Union with Christ

In Adam we all die.  In Christ we all live.  As we have had both a real and a covenant union with Adam, so we must have a real and covenant union with Christ.  We ought not to think that our relationship to Christ is any less strong, sturdy and real than was our relationship to Adam.  And, the reality is also physical, because we rise from the dead "like him, for we shall see him as he is."

The "mystical union" between Christ and his church is likened to the union between man and wife.  Just as Adam bore Eve through his sleep in the Garden, so Christ bore his church in his own sleep in a Garden.  And, having borne us through death, in his own body, he is now our husband, triumphant in resurrection.  We are in him, and he is in us, forever.

It is to this union that Baptism and the Lord's Supper speak, each in its own way.  We are one with Christ in cleansing, and we are one with Christ in spiritual sustenance.

Consider the Lord's Table:

NKJ 1 Cor 10:16-17  The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?  17 For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one bread.

The reality of our union with Christ and with each other, as experienced and refreshed in the Eucharist, cannot be overstated.  It communicates by faith a true and real union with Him through his sacrificed body and shed blood, a union which looks forward to that communion meal which is the marriage supper of the Lamb.

So we are refreshed not only by words and actions which strengthen our faith, but by words and actions through which Christ the Savior actually comes to us to feed and strengthen our union with him through his sacrificed body and blood.

We are warned not to eat and drink in an unworthy manner, not discerning the Lord's body. But this warning is not given to turn the Eucharist into a disciplinary act.  Just the opposite.  This warning is given as a principle to the unruly:  Come to your senses and do not miss the joy of feeding on Christ!

Glory be to God!