The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 375

THE MYSTICAL UNION WITH IMMANUEL Tho thou

blood, Live.

art poor, betrothing thee,

My treasure.

partaker of Myself and of

I

will

335

make

thee

But a treasure of thine own

thou shalt never possess."

This point should be firmly established. The Lord Jesus unites unto Himself not the righteous, but sinners. He marries not the pure and the spotless, but the polluted and the unclean. When the holy apostle Paul speaks of a bride whom he will present without spot or wrinkle, he has reference to something entirely different

•

not to His betrothal with the individual, but to the mar-

riage of the Lord Jesus with His Church as a whole.

So long as is His

the Church continues in the earth, separated from Him, she bride, until in the fulness of time, the separation ended.

introduce her to the rich and

full

communion

He

will

of the united life in

glory.

2d.

this

The

second point to which

we

call attention is

the time

when

union begins.

To say

that this unio mystica is the result of faith alone is only

For Scripture teaches very distinctly that we were when He died on Calvary, and when He arose from the dead; that we ascended with Him unto heaven; and that for eighteen centuries we have been seated with Him at the right hand of God. Hence we must carefully distinguish between the five stages in which the union with Immanuel unfolds itself: partly correct.

already in the Lord Jesus

The ^/-j/ of very

moment

From the we were really

these five stages lies in the decree of God.

that the Father gave us to the Son,

His own, and a relation was established between Him and us, not feeble, but so deep and extensive that all subsequent relations with Immanuel spring from this fundamental root-relation

weak and

alone.

The

second stage is in the Incarnation, when, adopting our flesh,

entering into our nature. tion actual

;

when

the

He made

bond

that preexisting, essential rela-

of union passed from the divine will,

from the decree, into actual existence. Christ in the flesh carHis grace, as Adam carried all the children of men in the loins of his flesh. Hence, not figuratively nor metaphorically, but in the proper sense. Scripture teaches that when Jesus died and arose we died and arose with Him and in Him. i.e.,

ries all believers in the loins of

The

third stage begins

when we

ourselves appear not in our

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