 10:39).
Let us not confuse things that differ. Though it be true that the elect were saved in the purpose of God before the world began (2 Tim. 1:9), and that they were saved representatively when their Head rose again from the dead (Eph. 2:6), yet they are not saved personally and actually until they “come unto the knowledge of the Truth” (1 Tim. 2:4). Trusting in Christ obtains something more than a knowledge of our salvation: it brings salvation itself to us. Surely there is no salvation actually bestowed where an individual's sins have not yet been “remitted,” and no one's sins are remitted until he has believed (Acts 10:43). Nor is this making a saviour of faith: Christ is the Saviour, but faith must lay hold of Him for salvation. Nothing but food will save a starving man from death, yet food untouched will serve him nothing. It is not his eating which saves him, yet the food must be eaten if he is to be saved!
While it be true, on the one hand, that faith does not give us a being in Christ, but rather is our cleaving to Him an evidence and effect of our being in Him; yet, on the other hand, faith does unite us to Christ, as is clear from His own words: “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one of Us” (John 17:20, 21). Moreover, do we not read, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Eph. 3:17): it is faith which gives Him a real subsistence in the soul. Here, then, is the principal difference between what was before us in last month's article and the present aspect of our subject: in the forming of the vital union we were passive, but in the making of the saving union we are active. Here is the order: “That I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12).
Having been “apprehended” or “laid hold of” by Christ (through His quickening Spirit), we now apprehend Him. We cannot lay hold of Him, until He has first laid hold of us. But having been laid hold of by Christ, the soul now draws near to Him, joins itself to Him, appropriates Him by faith as its very own. And from this union there follows our justification, sanctification, preservation, and glorification. The federal union was necessary so that the demands of the law might be met by our Surety. The vital union was necessary so that a principle of life, grace, holiness, might be imparted to the soul, qualifying its recipient to perform spiritual acts and live a spiritual life. The believing union is necessary so that we may personally receive the salvation of God and have His receipt for it written in our own hearts.
Our believing in Christ is the sequel to His “I will betroth thee unto Me for ever” (Hosea 2:19), for faith is it which ties the marriage-knot between us, for there must be a personal consent on our part. In the Gospel Christ offers Himself to us, and saving faith is our acceptance of Him. Saving faith, therefore, presupposes a turning from all others—from the seductions of the world and from trusting in my own righteousness—and yielding myself to Christ as my only Lord. It is a willingness to receive Christ on His own terms. It is turning our backs upon our idols, and saying with Ruth, “Entreat me not to leave Thee, or to return from following after Thee: for whither Thou goest, I will go; and where Thou lodgest, I will lodge: Thy people shall be my people, and Thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16). Since a mediator is not a mediator of one, but requires the mutual consent of both parties, so there must be a personal acceptance of Christ as Mediator on our part. This makes the union reciprocal. As a woman, by her free consent, accepts a man for her husband, so the believer accepts Christ as his only Lord and Saviour.
This union also has been variously designated by the older writers—for alas! most modern writers seem to know little or nothing of this wondrous and blessed subject. Some of them call it the “voluntary” union, in order to distinguish it from the previous ones, which are quite involuntary on our part; and because this one is consummated by an act of our own wills. Some call it the “fiducial” or “believing” union, because it is brought about by faith, defining more definitely the nature of our voluntary act. Others call it the “conjugal” union, because it signifies our acceptance of Christ as our loving Lord or Husband. We have preferred to designate it the saving union, because a section of our readers need to have this aspect of the Truth pressed upon their notice; and also because it seems to express more than the other terms do.
The manner in which this saving union is brought about may be illustrated from the meaning of the names borne by the first three sons of Jacob. Reuben signifies “See! the Son.” It is as such the Gospel sets forth Christ, and its call is, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), for it is only as we are favored with spiritual and believing views of Him that spiritual blessings flow into the soul. Simeon signifies “Hearing,” and it is only as we hear the voice of Christ Himself speaking to us through the Gospel that peace comes to our conscience and joy fills the heart. Levi signifies “Joined”: as we see the Son responsively and hear Him believingly, we become connected with Him. It was well put by Witsuis when he said, “Faith in its actings is the echo or repercussion of the Divine voice speaking to the soul.”
It is only the quickened soul which sees, hears, and receives Christ in a spiritual way. A distressed child's cleaving to and hanging upon its beloved father with entreaties and expectations of succor, are in consequence of a relation and union between them prior to those actings. So it is with the elect sinner: having been joined to Him by the Spirit, he now looks to Christ, lays hold of, embraces, and cleaves unto Him; and thus his saving union is effected. As a woman accepts the marriage proposal of her wooer by yielding herself and all her future interests into his care, so the believer is able to say, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Tim. 1:12). And again, “My beloved is mine, and I am his” (Song. 2:16)—His by my own consent and acceptance.
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Rom. 8:35). Separation necessarily implies a joining together, for nothing can be “separated” but what was first united. Union with Christ is by the Spirit on His part, and by faith on our part; and both of them are made known by love, and this it is which makes the union indissoluble. The Spirit is given to us as the great proof and fruit of Christ's love to us, and He sheds abroad God's love in our hearts. The faith which lays hold of Christ for salvation is a “faith which worketh by love” (Gal. 5:6), for it is “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness” (Rom. 10:10). And nothing can unclasp those mutual embraces. The believer is now united to Christ by his affections, for he loves what Christ loves and hates what He hates. “A Christian is held by his heart rather than by his head” (Thos. Manton).
Vital union takes place at regeneration: in it we were entirely passive, and at the time thereof had no knowledge at all of it. Saving union takes place when the awakened sinner receives Christ as He is offered to him in the Gospel: in it he is active, and has a definite consciousness of what he is doing. As the Israelite of old gave a personal consent to God's gracious provision by laying his hand on the head of his sacrifice (Lev. 1:4), so the believer rests upon Christ as an all-sufficient Sacrifice for all his sins. Saving union takes place when the returning prodigal falls into the arms of his loving Father in Christ (Luke 15:20); when the fugitive, chased by the avenging law (Num. 35:11, 12) crosses the threshold of the City of Refuge (Heb. 6:18); when the sin-sick soul is able to stretch forth the hand of faith and receive healing from Christ by personal contact with Him (Mark 5:27-29).—A.W.P.
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